150 replies to this topic

[hyphaenation]

The Cyans just keep on truckin. I'm going to harvest a bunch today and i'm not sure what will be left. I plan on putting the greenhouses back over the beds and we'll see what comes up in the next few weeks.

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[hyphaenation]

Harvest basket of Cyans.

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[eatyualive]

supermothafugginfreaginbadasswambamshazam!:headbang:

[hyphaenation]

I'm about to clear the beds out again. This could be the last time before winter. Maybe a few stragglers will come up.

It's been an awesome Cyan season here in the yard. I'm extremely thankful.

Thanks Mother Earth , Mycotopia , Wayltjim

:headbang:

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[kcmoxtractor]

The cyans definitely don't seem to cluster the way the friscosas do. Awesome harvest though hyph, hopefully I can get a woodlover project put together for next year!

[greenmeanie]

personally it appears you're harvesting a little early on those bad boys. let them grow more so they'll get insanely wavy and drop heavy prints.

[Scratch]

Maybe better to harvest early instead of waiting
for that cold to slide down the mountain and
freeze the little beggars.

[hyphaenation]

personally it appears you're harvesting a little early on those bad boys.

I can see how it would appear that i'm harvesting early. Your not the first to recommend waiting ... problem is they get no bigger , they only go blue and the cap rots. I've tried many times to let them go further. In fact I just let about 20 % rot away in hopes the remaining would fill out more.

All my beds of Cyans act the same. They stay small and potent with very dense flesh. I still believe this has to do with being north of 50 degrees latitude. I'm quite a bit up north compared to many posters on here.

Also i'm at up close to 1000 meters elevation. This may play into it. It definitely effects temps in fall as the the night time temps can reach well below zero and up beyond 50 F during the day.

At first I thought it was the substrate or the strain of Cyans that was keeping them small. Now I think it is altitude/latitude and mean-average temps.

Thanks for the the thoughts though Greenie.

[hyphaenation]

The cyans definitely don't seem to cluster the way the friscosas do.

They make up for it in longevity though. They have been yielding about 1000 grams fresh every few weeks from the beginning of September.

I still have bed tweaking to do. Each one is not quite how i'd like it. I'd prefer to have the layers just right and a thin soil layer on top , ideally with grasses growing on it. Right now the beds generally have old mulch straw on top that has become colonized and overlaid.

With the beds set-up properly there is a better chance that the Cyans will cluster better. So far when the grow alone they get quite big , but when they grow in a large number cluster they usually will all stay fairly small. Many times they have come up 20 or 30 to a bunch though.

[nightflyer]

I can see how it would appear that i'm harvesting early. Your not the first to recommend waiting ... problem is they get no bigger
Also i'm at up close to 1000 meters elevation. This may play into it.
At first I thought it was the substrate or the strain of Cyans that was keeping them small. Now I think it is altitude/latitude and mean-average temps.

I don't think it's the elevation. I found huge clusters of
Cyanescens in the Black Forest, southern Germany and in
The Bohemian Forest, Czech Republic, at elevations of
1000 meters. Also other woodlover Psilocybes grow at that
elevation in the Czech Republic, like Psilocybe arcana, bohemica
and moravica.

I guess it's the substrate mass. I would bet that you will
get huge specimens if you create a bed using 100 kg of wood chips.

But the latitude could be a problem, because of the
harsh frosts in your country. You should protect your
beds very carefully during winter.

[hyphaenation]

Luckily we get lots of snow and this insulates the beds. In early spring there is movement and life in the bed even under the snow and the extra water saturates the bed as it melts.

For the record the strain of Cyans i'm growing originally was found in the wild on the Sunshine Coast of BC.

[hyphaenation]

I guess it's the substrate mass. I would bet that you will
get huge specimens if you create a bed using 100 kg of wood chips.

By this do you mean that my beds may be to thick ?

[nightflyer]

Snow is the perfect insulation material.
The most dangerous situation is a harsh
frost without full snow coverage.

I mean that your beds are maybe too small
to bear big mushrooms. Not enough woodchips
to produce the mycelium mass necessary in order
to bear big fruitbodies. My beds are 20 cm thick,
2 m long and 1 m wide.

I am sure that if you expand your Cyanescens bed,
it will bear bigger fruitbodies.

[hyphaenation]

A couple of my Cyans beds are small but the one main bed is quite large. Its about 7 feet across (pain in the butt to pick) and 10 feet long.

Can't quite see the whole bed there but you get the idea.

This pic was from an earlier thread about the same bed.

http://mycotopia.net...chips-cyan1.jpg

One thing is I would like to control the type of wood going into the chips better. I made these beds from mixed chips that were free. They contain willow , birch , maple , hemlock , spruce and some amount of cedar.

Ideally I want to get back into making my own chips. I have a chipper and I know of spots where many thousands of birch and maples were cut under powerlines and left.

Here's a shot of the Cyans beds under snow last winter , still white and alive , not frozen.

[nightflyer]

One thing is I would like to control the type of wood going into the chips better. I made these beds from mixed chips that were free. They contain willow , birch , maple , hemlock , spruce and some amount of cedar.

Forget the cedar. I don't know any mushroom species
who is able to decompose cedar. My Cyan and Cyanofriscosa
beds are made of willow chips. (Salix alba).
The Azurescens bed is made of spruce chips. (Picea abies)

[hyphaenation]

I gave a bad link a few posts up. Here's the link to when I first built the big bed.

http://mycotopia.net...-woodchips.html


Also here's the Cyans under snow that I meant to show:

[nightflyer]

We have a full snow coverage in the mountains
during winter, but not on the plains where I live.

That's why I have to cover my beds by the end of
fall with a new layer of wood chips. Feeding and
protecting at once.

[ethnobotanica]

Hyph,

Do you mix any cactus/potting soil into your woodchips like waylit's tek says?

If not then that might be the reason for the small fruits..

Just noticed you didn't say anything about soil when making the beds in last years thread.

I used about half soil/ half chips for my little 2' square patch.

http://mycotopia.net...-wavy-caps.html

Peace:rasta:

[hyphaenation]

I used soil but the woodchips were of a fairly large size and the soil slipped down in between the chips. In future beds and modifications i'll use straw or knotweed on the top layer , flatten it good and then add the soil layer.

I used general use top soil in my layerings. The problem I had was that I added to much soil in my opinion. It's hard to add soil on top of large chunk woodchips. You live and learn. Always a mod or tweak.

[ethnobotanica]

I see. I can understand how that could be a problem.
I used very small chips and they bound together with the soil quite well.

Have you tried making a bed without straw?