  
Admin (Admin)
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 08, 2003 - 12:00 pm: | 
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this was pioneered by Visions, a long time member here,
and compiled / edited by Chronic, another respect member here who is known for his 'chronic quart jar tek'.
Visions’ (L.B.) Tek
Intro.
One of my best qualities is being able to look at seemingly complex problems and to simplify the understanding of what is going on. My goal when I first started was to simplify everything, and to Keep it Simple Stupid (K.I.S.S.) All I did was try to understand how mushrooms grow outside and what we were doing wrong by trying to control their man-made environment. Trust me when I say I have had many more failures than successes, but without those failures I wouldn't understand what is going on and how simple it really is!
Spawn prep.
The first step toward your very own Vision Laundry basket will be the preparation of your spawn. Once you have chosen a grain to use for spawn, (I use Hard Red Winter Wheat Berries,) put the grains in a large pot and cover completely with water. Next bring temp up to 160*-180*. Once you have reached this temp zone, cover with a lid, turn off heat, and let soak 24hrs. While the grains are soaking cut a 3/4" round hole in the lid of a Qt jar and fill that hole with Pollyfill or cover with other suitable filter material. Fold and compact the Pollyfill, then pull it through the hole. It should be pretty tight and will look like a large ball on each side of the lid. The Pollyfill will act as a filter without which you won't get much growth.
After the grains have soaked for 24hrs, rinse very well, drain well, then fill your Pollyfill filtered quart jars no more than 2/3 with grains. Put lids on with the rubber side down (the way they are meant to be on,) and PC for 75min. Take the jars out as soon as the pressure goes to Zero and tighten the lids. Let them cool completely then inoculate (preferably in a pressure box as mentioned below.)
The next optional step will greatly increase the turnover time of each basket but is optional. You will need to acquire or build a simple pressure box for around $50 that you will use to do grain to grain transfers. Once you have successfully colonized a Qt jar or two, you will use your pressure box to complete Grain to grain transfers thus multiplying your spawn by 10-20X. When I do grain to grain I use about 2tbs to inoculate the new jars and most finish in 5 days. If you do grain to grain transfers you should have your crop between 5 to 7weeks tops
Substrate Pasteurization
The next step is the preparation of the substrate that will be spawned with the grains prepared in the previous step. We will be using straw with some added manure in an open aired environment (more air = Less Contams) so pasteurization will be used to knock bacteria and microbe levels down to a suitable level. Pasteurize your straw by submerging it in 160 degree water; Mix in little by little, as you add the hot water, approximately 1/5 cup bleach and 5 large heaping tbs. Hydrated Lime(I use Hoffman's) to approximately 1/5th bale straw(one basket worth). As you add water to your straw the straw will compact so keep adding and pressing down till you used around 1/5th a bale. Make sure all the straw is submerged then cover it and let soak till it reaches room temperature. Once water has cooled to room temp poke holes in your bag or pull your drain plug and allow to drain WELL then spawn.
Spawn Transfer
Now that your spawn is completely colonized and your straw is pasteurized you are ready to begin your basket. The baskets are 1 bushel, 12” tall and approximately 18" in diameter. You can find them at Walmart for $2 each; the size is perfect and easy to work with. Layer the straw and spawn into your basket (with many holes drilled in the bottom to avoid pooling water and add air circulation) so that it is uniform throughout. 3Qt jars of Hard Red Winter Wheat Berries is enough spawn per basket. I use 4Qt, not because it is needed, but because I like to use a lot of spawn. When I use Millet however, 3Qt jars are plenty. Millet breaks up finely and gives great coverage. You may also layer in some pasteurized manure at this point, (I use "Brooks" sold at "Frank's" nursery) which will help hold in some moisture but this is optional. Once your basket is nearly full it must be cased on top. Your casing material should also be pasteurized in bleach water (1/4 tsp bleach per Gal. water). Once soaked, squeeze out excess water and put 1 1/2"-2" casing on top of the basket of straw and spawn layers.
Basket Maintenance
Now that your straw has been spawned and cased it is time for colonization and fruiting. Remember, nature is not perfect so we need not be perfect either, but your basket will need some nurturing. First off remember that more air = less contams so do not cover your basket during colonization; the stale air will only give mold and bacteria a chance to thrive. If your room is dry (very low humidity like mine is) mist heavy a couple times a day if you can. Remember that the mycelia likes it moist not wet. Wet will slow it down. Straw holds a lot of water. You could mist up to a Qt of water over the course of a day per basket. Try not to let the casing dry out, especially when you see the mycelia poking through the casing which should happen about two weeks after spawning. When you see the mycelium poking through the casing that's when you can lightly cover the basket in a clear plastic bag, leaving room on the sides of the basket(in other words don't close it up tight). Fresh Air is the Key!
Once it starts pinning you can water the hell out of it(one big watering.) Excess water will drain out all the holes you will drill in the bottom of the baskets. I keep my temp in my grow room between 72*-76*, everything dries out less, less stress on the mycelium, and they prefer to fruit at these same temperatures. If you water it properly, you will get everything in one flush |
myco domesticus (Mycophil)
| | Posted on Thursday, May 15, 2003 - 10:20 pm: |
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Subtopic Posts Updated Creator
Mycotopia: Archives: Fungi Forum / Misc. Noteworthy threads: Visions Laundry Baskets -
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By cherry garcia (Cherry_Garcia) on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 - 04:44 am: Edit
Here is a picture of my latest project (thanks to Visions)
This is a new name, but I have been here for awhile
By cherry garcia (Cherry_Garcia) on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 - 04:47 am: Edit
some more
By kingforlife (Kingforlife) on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 - 05:18 am: Edit
oh man thats one beautiful piece of work! Congrats! yea i love cherry garcia too. Phish foods another pretty bad ass flavor
By rodger rabbit (Skyypilot) on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 - 04:05 pm: Edit
Very nice.
I had the same 'problem' on some of my baskets. I see you got all your fruits on the uncased portion of the straw. Either you and I made the same mistake with our casing, or straw simply does better without being cased. I hope more folks will try straw both cased and uncased to find out for sure. I know visions and hip have had good luck casing baskets. I haven't. Nice pics and congrats on a successful grow!
By Dunno Yet (Dunnoyet) on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 - 04:40 pm: Edit
Nice pics, cg! Quite inspiring!!
By Hippie3 (Admin) on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 - 01:15 am: Edit
sweet, you did visions proud.
By cym6 (Cym6) on Friday, May 02, 2003 - 06:12 pm: Edit
simply fucking awesome
By Hippie3 (Admin) on Saturday, May 03, 2003 - 01:38 am: Edit
archive to visions' tek.
By myco domesticus (Mycophil) on Sunday, May 04, 2003 - 09:51 pm: Edit
By falsenose (Falsenose) on Wednesday, May 07, 2003 - 09:47 pm: Edit
Holy bajesus you gotta be kiddin me,
That's a purty solid bed of shroomies..
Nice,
Thanks for sharing!
By cherry garcia (Cherry_Garcia) on Friday, May 09, 2003 - 04:09 am: Edit
It is a beautiful set of pics if I do say so myself! However I would have to say that it was not at its full potential as the most current basket is looking much better! In the pictured basket there was too much manure IMO (I don't suggest more than a quart or two of manure per basket, perhaps less) and it was spawned with pf cakes which may work fine but don't colonize as fast and cleanly as birdseed or popcorn. What I did want to depict though is that since many clusters formed on the sides (it didn't come up through teh casing at all) that the removal of the basket itself helped allow all the clusters to form. The basket itself was flipped which would not have been good had the casing colonzed but it was an experiment and worked out fine in this case but not suggested unless necessary. SO if you try this at home, don't flip unless you need to but DO cut the basket away (make sure that you wait till it is pinning). Also be careful about too much moisture under the plastic bag as this will encourage molds. Some say don't lay plastic at all, but what seems to work is to cut holes in the plastic and be sure it is well aired out.
By Hippie3 (Admin) on Friday, May 09, 2003 - 04:40 pm: Edit
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Quote:
What I did want to depict though is that since many clusters formed on the sides (it didn't come up through teh casing at all) that the removal of the basket itself helped allow all the clusters to form. The basket itself was flipped which would not have been good had the casing colonzed but it was an experiment and worked out fine in this case but not suggested unless necessary. SO if you try this at home, don't flip unless you need to but DO cut the basket away (make sure that you wait till it is pinning).
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interesting.
i see two things to comment on.
the idea of flipping out the colonized straw block is intriging, i'm wondering if it might work to leave the casing off while the straw colonizes, then flip it out/over and then apply a casing in place.
that would save the basket for re-use [i'm frugal] yet still seems feasible.
on the other, not to be critical but when you say nothing came up thru the casing itself, that was not my experience, i had more come up thru the casing than on the sides, by quite a large margin.
of course i left mine in the basket [didn't know any better but now i do, thx to you].
but i'm just wondering if it's possible that something might have been off in your casing that might have prevented fruiting. i have seen that before, where everything grew around but not thru and generally there was a problem in the casing. just a thought.
By cherry garcia (Cherry_Garcia) on Friday, May 09, 2003 - 05:56 pm: Edit
I have no doubt that the casing mix may have been off, either in content (it was coir/verm/commercial manure compost) or in moisture content (possibly too wet). It does seem to me though that the casing layer can protect the moisture balance and I don't want to spray the straw directly. Your idea is intruiging though about flipping and casing the bottom though I would advise against trying to slide off the basket because I wouldn't remove it till the straw is already pinning and therefore one would disturb the pins. those baskets cost $1.99 so I don't mourn the loss. Now without the basket holding everything together it is much more stable upside down but will hold together upright as long as it is very fully colonized first and reday to fruit. Another thing is to be sure to allow drainage. I had hoped to reflip and try for a second flush but had to toss it because I had put the thing on a piece of plastic and the bottom casing smelled bad and was too wet.
By rodger rabbit (Skyypilot) on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 04:29 am: Edit
I flipped this one over to try that, and the darn thing was busted out with 'invitro' pins everywhere! Left it alone, with no casing or nuttin. I found a use for those old terrariums too!!
By Hippie3 (Admin) on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 12:52 pm: Edit
that looks great.,
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Quote:
Your idea is intruiging though about flipping and casing the bottom though I would advise against trying to slide off the basket because I wouldn't remove it till the straw is already pinning and therefore one would disturb the pins.
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why would you wait until pinning begins ?
i think i'd do it as soon as the straw was run thru, before pinning.
By cherry garcia (Cherry_Garcia) on Saturday, May 10, 2003 - 03:56 pm: Edit
You could be right. I just like to wait because the basket holds everything together so I wait till the last moment so that the myc is as solid as possible and the time that the basket is without support is minimized.
Roger, that flipped basket looks great! Maybe we are onto something with the flipping
By JojoBaFruiT (Jojobafruit) on Sunday, May 11, 2003 - 05:47 am: Edit
So are you using the compost out of the bag and straw "soaked" and not sterilized or such..? i saw a promising tek on Growing mushrooms from compost straight out the bag in a flower pot with a plastic bag.. never sealed.. Spores spread on potters clay while pliable and then with clean hands gloves etc,Roll the lil clay\spore pellets and place them on a clean sheet..When they are dry, they can be stored indefinitely. They won't germinate, and are sealed in the clay balls. inocc the compost with it.. water it and the balls will dissolve and colonize.Case when it is fully colonized.. .The person says it can be done in Unsterile conditions.. I havent done this, The information came from a well trusted person...
jojoba
By Hippie3 (Admin) on Sunday, May 11, 2003 - 02:25 pm: Edit
i'd have to see that to believe it, it sounds too good to be true.
it's recommended by the pros that both the compost and the straw be pasturized before using.
we had another discussion of this very issue last year [thread] and both visions and i ran tests with straight compost right out of the bag. his never grew and mine contam'd so you do take a risk.
By Hippie3 (Admin) on Sunday, May 11, 2003 - 02:30 pm: Edit
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Quote:
I just like to wait because the basket holds everything together so I wait till the last moment so that the myc is as solid as possible and the time that the basket is without support is minimized.
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well, i'd bet that once the straw was run thru with mycellia, as the straw's been in the basket shape several days minimum, the straw would hold its' shape quite well, inertia and all that, you know.
moving it might be harder but i think that could be avoided/minimized.
also, since the slope of the basket is now reversed, it seems possible to apply a casing both on the bottom itself and the sides as well.
unfortunately i'm not in a position to test my theory right now. |
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