- Joined
- Feb 6, 2013
- Messages
- 2,617
Back before 2005 when our kindly government stepped in to spoil the fun here in the UK, I obtained around a dozen different grow kits from different places (including Holland) & had huge success on each occasion. But I have been daunted by the sterile requirements of inoculating ones own substrate mission & have never grown from spores.
I am encouraged by those who claim it's "easy" lol
I haven't mentioned my failures. One grow I started 18 cakes, and about 12 were contaminated by oyster mushrooms (?!) The vendor reshipped syringes, but never made good on the premise of resending the media, so I just never bight from them again (that plus the sterile jars they were shipping for sloppier and sloppier). The grow subsequent to the oyster grow I started 24 cakes without adequately cleaning up and 21/24 cakes were oysters,
There have been some good successes though; 1 cake survived 5 flushes, and at one point I had over 120g dried. Laziness has taken a toll of late
Nitrile gloves and wiping down the plastic bins with alcohol are most of the sterility that I practice.
@ Mycophile
I'm shit at math, well calculus and algebra anyway. And the science helps to the extent that you can understand the why's of doing things so that you can optimize or improve the nest time around.
A tote is just a plastic bin/tub/storage thingy, like a giant tupperware container. The heater, I just walked into a pet store and asked for the cheapest submersible aquarium heater ($15 give or take). And I've never gotten bulk grows working, just cakes.
Reason I mentioned the pressure cooker is that if you can borrow one of those, then the substrate (what the spores > mycelium > mushrooms eat to grow) is nothing other than brown rice flour which is cheap. Ask whatever questions you want (I suggest in this thread to keep it in one place).
I am registered at Shroomery, but haven't been there in quite a while.
Tom