Growing/First time

Oh, I know. I meant if you are already casing and a small, isolated spot of contamination shows up. I definitely wouldn't even consider casing a contaminated cake .

 

Just an update: I'm currently sterilizing the jars filled with the vermiculite and brown rice flour mix. Unfortunately, I don't have a pressure cooker, so I'm using a large pot. I lined the bottom with tin foil, placed 6 jars on that (they are 1/2 pint, btw), and filled it to about 1/3 of their height in water. It is currently heating up at a medium-high heat. I poked 4 holes in each of the jar lids with a hammer and nail (a fairly small nail), placed the lids back on the jars, and covered them each with 1 layer of tin foil. My spores should be arriving tomorrow, which should be pretty good timing, as everything will have completely cooled down and be ready for inoculation.

 

Man growing really seems like a bitch! I definitly planning on doing it before to long but as of right now i'm not in a good place to do it, : p So i'll just wait.

 

Hah, I'm probably not in the best place in terms of security, but I figure it would be kind of hard to get caught and busted for growing shrooms, especially in absurdly small quantities (at most I'll generate like 42g...and I figure that's with absolutely perfect results, which I don't even begin to expect). At least the temperature in my room is naturally perfect for incubation (80 in my room right now and it's nighttime). If I can avoid contamination I should be good to go.

EDIT: It really doesn't seem like that much of a bitch to me. All of the materials were pretty straightforward to get. All I had to visit was Lowe's, Wal-Mart, a health food store, and a site for spores online. The process itself is pretty simple, too. Honestly, I never would have dreamed it would be this easy. Granted, I might screw up the entire first batch, but that just means I need to be a little more cautious next time.

 

Update: The jars are now inoculated. It was my first time, so I made some pretty amateurish errors, but hopefully it works out. First I cleaned out everything in the kitchen in the near vicinity of where I was going to inoculate. Then I sprayed down the counter and walls with a water-bleach solution and wiped it down. Then I went out and got a lighter, rubber gloves, and lysol spray. I came back, took a shower, changed into fresh clothes, sprayed the lighter, air, counters, walls, ceiling, etc, with lysol, went to my room, put on the gloves, grabbed the needle, and took out the jars. I then flamed the needle till the tip was almost completely red. I waited a bit (about 10 seconds to make sure the heat wouldn't kill the spores), removed the foil from jar 1, and proceeded to put about 3-4cc in that one jar. Woops! First amateur mistake . I put the foil back, and then did jars 2 and 3 about the same (but got much closer to 1cc in those). I then flamed the needle again, and proceeded to do jars 4-6 in the same way, getting close to 1cc in these this time.

I have 4 holes in each jar lid, and I put the needle against the jar to let it run down. The biggest mistake I think I made is that I completely forgot to shake the syringe. Hopefully the spores were decently spread out to begin with! I've heard that suppliers put quite a bit of spores in the syringes, though, and that such things shouldn't be a huge deal. I've always heard that if anything goes wrong, it's almost always contamination. Well, what do you guys think? Did I do everything the right way? Will the lack of shaking be an issue? How about the 3-4cc's in that one jar? Let me know! My next update will probably be when I start to see some mycellium (or, in a bad scenario, contamination!).

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I am storing them in my closet, up on the higher shelf where they should be mostly free from contamination. I'll probably leave the door open so they get enough air flow.

 

Well you didn't do anything too wrong as long as you are being cautious of contamination.

 

Oh I am. Unless I'm imagining things, I already have mycellium growth on most of my jars! I'm pretty sure that's what it is, as it's purely white, and it's definitely not just the substrate. Here's some pics of one jar. What do you guys think?

If this is really mycellium, then I think these are growing extremely fast. It's only been about 3-3.5 hours!

 

Yup, looks like your mycelium is starting to come up

Mine didnt appear quite that fast, but I started to see it the next day, it takes a while for it to cover the whole thing though. Is that the cake you used too much of the spores in? If thats the case, that could account for the mycelium popping up so early- its hard to tell, the pictures are a tad grainy.

Also, you drilled holes in those jars to innoculate them right? You dont want to be handling the jar with your hands like that, it makes it extremely easy for some germs to get in there and contaminate it.

Glad you decided to take up the growing process. Keep us posted, best of luck my friend

 

Ahh. I'm not sure which jar that is, to be completely honest :|. I'd say that would be a good guess, though. I made 4 holes in the lids with a hammer and nail, but that was before I initially washed them. I wasn't aware handling the outside of the jar was much of a risk, so I'll be sure not to do that anymore . If I do need to handle it, I'll put on the gloves and whatnot. That is, of course, unless you thought I drilled holes in the jars themselves. I can see where you might think that, since the picture is quite fuzzy and there's a part that almost looks like a hole right by the (hopefully) mycelium.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback and confirmation. I hope you're right that it is indeed the mycelium! I had no idea I would be this into the whole thing. I've been obsessing over it ever since I ordered the spores .

 

Good job on the growth! Did you wash you hands really good before handling it like that? I personaly would risk contamination like that. I'd suggest using gloves.

 

Yes, I washed my hands before handling them. I didn't realize there was much risk for contaminants from my hands reaching the inside of the jar. I'll use much greater care in the future. I'm sure I'll be beating myself up if I end up finding some unwanted growth later on.

Some more white growth is occurring in several places now. Some of it is thick like what can be seen in my pictures, and some of it is a lot less noticeable. The jars are definitely starting to progress, though. I have work in about 10 minutes, so hopefully when I get back later tonight I will get to see some little patches!

I'm slightly torn between trying to just place the cakes onto some perlite in a container (after maybe dunking and rolling), or trying to make a case. I was thinking maybe I would use 3 cakes normally and then use the other 3 for a case, assuming they all make it that far.

 

So, after asking around on shroomery and doing a little investigation myself, I discovered that the white patches I thought might have been mycelium were in fact tiny clumps of wet BRF. I figured the mycelium wouldn't show up that fast! Now, however, a couple of the jars are showing some pretty good growth, while the rest are just starting to show signs of growth. Here's a couple of pics of the most developed jar from different angles.

 

I think you should buy them more than grow them. It takes a lot out of you to grow the mushrooms for 6 weeks. You have to make sure it's all sealed-off and sterile (very importat) and you have to scrap jars with any sign of contaminents which then could contaminate others jars making the whole thing botched if you don't observe them right. You also have to find spores (which if you don't have any mushrooms previous too, you have to buy from a store or website). For your first time, eat someone else's that are done properly, then learn to grow if you want to after that,.

 

Meh, I'm having fun with it. Honestly, the PF Tek isn't all too difficult. I only paid a lot of attention to sterilization during the boiling and inoculation. After that, it's mostly smooth sailing. The dry verm on top helps keep away most of the airborne contaminants, so it's not a huge deal. I'm still expecting something to get contaminated, but no signs of it yet.

Also, the other reason I wanted to grow is that I don't have any connections right now ever since mine left town, so I figured it would be a fun learning experience to try and do this.

 

Yeah, growing is a fun experience itself.

I find it intriguing to learn how to cultivate hallucinogens, and the process, while it is a bit of work, keeps me entertained and excited.

Plus, at the end the rewards give you so much satisfaction. I dried all my shrooms, layed them on a paper grocery bag, and could not stop smiling- I had raised these babys from nothing Such an ego booster haha.

Props for growing man. Most people dont care to put the time and effort into it, and it excites me to see that that are still people like me who enjoy this kind of fascinating experience.

 

only to smash it to pieces...

 

Thanks . I'm looking forward to (hopefully) the same experience when I lay them all down in front of me. The growing is going amazingly well so far. One of my jars is already about 25-30% colonized on the outside and it's only been about 5 and a half days! The others are all showing very positive signs of growth, with the slowest one still having two nickel sized patches. There aren't any signs of bacteria yet, which makes me very happy. The only thing I'm worried about is getting the temperature down a little bit for fruiting. I want to keep them in my room next to my patio door for plenty of sunlight, but my room stays a pretty constant 80 degrees. I'm hoping if I keep my computer off whenever I'm not using it the temperature will go down. Maybe I can open a window, too. I dunno if there are many contaminants from the outside that might be harmful, though.

At any rate, I only have 6 jars growing right now. I'm planning on ordering another couple of syringes and knocking up the other 6, though. That way if I don't yield many for my first grow, I'll have some more on the way .

But seriously, for all of you who think growing is too difficult or tedious, try it out! Use the PF Tek for simple minds, and you'll be pleasantly surprised. I've put in very little effort, and it's only cost me about $40 ($22 for syringe + shipping, $9 for a 12 pack of 1/2 pint jars, and about $3 each for perlite, vermiculite, and brown rice flour). All of the materials were quite easily obtained, as well. After you get everything, it's really pretty simple.

 

Well, time for another update! It's been about 3 weeks now, and all but 1 of my jars was fully colonized. It seems that they've been fully colonized for the most part for almost a week, so I went ahead and dunked 5 of them. I think this was the right move, as it really seems like at least 4 of them were completely done. They had shrunk, felt light, seemed to be done all the way through, and had myc poking through the dry verm barrier and everything.

Now, there were 2 trouble makers. One of them it turns out wasn't fully colonized on one spot on the bottom (I couldn't tell before cuz of crap on the bottom of the jar) and when I cut it open to test it it wasn't colonized on the inside, either. It was also much heavier than the rest. I didn't take any of the dry verm barrier off, so I decided to push my luck and put it back in the jar and hope for the best. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this jar gets contamed very soon.

Another jar was fully colonized like the rest it seems, but in an odd way. It seems like it wasn't nearly as thick as the others. When I cut it open, it was colonized but not really pure white at all. I decided I would try my luck with going ahead and dunking this. Once again, I wouldn't be surprised to see some contams there.

The rest should be good to go, though, so at least 4 of my jars should be making it to the fruiting chamber. Wish me luck!

 

keep us updated! any pics?

 

The last pictures I took were when I estimated the jars to be about 75-80% colonized a week or so ago, but I'll go ahead and post them. You can tell how I didn't mix everything as well as I could have, and it's a little wet. Actually, I'll go grab one of my cakes in the dunking phase and take a picture. I'll post a picture of the 5 cakes in my fruiting chamber once I take them out, too.

Sorry again for the bad quality .

EDIT: If you're wondering about the brown at the end of that dunked cake, it's the dry verm. I didn't feel like manhandling it any more to get it off, and it seemed like it would tear off chunks of myc if I tried. It shouldn't be a problem either way, though.