Is it best to fruit mushrooms in or outside of a grow bag?

[purplehaze147]

If somebody was to grow mushrooms in a grow bag would it be best to fruit them inside or outside of the bag? If its better to fruit them outside of the bag what would be the best way to do that? I was looking at grow bags on a very famous site for them and it said not to open the bag until you're ready to harvest, but I think it would be better to spray a little mist every few weeks once the fungus spreads so I have a better chance at getting a second flush. What are all of your opinions on grow bags?

 

[Ismene]

They always recomend just letting them fruit in the growbag. I'm not sure growbags are the way to go if you're wanting kilos of mushrooms tho purple, just buy the spores and a load of little glass straight whiskey glasses and make up your own substrante. It's a lot cheaper and you get a lot more yields.

Every growbag I've ever had I spend 3 months waiting and then get about enough mushrooms for half a trip.

 

[purplehaze147]

Are you sure about the shot glass thing? I dont think its that simple. I'm not an expert but don't you have to colonize some jars first and then mix it with substrate and cover it for a few weeks and then uncover it when it starts to fruit. Grow bags are considered the easiest way. It shouldn't take 3 months either usually a month to a month in a half. Maybe you had a contamination or didn't inject enough spores or had spores that were to old or something idk.

 

[Si Dread]

Yes, & everything prior to the fruiting of the mushroom should be done with as damned close to complete sterility as possible, which can be a trial to perform.

Regarding the op, I think that the closed bag allows for greater humidity than in a normal indoor enviroment & as such increases yield & possibly effects the production of fruiting fungi. So, yes, I would allow shrooms to grow for as long as possible within the grow-bag.

Back when this practice was legal in the UK I tried a number of differing methods of cultivating shrooms & I had the most success with grow boxes placed in a fish-tank type glass container, temperature controlled & regularly sprayed with de-ionised water. Sometimes I'd get multiple flushes before contamination! Grow bags seemed much less likely to avoid contamination & I only used one, which produced a single flush & with a yield less than that required for one hit. Dissapointing!

 

[Ismene]

AreI dont think its that simple.

It's called the PF tek.

Grow bags are considered the easiest way

Very, very expensive way tho. PF tek isn't that much harder and it's a tenth of the cost. Particularly when you're wanting big yields.

 

[purplehaze147]

I found I site with grow bags for *snip* and it's a sponsored site by the shroomery. They look good to me. I'm gonna buy like 5 and grow a bunch of different strains. I'm gonna go for the Cambodian, B+, Brazilian, and Lipa Yai I think. Do those look like good strains? I did some research but idk, I'm looking for fast growing and high yeilding strains.

 

[Solipsis]

The strains are not really that different, or reliably so. What varies greatly is genetics in general although they are still Cubensis in the end. Cultivation parameters are a bit more likely to determine how they fruit and colonize. Like you I am interested in trying types found in different places in the world, but it does not really matter *that* much. Just choose something that has a description that is to your liking, and hope for the best that the phenotype actually corresponds with it.

Fruiting should really be done inside the bag where the mycelium and fruits remain protected from contamination but most of all, where the humidity is high. If you can arrange another space - a growing chamber - that has even better conditions like ~100% humidity, then that trumps the bag.
However that growing chamber would be required to have sterilized surfaces and inert materials such as perlite.

You do not need to open up the bag to mist it, there should be plenty of water available inside to evaporate into the enclosed space and to be taken up for the flush. Adding water will most likely cause it to pool which is a breeding ground for bacteria.
When you open up to harvest, you can reuse the mycelium. Let it soak overnight in a fridge, you can add about a capful of bleach per 2 L water to help ward off contamination (especially after the second flush). After soaking the mycelium, sanitize the inside of the grow bag with alcohol, make sure it does not drip - to avoid pooling of water in the bag - and place the mycelium back in the bag. It will have taken up as much water as it can for more rounds to come. Repeat until you get spent myc and contaminations.
Dump immediately when contaminated.

The PF Tek is relatively easy yes, but it takes some investment of starting materials and money to launch it. And I don't really think it would work that well unless you are also prepared to make something like a shotgun fruiting chamber or dual-chambered terrarium. Skipping on the pressure cooker also invites more failure like in that case contamination, which would be pretty demotivating.
But there is another solution to making a fruiting chamber which is starting with PF tek cakes, then when colonized you dunk them and merge them into your own filter bags, and you have your own growbags that are in the long run considerably cheaper.
It just depends if you are a type of person who can learn to enjoy doing stuff like this yourself. If it would be totally annoying for you to do, then it is not realistic. Then again, a lot of things take investment when you start doing them... pretty much most things that require skill.

 

[Ismene]

unless you are also prepared to make something like a shotgun fruiting chamber or dual-chambered terrarium.

Or just put two plastic boxs inside each other, water and an aquarium heater in the bottom of the outer box.

 

[Si Dread]

mine were often just next to a radiator though obviosly I kept a close eye on the temp. During warm weather it was still chilly in my home, so I'd use a portable electric radiator with the Fish Tank on top of a small table & the radiator underneath. Over time & with good quality Grow Boxes, I was able to achieve near enough perfect condition for multiple flushes... Lovely!

PS I had some pretty heavy trips on low dose varieties from Columbia & Mexico & I eventually decided that whatever tripping drugs made up the psychoactive content of these species, they weren't entirely to my tastes. It might take time to find a species that ticks all your boxes. For instance, once I worked out that Sout & Central America varieties were a little heavy for me, I went back to London-Parks-picked Semilanceata's & my trips became much brighter & funnier again. I was also once lucky enough to befriend a Hippy from elsewhere in London who was an experiened shroom hunter who sent me 10 grams of Cyanescens, like these, which also have a very similar effects profile to Semilanceata :-

 

[Thomas Davie]

For what it's worth, I'm not a big fan of grow bags. Every single time (3 so not that many) I tried growing using bags, it was a failure. On the other hand, I had 100% success using the PF tek method.

Staggering 3 different grows and 18 cakes, I was able to produce up to 2 oz dried per month. You can produce a lot more if you go bulk, but then I only grow for myself and a few other people so I'm not interested in producing anything more than about 4 oz per month. In my opinion, the fault tolerance of the PF cake method is very high (one cake gets contaminated, you throw it away).

For an incubator I like to use 2 plastic tubs; one inside the other, and for the heating I use a reptile terrarium mat. No water. I can also use the same opaque tubs for fruiting, but have 12" rope light taped inside the lid.

Tom