22 replies to this topic

[pskovinsky]

These are made from roughly 2/3rds of a quart of rye, split between three jars, with 1/4-3/4 inches of straight verm casing, and a bunch of grass seed on top.
I hydrated the verm to the same level as PF cakes (squeeze some, get a drop or two, no more), and sprayed a bunch of water once i had the casings built, to hydrate the grass seed.

Roughly 75% of the grass seeds germinated, the other 25% were eaten by the myc. before they could get going.

Some of the ones that germinated were growing AND being eaten, but you can't see it in the pics.

Post any questions and i'll answer the best i can.

Oh yeah, these were made on wensday or thursday last week, can't remember which.

EDIT: They are sitting under a 100 watt lightbulb,, with sandwich baggies over the top of the jars to control evaporation.
I take the baggies off every day/every other day for air exchange.
I probably should do it more often, but no contams yet, and grass seems to be VERY good at keeping them from popping up.
I suspect that it acts to clean and refresh the air, but no proof at all.

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[Hippie3]

awesome,
thx 4 sharing.
more details, plz

[pskovinsky]

Hmm, more details.
Here's the entire process, beginning to current:

Made the rye via the tek doobs told me, one cup DRY rye grain, 3/4 cup water in a quart jar and PC, no rinses, no soaks, none of it. double layer of housewrap tyvek for a lid.
I PC'd it for two hours, as i like to really nuke things, contams piss me off.

Let it cool overnight in the PC, then innoc'd with the last 1/2cc of a Z strain syringe i had, taped over 90% of the tyvek lid with duct tape (including the innoc hole, of course), spent some time shaking the hell out of it, as the rye on the bottem was quite wet, and the top was dry-ish, then incubated at room temp (varies wildly from 50-70), once it started showing some growth, i shook it up again (at probably 15-20% colonization, i'm impatient), and let it sit till 99% colonization. That last one % was from rye that was right next to the side of the jar, and had a little water pool held next to the grains by surface tension.

Then i grabbed my supplies, and sat down to make the casings.

Two brand new quart jars
one bag rye grass seed
one spoon, straight from the dishwasher, but not steril
big bag o verm
bowl

Hydrated the verm till i could squeeze a small handful and get a drip or two, but no more.

Then scraped out the top third of the quart jar of rye, poured it into one of the empty quart jars, and smacked the jar around a bit to level it out.
spooned in a layer of verm, which turned out between 1/4 and 1/2 inch deep.
Taped all around the bottem of the jar, so it wouldn't (hopefully) pin under the casing layer.
tossed in a thin layer of grass seed over the top of the verm, and gave it a good six or eight full sprays from a generic spray bottle.
did the same for the next jar.
The last one i just left the solid "cake" of rye in the bottem of it's origional jar, gave it the same verm layer, grass, and spraying.
Then i put a baggie over the top of each jar, and stuck 'em in a warm spot that gets direct light from the 100watt bulb in the room.

Thats about everything i can think of.
Any specific questions? Comments? Gifts? :P

I'm getting some more syringes from a fantastic member of this site (thanks! you know who you are :)), when i get them i'll do the entire process again, and take pictures of it.

[destroy_erase_improve]

very cool! ty for going into so much detail. the grass is cool. dont forget to mow it :)

[pskovinsky]

I'ma treat it like a chia pet :P

I'm thinking that 2-3 inches will be about right, keep it from getting huge, but give it enough surface area to do it's job.

[mycojay]

awesome a myco ecosystem cool

[pskovinsky]

Update:
The mycelium is loving the grass seeds and roots and stuff, it's growing like crazy, pins ought to be following soon.

I have an issue though.

How the hell am i going to trim the grass?

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[psychoknot]

Easily: Hold the top of the grass you are about to cut, then cut with scissors.

[pskovinsky]

Troutlips had a great idea, smack/pull the casing to the top of the jar, then just cut what sticks out...

Did so, worked great, plus i got to see the roots :)

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[SporeWizard]

is there a possibility that the Grass is taking up some of the Nutrition from the Cake that it could be inhibiting Shroomies to grow and/or fall short of biggie shroomies ??? Just a thought......

and I agree it's a pretty coolio eco you got going there.

[anticheffy]

looks like you need a wee tiny lawn mower

[maynardsdick]

what is the purpose of this? is it just eye candy?

[pskovinsky]

Combination eye candy and grow log..


EDIT for final details, months afterwards:

I got a good flushe out of these, then a second half-flush, then a few random mushrooms, i never did anything but mist maybe once a week. The grand total was ~1/4oz dry all told, not that great for 2/3rds of a quart of rye, but not bad considering the amount of time i spent fanning and misting (not much).

The problem with this tek is getting the mushrooms out, they actually grow into the grass, just like if you leave a rope on a tree it grows around it.
Grass doesn't taste any worse then the mushrooms do, so it's not *that* much of an issue, but it looks kinda nasty.

The grass did indeed mold a bit up top, but what happened in the end was the grass started to die (not enough light i'm guessing, or the myc. ate the roots), and the myc colonized it.

All told i was happy with the results, as neglect casings (a rare thing!) they worked great, but if you don't mind setting aside a grow room/closet/bin and fanning often i'd recommend normal casings.
However, i think that the grass seed on those normal casings (rather then quart jar and ziplock casings) would be beneficial. It does require a solid light source though, no 2xAA pushbutton light.

--Pskov, 3/1/06

[SporeWizard]

any updates on the Mini Lawnmower. :)

[buggyboy]

I dont see any reason it wouldnt work. It is as close as you can truly come to recreating an outdoor environment in a QUART JAR lol!! I totally understand the reasoning and I think its awesome. You should learn how to isolate the strongest blade of grass and send me some seed for my lawn lol I wanna see progress pics asap, nice thread!

[SporesMan]

If this works for cubies, may be it will work for azurences too.

[kinetic]

This is awesome, nice experiment! I grow grass for my cat to eat, I grow it under a little dome... it can start to mold quite easily when I neglect it. However, keeping the grass short might be the key for fighting that :) If I watched my kitty grass like I baby mushies maybe I wouldn't have any mold with it either. I just stick the grass outside when it gets any mold and nature seems to take care of it during the day... not sure that is any help for this situation.
Keep pics coming, this is pretty cool!