I STARTED to agree with the patience comment, but then I compared it to green growing.
Green growing had about 2 months of "setup" (veg) (either seed->male/female split, cloning for sex, etc), or clone prep (a bit quicker, but not much more than growing from seed), and then the 2-4 month flowering process.
This produces between 1 and 4 dry ounces per typical plant, which may last me between 2 weeks and 2 months of smoking, but will be gone in a blink in a weekend with friends.
Assume 4 plants growing continuously in dirt. This requires SERIOUS space, electricity, lighting, light isolation, fans, airflow, etc. And don't forget you have to keep a stream of clones from a couple of mother plants. This is DAILY (and sometime hourly) attention. Back breaking (those full dunk waterings are no fun), and fragile (oh fuck, a bit too much HST on that branch, get out the duct tape).
4 plants times 3oz == 12oz. It took about 5 months to grow that. If you want, at that point, you can produce 12oz per month, but you will need a bunch more space and (you know, stuff) for the various plants in the grow stages, and again, lots of real work.
Also, this is all high attention high risk stuff. The heat and smell and noise and vibrations are dead giveaways. They can be dealt with, but at significant cost in equipment and electricity.
The following is based on a known mycelium / pin / grow rate for a typical PC strain. It took me about 6 months of experimentation before I hit this group of strains and process.
Assuming decent mycelium grow rate, BRF knock up to birth is about 2 weeks. Use the SMALLEST jars possible. The goal is not fruiting volume, it is to get the fastest growing fastest maturing mycilium in the smallest amount of time.
Use the largest assortment of spores as possible from the largest number of strains. This is a numbers game. Your particular envirionment and nutrient mix might not mix well with a "default" strain, but it is highly probable you will hit multiple winners this way.
I do NOT go direct to grain, I would much rather go to BRF jar. BRF jars have less of a chance of contams, simply based on size, time to sterilize, and the relationship between starting points vs total volume means they grow faster. On the other hand, I want some isolates (carved from early pinning mushrooms in the jar). Also, I've had multiple spores that simply refused to germinate in rye grain jars, but would happily grown in BRF and then transfer to grain.
Note: I do NOT birth for fruiting, I birth into a glove box and knock up grain jars.
Also, this is the time to choose any particular fast growing patch (and if it is from an early pin in the jar, YAY) from the BRF to put in the grain jar. Use the SMALLEST amount of innoculant possible to isolate the strain.
10 days later, shaking every 3 days, the grain jars are ready.
Note: I have at least 10 times the number of grain jars than I have birthing space at any given moment, and I'll use a lower temperature to slow the growth down of the ones I'm not ready to use, and throw them in the fridge if they finish before I can use them. But at that point the supply of ready to case material is near infinite, and the starting point of BRF inoculations are over.
Any of those grain jars can start a new one (times 20). You just want to limit the g2g and start from a primary generation, rather than make additional generations (limits mutations, hold strength better). So save a couple of the originals that were created from the BRF for future jar creation. Like mother plants.
Bulk layout and wait for tray colonisation is usually about 6-10 days. The ONLY limiting factor here is space. And these trays are not fruiting and need no light, so you can pack them tight.
Next, case and pin. This needs space. Assume 12-16 of these running at any given moment in an enclosed standalone set of shelves, controlled humidity, air flow, and low lighting. This is about a week before 1st pin set.
41 days so far.
Each flush will take from 3-6 days, with a resting period of a week in between each.
If you wanted, you could TRIPLE your production at this point merely by swapping out the resting trays with newly pinning ones. But you better have extra fruiting space if you mis-judge the rates. So I'll drop that to double.
3 flushes x (6+7) = 39
80 days for full run.
And we already had something usable at 50 days. As compared to 5 months growing pot. Trust me when I say this is nothing compared to the patience you learn growing fucking slow sativa.
Assume an average production of 3oz per tray (no matter how many flushes or tray, you get great, you get an occasional poor, just average it out), times 12 active trays times 2 for the tray swapouts factor = 72 oz.
How long would it take you to consume 72 oz of mushrooms? Even compressed, do you have any idea how much volume that is? And since it is for long term use, do you have freezer space or the desire to do chemical extracts?
And that is for the 1st cycle!
At this point, if you continued to grow, it takes almost no space, no light, no electricity, no effort. With almost no unwanted attention since it needs almost no light and generates no heat.
It simply becomes a matter of harvesting trays.
The 1st harvest will be fun, cleaning will be fun, setting up the dryer will be fun.
The next, not so much.
You will quickly realise it is NOT fun to harvest, it is a pain in the ass, and you really have WAY too many mushrooms and you have to stop.
And at that point you will never have to think about it again, unless you are are sharing the knowledge and trying to help people become independent of the dealers. If you want to deal, that's your issue and risk, I just want anybody who wants to be able to have their own, to have them. Without going to the deal making risk.
If somehow you misjudged your needed quantity and wanted to restart, you would have had those original known good strains in jars in a fridge. They keep (oh, if not forever, long enough). You would go straight to grain at that point.
And if those failed, you kept some spore prints? Right? You wouldn't have gone through all this effort without making sure you'd never need to mail order again? Just in case they clamped down on it in the future. Right?
Ok, so that's my rant on patience value of shrooms vs pot, plus some additional suggestions to the world.
Green growing had about 2 months of "setup" (veg) (either seed->male/female split, cloning for sex, etc), or clone prep (a bit quicker, but not much more than growing from seed), and then the 2-4 month flowering process.
This produces between 1 and 4 dry ounces per typical plant, which may last me between 2 weeks and 2 months of smoking, but will be gone in a blink in a weekend with friends.
Assume 4 plants growing continuously in dirt. This requires SERIOUS space, electricity, lighting, light isolation, fans, airflow, etc. And don't forget you have to keep a stream of clones from a couple of mother plants. This is DAILY (and sometime hourly) attention. Back breaking (those full dunk waterings are no fun), and fragile (oh fuck, a bit too much HST on that branch, get out the duct tape).
4 plants times 3oz == 12oz. It took about 5 months to grow that. If you want, at that point, you can produce 12oz per month, but you will need a bunch more space and (you know, stuff) for the various plants in the grow stages, and again, lots of real work.
Also, this is all high attention high risk stuff. The heat and smell and noise and vibrations are dead giveaways. They can be dealt with, but at significant cost in equipment and electricity.
The following is based on a known mycelium / pin / grow rate for a typical PC strain. It took me about 6 months of experimentation before I hit this group of strains and process.
Assuming decent mycelium grow rate, BRF knock up to birth is about 2 weeks. Use the SMALLEST jars possible. The goal is not fruiting volume, it is to get the fastest growing fastest maturing mycilium in the smallest amount of time.
Use the largest assortment of spores as possible from the largest number of strains. This is a numbers game. Your particular envirionment and nutrient mix might not mix well with a "default" strain, but it is highly probable you will hit multiple winners this way.
I do NOT go direct to grain, I would much rather go to BRF jar. BRF jars have less of a chance of contams, simply based on size, time to sterilize, and the relationship between starting points vs total volume means they grow faster. On the other hand, I want some isolates (carved from early pinning mushrooms in the jar). Also, I've had multiple spores that simply refused to germinate in rye grain jars, but would happily grown in BRF and then transfer to grain.
Note: I do NOT birth for fruiting, I birth into a glove box and knock up grain jars.
Also, this is the time to choose any particular fast growing patch (and if it is from an early pin in the jar, YAY) from the BRF to put in the grain jar. Use the SMALLEST amount of innoculant possible to isolate the strain.
10 days later, shaking every 3 days, the grain jars are ready.
Note: I have at least 10 times the number of grain jars than I have birthing space at any given moment, and I'll use a lower temperature to slow the growth down of the ones I'm not ready to use, and throw them in the fridge if they finish before I can use them. But at that point the supply of ready to case material is near infinite, and the starting point of BRF inoculations are over.
Any of those grain jars can start a new one (times 20). You just want to limit the g2g and start from a primary generation, rather than make additional generations (limits mutations, hold strength better). So save a couple of the originals that were created from the BRF for future jar creation. Like mother plants.
Bulk layout and wait for tray colonisation is usually about 6-10 days. The ONLY limiting factor here is space. And these trays are not fruiting and need no light, so you can pack them tight.
Next, case and pin. This needs space. Assume 12-16 of these running at any given moment in an enclosed standalone set of shelves, controlled humidity, air flow, and low lighting. This is about a week before 1st pin set.
41 days so far.
Each flush will take from 3-6 days, with a resting period of a week in between each.
If you wanted, you could TRIPLE your production at this point merely by swapping out the resting trays with newly pinning ones. But you better have extra fruiting space if you mis-judge the rates. So I'll drop that to double.
3 flushes x (6+7) = 39
80 days for full run.
And we already had something usable at 50 days. As compared to 5 months growing pot. Trust me when I say this is nothing compared to the patience you learn growing fucking slow sativa.
Assume an average production of 3oz per tray (no matter how many flushes or tray, you get great, you get an occasional poor, just average it out), times 12 active trays times 2 for the tray swapouts factor = 72 oz.
How long would it take you to consume 72 oz of mushrooms? Even compressed, do you have any idea how much volume that is? And since it is for long term use, do you have freezer space or the desire to do chemical extracts?
And that is for the 1st cycle!
At this point, if you continued to grow, it takes almost no space, no light, no electricity, no effort. With almost no unwanted attention since it needs almost no light and generates no heat.
It simply becomes a matter of harvesting trays.
The 1st harvest will be fun, cleaning will be fun, setting up the dryer will be fun.
The next, not so much.
You will quickly realise it is NOT fun to harvest, it is a pain in the ass, and you really have WAY too many mushrooms and you have to stop.
And at that point you will never have to think about it again, unless you are are sharing the knowledge and trying to help people become independent of the dealers. If you want to deal, that's your issue and risk, I just want anybody who wants to be able to have their own, to have them. Without going to the deal making risk.
If somehow you misjudged your needed quantity and wanted to restart, you would have had those original known good strains in jars in a fridge. They keep (oh, if not forever, long enough). You would go straight to grain at that point.
And if those failed, you kept some spore prints? Right? You wouldn't have gone through all this effort without making sure you'd never need to mail order again? Just in case they clamped down on it in the future. Right?
Ok, so that's my rant on patience value of shrooms vs pot, plus some additional suggestions to the world.
