Pre-Boxed growing kits?

[d*l*b]

Can you elaborate a bit on the use of liquid culture, as in, what was yours comprised of

Grain liquid culture is just a very simple liquid culture tek. Basically:

• Innoculate 2 or 3 (just in case) small grain jars (create as you would any other grain jar, except use less grain, do it half full)
• Let jars fully colonise
• Pick best looking jar
• Boil up water in the hob, keep at a simmer
• Sterilise inside of a large (50mL is good) syringe/needle by filling with boiling water
• Squirt out water
• Repeat last 2 steps another once or twice more
• Fill syringe with boiling water again
• Leave syringe to cool to room temperature
• Sterilise needle with flame
• Squirt cooled water into jar (don’t fill right up)
• Swirl (not too hard, I tried to avoid touching the lid with the liquid)
• Sterilise needle with flame
• Extract liquid from jar
• Put liquid in a new sterilised jar
• Put jar in the fridge to keep for an extended time or get on with whatever you plan to do next

Best working with small jars for GLC, less grain to colonise, so it is faster and leaves less possibility of potential issues. It’s also easier to add/remove water.

The jars I have used are made with 2 holes, one with a DIY silicone sealant, self-sealing port, the other hole covered with 2 layers of medical tape.

what role does it play, if any, in the pf tek?

GLC plays no role in the PF tek as far as it is written up, PF is a simple tek using rice flour cakes. You could easily use LC/GLC to innoculate your jars though. No reason for you to go straight from spore syringes.

I was attracted to LC/GLC initially as I saw that you could avoid potentially losing a lot of work by starting off small. It is not the ned of the world if you lose 2 or 3 jars, a whiole tub’s worth would be really annoying. LC/GLC also means that following innoculating with the culture you get a very quick start in comparison to innoculating with spores.

Could I work LC into the preboxed kit?

No reason you couldn’t, as above.

I don't know, i think it plays a major role how clean your home is to begin with. If there are a lot of spores in the air, it possibly gets exponentially harder. The löast 3 or 4 grows (tubs) failed miserably, producing only a handfull of mushrooms. This translates into years without a mushroom supply.

I was really worried in the case I have been explaining here, the house I was in was dusty, lacked good airflow and I have seen fungal issues growing cacti from seed. In my case my worries were unwarranted though.

It is a possibility I did a good job of killing anything problematic with extreme use of Oust spray everytime I did anything at all that would expose the shrooms to danger.

 

[obliguhl]

Im also spray cleaning the air with disinfectant. Could be the prints (fsre, its a gamble). I know that too wet coir is a problem, but how to get most of the moisture out? It is pretty hard...perhaps i shoudl try a higher vermiculite to coir ratio.

 

[sauSage]

You don't need a PC for PF tek. Any big metal pot will do. Anything with a lid which you can boil water in. PC is only needed for grain or seed. Y'all are trippin.

you don't *need* one, but i've also never had a high success rate with fractional sterilization... grows got way better once I got a PC.

 

[SynKyd]

You will find much better advice at shroomery IMO. No offense to anyone here, the guys there are serious about moving the science forward. A lot of advice you're receiving In this post is dated and wouldn't be recommended there. Read read read and buy a PC, you won't regret it. First flush in a bulk grow can be 6-8 oz dried in good conditions.

PM me if you want some specific links, it's really quite easy once you get the hang of it! And a very rewarding hobby overall.

 

[HumbleTraveler]

Thank you for taking the time to explain all of these steps to me!

Can you elaborate a bit on the use of liquid culture, as in, what was yours comprised of

Grain liquid culture is just a very simple liquid culture tek. Basically:

• Innoculate 2 or 3 (just in case) small grain jars (create as you would any other grain jar)
• Let jars fully colonise
• Pick best looking jar
• Boil up water in the hob, keep at a simmer
• Sterilise inside of a large (50mL is good) syringe/needle by filling with boiling water
• Squirt out water
• Repeat last 2 steps another once or twice more
• Fill syringe with boiling water again
• Leave syringe to cool to room temperature
• Sterilise needle with flame
• Squirt cooled water into jar (don’t fill right up)
• Shake (not too hard, I tried to avoid touching the lid with the liquid)
• Sterilise needle with flame
• Extract liquid from jar
• Put liquid in a new sterilised jar
• Put jar in the fridge to keep for an extended time or get on with whatever you plan to do next

Best working with small jars for GLC, less grain to colonise, so it is faster and leaves less possibility of potential issues. It’s also easier to add/remove water.

The jars I have used are made with 2 holes, one with a DIY silicone sealant, self-sealing port, the other hole covered with 2 layers of medical tape.

what role does it play, if any, in the pf tek?

GLC plays no role in the PF tek as far as it is written up, PF is a simple tek using rice flour cakes. You could easily use LC/GLC to innoculate your jars though. No reason for you to go straight from spore syringes.

I was attracted to LC/GLC initially as I saw that you could avoid potentially losing a lot of work by starting off small. It is not the ned of the world if you lose 2 or 3 jars, a whiole tub’s worth would be really annoying. LC/GLC also means that following innoculating with the culture you get a very quick start in comparison to innoculating with spores.

Could I work LC into the preboxed kit?

No reason you couldn’t, as above.

I don't know, i think it plays a major role how clean your home is to begin with. If there are a lot of spores in the air, it possibly gets exponentially harder. The löast 3 or 4 grows (tubs) failed miserably, producing only a handfull of mushrooms. This translates into years without a mushroom supply.

I was really worried in the case I have been explaining here, the house I was in was dusty, lacked good airflow and I have seen fungal issues growing cacti from seed. In my case my worries were unwarranted though.

It is a possibility I did a good job of killing anything problematic with extreme use of Oust spray everytime I did anything at all that would expose the shrooms to danger.

 

[sauSage]

You will find much better advice at shroomery IMO. No offense to anyone here, the guys there are serious about moving the science forward.

I disagree... they're mostly serious about seeing which one of them can shove their nose up Roger Rabbits ass the furthest. They largely dismiss and flame anything new unless it comes from RR and are certainly very close minded when it comes to some things. Shroomery contains a lot of conflicting information, quite often offered up by Roger himself. The site is full of zealots that more often than not just get into flame wars to see who is, and often has, the biggest dick.

Now that being said, if you dig around a LOT and read read read, you can get some useful information from Shroomery. Typically anything posted by Doc or Frank Horrigan will be useful and will teach you something, but absolutely proceed with caution.

My two cents from having spent far too much time on that awful looking site. :lol:

ps

 

[d*l*b]

Thank you for taking the time to explain all of these steps to me!

=))

I am very glad I hunted enough to end up finding GLC. I am attracted to normal LC too but this is s very much simpler route than the teks for regular LC.

I have edited steps listed – swapped out the word “shake” for “swirl”. Also made a note that grain jars should not be full, but half filled.

Hope it is useful!

 

[geeg30]

Growbag kits are super easy with less chance of contamination for the beginner shroomologist and quite a good yield for the first timer.

 

[Orion]

You don't need a PC for PF tek. Any big metal pot will do. Anything with a lid which you can boil water in. PC is only needed for grain or seed. Y'all are trippin.

Now thats what im talkin about! Macgyver stuff! haha, so you took a big pot, filled it with an inch of water aaaand...? Did you place the jars on anything so they didnt sit in the water directly? Did you fully seal the lid?

Heheh, that's one way to put it yeah! Really this is just the normal procedure for the PF tek as you can see here: Let's Grow Mushrooms! by Marc R Keith - Let's Grow Mushrooms . All your questions are answered in parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Oh and tape over the little steam vent hole in the lid if it has one. Don't want contams getting overnight as it cools.

 

[tgun]

I personally would suggest Mycotopia over the Shroomery but that said, what everyone has stated here is right on. I moved on from PF tek after 2 grows simply because it didnt produce much for me. The main benefit is that you dont NEED a PC with it. Once you invest in one though it will make things more available to you. Make your own spawn bags with Wild Bird Seed (WBS)or other grains if you want. sterilize syringes and make LC or Grain to grain jars or bag to bag.

I do bulk grows now with a large tub/bin from whichever big box store you like. You can buy presterilized grain bags these days and you will get A LOT more fruits with one of those than several cakes. So probably a 5$ tub, 10$ grain bag, homeade bag works out to a couple dollars worth of wild bird seed (no cracked corn)and a 30 to 50 cent bag (I PC my own though, got sick of washing jars and bags are so easy to shake or crumble right in the bag + It has an air patch already on it vs making one on a jar with a tyvek envelope/silicone or whatever) a 2$ block of coco coir= 17$ . Usually I dont even use vermiculite or any additives to keep time and cost down. Just colonize a grain bag, crumble and mix in the tub with fine brick coco coir for lizards ect. Keep as clean as possible always. When tub mix is again colonized you start fanning and misting daily. If all goes well you should be able to get at least a couple oz.( probably more if you were clean and take care of it) Double or triple those things and do the same as far as your fruits since you are already doing it anyways. Then you can even make your own prints from your own fruit and basicly its a self sustaining hobby.

 

[tgun]

BTW I would always personally do a couple just in case one does get contaminated, then you arent likely out everything and time. You can also get cost farther down by ordering extra bags and getting larger quantities of bird seed at a time. Use part of your first or later syringes to make a LC or GC to expand your spawn infinately.

 

[d*l*b]

I personally would suggest Mycotopia over the Shroomery

Mycotopia is indeed a nice resource, it has a better atmosphere and its smaller size means there is less to wade through to find good, reliable information. Shroomery is very useful but it is far too much in so many respects.

 

[tgun]

Agreed on both accounts. ^
I wanted to add that I do add one thing to both the WBS and coir to help prevent contamination. Hydrated lime, One heaping TBSP per gallon of water to soak seed or pasturize coir (pasturization not really needed here but I use a kettle of boiling water + lime to hydrate it) Hope this helps. It seems the most simple for the return to me.

 

[kaaos]

i think that growing kits just push you away from the best lessons you can learn from mushrooms. and i'm not even talking about tripping.
those boxes/bags with innoculated substrate are just the kind of thing that make you undervalue the pleasure of experience, hell, it takes away the journey from your hands and dozens, if not hundreds, of your currency after being sold. not trying to be too harsh but personally, i can't empathize at all with this - also, i wouldn't put my trust over a "mass-made" production of those kits. mycelium is as strong as it is delicate and to pack it in a box, store it and ship is imo, just pure nonsense. i'm not saying it won't work, many had great results when it comes to doing nothing and get nice yields, others paid 100$ for a bag with mold (and since it is just one piece, if you get a contam it will be probably completely ruined).

you see, growing mushrooms from start can be one of the best ways to train your own mind. it requires you to be at the top of your game when it comes to being patient and precise, it can help you to achieve such a high-standart in controlling your mental forces that you can even see it as a form of hermetic art/alchemy. you know how eastern masters (from the taoists to buddhists and so on) never seem to give their students a straight, concise answer to any of their existential questions? that is because you can never truly learn something that you haven't experienced before and so, you must undergo you own journey and find those answers yourself.
ime, understanding the cycle of the mycelium from the spore to the fruit has been an eye-opener in many ways. and let me tell you that when all that "hard" work gives you beautiful results you won't think the same about kits ever again.

 

[d*l*b]

I totally agree, there is a lot to be said for taking part in every part of the process. It is an incredible experience and one you should witness from start to finish. Nothing is that hard, it just takes some research and good process.

It is possible that something may go wrong, that is not a bad thing either. I firmly believe that more is learnt when things go wrong than when things go right. If something goes wrong analyse what you did, where there may have been issues, start again.

Nothing is going to disappear while you spend some time getting clued up and collect materials. Everything can be done on a reasonably low budget. If you space collecting tools and materials over an extended period (spend that time learning!) I think pretty much anyone can afford it.

 

[HumbleTraveler]

Hey everyone, I have a question.

First, its been about 3 days now that my jars have been incubating.

First question is it ok to open the lid of the container and visually inspect the jars?

I popped it just enough to reach in and grab one, and this is what it looked like.

This one seems like there IS mycelium growing, but it looks...a little greenish. Which, to my understanding, is bad.

Whats everyones take? I did not pack and seal this jar, it was part of the pre-boxed kit.

 

[HumbleTraveler]

Sorry forgot to attach


To add a note also, I went back and checked all jars. I have 6 jars innocluated with cubensis golden teacher spores and 6 jars innoculated with Malaysian Cubensis spores.

Each jar with Malaysian spores is identical in the same stage of mycelium growth with 4 little peanut sized white blotches per jar, and it is totally white.

2 of my golden teacher jars have a LOT of green in them taking up Id say 50% of the jar, the other 4 jars have not even any growth starting yet.


Any ideas as to why all of my Malaysian jars look the same and are in good condition and why 2 of my GT jars are not gonna make it and 4 others look like they havent even been innoculated? lol

 

[Adjhart]

do the other jars that you assume to be clean have the same amount of moisture inside? Or is this only with the GTs? If so there may have been some sort of leak during sterilization. Too much moisture in the substrate can stall or abort the mycelium growth, and often comes with green contam.

 

[HumbleTraveler]

Its actually JUST the two that are green that have the tremendous amount of moisture on the wall of the jar. And both are GT. The rest dont have water droplets in them, the remaining 4 GT jars and all of the Malaysian jars.

 

[Pup Tentacle]

Let me make sure I understand what you have going on... innoculated jars (that came preprepared and sealed) in another container? And it looks like foil over the top of at least the jar in your picture.

Are there holes in that foil? Are there holes in the top of the jars or just covered by foil?

First, its been about 3 days now that my jars have been incubating.

---I have have had spores take up to almost two weeks to germinate - so be patient.

This one seems like there IS mycelium growing, but it looks...a little greenish. Which, to my understanding, is bad.

--- :!: Green is mushroom death get it out of your cultivation area and don't get it all over your self in the process of disposal and drag unwanted spores back into your area.

Whats everyones take? I did not pack and seal this jar, it was part of the pre-boxed kit.

--- You either received the jars already contaminated OR you contaminated them via something you did or left undone. Re-think everything you'd had to do with this kit and try ro isolate any un-clean goings on if you can. If there are non.... then the contamination came with the jar probably.

To add a note also, I went back and checked all jars. I have 6 jars innocluated with cubensis golden teacher spores and 6 jars innoculated with Malaysian Cubensis spores.

Each jar with Malaysian spores is identical in the same stage of mycelium growth with 4 little peanut sized white blotches per jar, and it is totally white.

2 of my golden teacher jars have a LOT of green in them taking up Id say 50% of the jar, the other 4 jars have not even any growth starting yet.

Any ideas as to why all of my Malaysian jars look the same and are in good condition and why 2 of my GT jars are not gonna make it and 4 others look like they havent even been innoculated? lol

---Different races germinate, develop, and fruit at different rates under different conditions any conjecture about your situation at this point would be just that... conjecture.

I'm going to agree (kind of) with the suggestion of using the Shroomery as well. Not that you shouldn't ask here... just ask there as well and try to just deal with folks who've gotten the "Trusted Cultivator" tag. Be prepared the Shroomery can get kind of snarky (to be nice) sometimes,but there's a ton of good advice there as well.

Read up on sterile procedure. Grab a copy of the book "The Mushroom Cultivator" by Stamets and Chilton. Most of all just be diligent and continue learning and trying... it is like any other endeavor... you'll start getting the hang of it.

Good Luck :thumb_up: