532 replies to this topic

[MLBjammer]

If you have done a few cake grows with good results and decided to try some grain (popcorn, WBS, etc.) and had problems, this tek could help you create a good bit of spawn/substrate very quickly. With one colonized BRF jar, you can make A LOT of substrate. Also, if you have experienced issues with your first bulk attempts, this is a very good, exceedingly simple alternative. And if you only have a few jars left and no more spores or tissue, well, this tek is a good way to change that condition.

You can also incorporate's Eatyu's flatcake tek into this method. He actually shows us that towards the end of the thread. And the original tek is part of this thread.

The Tek: http://mycotopia.net...fo-bag-tek.html

Some results:

[prism]

http://archives.myco...tml?1086702549

For a noob grower I think this is by far the best way to start out. From here you can clone take prints experiment .... Thanx Hip I wish I would have been more active on this forum instead of lurking the whole time.

Invitro is the shiz!!:headbang::headbang:

[MLBjammer]

The first time I attempted cloning, I wanted to use a basic method, and--after much digging--I found this thread in the old archives: http://archives.myco...html?1051898839

It involves a sterilized jar of water with glass shards in the bottom. Once you have the tissue you want to clone, just drop it in the jar and shake it violently for about a minute. You should have a fairly milky mix, and you can (and should) use it immediately. I would suggest doing this work in a glovebox or in front of a flowhood. One competitor spore can ruin your efforts. You can also follow the 9er Tek version of this, which utilizes a blender attachment instead of glass shards.

Either way, cloning is an effective way to maxmixe your grows, as pinsets will be more uniform in general. If you are dreaming about that fuly canopy that you see in many pictures, in many situations that is partly possible because the grower cloned from a nice cluster or a big fruit. My advice is do three or four clones at a time--so that you are guaranteed at least one or more will be good fruiters.

[MLBjammer]

For those who live in cold climates or simply want to colonize a bit quicker than at room temperature, an incubator serves as a very handy tool. There are, of course, many variations on the concept, but one of the safest and most effective is a fish-tank heater encased in a bottle, jar, or submerged in water. The better heaters have more precise temperature settings and are simply better products. A basic setup will cost you $30-40, but it can really be worth it, especially in the winter months.

And a tub-in-tub incubator is a bottom storage container which holds water and the aquarium heater and a top container which holds your colonizing jars, bags, or trays.

As far as good temps for colonizing, I prefer somewhere in the mid to upper 70s F myself, but others will tell you low to mid 80s F. Mycelium will certainly colonize at temps around 70 F, but that process will be slower by a week or so.

Anyway, here's the classic thread on the subject:
http://mycotopia.net...-incubator.html

[ryanzreality]

I might add this is one kick ass thread MLB. I love the supercake formula. It just is simply amazing. :bow:I will agree about using HEAPING cups for hips recipe. The first time i tried it I wound up with only nine jars because I did not make them heaping cups. Since then I have had great success with these cakes. If you are not so happy with plain old BRF cakes after a few grows and can find all the stuff for the supercake give it a shot. You will not be disappointed i assure you. :loveeyes:

Through experimentation, Hippie3 came up with a variation on the regular PF Tek brown rice flour cake. The supercake formula will cost you less than $100 to accumulate the ingredients--you can find everything at organic supermarkets and lawn and garden supply stores. The basic idea of the supercake is to give cakes a nutritional boost that aids in both colonization speed and fruit yield. If you follow it to the letter, you will improve your cake grows--and many also use it for bulk spawn. Just be sure not to use too much of any particular additive, through which you make your mix just too rich and more prone to contamination, in my experiences. And when Hip calls for heaping cups of rice and vermiculite, be generous with both (otherwise, you will not have enough mix to make whatever number of jars you figured).

Supercake formula: http://mycotopia.net...ke-formula.html

[MLBjammer]

Thanks for the kind words, man.

[MLBjammer]

Okay, the most important thing about the popcorn slurry tek is that your popcorn prep method is 100% road-tested. If the jars are dirty at all, this will just screw up a whole bunch of substrate. This is pretty much exactly how I prep my popcorn: http://mycotopia.net...corn-fruit.html. And it works quite well.

The advantages of popcorn slurry are many. You can always see whether or not the popcorn has any contams, especially after a couple shakes. This is not an option with LCs (test jars instead). Drawing the slurry from the jar(s) is quite easy because popcorn grains are large and simply will not clog a syringe needle (unlike WBS or Rye or BRF with vermiculite). You can inoculate a WHOLE LOT of substrate with one pint jar of colonized corn--and it will grow incredibly fast.

I have personally given up making LCs because of this method. There's nothing wrong with LCs; it's just that this is much easier and foolproof for me.

The Tek: http://mycotopia.net...culant-tek.html

A syringe ready to go:

[MLBjammer]

Growing mushrooms can be a very simple process. All you really need are some long grain rice, jars, spores or live tissue and a basic PC (or a steam pot). This tek is about the same thing as the classic 9er Tek, which incorporates whole rice cakes just like Duke does in this thread. And you can fruit them in the jar invitro, case them, or fruit the jar with a casing layer on top in an FC. It's just that simple and yields results very similar to BRF cakes.

The key to this tek is getting the moisture content just right, which is 1/2 cup of rice to 3/4 cup of water--then PC for 40 minutes. As far as lids, you can use tyvek like Duke does; but you could also use a polyfill hole like standard grain jar lids or you could cover the four PF holes with micropore tape (and there are other options, of course). If you follow Duke's advice to the letter, you will grow a nice little stash.

The Tek: http://mycotopia.net...html#post180662

[MLBjammer]

I just ran across this in my never-ending perusal of the vaults; it's good basic information that every newbie should check out: http://mycotopia.net...-faq-guide.html

[MLBjammer]

LCs (liquid cultures) are a wonderful means to expand your inoculant, clone, and speed up your colonization time--as LCs have already germinated in the nutrient-rich solution. A couple tips about LCs: don't make your mix too rich (4-5% nutrient to 95% water is plenty), LCs can be PC'ed at 5 PSI for 20 minutes or microwaved (with a plastic lid, of course) or steamed or baked in the oven, make your lids with self-healing silicone injection ports and make an airport syringe (you will be glad you did), swirl or stir your LCs every few days to break up mycelial puffballs (which can clog syringes), and ALWAYS inoculate a test jar or two before shooting up a bunch of substrate. The biggest drawback to LCs for me is that you cannot physically recognize whether or not the LC is contaminated, but a test jar and some patience solves that dilemma.

Irishlion's honey/karo LC mix is the most effective recipe I have tried. If you look at his results, it's pretty darn amazing. If you are going to try an LC, this one is the way to go, in my opinion: http://mycotopia.net...culture-lc.html

[MLBjammer]

I have been making these for years. It is by far my favorite way to ingest the fruits of my labor. The way I do it is very simple.

1). Take the dry weight of however many shrooms you want to make chocolates with and divide that by the number of chocolates you want. Example: if you have 12 grams of dry magic, you can make 6 chocolates that will be about 2 grams each. It is simple math.
2). Grind up your shrooms to a powder in a coffee grinder, blender, etc. Put them in a bag. Fill another bag with dark chocolate chips (dark chocolate melts more evenly than milk chocolate or white chocolate and is infinitely easier to work with) that is just a tad fuller than the bag of magic powder.
3). Use a double-boiler at the lowest setting to melt the chocolate. You can make a double-boiler from a small pot with just a bit of water in it and a glass or metal bowl (sprayed lightly with Pam or some other cooking spray or oil) on top of the small pot. Or go buy a double-boiler if you are rolling in cash, lol. Stir the chocolate almost constantly until it has melted enough to pour off the spoon.
4). Remove the melted chocolate from the stove. Pour in the powder and mix WELL. Do this in an expedient manner. You don't want the chocolate to set up too fast, and you want it mixed well so that the magic is evenly distributed.
5). Spoon the chocolates into molds of your choice. Ice cube trays work well. You can buy molds at most craft stores, too.
6). Tap the mold on the counter make the chocolates solid chunks. Cover the mold with aluminum foil and refrigerate for an hour.
7). Wrap the chocolates individually and enjoy.

You can always add other ingredients if you want, but that is the simple method. I have stored chocolates for a few years with no noticeable loss of potency. And they taste so much better than chomping down dry shrooms.

For an illustrated version of this, check out Shombino's method: http://mycotopia.net...chocolates.html

[Sidestreet]

Keep 'em comin', Jammer. I'm learning new things about old teks and I love it. :bow:

[MLBjammer]

You know, in writing this thread I also am relearning things I had forgotten. There is just SO much information here that it boggles the brain sometimes. I could spend days at Topia and never look at a new post.

[calistoner]

definately agree with you on that one jammer. its another reason why i love this thread, its a great idea. we can take really useful threads and teks and put them all together in one great harmonious pile of knowledge


:eusa_danc

thanks again MLB

[MLBjammer]

Many less experienced growers are often confused when it comes to pasteurization, which is semi-sterilization most commonly used for bulk substrate and casing materials. Pasteurization kills off bacteria which is harmful to mycelium but does not reach temperatures high enough to kill beneficial bacteria. And you can pasteurize a whole lot more casing mix or bulk mix in one session than the multiple sessions it would take to sterilize the same amount of material.

Here are a few pointers. Always shoot for temperatures between 140-160 F; if you go much higher, you can destroy that beneficial bacteria of which we spoke. If you have the time, pasteurize for several hours--it will make a difference in the long run, especially if you are trying to produce more than a couple flushes from a bulk grow. If you are working with fresh or semi-dried dung, always leech it to wash out any urine and get rid of funky smells. Your dung should have that loamy smell, like a forest floor after a summer rain. If you pasteurize something and cannot use for a few days, freeze it to prevent having to pasteurize it again; once it thaws, it's ready to use. And always either squeeze the excess moisture from your pasteurized material or add a little dry vermiculite or coir to dial in the proper moisture content (just a drop or two of moisture from a squeezed handful of substrate).

There are several methods of pasteurization. The most common are the pillow case in a hot water bath (which is great if you need to leech some dung, BTW, as it kills two birds with one stone), steam pasteurization (awesome if you can afford a wallpaper steamer), oven pasteurization, and bleach/lime pasteurization.

Here's a thread which covers a lot of ground, and we have a whole section of the vaults dedicated to this topic:
http://archives.myco...html?1079031718

[MLBjammer]

Many new growers are often confused about the appearance of mycelium, as it is sometimes thick and fluffy (tomentose) and other times spikey and web-like (rhizomorphic). Being able to recognize these two types of growth can help a new grower distinguish mycelium from a contamination. With all mushroom species, both growth types occur simultaneously on most substrates, and tomentose mycelium will eventually become rhizomorphic, even if it takes a generation of growth and printing. Rhizomorphic growth is faster and generally is where fruits will grow on substrates.

Here's the thread which defines and documents this topic: http://mycotopia.net...hic-fluffy.html

Tomentose Rhizomorphic



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[Mrs.Hippie3]

Good examples. Thank you. :eusa_clap

[MLBjammer]

My pleasure.

[MLBjammer]

This thread has always fascinated me. This is a very cool experiment that Buckaroo Bonzai does with coir and vermiculite side-by-side as casings on a cake grow. Needless to say, the coir wins, somewhat dramatically. I am not certain if it's the coir itself that inspires the better fruiting, but I do know that cubies really have a "taste" for the stuff. It cannot hold as much water as vermiculite does, but it is quite easy to see when coir is dry (turns a lighter color!), and it is extremely contam.-resistant.

Anyhow, here's the thread, which contains a ton of fascinating knowledge. Enjoy!
http://mycotopia.net...amatic-pix.html

[TurkeyRanch]

Just thought I would chime in and say I really like this thread, great idea, the thread should be re-named "Tips, Reminders, and Thought Stimulaters for Everyone". Thanks for all the work Jammer.

:pirate: TR