grow shrooms

How I did it: This is my setup... it is only an overview. For a more detailed guide, go to the link below. But make note that I used some different methods for cultivating my mushrooms.

http://www.shroomery.org/8411/The-Magic-Mushrooms-Growers-Guide

*Before you do anything, read the note at the bottom to inform you of legalitites of growing various types of mushrooms.

First, I prepared rice cakes in 12 1/2 pint ball regular mouth canning jars using organic brown rice flour and vermiculite. I sterilized the jar and inoculated it with a spore syringe from www.spores101.com while being as clean as possible. I then put it in a large 56 quart clear plastic storage bin to let it incubate. The incubation temperature is 86 degrees, so I put the storage bin inside of another storage bin of the same size that was filled halfway with water. Under the second storage bin, there was a 100 watt submersible fish tank heater to keep it warm. The inside of the jars is slightly warmer, so I keep the temperature inside the bin with the lid on at 80 degrees so it doesn't get too hot inside the jars. I bought a weather station hygrometer from home debot which ran me about $30 so I could make sure I knew the temp inside the incubator. \

Once the jar is fully colonized (white stuff completely covers the inside of the jar) I take the cake out and put it in another large clear plastic bin. This bin is filled with 1 inch of water, and then I used a whole bag of perlite, which is about 2 inches so it completely saturates the perlite without having excess water. With the lid on, this will keep the humidity at around 95-100%. You can move the hygrometer to this bin now (the terrarium) once you get the temperature correct in the incubator. I use a small amount of peroxide in the perlite so it stays clean. This means the cakes cannot touch the perlite directly, so set them on something. I used old burned dvds that didn't work and I cut them into small squares and set the cakes on the squares rather than directly touching the perlite. The perlite will make the cakes soggy anyway =]

This is optional but you can dunk the cake before you put it into the second bin (terrarium aka growing chamber). To do this, you fully submerse it in water for 12-24 hours, in the fridge. The cold from the fridge will help initiate growing. This will rehydrate the cakes also. Also optional, you can roll the cakes in vermiculite to help maintain moisture in the cakes. This has been proven effective!

After you have everything set up, make sure you give 12 hours of light from above (so shrooms grow up) and make sure you fan out the terrarium to get rid of co2 build up and remove water droplets from lid. For best results, fan every 1-3 hours. Blue light is the best, but a regular fluorescant will do. Now we wait...

Pretty soon you will see little shrooms starting to grow. If the caps of any of them start to turn dark blue, or black, remove them immediately because these are aborts. This will help give nutrients to the healthy shrooms and prevent rotting of the aborts.

After the veil starts to break under the cap, pick the shroom by twisting at the base. Put them under a fan for 12 hours or so, and then make a dessicating chamber to further dry them to preserve them. To make a dessicating chamber you take a tuppaware bowl, and put a square of 1/4 inch wire mesh so there is about a half an inch of space on the bottom of the bowl. Put a cloth over this wire mesh and pour some anhydrous calcium chloride on it, also known as damp rid which you can purchase from home debot. Then put another square an inch above the damp rid. You will put your shrooms on this. Seal tightly and you will have them crackling dry in no time!

After they are super dry, you can buy some dry ice, and take one of your canning jars and put the dry ice along with the shrooms in the jar. Put the lid on but don't screw it down. wait until the dry ice completely sublimates and then tighten the cap. This wil remove all of the oxygen and preserver your shrooms for years! Place in the freezer and you are all set! Just keep them away from heat and light and you will be fine.

*I used edible cultures from spores101. Everything above is to inform people how to grow legal edible mushrooms only. Growing psychedelic mushrooms is illegal and purchasing of these spore syringes should be used for microscopy purposes only.

Lessons & tips: Be patient! Look things up online! There is plenty of information to inform you of what you need to know.

Follow the instructions step by step!

Some of the guides tell you the right way and are good, but search around and you find improved set-ups for growing.

My set-up is not the best method, but I do have one of the top methods for growing off of cakes.

Resources: http://www.shroomery.org/8411/The-Magic-Mushrooms-Growers-Guide

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/2116902/page/0/fpart/1/vc/1

http://www.shroomery.org/46/Perlite-Humidification-Technique

www.spores101.com

http://www.shroomery.org/5185/What-is-the-dunk-tek

Oct 10, 2008, 10:35PM PDT | 0 comments | 2 cheers