Mushroom grow kits, totally doable.

[MetanoiaMan]

Did it this summer. Was skeptical. Didn't do it as well as I would next time due to lack of experience. However, it is a real thing, I got hundreds of mushrooms out of it. The process of inoculating cakes, seeing them grow, then putting them in a terrarium and seeing mushrooms grow out of them was absolutely amazing and fun. Having access to fresh mushrooms was spectacular. They are super powerful freshly picked, which is I guess how nature intended them to be eaten. Tasted good, too. Don't hesitate if you're curious, it's a real thing and you can do it. Had a vegetable dehydrator and just kept popping mushrooms from my terrarium into the dehydrator. Great stuff.

 

[beniceman]

Nice, will try this.

 

[Seph]

i done this as well before summer although mine never passed the mycelium stage, i had the filter bag things which are meant to be useful. any tips on how you got them mushies to fruit ?

 

[MetanoiaMan]

i done this as well before summer although mine never passed the mycelium stage, i had the filter bag things which are meant to be useful. any tips on how you got them mushies to fruit ?

What I did, was treat the mycelium stage and the fruiting stage as two different things. You allow the mycelium to fully colonize the jars, and become mature, then you switch them to a terrarium with light and oxegyn. I also found that if you dunk the mycelium in water after they are colonized and submerge them for 16-20 hours in the refrigerator, you get much bigger fruit when they mature. I was sort of cynical about the process, and thought it was all a fantasy business, but the mushrooms really grow and they grow potently. Fresh mushrooms are an entirely different animal than dry ones and have a potency that I would compare favorably to ayahuasca.

 

[Mycophile]

Nice.

I really look forward to doing this as eventually.

I always thought there must be some catch.

The idea of just having tons of mushrooms is almost too good to be true.

 

[Humble Bumble]

I also found that if you dunk the mycelium in water after they are colonized and submerge them for 16-20 hours in the refrigerator, you get much bigger fruit when they mature.

I'll try that with the third flush in a couple of days. Wish I'd heard of that before.

Also, nice to hear you enjoy the taste, I was under the impression that most people hate it. I like them, dried as well as fresh though as you say nothing beats freshly picked.

 

[MetanoiaMan]

Nice.

I really look forward to doing this as eventually.

I always thought there must be some catch.

The idea of just having tons of mushrooms is almost too good to be true.

There is actually NO CATCH. If there is one, you must be meticulous in injecting the spores into jars. This takes efficiency and a plan. You have to envision what you are going to do, and then go through it step by step. The next time I do it, I will be a lot more successful. I inoculated 20 Jars and ended up with seven viable cakes. Some didn't take, two got infected with mold. But the yield from the seven cakes has been otherworldly. Mushrooms grow like crazy in the right conditions. The grow kits provide explicit instructions on how to proceed. If you follow those directions, you will be amazed. I now literally have more mushrooms than I know what to do with. I've been capsulizing, making chocolates, and just storing. But I am set. It is a very strange feeling because they are usually hard to come by. But having a few years supply is an interesting feeling.

 

[MetanoiaMan]

I'll try that with the third flush in a couple of days. Wish I'd heard of that before.

Also, nice to hear you enjoy the taste, I was under the impression that most people hate it. I like them, dried as well as fresh though as you say nothing beats freshly picked.

It makes a huge difference to hydrate the cakes. The mushrooms grow a lot larger. What you need to do is get a quart bag. Put a cake in it. fill the bag all the way up with bottled water. Close the zip so no water escapes and the bag is full. Put it in the refrigerator for 16-20 hours. Then just take it out and place it in the terrarium. It slows down the flush by a couple of days, but the hydrated mycelium grows like crazy and the mushrooms are a lot bigger. Also, the taste of a fresh mushroom is quite woody and pleasant. Dried, they never bothered me, but fresh they are absolutely delightful, and way more potent in my experience.

 

[Humble Bumble]

^^^ oh, but I do hydrate my cakes, what I meant was I'll try sticking them in the fridge instead of leaving them in room temperature after filling up with water.

 

[Thomas Davie]

Here's a bit of free advice once anyone has grown successfully with a kit. It's kinda obvious, but....

1) Take note of what equipment you were actually provided with the kit. Write it down as a list.
2) Go to whatever home depot/walmart store you want and price out everything

At this point, you're probably going to be in a bit of shock that it's so damn inexpensive. Ratio the price of your premade kit to the cost of everything if you were to buy it yourself as separate pieces. In my case, I was able to construct 3 complete setups (6 plastic totes, 3 aquarium pumps, 3 submersible aquarium heaters), a couple of big bags of vermiculite/perlite, 2 timers, some isopropyl alcohol and insulin syringes) for the cost of what I purchased my first kit for.

Even without the pressure cooker that I ended up buying later, my homemade kits produced way too many mushrooms for me to use by myself (ended up giving the surplus away).

I bought 50 lbs brown rice, and now my only expense to grow is perlite and vermiculite. I make my own spore prints, and figure that 1 gram dried is less than the price of a soda.

Tom

But yeah, as has been said, keeping it as clean as possible is key

 

[SteamboatBillJr]

^ This really stands out and grabs my attention. This is very large. The number of totes was 6. 66 jars could easily fit.

The most I could ever admit growing was several jars. This was many years ago. I can't say I was any good. Nothing worth mentioning.

Perhaps the details on my grow weren't worth repeating.

 

[Thomas Davie]

^ This really stands out and grabs my attention. This is very large. The number of totes was 6. 66 jars could easily fit.

The most I could ever admit growing was several jars. This was many years ago. I can't say I was any good. Nothing worth mentioning.

Perhaps the details on my grow weren't worth repeating.

Even though I can grow my own without a kit, I've still failed on most (almost all) bulk grows I've attempted. I've stayed with jars because they work for me. Maybe when I get home, I'll dig up photo's of some of my glorious failures. Once I ended up growing oyster mushrooms in every one of 30 jars. No cubes.

And Steamboat, when I did manage a large haul of mushrooms, I didn't keep up with it; just sat back and munched on the shrooms until they were gone

Tom

 

[Cliffy78]

Awesome to hear this actually works. I was as skeptical as everyone else was. Gotta try it! Thx for the post, good to hear some success stories!