Where to find/buy silica gel

Well i already used the search button and didnt find any info, so does anyone know where i can buy silica gel for (drying). Also, will home depot sell vermiculite and perlite?

sorry for the questions, but i remember some people saying you need vermiculite to grow cakes, but then other people saying just plain bird seed will work (obviously pressure cooking it), but would i have to grind up the birdseed first or no?

 

I've had good luck using a product called "Mold Away" that is sold at Home Improvement centers for damp, humid closets and stuff. Put that stuff in a big ziploc bag with whatever you want to dry and within a day or so, every drop of moisture is gone. Works great and I bet it's cheaper than actual silica. Not to mention that this stuff is easy to find.

 

You can find silica gel in packs of beef jerky. lol

 

Silca sucks. Get calcium chloride for a dessicant. It's sold as Dri-Rite in the US. Not sure what it's called in Canada.

Bird seed (you'll usually see it called WBS) doesn't make a cake. WBS is purely spawn. It need to at least be cased, and preferably spawned to a bulk sub.

You should add me on AIM, ICQ, MSN, whatever you have. My info's in my profile. You seem to be trying to do your own research, but you're getting a lot of things wrong. I'll be willing to help you out with whatever you need. I'm not a pro, but for the few things I don't know about mushrooms, I know where to find out.

 

K man, i added you on msn, thanks. Is there any chance they would sell any of this drying stuff at walmart, because thats where i am buying the majority of my stuff at.

 

they probably do in the garden center

 

Sorry to sound utterly ignorant, but what is the difference between cake and spawn?

The Mushroom Man

 

cake - little blob of mycelium usualy in the shape of the container in which it grew, usually made from brown rice flour and vermiculite that you fruit mushrooms off of.

spawn - mycelium usually grown on whole grains, it is easily broken up and is used for inoculating bulk substrates, you can smash up a cake and use it as spawn.

 

Just FYI any local department store that carries skecher brand shoes usually get large bags inside the shipping box, you can also get them out of the shoe boxes as well. Like A Rack Room, Shoe Carnival, Famous Footwear, etc....

Or if you have any trouble finding some, just let me know and I could get you lots of silica gel packets for the cost of the shipping to you and maybe a dollar for my time!!...

But to be honest a glove box(rhodium i believe has a good plan) with an inert gas and any of the following would be best to prevent contamination. Or Anhydrous [calcium chloride{Brand name Drierite}( said above post), sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate, sodium sulfate, magnesium sulfate]