Shroom cultivation pf tek question

[mescaline-man]

I can't figure out the shroomery site so i thought i'd ask here at the nexus i'm sure someone here knows a little somethin about some shroom cultivation. I'm sterilizing a pf tek jar steaming it on the stove for a couple hours and here's the ingredients i used:

White Rice - in place of vermiculite (don't have money to get any) %25
Pinto beans - %10
Whole wheat flour - %20
corn flour - %20
flax seed - %15
coffee grounds - %10
Do you think this'll work without vermiculite using white rice as a substitute? I have food stamps and i don't have any money right now to get some verm.

What you think?

 

[anrchy]

No. Absolutely not.

And are you talking about shroomery.org?

 

[Psyvox]

PF-Tek for Simple Minds | Fungifun

 

[GratefulDad]

You could use whole white rice by itself, but without vermiculite, none of the powdered stuff will work. For preparing white rice, you'd want to get it so the rice is moist but doesn't stick and clump together, which is another reason the small grains or powdered stuff work best with some vermiculite. A bag of vermiculite is only a few dollars, see if you can trade some food stamps at the grocery store to get a bag of verm.

The white rice whole will work, although brown is better. Also, those other powdered things may be okay with vermiculite, but getting the proper moisture ratios would take experimenting and judging by your question, you are too new to be able to just wing it. The PF Tek, although simple, is the perfect easy formula for any beginner, since it's cheap, usually fairly easy for anyone to find, and the instructions can be followed like a recipe. As you get the hang of it, you'll begin to learn how the mushrooms grow and what they do and don't like.

Seriously, you can get everything you need for under $75, and that includes everything you'd need to grow a lifetime supply of personal mushrooms! You may need to spend a little here and there on a bag of grain or bail of straw, but it's only $10-20 at a time now and then when your supplies dwindle. It's super cheap and easy, just pick a method, like the PF tek and follow it to the letter. Trying to change things when you don't know what you are doing is why most people fail their first time.

 

[mescaline-man]

You could use whole white rice by itself, but without vermiculite, none of the powdered stuff will work. For preparing white rice, you'd want to get it so the rice is moist but doesn't stick and clump together, which is another reason the small grains or powdered stuff work best with some vermiculite. A bag of vermiculite is only a few dollars, see if you can trade some food stamps at the grocery store to get a bag of verm.

The white rice whole will work, although brown is better. Also, those other powdered things may be okay with vermiculite, but getting the proper moisture ratios would take experimenting and judging by your question, you are too new to be able to just wing it. The PF Tek, although simple, is the perfect easy formula for any beginner, since it's cheap, usually fairly easy for anyone to find, and the instructions can be followed like a recipe. As you get the hang of it, you'll begin to learn how the mushrooms grow and what they do and don't like.

Seriously, you can get everything you need for under $75, and that includes everything you'd need to grow a lifetime supply of personal mushrooms! You may need to spend a little here and there on a bag of grain or bail of straw, but it's only $10-20 at a time now and then when your supplies dwindle. It's super cheap and easy, just pick a method, like the PF tek and follow it to the letter. Trying to change things when you don't know what you are doing is why most people fail their first time.

Alright thanks for the advice. :thumb_up:

 

[LoneDruid]

Yeah I don't know why you're throwing all that in there lol. And verm isn't that expensive.

 

[damon]

That must be the most exotic PF tek recipe ever. I wouldn't even call it PF tek. For a beginner, you should be sticking to brown rice and verm, anything else will be a crapshoot. What I want to know, is how you managed to concoct such a recipe? Was the Anarchist's Cookbook expanded?

 

[mescaline-man]

That must be the most exotic PF tek recipe ever. I wouldn't even call it PF tek. For a beginner, you should be sticking to brown rice and verm, anything else will be a crapshoot. What I want to know, is how you managed to concoct such a recipe? Was the Anarchist's Cookbook expanded?

Lmao, you best believe it. :lol: Idk i just got a little creative with what i had at the moment. I was a little delirious having quit cigarettes cold-turkey with the help of coffee though (LOTS) the other day, trying to keep my self occupied. Yeah, i'll just stick with vermiculite, but i've been thinking about coco coir instead of verm now, because maybe you can wash the coco fibers since they can be reused (for plants i know for sure) and just keep re-sterilize it since it never get's destroyed, that a way i don't have to keep buying more verm. I like to think ahead and spend as little money as possible. It should work because it hold moisture very well plus at the miscroscopic level it's probably quite porous. What ya think?

 

[SnozzleBerry]

Use coir for substrate, not spawn (and not pf, afaik)

 

[mescaline-man]

Vermiculite:

Coco coir has been tested as a replacement for vermiculite in the PF-tek substrate, but it colonizes more slowly and is more apt to contaminate than vermiculite is. It needs to be sterilized longer. It performs poor in comparison with vermiculite.

Perlite holds far less water than vermiculite, you will to lower the water content. It has been used, but the results pale compared with vermiculite.

Grow wool (a hydroponic medium ) has been shown to work:
By Starter:
"An alternative (in my fun so far) is growool. It's 100% inert and pH neutral.



It's a glass fiber material. Same as insulation, but pH neutral and horticultural grade i.e. contains no fire retardants like monoammonium phosphate.

Holds 1/3 more water than vermiculite.



Colonises much the same as standard PF vermiculite cakes. Just pack it loose, as you do with regular PF vermiculite cakes -- a high air filled porosity profile is a must in any cake.
The top layer can be growool too. 100% vermiculite free cakes. Can be dunked after birthing like a regular cake. They weigh noticeably more. "

Brown Rice Flour:

Dark rye flour has been reported to have favorable to excellent results when used to replace BRF (1:1 ratio) in the PF-tek, also other ground grains can be used like ground millet or ground millet based birdseed. Also corn flour. Wheat flour is not as good since it makes the substrate very greasy and clumpy, difficult to mix.

Water:

In addition to any water suitable for human consumption(including mineral water) clean water from natural sources(river, pond) can be used

I guess i'll be using rockwool - i wonder if you can reuse it though i haven't found anything on it. Maybe using some diluted hydrogen peroxide in a hot water bath, then steralizing the jars of course.