I am interested in growing magic mushrooms and I found this website, mushbox.com. I spotted the Rye Grain Substrate jars http://www.mushbox.com/rye-grain-jars.html that are already pre sterilized. So if I were to purchase these pre sterilized jars, I would also need a spore syringe and an incubator?
a fruiting chamber with perlite or hydroton. a casing layer with ph buffers (lime), vermiculite, coco coir. some h202 diluted with water to a 1% solution. a spray bottle for the h202. possibly a bulk substrate like poop, straw, and or coir. you should really ask stuff like this in the shroomery.org cultivation forums. there are expert mushroom growers who will answer most questions and grow logs that will document the process step by step.
If you're gonna go for a kit, just get the MycoDome. You should also check out shroomtalk.com and mycotopia.net.
hydroton definitely over perlite, perlite breaks down quicker which means you have to clean your chamber more often. Also coco coir isnt good for a casing layer its better for a bulk substrate the problem with it is that the mycelium actually starts colonising it which you dont want to happen. The mushies should just break through the casing layer. I would suggest 50/50 peat moss and vermiculite plus some crushed oyster shell for you ph buffer instead of lime. Also I would really suggest not purchasing pre-sterilized anything, who knows how long its been sitting around drying out or if it was properly sterilized in the first place. Also room temp is fine for colonization so no need to build an incubater. and I would suggest buying some presealable spawn bags and a pressure cooker and use grains for your first time, its the noobie proof method.
Oh and for spores, stay away from the spore store. Try the hawks eye or just go to shroomery.org and check out their sponsors list, those are the best vendors in the scene.
Or monotubs, or dub-tubs. Yay for no work. True, but you can colonize a 50/50+ if you let it go too long, too. Most people actually do, even though it's wrong. For you new guys, it's colonize the bulk, add casing and go directly to fruiting. Don't colonize the casing layer. In most cases, I'd say to follow this advice. IMO, Mushbox is a different story, though. I'm on his message board and I would trust his jars. Not that DIY isn't better, but if you don't have a PC, it's not a horrible option. This is just fine, but I prefer to use an incubator. For one, it helps keep things cleaner. Not that it's really important if you did your lids correctly, but it makes me feel better. It'll also be nice when you can actually drop your temps when fruiting time comes. Yes, you can do it all at the same temp, but it's just smoother if you can drop it properly. IDK about the bags. They work, and some people swear by them, but I don't see the advantage over a jar with a self-healing injection port and some Tyvek.
no real advantage other than being a little easier,since theyre premade theres nothing to construct. The jars would be cheaper in the long run though, because you can reuse them :cheers2:
Yeah, once you have the incubator, jars, spores, etc, it's goddamn near free. Or should be. I tend to upgrade for every grow, so I end up spending a lot.
Dub tubs are better. You don't even have to fan them. Just colonize the bulk, throw a casing layer on and wait. Maybe pull a piece of Polyfill out if the RH gets ridiculous.
dub tubs are not as space efficient as monotubs. its just a bigger container essentially. they do hold more substrate than if you used that same tub for monotob so its basically a bigger monotob than the container itself would be without the second tub. i could stack more monotubs in a closet than i could dub tubs. you don't need to fan either just polyfill holes. some people keep a small fan mounted on the wall of the room to make FAE better. if you have high initial humidity you don't need to mist. just seal with clear material and wait. no need to case either.
I've actually never heard of a monotub with polyfill holes. I imagined that with the smaller space, it'd dry out too quick. Care to share more details on your setup? And you say no need to case, but I'd do it anyway. It always helps, IME.
some people have em. some people don't. its down to preference. as long as it gets good FAE thats all that matters. you can fan or just have polyfill holes with a fan in the room. http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/7645776#7645776 no. i don't know why you would think that. a smaller space holds moisture better. greater surface area= greater evaporation. with the sealed tub you don't need to mist unless its an emergency. its easy to accidentally make it too wet. yeah it definitely helps but some people are lazy. the fact that you don't need to do it to get great flushes is reason enough for me not to case. not to mention there is another vector for contams added when you add a casing layer. not that you can't avoid contams easily with a few precautions. its just a "rather safe than sorry" sort of deal. it would suck to spawn all that good sub and lose it to mean green on a casing layer.
Cause I was kind of drunk. Probably shouldn't post drunk. But yeah, that was a backwards thought. And after looking at the pics, it looks like your monotubs are way bigget than what I've used before, which would make it work pretty well, probably.
no worries man. :cheers2: but yeah those are not my pics. and yeah those monotubs would work very well.... if i lived in a country where growing shrooms is legal.
