How to tell when my mycelium block is ready for fruiting? Pics included

Hi all,

As you can see this block is somewhat developed I am just worried to throw it into fruiting because last time I fruited I got a very poor yield due to it not being quite developed enough. In the pics you can see that you can still see the grains the mycelium is eating, should I wait until I can no longer see any signs of the grains? Thanks for your help.

Depending on what you want to do - you probably waited too long - your grains have "knitted" and you won't be able to either use it as spawn or lay it out flat any longer.

I was planning on cutting it in half lengthwise and placing each half in a rubbermaid on tile with perlite bed. Last time I waited until the cube was only partially finished and removed and placed it into fruiting conditions and I had very poor results due to no mycelial development in the center of the cube. I think this one is more developed? because I broke up the cube a few times as it developed to make it stronger and get more coverage. Thanks for your help. You're also saying I can't put a chunk in water and make a mycelium syringe anymore? I think I will still give it a shot and see what happens.

ballaboyee21 said:

I was planning on cutting it in half lengthwise and placing each half in a rubbermaid on tile with perlite bed. Last time I waited until the cube was only partially finished and removed and placed it into fruiting conditions and I had very poor results due to no mycelial development in the center of the cube. I think this one is more developed? because I broke up the cube a few times as it developed to make it stronger and get more coverage. Thanks for your help. You're also saying I can't put a chunk in water and make a mycelium syringe anymore? I think I will still give it a shot and see what happens.

Click to expand...

You have a pretty good shot at a mcyelium syringe if you are sterile about it. But you are seeing this as just a larger PF tec. If you don't case, you will never (I know what they say, I have heard it over and over again), you will never get the sort of result you are looking for.

It will be very difficult for you to case cut blocks of mycelium. Now, beyond that, the longer you wait for "full colonization" the worse your yield as the mushroom is actually expending it's energy and consuming nutrients to no good purpose. You want to have your grow pinning just as your mycelium has gained full strength. You have a bag- did you shake the bag?

looks good to go. you can always break that up into a big spawn bed and recover it with vermiculite agian. letting it just barely poke thru the verm, and start fruiting. kinda similar to a horse manure style grow