Bits of wisdom from a long time mushroom grower

Kkvguitarist

In Bloom
Hello all!

So I am currently putting together a full front to back tek onhow I grow bulk amounts of mushrooms very stupidly easy with great success.


But until I post the tek I just wanna give some advice for the new (2 years or less) growers out there.

First off PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE ! to this day I struggle with this, do not try to fix things or rush any part of the grow, waiting too long is never ever bad with mushrooms the longer they have to complete whatever phase they are in the better the outcome will be.


Sterile procedure. So I use a laminar flow hood. If you want to be in this hobby semi seriously. Get one. Not saying still aorboxes dont work but I went 8 years without one and when I finally decided to strap down and build one o wanted to slap myself for waiting so long. It's cheap if you build it, it's simple, and it makes 500 worlds of difference.

I developed.all my growing techniques based on severe contamination happening at every step of the process over the years, I make everything sterile and keep it sterile until mushrooms are growing. This way I get full and many many flushes without contamination.

TOSS CONTAMINATED SUBSTRATE IMMEDIATELY!!! Please dont make the same.mistake i did by keeping a half contaminated cake to get the last half oz that would grow from it, it's not worth it.


After letting a single spot a one by one inch spot that turned green just continue to grow in my grow room while i harvested the rest of the substrate from that day on for 3 or 4 years i struggles with more contamination than you will beleive, i would get 2 out of 10 attempts to make it to fruiting successfully. Everything I touched contaminated because once those green spores are allowed to be released into your house it is impossible to get it all gone and they are EVERYWHERE floating in the air from that point on, so 1 little slip during innoculation or spawning and your whole grow was guaranteed contaminated , if you see contamination take it outside and dump it. Immediately. It's not worth it I promise you.



Do as little as you possibly can. Newer growers ,myself included, tend to way way overdo the growing setup buying misters and humidifiers and fans and racks and all this crap, the more things you add to the mushrooms growing environment the more things you have to make sure run perfectly or it will be detrimental to your grow.

Buy a pressure cooker. You need one for mushrooms growing it's one of the few expenses that is absolutely necessary. I use 22qt presto cookers this is for bulk you want at least 10qt but I love my 22 quart it fits lots and lots.

Use growbags. Fruit in them, they make the perfect environment all contained in a bag. And the secret is that you dont need any equiptment for environment when you use growbags.

Jars. Dont just dont. Use bags. I have 200 mason jars around my house now because I used them like a mad man,they are very very popular and you'll see almost every grow picture done in jars.

0.5um filter patch bags keep your grain sterile and allow for enough air to pass thru that you can also fruit inside the bag. No glass, no dropped jars, no stubborn grain chunks that wont break up none of that. You can stack bags while colonizing and they are disposable, no more cleaning 100 jars by hand every time you use em. The filter is brand new everytime so no worn out filters.

CONSOLIDATION!!! for some reason somewhere along the line someone said consolidation isnt needed and it was forever disregaurded. This is untrue, once your substrate has turned completely white you still want to give it about 2 full weeks to absolutely consume and digest all of the nutrients it has covered. This is the #1 absolute pinning trigger. You dont have to introduce any new air or moisture or any of that.

You allow the mycelium to cover its food and the digest it. Once all the nutrients are used up it WILL pin even with little air and no change in conditions. And when it does finally pin you will get absolutely massive flushes compared to a grow that was fruited immediately after colonization.

Patience patience patience. That's what's needed for consolidation. Because it will look like its doing absolutely nothing for weeks before it gives you its first pin, but just wait and let it finish its process dont try to rush it into growing.


Drying
Lay your mushrooms out, I use a sweater drying rack/bud drying rack and have a fan blowing on it. No heat, NO OVEN , this can take up to 3 days.

When the mushrooms feel completely dry, like theres no thickness in the middle they should feel absolutely dry and crispy you need to build a desiccant chamber.

This is simple get a plastic container or rub or 5 gallon bucket.

Buy DAMPRID, the kind in a large bag, not closet hangers orpacks, just a bag full of dampris, pour it about 2 or 3 inches thick on the bottom of your tub, lay 3 or 4 layers of paper towels on top the. Lay your mushrooms on that. The. FULLY SEAL , the top I use press and seal, it needs to be an airtight seal.

Check them after 24 hours they should still appear dry maaaaaybe the tiniest amount of softness

But if they feel soggy or overly soft, return them to the fan rack, they were not dried enough yet.

If they do feel dry after 24 hours then reseal them.in and let them sit another 24, perso ally I male this container where i keep them. It removes every single atom of moisture from the mushrooms which allows them to stay hood for hundreds of years.

A properly dried mushroom should be hard brittle and have ABSOLUTRLY ZERO GIVE OR BEND, it should be like a cracker just snap and break. Ince they are fully dried in this way they can be bagged and frozen for your great great great great grandchildren. If they arent completely dried and even have just a little bit of bend in them, then they will mold inside a sealed bag and they will also become less potent over time.



With your flow hood
Learn agar, learn liquid culture, and always take the time to test your liquid culture before innoculating, it takes about 3 days to check on agar if your culture is clean and will save you alot of contaminated grows in the long run.



That's about all I can think of for general helpfulness, this wasnt intended to instruct you on how to grow, I'll post that later, but for those of you who have the basics down these are somethings I've learned in general that apply to all grows.
 

Deebs

The Sentient Naturewalker
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Just wow man! These are a lot of the things that i was lucky enough to learn from others that have done this for some time, sharing their experiences.

I am rather new to myco projects myself (1 run), so I definitely did exactly what you stated not to do..:LOL:...over doing it, over complicating things..but it was fun, interesting, and a great learning experience. I used rye grain bags to inoculate MS, had a few contam, some sour/ferment, freaked out as I saw ergot. It was sterilized of course.

Still colonizing in grain:
NonActives
Maitake
Shiitaki
Enoki
Ganoderma Lingzhi
Hericium

actives
then Ape,A+,AlbinoCambo

Appreciating your contributions!?
 
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