Growing mushrooms

[sailor bugg]

Okay so my mom said I need to get a hobby to keep me entertained during the winter school break from university lol and she suggested I grow mushrooms. She agreed to pay for everything I'll need as long as I grow half of my crop as edible mushrooms. I've been researching and reading different teks online and I decided to have my set up as follows:

As I won't be home very much I'm trying to make my process as automated as possible as I won't be around to fan/spray the fruiting chamber all the time.

Fruiting chamber
12x18x20" clear plastic tupperware container
9x18" heating mat
terrarium humidifier w/40 gallon/min air pump
hygrometer/termostat to dial in the humidity and temperature to my choosing
digital outlet timer to keep the grow light on a 12/12hr schedule
300W 6-band/UV/IR/12k white lum LED grow light 12x8" dimensions
digital humidity/temp reader
Poly fill to plug the air exchange holes to keep contaminates out

Basically the set up will be the container with 3 1.5" holes drilled length wise 1" above a layer of 1" perolite and 2 1.5" holes drilled in it width wise. The bottom of the tank and about 6" op the tank will be lined with a garbage bag. The container will be set up on a table prop'd up with 5 3" wood blocks with the heating mat under it. The humidifier and mat will be connected to a hygrometer/thermostat and be dialled into the temp/humidity needed for each stage of the incubation/pinning/fruiting period. The light will be set up about 12" above the chamber and be on a 12hr on 12hr off cycle (controlled by a outlet timer). I know mushrooms don't need light to grow other than at least 6500k lum to know when it's time to start pinning, but I got a good deal on the light I got and I can use it to grow other things to if I so choose (I've read that mushrooms become denser when exposed to blue wavelength light and higher lum white light so I think the LED light I bought will be of good use). The humidifier will be set up outside of the tank with tubing going into the top of the tank to pump in the humid air.

I chose the strain B+ p. cubensis' to grow on 3 250ml canning jar substrate cakes. These mushrooms I've read are very forgiving to grow and easier for a first time grower. During the incubation/colonizing stage I'll keep them in the fruiting chamber @ approx 81*F/0% humidity. Once they are birthed and pinning then fruiting they will be kept at approx 95% humidity and 70*F with 12hrs light and 12hrs darkness.

So any tips on what I might need to improve on or change? Remember I won't be home enough to fanout/spray the chamber properly. Plus the temperature fluctuates in my room a lot so I think the heating pad and humidifier will be needed.

Thanks!

 

[sailor bugg]

Well no one has replied yet so I'll just ask this here instead of making a new thread. If I measure the humidity with a separate hygrometer than the hygrometer controlling the humidifier and they read out differently; could I adjust the hygrometer controlling the humidity in say 5% increments and take down the reading of the other hygrometer. Then use each reading as X/Y points on a graph and after plotting them make a line of best fit and trace it back to the Y-axis to get the instantaneous humidity. Then using the slope intercept formula y=mx+b (with the instantaneous value for b) pick a point, solve for the slope and get an equation to "correct" the hygrometer's setting to get it to produce the wanted humidity? The other hygrometer will be calibrated and analog so I'd assume that one would display the correct humidity.

 

[Ismene]

I wouldn't bother buying anything other than the heatmat first. You've got 4-6 weeks to wait to see if any of your cakes incubate successfully. If your spores are bunk or you havn't mixed the substrate correctly you'll just end up with 10 stalled cakes. It took me about 100-150 cakes and many months to hit upon a place that sold decent spores and get the substrate mixed successfully. You might get pissed off/mom runs out of money before you even get to the fruiting stage

 

[Cream Gravy?]

^Strange that you had such poor luck with cakes. I've only grown once, but I had first try success. My yields were somewhat small, but none the less I had no cakes contaminate or fail to incubate.

 

[Ismene]

Yeah my first grow was great too but the next 3 grows were completely useless because the spores were bunk. Then another 2 or 3 grows got stalled cakes because I didn't have enough flour in the substrate. Then I finally managed to get it working.

I agree about the contams being overblown tho - I never take any particular precautions and I've never had a single contam in about 200 cakes.

 

[sailor bugg]

The substrate shouldn't be a problem as I ordered pre made ones from a site that had good reviews on the internet. As for spores I ordered from one of the reputable sites listed on the website shroomery. Also it was either order all this stuff now or I wouldn't have gotten a lot of it, so I kind of had to stock up on stuff that I thought I could use.

 

[sailor bugg]

Yay all my stuff (except for the most important things, the spores and substrate!!) are coming today, so excited!!

I actually am writing this post to ask a question about my math question I made. Would I use a line of best fit on a graph to get the "b" y-intercept value or would I need to make a line that takes the instantaneous humidity value if the graph is not linear?

 

[jfischer218]

Your plan sounds ambitious, however is very much overkill for cakes. Skip the heating mat 100%. The goal is to aim the air, not the substrate.

The humidifier sounds fine if done correctly, but if you build a SGFC and pack it with moist perlite there is absolutely no need for it if youre able to to spray even once a day. A proper SGFC will also require extremely little fanning. You can skip the polyfill, as the cakes would have already been colonized by mycelium and contaminants arent really an issue at that point. Wouldnt really hurt to have it, but if packed too tightly it could inhibit fresh air exchange.

also, during colonization there is no need to keep in a humid environment. This may even serve to increase your contam rate depending on how you filter your jars. The standard PF-tek says to use a verm layer, however I find that polyfill lids work better for me. Just make sure its not too close to the cakes.

BRF cakes are very easy to grow on and are pretty forgiving. Id say dont over think the care of the cakes for now and really practice your sterile techniques. Aside fron patience, it is the most important aspect to growing mushrooms.

Regards,
fischer

 

[sailor bugg]

Your plan sounds ambitious, however is very much overkill for cakes. Skip the heating mat 100%. The goal is to aim the air, not the substrate.

The humidifier sounds fine if done correctly, but if you build a SGFC and pack it with moist perlite there is absolutely no need for it if youre able to to spray even once a day. A proper SGFC will also require extremely little fanning. You can skip the polyfill, as the cakes would have already been colonized by mycelium and contaminants arent really an issue at that point. Wouldnt really hurt to have it, but if packed too tightly it could inhibit fresh air exchange.

also, during colonization there is no need to keep in a humid environment. This may even serve to increase your contam rate depending on how you filter your jars. The standard PF-tek says to use a verm layer, however I find that polyfill lids work better for me. Just make sure its not too close to the cakes.

BRF cakes are very easy to grow on and are pretty forgiving. Id say dont over think the care of the cakes for now and really practice your sterile techniques. Aside fron patience, it is the most important aspect to growing mushrooms.

Regards,
fischer

I didn't really want to go for a SGFC as the setup was too simple for me lol. Part of the fun in this (for me at least) is the designing and building the fruiting chamber. I have a few years in university in engineering and I love building/designing/tinkering things. I wouldn't have as much fun just doing a cookie-cutter chamber and following whichever tek to the T. I know those teks are proven to work and some of them can be made cheaply and require little work, but I'd have more fun tweaking out my own design and seeing if I can make something that works. Yields aren't really important to me at this point as long as I can get something to grow with my setup I can then tweak it for better yields. That's the fun part to me.

I do know a lot of the stuff is overkill, but I'm sure I can find other uses for anything that ends up not being needed. As for the heating mat, I thought it might come in handy as my apartment is usually ice cold especially now that it's winter. Also with the hygrometer/thermometer I can dial in what I want the temp to be.

I wasn't sure if the polyfill was essential, maybe I'll skip out on it and just make sure to sanitize my growing area/room often.

When they're incubating/colonizing I'm going to keep the humidity as low as possible (not use humidifier) and keep them around 81*F - 83*F in the dark by putting them in the chamber and taping cardboard on every side.

As for serialization I'm going to make sure to use a sterile chamber for inoculation and keep everything sanitized with a bleach/water mixture. I'm also going to use latex gloves and an n95 dusk mask when ever handling the jars.

 

[StanleyJobson]

Wait a minute - your mom suggested you grow magic mushrooms, and paid for all of the supplies with the only stipulation being that half of your crop be of the non-magical variety??! That would be cool as hell. Did she send you to Berkeley?

 

[sailor bugg]

Wait a minute - your mom suggested you grow magic mushrooms, and paid for all of the supplies with the only stipulation being that half of your crop be of the non-magical variety??! That would be cool as hell. Did she send you to Berkeley?

Yep, as long as I grow half of my crop as something she can cook with she doesn't mind what the other half is. I've been looking for a hobby to keep me occupied and get some sort of fulfilment out of and I thought taking care of something living and growing it from spore to fruit would be just what I'm looking for. Plus my schooling in engineering (I'm taking organic chemistry now) will actually come in handy for building the fruiting chamber.

My mom's pretty tight she used to deal while she was going to university. Me and my ex used to talk to my mom about her drug usage during the 60's/70's and she always had interesting stories… apparently she really liked doing mushrooms with her friends heh.

My schooling has actually been paid for through bursaries/grants/schloarships for the past 4 years, I've managed to make money off getting a post secondary education lol.

 

[sailor bugg]

Ahhhh my grow lights finally got here about an hour and a half ago, oh boy oh boy are they dope. Six band wave length, uv/ir/12k lum white light, I know mushrooms don't use photosynthesis, but they do use light for knowing when and where to pin. And from what I've read more light in the blue spectrum with a bit of uv speeds up growth some what and increases the density of the fruits.

I also want to maybe try and grow a herb garden eventually so these lights will come in handy for that.

I also got my hygrometer/thermostat and my chamber and heating mat are waiting for me at the post office.

Oh boy I'm excited!!

 

[Thomas29]

You Seem to have things under Control and Know what you are doing Good Job And Good Luck For Big Yields Buddy Lol.

 

[sailor bugg]

Another question my chamber is 18"x19"x20" which is 6840 cubic inches which is *I think* approx. 29.5 gallons. Will a air pump that pumps 40 gallons/min provide enough air exchange for the chamber? Is there anything wrong with too much fresh air and very low CO2? The only thing I could see being trouble is the large amount of exiting air could lower the humidity….. mind you the air pump is going to be attached to a humidifier so would this be a problem?

 

[Thomas Davie]

I didn't really want to go for a SGFC as the setup was too simple for me lol. Part of the fun in this (for me at least) is the designing and building the fruiting chamber. I have a few years in university in engineering and I love building/designing/tinkering things. I wouldn't have as much fun just doing a cookie-cutter chamber and following whichever tek to the T. I know those teks are proven to work and some of them can be made cheaply and require little work, but I'd have more fun tweaking out my own design and seeing if I can make something that works. Yields aren't really important to me at this point as long as I can get something to grow with my setup I can then tweak it for better yields. That's the fun part to me.

When I started growing mushrooms, I did the safe thing....bought a kit (incubator/fruiting chamber), pre made sterilized jars and spore syringes.

A successful grow, and I probably would have used the chambers again, except I'd put them on the back porch to clean and my new lab puppy chewed them all to shit (grow rocks in the lawn mower lovely).

So I bought a slightly more expensive 'automated' system...run by a cheap 24 hour timer. And I started to get into liquid cultures.

After a very successful grow, I examined my fear of home grown solutions, and just started buying plastic tubs, timers, aquarium thermometers, perlite, vermiculite and so on.

What a damn fun hobby.

And like sailor bugg, I love to make fruiting chambers. I used a reptifogger/perlite together for humidity to very good results. I've put glasses of water with bubblers inside the FC

Tom

(I also mistakenly sprayed some pins with isopropyl alcohol instead of water).

 

[sailor bugg]

When I started growing mushrooms, I did the safe thing....bought a kit (incubator/fruiting chamber), pre made sterilized jars and spore syringes.

A successful grow, and I probably would have used the chambers again, except I'd put them on the back porch to clean and my new lab puppy chewed them all to shit (grow rocks in the lawn mower lovely).

So I bought a slightly more expensive 'automated' system...run by a cheap 24 hour timer. And I started to get into liquid cultures.

After a very successful grow, I examined my fear of home grown solutions, and just started buying plastic tubs, timers, aquarium thermometers, perlite, vermiculite and so on.

What a damn fun hobby.

And like sailor bugg, I love to make fruiting chambers. I used a reptifogger/perlite together for humidity to very good results. I've put glasses of water with bubblers inside the FC

Tom

(I also mistakenly sprayed some pins with isopropyl alcohol instead of water).

Yea once I get proficient with growing from pre-made substrates, then I'll branch into making my own instead of buying them. I just want to work on the chamber more than anything right now, so I don't want the added risk of not getting a good yield because I muck up on making substrate jars. I'm still amazed by these lights, they're so damn bright.

 

[sailor bugg]

More packages today!!!!! Got the substrate jars, vermiculite, fruiting chamber, heating mat and 3 spore syringes (B+, alacbenzi and chocolate oyster (of my mom). Just a few things left to get!!! I also bought a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and 99% isopropyl alcohol for disinfecting. I have one more parcel at the post office to for pick up.

 

[Thomas Davie]

Another question my chamber is 18"x19"x20" which is 6840 cubic inches which is *I think* approx. 29.5 gallons. Will a air pump that pumps 40 gallons/min provide enough air exchange for the chamber? Is there anything wrong with too much fresh air and very low CO2? The only thing I could see being trouble is the large amount of exiting air could lower the humidity….. mind you the air pump is going to be attached to a humidifier so would this be a problem?

Are you using a water reservoir (perlite, hydration rocks?). That's the kind of aquarium pump I used, but only had it running 15 minutes/2 hours, No problem maintaining 95% humidity.

Tom

 

[sailor bugg]

I don't plan on hydrating the perlite unless the humidifier can't get the RH to 95%. The humidifier is this one http://www.amazon.ca/Imagine-Gold-SIM90026-Tropic-Humidifier/dp/B000634980 it will be attached to a 40gal/min air pump. This set up will be attached to a hygrometer to keep the RH at the set level.

 

[sailor bugg]

All my stuff so far!!