238 replies to this topic

[orgonebox]

Can't wait your quinoa results. And don't forget to mention something about potency :D

I've had excellent colonization results from quinoa. The key is to toast your quinoa seed and use a 1:1.25 ratio of seed to water, and be certain to let the excess water steam off the kernels.

I have no firm results to talk about with regard to production. My initial quinoa experiment was cased with 60/40 verm/coir. Unfortunately, I had to rebuild my greenhouse, and left my trays in the incubator a week longer than I should have. Additionally, the tape connecting my dryer hose to my humidifier came loose, resulting in at least eight hours of my trays sitting in hot, stagnant air. Result: trich.

Tomorrow I will case some more quinoa spawned to worm castings/verm/coir with 60/40 verm/coir and see how that does.

Unfortunately, I am the last person to ask about potency. My tolerances are natively far too high (say, 7g or more to get anything worthwhile) to determine fine distinctions in potency. I'm looking for colonization speed and flush. So far, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, has outdone the kasha. I had a totally dessicated tray of substrate resulting from the greenhouse rebuild. I rehydrated the tray by dunking it, then buried it next to some broccoli plants in my garden. So far the thing has produced two flushes out in the garden, bringing the total number of flushes to four.

Coming up: A more thorough, twelve-jar experiment with kasha. Suggestions for casing variations are most welcome.

[koldj]

Heh, man, I love kasha aka buckwheat, just instead of rice, for example with beef or anything :D.

No wonder shrooms love it, too. I may try it myself once I get my hands on it again!


But talking 'bout quinoa again - maybe you will be able to observe stronger than usual brusing or maybe they will be stronger for you? :D
But if you have such problems with dosing, maybe you should switch to growing pans?

[RichShroom]

Mushroom compost is supposed to be composted, pasteurized hpoo with some calcium added to it - used in champignon production, sometimes and some places called champost. All in all - perfect spawning substrate. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

Just make sure you get compost intended to grow mushrooms vs. compost sold by mushroom growers.

Om Shanti was fortunate enough to find a mushroom farm grower who "retired" but was still selling unused substrate i.e. the former.

The latter stuff, which you buy from garden nurseries, is usually substrate that has been used for 2 or 3 commercial mushroom grows, and is sold off for general use in the garden.

I believe that this leaves it depleted of nitrogen.

I have read about people who use it successfully, by reboosting nitrogen through the addition of stuff like used coffee grounds.

I'd suggest you ask your supplier where he gets the 'mushroom compost', and for what purpose it is intended.

[koldj]

No worries, we have the same source but that is a good piece of advice to others who don't live in Scandinavia...

[RichShroom]

* B+ spawn chunks from cut up BRF cakes
* spawn ratio 1:6
* pics are 5 days after spawning
* tub sizes 1 pint

Yield report:

Tub #1:
* 50/50 HPoo/Brewers Grain
* 1st to harvest
* flush #1: 45 grams wet
* potency = medium

Tub #2:
* Brewers Grain
* 2nd to harvest + 6 days
* flush #1: 92 grams wet
* potency = untested

Tub #3:
* HPoo
* Currently pinning + 8 days

[TVCasualty]

I've used quinoa a lot, and I always mixed it in with regular WBS or some other substrate to get around the prep issues. For me, the easiest way to use it was to simmer WBS, rinse and drain it for a short time, then put it in a big tub with vermiculite, saturated hydrogel, a little bit of lime, and dry whole quinoa. I'd mix it all up and add more water if necessary. I figure my proportions of each by sight; I toss in handfuls of each ingredient, mix, then repeat until it looks, feels, and sounds good to me. Not letting the WBS drain very long retains enough moisture to saturate the quinoa during the PC run, and the hydrogel is a buffer that gives me a huge margin of error. It also means I can get from simmering to PC'ing faster since I'm not waiting around for the excess water to drain out of the WBS.

I've also tried soaking the quinoa in a bowl of hot water while the WBS was simmering, and that worked well too so long as the water wasn't so hot that it'd partially cook the grain and cause the seed coats to fall off (making it a slimy pain in the ass). I did that because sometimes I'd end up with my grain too dry after PC'ing if I didn't use enough hydrogel, and it was almost no extra effort on my part.

[zodd]

update
coos coos cakes are holding up nicely to the br flower competition and should be fruitable in the following two weeks strong mycelium shoots in all direction leads me to believe they like it.

conifer pea seeds are sadly three weeks into there inoculation time without so much as a spec of wight. itwas a no show im afraid. which i thought to be the case form the beginning on account of the pc d jars smelling like pepper corn.

will get back to you with my coos coos prognosins

[Rafe]

UPDATES:

MIX 1 I think it was too wet. No contams, but only 2 jars showing any signs of growth. Both jars showing growth were TPB and topped with dry coir. Still observing. Trying version 2 of this test, except instead of boiling the rice with the corn, I'm soaking the rice in cold water till hydrated, then mixing it with the boiled/cooled pcorn and loading it into the jars for sterilization.

Mix 2 Nothing. In any jar. No myc, but no contams. Still observing.

The no contams so far is a good thing, as a big part of this test was boiling vs. baking the same sub. No contams (yet, knock on wood) in any of the jars, regardless of sterilization method.

Manure water/Mrs. Butterworths LC Bad idea. Stunk horribly, and was so dark/cloudy you couldn't tell if anything was growing anyway. Tossed it.

Trying a new one tonight. pcorn and soaked black beans (since there is about 10 pounds of dry black beans in the pantry figured I'd try it) noc'd with myc water from a z strain pcorn jar. Got to use my PC for the first time (just got it yesterday and dashed home so I could use it LOL) Prepped the jars yesterday, noc'ing them later today. The jars look good, not wet, some of the beans split, I'm thinking that could be a good or a bad thing. Good if the myc likes it, bad if the myc doesn't but the nasties do LOL

7/29
UPDATE

Mix 1. 2 jars fully colonized and were spawned to composted cowpoo/straw/verm sub. The rest were considered fails and were reset. Version 2 (rice soaked instead of boiled) has all jars growing well. Soaking the rice and not boiling it seems to be the trick to getting the moisture right.

Mix 2. Opened one up a few days ago, and the smell was horrible. No myc growth, but some white spots that I have no idea what they are growing on some of the grass. Experiment considered as a fail and jars reset.

Mix 3 pcorn and soaked black beans Growing extremely well, almost fully colonized, no contams. (yet LOL)

[ryanzreality]

heres a pic of the one I use...

those are the 2 i use

[GreenMan]

so... :neutral:

i just started some cloned Oyster Myc. on newspaper (bulk sub.). it was the 8th of december, 09. (see pic)

toilet-paper tubes (initial clone sub.) in knock-off tupp3er ware. hmm.

anyway, this Xmas i got some pistachios and was wondering if anyone has tried using simmered nut-shells like walnut, almond, hazelnut, *pistachio*...

my PC is coming in the mail just now. many possibilities...

The 'Topia is Marvelous.:bow:

Attached Thumbnails

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[kcmoxtractor]

Sounds like its worth a shot, keep us updated!

Welcome to mycotopia!

[Buzztea]

Richshroom did you use spore solution or LC to innoc the cardboard?

[zodd]

update
coos coos cakes are holding up nicely to the br flower competition and should be fruitable in the following two weeks strong mycelium shoots in all direction leads me to believe they like it.

conifer pea seeds are sadly three weeks into there inoculation time without so much as a spec of wight. itwas a no show im afraid. which i thought to be the case form the beginning on account of the pc d jars smelling like pepper corn.

will get back to you with my coos coos prognosins

update.

the coos coos cake failed to fully colonize and had met its end in my bin. it may be that the pasta like bits were not suitable for them to grow on who knows i may some day try grinding the coos coos into a meal and trying that, but as it stands coos coos is allot more expensive than brown rice so its not really an experiment worth doing.

[zodd]

OK so though i would inform you of my new experiment. i dont know if htis can be counted as an alternative substrata but I'm posting it any way.

Kellogg's bran flake flour cake mix.

bran flakes. made from 30% bran 30% wheat: combined with a mix of milk powder, brewers yeast, molasses, and oil.


Ive got three jars of pf teks in my incubator. each inoculated with my treasure coast isolate.

one jar is a standard 1 brf, 1 water, 2 vermiculite.

jar two is a wheat cake. with the brf supplemented with home made wheat flower. the first thing i noticed was that the cake was very sticky in comparison to the brf cake. not great but we'll see how the mushrooms like it.

the final cake is a Kellogg's bran flakes cake. made with home made bran flake flour. this cake mix was very fluffy. it filled up twice as many half pint jars as the other two recipes.

shall post side by side comparisons weekly.

[hyphaenation]

Thanks for keeping this thread alive. I get inspired when I look back through it. Lots of ideas have crossed my mind for alt-sub materials to test. I'd encourage everyone to try something new and document either your success or failure , both are helpful.

I just scooped up some nice white-tail deer poop pellets in the forest and am going to try mixing them with some other plant cellulose that I find interesting.

Edited by hyphaenation, 10 February 2010 - 08:15 PM.

[Soliver]

rich:

Did you use SPENT brewer's malt or fresh / unused?

My next project is Mexicana stones in spent homebrew malted grains, just
wondering if anyone's used the used stuff :)

soliver

Yield report:

Tub #1:
* 50/50 HPoo/Brewers Grain
* 1st to harvest
* flush #1: 45 grams wet
* potency = medium

Tub #2:
* Brewers Grain
* 2nd to harvest + 6 days
* flush #1: 92 grams wet
* potency = untested

Tub #3:
* HPoo
* Currently pinning + 8 days

[zodd]

Thanks for keeping this thread alive. I get inspired when I look back through it. Lots of ideas have crossed my mind for alt-sub materials to test. I'd encourage everyone to try something new and document either your success or failure , both are helpful.

I just scooped up some nice white-tail deer poop pellets in the forest and am going to try mixing them with some other plant cellulose that I find interesting.

no problem dude :)

imo this thread should be made a sticky and never be allowed to fade into obscurity, as it epitomises what i love about mycotopia.

trying new things and new ways of thinking
steering away from the normal/status qo, in search of the elusive- -obvious.
and attempting to push the boundries of our understanding through exploration.

just to let you know im also trying this Kellogg bran flour cake mix with my shiitake.

i hope to see if shittake will fruit from it without any wood products added.

[Soliver]

OK, folks -

Not sure if anyone's tried this yet (I'm sure it's been done, but by who?), but I just innoculated
14 quarts of spent brew grains with PR and Mex A.

It was a five gallon batch, with 5lbs of 6 row malts, and 3lbs of cooked white rice as
a brew adjunct (I'm going for a piss yellow American-swill style brew).

You figure it all cooks at 155 (give or take) for over an hour, then it's strained, so it's
already pretty clean and super-hydrated. I let it drip overnight, mixed it with some
chalk (ground), loaded the jars, shook, innoculated, and... well, we'll see.

It didn't stick together hardly at all; the moisture is PERFECT. As long as the LC likes
it, and I can't really see how it couldn't, then I think this may be the last spawn I'll
ever use.. think about it . . .

My beer grains can now intoxicate me TWICE!

:)

I'll post pics as / if / when things get movin'

soliver

[zodd]

OK not the best pics but they tell a tale non the less

treasure coast on wheat flour cake. not as far gone as the brf cake but were coking.
[attachment=967007:]


brf cake as expected cubensis love a bit of rice.
[attachment=967008:]

this is the treasure coast on the Kellogg's bran flake cake (KBF cake). virtually no growth what so ever.
[attachment=967006:]


ill keep an eye on these but this seems to have been decided before it has begun.

on a side note my shitakes are loving the Kellogg's bran flake cake. KBF cake. i hope this is a sign of things to come. now that i mention it out of all the strains i inoculated on to my caramelized cakes shittake was the one that grew the best on it. ill post my results on this separately in my shittake grow thread when I'm done with it.