46 replies to this topic

[WoodenMushroom]

Hello Mycotopia. Its been a while since last being here, nearly 18 months. I had a few failed attempts at PfTek with golden teachers but with the help of you guys and a purchase of a pressure cooker i was able to enjoy the sucess of multiple flushes and many many grams of mushrooms! Thank you again! Now my supply is out and i am looking at starting another project.
I am interested in growing the mckennai mushroom. Is this possible using the PfTek method? If not, then what options do i have? Please, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, its good to be back! WoodenMushroom!

[rockyfungus]

A Mckennai isn't any different from golden teacher, they are both P. Cubensis, with a fancy name slapped on them.

 

So if whatever worked in the past got you fruits, go ahead and do the same thing, they will look almost identical to golden teachers.

[WoodenMushroom]

Rockyfungus! Thanks for the reply mate. Thats just what i wanted to hear! Gonna try and document this one as much as i can and give a little bit back to the community. You ever heard of a strain named "Lizard King" a cubensis strain that spawns to woodchips?? WoodenMushroom has many woodchips this could be self sustainability at its finest for me! Thanks again rockyfungus.

[rockyfungus]

I thought Lizard King was another cubensis, dunglovers not wood lovers.

I think you are thinking of either P. Cyan, P. Azure, few others that love woodchips.

Where are you getting your info from? I believe someone was working with Lizard King here too.

[FunG]

Baptom3t grew them out recently and I was lucky enough to receive a print that is currently on 4 1liters jars of wbs and doing fantastic.

I grew them out before myself many moons ago and I can't say much of anything other then the stems pigment is grey and the caps are sunburst and they bruise a brilliant neon looking blue. Those colors what made it stand out from some other p.cubensis like gt(gold caps) or b+ brown caps.

As far as woodchips I doubt they'd behave any differently then any other cube would. The mycelium in general from Ms is very aggressive.

Lizard king is a well domesticated cubensis but hard to find.

[WoodenMushroom]

Rockyfungus according to a vendor. A one i have used in the past successfully and will be using again soon to obtain some purple shurpa. On their site they have a stock of Lizard King. On the description, the vendor has stated a story that seems to have been copied and pasted from a person named Lizard King saying they found them in a dumping site for a horses stable. Stumbled across clusters of fruits growing from only woodchips. Assuming that the mycelium started on manure and then spawned onto the woodchips. But he says on this pile there was no manure underneath or anywhere near the fruits but healthy mycelium through the woodchips. And on the picture it appears the fruiting block is made up of straw?? Im going to get the description and picture and post it so you can see. See what you make of it?

[WoodenMushroom]

FunG they sound like a very interesting strain. What do P.Cubensis normally behave like wood? I will get the description and picture for you to see. Once i get some Lizard King MS i am wanting to try a little experiment and see what happens. Do you think it is very unlikely for them to be able to be spawned into woodchips/sawdust from wbs??

[WoodenMushroom]

rockyfungus, FunG, here is the description of the spores that is stated on the vendors page:

***The Lizard King.


Here is a quote from the Man him self.

 

Quote:
Lizard King said:
This week just keeps getting more strange by the day for cubies. I can't find a single cube in the local cow pastures, but here I am finding them in horse pastures and wood chips of all places!! You see, there is this horse park where I live, the 96 Olympics were there. Anyways, there are stables, and riding arenas all over this park, and there are what you call "manure pits", where the manure and stable bedding gets shovelled into. Well, I stopped and asked an attendant where they empty these dung pits at? He directed me about a mile up the road to the dump site and said I was free to take all I needed. So I get up there, and the dump consists mainly of the wood chip bedding from the stables, and a few horse turds here and there, didn't look very promising. Low and behold though, I step out of the truck and there sits a fat cluster of three large cubies. The thing is, they were growing from freaking wood chips!!!! I am sure there is horse shit buried under those chips somewhere, but the mycelium was actually growing in the wood chips, no dung visible at all, and I even dug a little. This has got to be the strangest of places I have ever found, or ever will find a cubie. I couldn't f*#&ing believe it!!
I found a horse stable close to home and asked them where they dump their stable trash, they told me where to go and said to take all I wanted. Stable waste is 90% wood shavings, its used for bedding for the horse, the other 10% is the dung that the horses drop in their stables. When I first pulled up to the site I spotted 3 nice fat cubies and couldn't believe it!! I picked them in a pile of wood chips, the mycelium was eating it up and loving it, there is absolutely no horse dung in site around them, not under it, beside it or around it. I think there is or was probably a small piece of horse dung that was colonised and spawned itself into the wood chips, its so apparent that it doesn't mind the wood chips, it actually loves it and seems to benefit from it, they grow way more healthy, thicker stemmed, plump and potent. They're awesome!! 


hmmmmm very interesting.***

Everything within the *** is what is stated. Let me know what you guys think?

Attached Thumbnails

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[FunG]

I've heard the same background story before about lizard king.

The truth is a psilocybe cubensis in general can grow off of anything that's cellulose. A well known microbiologist that goes by RR from another site grew them off a hallowed out bible. As it turns out as cool as that was he didnt win any favors , unfortunently. But it goes to show cubensis will grow off anything comprised of fibrous material given the proper environmental condition's.

A tip I got from a experienced mushroom hunter was the best time to go hunting is after a forest fire (given the temperatures are optimum for mushrooms) but he said its solid gold because all of the sterilizes dead wood. Not sure if I'm giving away a trade secret but it would make sense and also shows the diversity of mycelium that will grow off of wood.

[Baphom3t]

LK will grow just like any other cube. That's what they are.
As for compatible BRF(which is PFtek) sub-variants of cubes that are compatible, I would say many. I have seen GT's, B+, Cambo's, PR's, Chitwan, Transkei, Maza, Huatla, LK, and other cubes all grow on BRF/ PF cakes. You have many cubes to choose from. Now whether they do good is all up to the one taking care of them.

Edited by Baphom3t, 30 December 2020 - 01:58 PM.

[WoodenMushroom]

FunG thats a cool story. A hallowed out bible is a pretty crazy thing to grow such a strong organism on! With its spiritual power to be eating a holy book and growing from it! So do you think it would be possible for me to cultivate Lizard King, or any other cube for that matter from sawdust. If i start from WBS inoculated with MS then spawn to sawdust would you think i would get successful flushes??

[WoodenMushroom]

Baphom3t thanks for chiming in! Thats exactly what i wanted to hear. I understand they all require different needs. I was just wondering if they were all possible to grow on BRF. Im really considering starting some mckennai on BRF and some Lizard King on WBS then spawning to.. dare i say it... hardwood substrate. What do you think?

[Baphom3t]

LK tends to grow in clusters, at least the genetics I have do. Instead of Mckennai, shoot for GT or  B+, but that's just my humble opinion.Those two seem to work best for new growers. GT and B+ are very contam resistant when fully colonized, I'd venture to say most cubes are, but those two are resilient like cockroaches. I have a batch of GT going right now in a bag and that mofo is like the energizer bunny, I'm getting my third pull from it in another day or two.
If you're doing cubes, you're gonna hear all kinds of casing recipes for the substrate. Substrate for cubes is not hardwood, at least from what I know and done. I'm not saying they won't grow using hardwood, but from my experience, they do better on grain substrate(rye, wheat, or wbs) and then cased with a non-nutrient casing. I have used anywhere from 100% verm casing to doing casings of 50/50, 60/40, 70/30, and all mixes in between with verm/coir. I've done 100% coir, I've used potting soil that had no miracle grow as a casing. It all comes down to sterility for colonization and pasteurizing for casing.
Putting cubes on hardwood is overthinking the simple process IMO and opens you to more chances of contams. From my experiences, cubes do best when you use grains and case with a non-nutritive casing as I mentioned. Hope that helps.
Whatever you choose to do, I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.

 

Edited by Baphom3t, 30 December 2020 - 10:52 PM.

[WoodenMushroom]

Baphom3t thanks for the advice plenty of good information there. I just dont know why they would describe the spores in such a way that implies the way to go would be to grow on wood? I knew it was strange thats why i had to come here and ask you guys what yous thought. Yeah you might be right for me to stick with GT for now. Ive done a few GT and im wanting to branch out and try something else. In the past ive dunked and rolled my cakes in 100% fine verm and had good success. I done a monotub with no casing which was good but i ended up with a infestation of fruit flies after its 2nd flush. The best thing to do i think is stick to PfTek for now. Do 2 batches. 1 GT and the other Mckennaii or another sub species to branch myself out. That way i can compare the way each one behaves differently. Thanks for the input mate and thanks for the good wishes. Im going to open a new post and document as much as i can. Keep an eye out. Thanks again! WoodenMushroom!

[Tenderfoot]

I've heard the same background story before about lizard king.

The truth is a psilocybe cubensis in general can grow off of anything that's cellulose. A well known microbiologist that goes by RR from another site grew them off a hallowed out bible. As it turns out as cool as that was he didnt win any favors , unfortunently. But it goes to show cubensis will grow off anything comprised of fibrous material given the proper environmental condition's.

A tip I got from a experienced mushroom hunter was the best time to go hunting is after a forest fire (given the temperatures are optimum for mushrooms) but he said its solid gold because all of the sterilizes dead wood. Not sure if I'm giving away a trade secret but it would make sense and also shows the diversity of mycelium that will grow off of wood.

https://blogs.scient...shroom-bonanza/

 

Yet other than the timing of their appearance, burn morels remain mysterious. The morels that fruit after fires seem to be different species than those that appear spontaneously and sporadically in unburned forest. Exactly what fire does to trigger their fruiting remains unknown. Many ideas have been proposed, though: loss of food, removal of the burden of needle duff that may physically block morels, soil pH or chemistry changes, sudden release from competition with other organisms, or sudden flushes of mineral nutrients released from burnt trees and needles.

[rockyfungus]

Also people claiming lighting strikes give bigger patches too.

Why fruit on wood? Most of us are having great success with just coconut coir. They are decomposers and they can probably grow on wood, but they are dung lovers.

If you are trying to refill your medicine jar there's no reason to reinvent the wheel. Do what worked in the past or follow the classic teks.

I'd say 90% of mushrooms people know how to cultivate will work on BRF. There's nothing special about spawning mushrooms, fruiting is where it gets tricky.
Maybe someone smarter then me can provide some substance.

But a cubensis is a cubensis don't overthink it. Over half of the names are just bullshit to get you to spend more money on spores.

Edited by rockyfungus, 31 December 2020 - 01:37 PM.

[Auhron]

The lightning thing is legitimate, it's mentioned in either Stamets GGMM or McCoys Radical Mycology, I can't remember which. Super short (nanosecond) bursts of ultra high voltage can increase yield.  Interesting, but pretty much useless for the home cultivator. Don't electrocute your mushrooms, it requires specialized equipment. 

[Baphom3t]

But a cubensis is a cubensis don't overthink it. Over half of the names are just bullshit to get you to spend more money on spores.

Although a cube is a cube they all have subtle differences IMO. GT's don't put me to the floor like Cambo's or Transkei.
GT doesn't feel spiritual like most Mexican and Asian variants do. Although they grow the same way, their environments create the subtle difference simply from growing in different places on earth. The soil in Central America is not the same soil that's in Thailand. The soil in Thailand is not the same as the southern gulf coast and so on. Cubes grow in Hawaii and that soil is different than the soil that's on the mainland in bumfuck Indiana.

Edited by Baphom3t, 31 December 2020 - 03:34 PM.

[WoodenMushroom]

rockyfungus i get what your saying. It doesnt make sense to be reinventing the wheel. I asure you this isnt what im trying to do. I work in the building trade and ive always said "how comes the plumbers get to weigh in their scrap pipes, the electricians get to weigh in their scrap cables but us carpenters we get sawdust! It gets emptied into the bin!" But when i saw that description implying that a cube was a wood lover i thought "bingo! The sawdust is worth the most after all!" Turns out it was a misleading sales pitch. Im just going to stick with what ive done in the past. Using the knowledge gained from this site and the super useful user friendly "magic for the masses"

You say the fruiting is where it gets tricky? What do you mean by that? I thought once i got past all the colonization, the spawning, the pastuerising of manure and eventually got to getting my fruits i was in the clear?

Edited by WoodenMushroom, 31 December 2020 - 04:24 PM.

[WoodenMushroom]

But a cubensis is a cubensis don't overthink it. Over half of the names are just bullshit to get you to spend more money on spores.

Although a cube is a cube they all have subtle differences IMO. GT's don't put me to the floor like Cambo's or Transkei.
GT doesn't feel spiritual like most Mexican and Asian variants do. Although they grow the same way, their environments create the subtle difference simply from growing in different places on earth. The soil in Central America is not the same soil that's in Thailand. The soil in Thailand is not the same as the southern gulf coast and so on. Cubes grow in Hawaii and that soil is different than the soil that's on the mainland in bumfuck Indiana.

So with that being said, and following on from my last post about the fruiting stage is where it gets tricky, how can certain cubes be harder to grow than others? For instance what would i do differently from my previous grows if i wanted to grow a more spiritual mushroom rather than golden teachers?