Skunks Myco Lab

[taita]

looks funkey as hell! What kind of grains did you grow it on and what was your casing choice?

How was your experiance with the Enigma, I have heard its fairly potent similar to PE , is this true in your experiance with it?

I believe this grow was on whole oats. It's not cased if I remember right. Bulk spawn was pasteurized coir, a little spirulina, and gypsum. Pasteurization was right in the bin, then I inoculated and waited. I think the growth habit is due to high CO2 levels in the bin. Usually it is more brain like.

Definitely potent! I've heard it said it can be as high as 3%, but I'm not sure if that's true. I don't have any experience with PE so I can't compare them, but enigma is a heavy hitter for sure.

I've seen some really powerful blue on break reactions with it on harvest. Instantly deep Blue. Pretty cool

 

[SkunK]

I believe this grow was on whole oats. It's not cased if I remember right. Bulk spawn was pasteurized coir, a little spirulina, and gypsum. Pasteurization was right in the bin, then I inoculated and waited. I think the growth habit is due to high CO2 levels in the bin. Usually it is more brain like.

Definitely potent! I've heard it said it can be as high as 3%, but I'm not sure if that's true. I don't have any experience with PE so I can't compare them, but enigma is a heavy hitter for sure.

I've seen some really powerful blue on break reactions with it on harvest. Instantly deep Blue. Pretty cool

Nice I have been reading up on what some people case/spawn to. I've got my Coco Coir, Hopefully enough to use to spawm 3 quarts of my Rye jars with. I do have access to lots of H.Poo and Cow Poo, Might experiment with a couple of the other jars ( Mixed grain & pop Corn) which are colonizing pretty nicely as well. I've never pasturized any kind of dung, but have read alot of people use a cooler to pasturize it and I've also heard cubes grow really well with dung.

So you basicly spawed to pasturized Coco Coir ( By adding boiling water to the brick of Coir and putting the back on) ; what was your ratio of Grains to Coir?

I'm planning on growing in Sterilite 6-Quart shoe box totes inside a home made grow tent ( Which I need to get cracking on and get built asap ) I have years of storage/hording built up in my intended grow space.

I'll get some more photos of these cultures up this weekend. Hopfully get this mushroom grow room built or at least some huge progress done and shared as well.

 

[SkunK]

Thailand Lipa Yai (BRF Cakes) - I think the pin sets should have been a lot better on these cakes, I all honesty I was in a rush with these cakes ( as I need fruits to continue my stacks) that I didn't dunk in the fridge with my first batch of cakes. More than likely this caused the first flushes to lack luster in pin set and growth.



Huautla De Jiménez
Again same as above a few of these cakes did not get dunk in the fridge so pin sets and growth will probably reflect this

 

[taita]

Nice I have been reading up on what some people case/spawn to. I've got my Coco Coir, Hopefully enough to use to spawm 3 quarts of my Rye jars with. I do have access to lots of H.Poo and Cow Poo, Might experiment with a couple of the other jars ( Mixed grain & pop Corn) which are colonizing pretty nicely as well. I've never pasturized any kind of dung, but have read alot of people use a cooler to pasturize it and I've also heard cubes grow really well with dung.

So you basicly spawed to pasturized Coco Coir ( By adding boiling water to the brick of Coir and putting the back on) ; what was your ratio of Grains to Coir?

I'm planning on growing in Sterilite 6-Quart shoe box totes inside a home made grow tent ( Which I need to get cracking on and get built asap ) I have years of storage/hording built up in my intended grow space.

I'll get some more photos of these cultures up this weekend. Hopfully get this mushroom grow room built or at least some huge progress done and shared as well.

I've never used poo yet, myself. Although I'd like to try some ttbvi, so I'll probably get some for that.

I tend to use five times dry coir grams weight in milliliters of boiling water, so, 100 dry grams coir = 500 ml boiling water. Although sometimes that ends up being a little wet. It helps if your coir is bone dry for that ratio.

If I'm using bags I'll do it in the bag and pack those into a cooler, or if I'm doing a tote I will make sure to get some isopropanol in the tote, then pasteurize everything inside, inside the cooler. I like to leave it for a day, but you don't necessarily have to go that long.

I don't remember the precise ratio of spawn to bulk I was using. I think it was maybe one to two, or one to three. Hell it might even have been one to one. I would have to check.

If you don't want to bother with a tent, you can always put totes inside a larger tote. That works great to minimize contamination air flow, and retain moisture. I usually use just simple totes with unmodified lids. But you can also add ports for filter patches if you want more fresh air Exchange and lower CO2

 

[SkunK]

Melmac Revert -> have 5 BRF Jars / one pint of popcorn which was inoculated with MS Spores

Things are going pretty slow but 3 BRF jars are nelly 85% colonized, and the pop corn has only recently started to grow.

 

[taita]

Melmac Revert -> have 5 BRF Jars / one pint of popcorn which was inoculated with MS Spores
View attachment 110121
Things are going pretty slow but 3 BRF jars are nelly 85% colonized, and the pop corn has only recently started to grow.

View attachment 110123View attachment 110124View attachment 110125
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Do you break and shake? I always shake jars real good when they're about 25% colonized. Speeds up full colonization considerably

 

[Transform]

Melmac Revert -> have 5 BRF Jars / one pint of popcorn which was inoculated with MS Spores
View attachment 110121
Things are going pretty slow but 3 BRF jars are nelly 85% colonized, and the pop corn has only recently started to grow.

View attachment 110123View attachment 110124View attachment 110125
View attachment 110122

Is that growth at the bottom of the pic 'revert melmac 2' OK? It looks rather greyish/translucent. Mabe it looks better irl, but it alerted my concern as a possible contam.

 

[SkunK]

Is that growth at the bottom of the pic 'revert melmac 2' OK? It looks rather greyish/translucent. Mabe it looks better irl, but it alerted my concern as a possible contam.

That popcorn jar --- at least to my eye seems to be good looking mycilium.. although its funny you brought this up. The BRF jars were inoculated on May 19th, and I have noticed the growth to be extremely slow going, I have honestly been wondering if maybe this culture is in fact some what dirty/contaminated or infected with something. All my other jars started around that date are either already birthed or upwards of 90% colonized.

I was debating opening a few of the super slow to colonize jars and trying to take sample of the mycilium and put it on Agar to try to clean up and assess.

With your mention of that I will definitely keep a close eye and move them away from the other jars and keep them quarantined while I monitor there growth closely.

After playing around with straight popcorn, I'm not super pleased or impressed with how mycilium growth is on any of the jars; except the exception of the Rye/popcorn (Enigma LC ) Jar. Growth just seems super slow with the huge gaps in the grains.

 

[taita]

I have noticed the growth to be extremely slow going

Have you done a break and shake? That can help stalled colonization too

 

[SkunK]

My problem with the Melmac Revert is they are BRF PF cakes that have stalled or are super slow growing... So you are unable to shake and brake those up.

The Melmac Revert -> Popcorn jar only recently started growing mycilium on the grains and were inoculated with MS spore syringe. Probably not the best way to start pop corn grains with this method.

I have a couple B+ Leucistic LC on pop corn that isn't growing very good either , but BRF Jars are nelly 100% colonized.

My Enigma LC pop corn jars seem to be doing good and have been shook and are nelly colonized , but this LC seems to be super aggressive and has been chewing through all my grains!

I've never really worked with pop corn so could be many factors, quite possibly how I hydrated it

(Water soak for 24 hours/ Simmered for 45 Min's stirring regularly/ and checking water content of grains, then let the grains dry 45 min +/- and loaded in jars and PC'ed at 15psi for 2.5 hours)

The pop corn was a few containers I had kicking around and used them for shits and giggles .. so not overly concerned with them tbh.

 

[Transform]

The Melmac Revert -> Popcorn jar only recently started growing mycilium on the grains and were inoculated with MS spore syringe. Probably not the best way to start pop corn grains with this method.

Ah yes - that was my other thought, which I meant to put in with that first question but forgot: multispore inoculation leading to patches of weaker myc.

I also wonder if there's a fungal equivalent of beri-beri to be seen as a result of the poor nutritient availability of unnixamalitized maize! The big gaps between the kernels also struck me as looking somewhat unhelpful, although my actual practical mycological experience remains distinctly limited.

 

[SkunK]

Ah yes - that was my other thought, which I meant to put in with that first question but forgot: multispore inoculation leading to patches of weaker myc.

I also wonder if there's a fungal equivalent of beri-beri to be seen as a result of the poor nutritient availability of unnixamalitized maize! The big gaps between the kernels also struck me as looking somewhat unhelpful, although my actual practical mycological experience remains distinctly limited.

I do believe the multispore inoculation is a big culprit in the whole process, and the gaps between the pop corn are also at play. @doubledog mentioned in another thread that Millet mixed in with popcorn would be a good bridge to fill the gaps.

One of my pint jars, Had some extra pop corn/rye and that one seems to be doing way better, but then again I used an Enigma LC I made and it has proved extremely aggressive in colonizing all my other jars and some of those were straight pop corn so not sure that is any good data to compare.

I won't be using pop corn again, It's too expensive and there are way better cheaper options available to waste money on this grain. I'll mainly be sticking to working with rye/Agar and my bulk game over the next months. Playing with too many variables at once will only lead to more failures I feel. My though process is get one grain dialed in they work on tweaking or switching to another.

Did some googling of beri-berim, and has got me wondering if my Doctor or specialists have tested me for this, I'm sure they have will all the blood I give for bloodwork, but will be bringing this up to my DR next appointment.
"Dry Beriberi: Damages the nervous system, resulting in peripheral neuropathy. Symptoms include numbness and tingling in the hands and feet, decreased muscle strength, pain, and difficulty walking."

 

[SkunK]

Just a little update

Thailand Lipa Yai--> Harvested and dried 2 PF Cakes, dunked and put in the fridge for 12 hours.



Feels like I'm nickle and diming every fruit out of these PF Cakes....I hope my attempts at shoe box tubs helps me up my game a bit more.



Shotgun Tub --> Hopefully once I've got my bulk producing I can take this tub and give it name a true Shotgun blast with some 3 inch magnum 00 Buck rounds

 

[SkunK]

Has been a gong show around here, and really slipping on tending my projects! Hope things slow down this coming week so I can get back on track.



The shotgun tubs for at least 3 days haven't gotten the best FAE, and my jars of unbirthed cakes have been sitting on my work bench.



Huautla De Jiménez



Thailand Lipa Yai



South American


South American BRFJars: -->These sat too long on the bench and have started pinning and growing fruits in the jars. these will be birthed and dunked then case tomorrow!


Enigma Rye:
-->These are nelly ready to move forward, mycilium is super aggressive with growth.



Huautla de Jiménez & Thailand Lipa Yai Rye

-These are going really good, should have sapped a b4 photo before I did the shake, but all looks well. The blue in one of the photos isn't contamination its blue dyed agar.

 

[SkunK]

South American:
Holy Shot did I ever drop the ball on these Jara, ended up picking over 15 grams of wet shrooms off these cakes I Birthed this afternoon