Cultosaurus
Greenlighter
6 Is enough, we just use 12/12 by convention.
6 Is enough, we just use 12/12 by convention.
Firstly: about sunlight, during the colonization stage when your substrate turns all white there is darkness needed to prevent premature fruiting. You can imagine that the mycelium needs to think it is underground during this phase. You can regularly check up on the colonization process, once they are completely colonized, add 2-3 days then birth.
After birthing yes they do need a little bit of light, but it doesn't have to be natural sunlight. Just a signal that they are above ground is enough. Direct sunlight can dry them out so don't use that. I used a desk light. Another factor that makes the mycelium think it has reached above-ground is fresh air. So that is also necessary after birthing i.e. fruiting.
Typical room temperature should be okay for both colonization as well as fruiting but ideally during colonization it should be like 20 degrees Centigrade while during fruiting 23-24 is fine.
Secondly: you can store a spore syringe for at least a year I think, multiple years may be possible but it depends. Spore prints are viable for much longer than that.
You can make a spore print by taking a square of aluminum foil (under sterile conditions) and putting a freshly harvested mushroom with open cap on it. The spores will drop right out, you can allow like 2 days for this - but best is to check exactly how long is wise. It will give you a print that you should safely fold closed and put in a baggy to protect it.
Making a spore syringe from a print (or even up to 10 syringes from 1 print!) works like this: you should build a glove box in which you can work cleanly. In it you put an alcohol burner, sterilized inoculation loop, sterilized water, a sterilized glass (duralex glass that can take the heat), syringe(s) and the print.
Then spray the inside of the glove box with desinfectant like alcohol but don't use too much because the vaporized alcohol can make the glove box explode a bit if you use the burner! (Had that happen). Then the procedure is like this:
- put water on the print and loosen the spores with an inoculation loop or something else that is both fine and blunt. Nothing remotely sharp, mind you.
- the loose spores will color the water. Use the amount of water that is enough for the number of syringes you want. 10 x 10 ml is max for a healthy big print.
- use the glass to transfer the spore water and draw it up with the syringes. Bigger (wider) needles are better.
- add some lubricant to the water to prevent the spores from sticking to the sides of the syringes
- push all air out of the syringes and store them properly in a fridge, preferably inside some kind of baggy.
- the alcohol burner is used constantly during the process to sterilize tools that are used because a DIY glove box is not 100% sterile.
But seriously, just use google and the shroomery, this kind of thing is covered countless times.![]()
We're not here to do your research for you, man. There are mushroom teks all over the web, it just takes a quick google search.
I really don't think it matters. I never payed special attention to it, and its never mentioned in any teks so I would think it truly does not matter.
I mean, the whole cake is colonized, right?