• Psychedelic Drugs Welcome Guest
    View threads about
    Posting RulesBluelight Rules
    PD's Best Threads Index
    Social ThreadSupport Bluelight
    Psychedelic Beginner's FAQ

Last minute mushroom growing advice/tips needed please.

Incubation Area questions/tips Please, Thankyou

Hello, question about where innoculated jars will be. (after PC & spore syringe injection) Any answers/tips/advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

temperature: 67-low 70's Ferenheit. Room temp.

10-12 1/2 pint Innoculated jars placed in a plastic container with lid on. No air seeping out/no air coming in. (smallish sized plastic container.) inside of a clean garbage bag THEN put inside of a storage cube/box lined with black garbage bag with lid on. (because inside of cube/box is cloth material, would garbage bag be better, less risk of contamin. vs cloth surface?)

So overall: smallish sized plastic container with jars inside w/lid on INSIDE black garbage bag. Black garbage bag containing the plastic container w/jars then put INSIDE storage cube/box lined with black garbage bag with lid on. No air coming in or out. Until mycelium fully colonizes jars.

Reasoning the low temperature, thought that being contained would keep heat a little higher. If you think that this is a good idea & would work fine or any suggestions/ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. :)
 
Tom, if you'd like to post some pictures to this thread feel free! Or I could make a new thread if you wanted to post them on a newer one. =D
 
Bigfeely123 said:
Hello, question about where innoculated jars will be. (after PC & spore syringe injection) Any answers/tips/advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

temperature: 67-low 70's Ferenheit. Room temp.

10-12 1/2 pint Innoculated jars placed in a plastic container with lid on. No air seeping out/no air coming in. (smallish sized plastic container.) inside of a clean garbage bag THEN put inside of a storage cube/box lined with black garbage bag with lid on. (because inside of cube/box is cloth material, would garbage bag be better, less risk of contamin. vs cloth surface?)

So overall: smallish sized plastic container with jars inside w/lid on INSIDE black garbage bag. Black garbage bag containing the plastic container w/jars then put INSIDE storage cube/box lined with black garbage bag with lid on. No air coming in or out. Until mycelium fully colonizes jars.

Reasoning the low temperature, thought that being contained would keep heat a little higher. If you think that this is a good idea & would work fine or any suggestions/ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. :)
Click to expand...

Please don't create multiple threads if they are all on the topic of mushroom cultivation. :) (incidentally that way the question in your first post there would still be visible since you have another active thread here in PD...)

The fungus needs gas exchange, why do you have zero of that (from your description's sounds) ? Usually there is something like a filter patch in the lids of your jars, never seen those filters on either jars or filterbags?

Room temperature is fine but if you can get it to 71-72 that may be just a bit better, may make a slight difference in colonization rate but I don't think it is of the utmost importance unless you are cultivating in really drafty or badly isolated places during winter etc.

But I don't really believe that incubation is quite the thing to invest in when it comes to psilo cultivation...
The fungus generates its own heat I believe, so yes keeping it nice and cozy could help contain that heat a little better. But don't stress over it, these are minor details and it won't be what makes or breaks your grow IMO.
Now that gas exchange though, that just might cause them to stall. :\

Read up about the term gas exchange and fix it for your next jars / setup / batch.

It's hard picturing what you placed exactly in what and how, please provide some pictures.


GL
 
Last edited:
Oh oops sorry, I apologize. should I delete this one and post this question in that previous thread?
 
As you can see, those threads are one now... if you have more questions about mushroom growing, just post them in this thread. :)

Of course if you have other topics to talk about, in that case you can always still create new threads just like anybody.
 
Bigfeely123 said:
Any tips/suggestions or anything guys? :? Thank you.
Click to expand...


Yeah, you don't want 'no air' going in or out. You do need FAE (free air exchange during the incubation/colonization stage. If you've injected spores (into the jars) through the lids, just cover the holes on the jars with micropore tape (or don't cover them at all).

My first grow stalled in the colonization stage because I recovered the jars with tin foil and placed them with a tightly closed incubator. Basically little mycelial growth until I was told to remove the foil and drill a small (1/8") hole near the top of the incubator. The rationalization given to me was that that a healthy mycelium is going to outperform any contemn that can get through the vermiculite layer (which is really a pretty inhospitable place for growth). As soon as I followed that advice my jars started colonizing much faster.

Most recent grow had the inoculated jars sitting on a closet shelf, but no incubator. I made the closet into a giant incubator by lining with plastic sheets and putting a space heater inside. An oscillating heating fan kept the closet at a toasty 84-86F. Advantage is that the closet can also be used as a fruiting chamber if you've got tight seals on your plastic. You can buy indoor greenhouses (framed or not) that zip/unzip so you can still mist/fan as appropriate).

Tom
 
Hello! Good Evening. Gas exchange during colonization of mycelium in jars I did not think was important. I thought it was better to keep out air since uncolonized mycelium jars is the easiest stage during the mushroom's life to get contaminated since they are not that strong yet (compared to a fully colonized mycelium cake.) Basically I watched a PF Tek video & it showed them placing a covered plastic container (with the innoculated jars inside of course.) in a black garbage back & then setting it up in a closed cupboard. I thought essentially that'd be the same thing-only maybe a little more contained since a storage cube is smaller/more confined than a closed cupbaord. But then again I thought that maybe the smaller size of the cube would keep temperate a little higher since it is more confined (keeps heat in) Also, the only things that will have holes in it is the lids of the jars of course, since they needed to be innoculated with a syringe but then they'll have a layer of tin foil on top of them, well essentially two layers. (one rectangle piece of tin foil folded once making it essentially 2 layers). I've read up much on gas exchange and FAE during the fruiting cycle but as stated, I had no idea it was important during incubation. I will post some pics to the thread. Sounds like I have some of my information mixed up. Please correct me kind sir. I do not want to fail miserably. Thank you.
 
To Tom:

Alright man, thank you so much. If I wouldn't have known this I would've had me some stalled cakes & I would've been pretty upset-so THANK YOU! Now what I am thinking about doing instead of my initial plan (the one that I posted previously/the one with no FAE.) Is just take the innoculated jars and put 3M micropore tape over all the innoculation holes instead of the folded layer of tin foil. (so no tin foil just 3m micropore paper tape.) then put them in a plastic container, with NO lid on, then put it in a garbage bag (I will not tie the garbage bag off.) Then I will place it in this TV stand I have that has shelves/compartments in it. Still a crappy idea? :?
 
Bigfeely123 said:
To Tom:

Alright man, thank you so much. If I wouldn't have known this I would've had me some stalled cakes & I would've been pretty upset-so THANK YOU! Now what I am thinking about doing instead of my initial plan (the one that I posted previously/the one with no FAE.) Is just take the innoculated jars and put 3M micropore tape over all the innoculation holes instead of the folded layer of tin foil. (so no tin foil just 3m micropore paper tape.) then put them in a plastic container, with NO lid on, then put it in a garbage bag (I will not tie the garbage bag off.) Then I will place it in this TV stand I have that has shelves/compartments in it. Still a crappy idea? :?
Click to expand...

This sounds better.

Mushrooms are fairly forgiving in the sense that few errors are fatal. In my case, removing the foil and covering with micropore tape was enough to remove 'the stall' from my cakes.

More than once I've had a contaminated cake that I moved into a 'hospital' fruiting chamber, where it was the only occupant. Sometimes I ended up picking mushrooms from the isolated cake, sometimes not.

Bigfeely - you seem good to go. You could even leave one jar covered with tin foil as a test comparison.

Tom
 
Awesome! That is what I will put them in then for their incubation stage. & That is good to know... maybe I was being a little too paranoid before but I felt like any tiny contaminate or minor mistake would've resulted in a huge failure... so that puts my mind at ease Tom. :) Man, oh man I am so excited for this! I feel like a kid honestly lolll.
 
Thomas Davie said:
Mushrooms are fairly forgiving in the sense that few errors are fatal. In my case, removing the foil and covering with micropore tape was enough to remove 'the stall' from my cakes.
Click to expand...

Must admit the dreaded "stall" is the main thing that takes out my cakes. Havn't had a contam in about 200 cakes but the stall has put paid to loads. Have to get the water/flour/verm mix just right and not leave any bits that are mostly verm that the mycelium can't chow down on.

When they do finally start sprouting tis a thing of beauty tho. How do you eat em btw? Raw? Tea? I've got a little capsule machine so I just dry em,coffee grinder and then capsule em up. No mess.
 
I am thinking about trying lemon tek for the first time tonight. (first time doing lemon tek.) on 3.0 dried.
 
Ismene said:
Must admit the dreaded "stall" is the main thing that takes out my cakes. Havn't had a contam in about 200 cakes but the stall has put paid to loads. Have to get the water/flour/verm mix just right and not leave any bits that are mostly verm that the mycelium can't chow down on.

When they do finally start sprouting tis a thing of beauty tho. How do you eat em btw? Raw? Tea? I've got a little capsule machine so I just dry em,coffee grinder and then capsule em up. No mess.
Click to expand...

Up until now I've always dried my mushrooms in a food dehydrator (24 hours at 95F, rotate the plate levels and flip big mushrooms over). And then it's about 85% eating them dry (with a slug of juice, diet soda, beer or water) and 15% tea (I use a french press coffee pot and put the dry, ground mushrooms mushrooms in along with 1 tablespoon cane sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 2 jasmine green teas bags - pour hot water over, wait 60 minutes and press).

Eating the mushrooms has caused a problem however; I am now always gagging/almost puking when I eat mushrooms no matter how I eat/prepare them. This doesn't happen when I drink mushroom tea (but the high is different). Bonus of mushroom tea is that it can be kept refrigerated for at least five days, and they do make ice tea ice cubes (but I used them with 24 hours of preparation).

The capsule machine is a nice idea.and I think would help me. What weight dried mushrooms can you fit inside the capsules you use?

Some of my incubation experiments have been bad (I think I wasted 3 quarts of liquid culture....dunno cause I never tried to use it, all of my grain jars have stalled, and every single one of my bulk grows didn't work out).

There have been frequent odd results; spraying one cake with isopropyl alcohol instead of water turned all the mushrooms white/albino, contamination with oyster mushrooms (bad spore syringe) - but overall I find it a rewarding/relaxing hobby.

Never eaten my mushrooms raw; do they taste better than dried?

Tom
 
Tom,

Eating dried mushrooms doesn't taste good at all. I've heard of some people supposedly liking the taste though.
 
Bigfeely123 said:
Tom,

Eating dried mushrooms doesn't taste good at all. I've heard of some people supposedly liking the taste though.
Click to expand...

And it tastes even worse if you let the veil break and spores drop. But yeah, a nasty sour funky taste. Heh, which is why I always *almost* vomit when eating mushrooms.

You eat raw mushrooms? What do they taste like compared to dried?

Tom
 
Raw they taste pretty vile - and they have a lingering aftertaste that can be a little nausea inducing. Capsuled is the space-age way to go. No nausea and you know exactly what dose you're getting. I believe you can get about 0.5g inside an 00 capsule.
 
Have never eaten fresh raw mush yet, only ingest them dry so far. Is there a difference in the experience, fresh vs dry? Eating them dry reminds me like eating extremely stale rice cakes that have been dropped in the dirt. Have never made tea or any other sort of concoction except for the lemon TEK, one time, which was the other night. To be quite honest I didn't notice any obvious difference in potency or the experience in general even though I have read MANY, many reports of this TEK actually working quite well. It only made the mushrooms easier to ingest (still tasted not pleasant.) but as far as amplifying the effects-I don't think so. I am wanting to eat them fresh/raw & have read that the experience is much heavier to eating them dry.
 
Technically it's the same alkaloids fresh or dry, but it is possible that fresh there is more free indolol: psilocin, and moreover it can be absorbed more readily cause nothing needs to be rehydrated...
The result is that fresh the onset can be a bit quicker and the comeup sharper and more visual / menacing. As a liquid (fresh mushrooms blended) this can even be more intense. As a tea as well, but then some psilocin may have degraded which compensates a little for the extra edge.

Ultimately the differences don't tend to be huge apart from some seemingly rare exceptions.

Don't forget that since these are natural products the potency just varies and this can account for a considerable part of unpredictability.
 
Bigfeely123 said:
Have never eaten fresh raw mush yet, only ingest them dry so far. Is there a difference in the experience, fresh vs dry? Eating them dry reminds me like eating extremely stale rice cakes that have been dropped in the dirt. Have never made tea or any other sort of concoction except for the lemon TEK, one time, which was the other night. To be quite honest I didn't notice any obvious difference in potency or the experience in general even though I have read MANY, many reports of this TEK actually working quite well. It only made the mushrooms easier to ingest (still tasted not pleasant.) but as far as amplifying the effects-I don't think so. I am wanting to eat them fresh/raw & have read that the experience is much heavier to eating them dry.
Click to expand...

Eating them dry is horrible, esp. if you get a piece of vermiculite in your mouth (shudder).

The tea works nicely as a method to avoid having to eat the mushroom flesh. Advantages are that you can flavour it with whatever you want (honey, lemon, different flavour of tea), you can make it as strong as you want and it stores well as ice tea for at least five days and as ice cubes fir the same length. Disadvantages? It hits a bit quicker and stronger, and it may end sooner.

Lemon tek? I find that it works; just munching dry mushrooms with a shot of lemon juice. Definitely stronger for me.

Bigfeely123; I don't know how much you usually dose with mushrooms, but a reasonable assumption is that the fresh mushrooms are 90% water - so if you eat 3.5g dry, you'll have to eat ~35g fresh. I actually find the mushrooms are 91-92% water by weight (I went to the trouble of weighing every mushroom I grew and dried). Dry them until crispy cracker dry; not a molecule of water left in there - they'll store for years. Incompletely dried mushrooms turn evil.

Tom
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top