anyone have experience growing mushrooms?

[MoeMentim (OP)]

i am going to try microdosing for depression, anxiety, bipolar, etc...  bought some  "grain" that i hope is either already innoculated or comes with a spore syringe, etsy seller was very vague but reviews were all good.  i've never grown shrooms before but i'm somewhat familiar with what seems like a simple process.  keep everything sterile & at an even temperature, on top of the fridge is good & that's my plan.  other stuff like when to harvest i have no clue.

  funny how things come back around.  my folks were "hippie/back to the land" types & our attic was full of window screens being laid out for drying weed and shrooms, had no idea what either was at the time

[Chip]

no but i suggest joing up at https://mycotopia.net/

[MoeMentim (OP)]

no but i suggest joing up at https://mycotopia.net/

i tried but never got the email to validate membership.  tried resending it, nada.  their grow forums are hidden until i'm a member so no help there.

so, i ordered bagged substrate, ready to innoculate & also spore syringes.  i've watched some youtube videos but none that are doing it the same way in bags, most use tubs.  (the bags will go in a sterile tub).  i think i'm supposed to keep the bags sealed (they have an injection port) until some point, i think until they're just about ready to spring up but unsure how to tell.  also unsure when to harvest, just know that before they drop spores but again how to tell?

i need to find a good resource, maybe a book, i'll check amazon, i have a kindle.
Post Merged: November 15, 2018, 09:16:16 AMHA!  found a good one! looks pretty exhaustive from the toc.

 https://www.amazon.com/Psilocybin-Mushroom-Handbook-Outdoor-Cultivation-ebook/dp/B003Z9JMU2/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1542244191&sr=8-6&keywords=psylocybin

i'm charging my kindle now, i'll get it & start reading tonight.  this is gonna be fun, hang on tight!

[Tainted]

its been a while since ive grown them, but you need a pressure cooker to sterilize everything. you need glass canning jars that have that aluminum screw on lid, and you cut a hole in the lid. i forget what you use to cover the hole, some kind of semi porous tape, but you inocoluate the jars with the syringe thru that hole. its incredibly sensitive to bacteria, most people make a homemade glove box so your not breathing on them/there isnt air moving while you incoluate them.

http://www.fungifun.org/English/Pftek

the PF Tek is the normal entry-level way to grow shrooms, tried and tested. like I said, its been a while since i've grown them and the last few times I grew I didn't use the PF Tek cause the yield isnt as good as some other methods, but its definitely the easiest. . need to stress the importance of keeping everything sterile. the smallest amount of bacteria will prevent the jars from fully growing myecelium. But with one spore syringe, you can incoluate many jars, as long as you follow the procedures and your careful during the incoulation, you shouldn't lose more thana  jar or two to bacterial contamination.

when the jars are fully colonized (the jar will be completely filled with this white stuff, mycellium) you move it into the other substrate, I forget exactly what it is, but at that point bacteria is no longer an issue. those plastic storage tubs are perfect for this step. also temperature is very very very important. I don't think keeping it on top of the fridge would keep it at the ideal temperature. you'd have to look at some guides, but the ideal temperature is somewhere in the low 70s I believe. you can buy one of those indoor/outdoor temperature clocks for like $20 online and keep the outdoor sensor in your closet or wherever your growing. since its winter, if it gtes too cold you may need to setup some kind of added light heat or the growth will be stunted or they just wont grow.

also, check out shroomery.org they have some really good information. their forums are FILLED with information, people post their grows with step by step pictures, and the website also has numerous TEKs from beginner stuff like PF Tek to more advanced stuff. When you get a handle on the PF tek, you can start making your own spore syringes, you can take half grown jars of mycellium and split them into other jars to increase yield, all sorts of stuff. PF Tek is just the beginning.
https://www.shroomery.org/8409/PF-Tek

wish i could be of more help, my roommate grew them like 8 months ago but i was at work when he did most of the steps.

[bignasty]

I know nothing about this subject and have seen on TV that it's gotta be pretty much sterile while growing them but why is that? When they grow in cow shit, there's no way that's sterile. So how do they grow in cow shit but when you grow 'em yourself, you have to be super sterile?

[BatNuts]

i ordered the kit from high times and grew them, no problem. spores came in a bag, seeds came in a bag, a Tupperware tub with holes in the lid came, and fertilizer. put the spores in the seeds in a dark place for 2 weeks, they were completely moldy white when I removed them. broke quarter sized chunks and put in the fertilizer, in 2 or 3 weeks I had shrooms. they continued to grow in the tub for about 2 more weeks. I got a couple ozs out of it. could get more seeds and spores and continue the cycle but I didnt

[Tainted]

I know nothing about this subject and have seen on TV that it's gotta be pretty much sterile while growing them but why is that? When they grow in cow shit, there's no way that's sterile. So how do they grow in cow shit but when you grow 'em yourself, you have to be super sterile?

I'm not positive, but I think it's because the conditions needed for mycellium growth , inside a sealed mason jar with no air flow, is ideal for bacteria to also grow. The mycellium needs every bit of those nutrients to fully colonize the jar and that one jar is enough to grow a decent amount of mushrooms. Cow shit doesn't normally have a cluster of 40 mushroms growing out of it, so I'd imagine it's not in as much direct competition with microscopic bacteria.

I tried googling the question before posting this reply, it's actually kind of hard to find an answer, but this link was the closest I found. http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Sterilizing_and_pasteurizing_mushroom_substrates/

I've actually used cow shit to grow mushrooms using a different TEK that produces higher yields (you can order cow shit online fairly cheap) and you have to sterilize it in the pressure cooker before using it. It seems like it's not NECCESSARY but to avoid any jar failures from bacteria overtaking the mycellium, quickest colonization of jars, etc. you have to sterilize. I know that not sterilizing it well can definitely cause the jars growth to be stunted or even fail completely, as I've had that happen more than a few times (failure rate is easily less than 10% though)

Another site I found points out that the mycellium actually grows under the cow shit in a vast underground network and the mushroom grows THROUGH the cow shit, not actually in it.
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-some-mushrooms-grow-in-cow-dung

My guess would be that if a cow happens to shit somewhere that a mycellium network has already colonized, it provides the nutrients and change in temperature neccessary for the fruiting of mushrooms.

[MoeMentim (OP)]

thanks for the relies.  I'm not using jars, the bags of grain i purchased come sterilized with a rubber injection ports.  the grain bags are just starting to show some fuzz growing so i need to get the tub, coco coir & vermeculite this weekend.  i've always read about how important sterilization is but i watched a vid from the guy i bought the grain from, he describes a beginners tek where sterilizing the substrate (coco coir & vermeculite) isn't necessary (?) i don't have a pressure cooker but i'm going to boil it before mixing in the innoculated grain.  my recent ketamine experience has rekindled my interest in psychadelics.  i'll definitely take some good doses in addition to microdosing.  in the spring i'll go camping & take a motherfucking huge dose.
 fun stuff!

here's the vid:

[Chip]

Psychedelics are a wonderful tool.

With a negative addictive profile, they can be of high value as therap
Fact: the world would be a better place if more people used them.

It should be illegal to NOT take them.

Did you know that scientists (whom are rarely associated with the drug subculture) are purported to go on wild hallucinogen trips as an adjunct therapy for highly complex and abstract problem resolution ?

No shit, if a solution is one that requires an "out of the box" approach then is the drug to deploy.

Nobody has ever reported "mind contracting" experiences and if i had my way then all predatory criminals would be forced to take massive doses of them so they can have a fucking good look at themselves ... then we wouldn't need jails and the laughable 'corrective services' that really serve to breed more crime'.

I wish i was running the planet because i'd get everybody up and dancing, sooner or later 😋

[Tainted]

thanks for the relies.  I'm not using jars, the bags of grain i purchased come sterilized with a rubber injection ports.  the grain bags are just starting to show some fuzz growing so i need to get the tub, coco coir & vermeculite this weekend.  i've always read about how important sterilization is but i watched a vid from the guy i bought the grain from, he describes a beginners tek where sterilizing the substrate (coco coir & vermeculite) isn't necessary (?) i don't have a pressure cooker but i'm going to boil it before mixing in the innoculated grain.  my recent ketamine experience has rekindled my interest in psychadelics.  i'll definitely take some good doses in addition to microdosing.  in the spring i'll go camping & take a motherfucking huge dose.
 fun stuff!

here's the vid:

I haven't watched the video but did a little googling of cocoa coir. Unless the tek recommends boiling the substrate, I wouldn't. You could destroy nutrients at that temperature and I've read some stuff on the shroomery that indicate there may be bacteria helpful for growth in coco coir. If you are doing multiple jars, maybe split the substrate and jars in half and follow the tek to the letter in one group and boil in the other. Then monitor mycellium growth rates among the two batches and ultimately failure rates. When you reach the fruiting stage, maybe keep the two batches separate so you can see if there is any difference in yield.

edit: some more googling and searching on shroomery about coco coir, those who do sterilize it by boiling do so by putting it in a pot with a closed lid and placing that pot in boiling water for an hour. Shroomery forums will be your best friend when it comes to growing shrooms. Everything you could ever need to know is available on that forum if you use the search function. If for any reason you can't find an answer, register for an account and post a question. People there are very helpful unless you ask something that has been answered over and over and didn't use the search function first.

[MoeMentim (OP)]

check out this grow, produced an enormous amount in small space.  says it's his first grow. i'm doing it almost exactly the same from what he said & showed in pics.  spore syringe, inoculated grain then mix with coco & vermeculite in a tub with a lid. 

https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/25626929/fpart/1/vc/1

[Tainted]

Daaaaaaamn, that picture is making me want to jump back into growing. Once you get your technique down, you can start to get more advanced with your technique and start cloning good batches of large growing strains of mushrooms and doing all sorts of cool stuff (my last grow run I started to try some of this but failed. Ended up moving and having to throw out my grow supplies)

Would love to hear how your grows go. Hopefully you get a high yield like the one in that thread you linked. The shroomery is an absolutely endless resource for growing. The people there get into some really advanced growing techniques and are really helpful, pretty much all my research came from that website. I recently moved to FL and growing mushrooms isn't as profitable here as it was up north (people don't really pick them in the wild up north, but in FL everyone picks them cause they grow wild everywhere, so 1/8s of dried only cost like $10-$15 during the rainy season) but profitability be damned, it's so rewarding to take mushrooms and trip out that you grew yourself.

[Esoteric Anhydride]

You'll know when the bags are ready for the tubs cos they'll be full of mycelium. Just let that shit populate until they're packed, and then spread into your coir. EZ.

I haven't done it for years but recently started looking into growing Lions Mane, for teh yums and for teh cognitive benefits, shit's full of neural growth factors and I hear it tastes AMAZING.

I fucking love mushrooms.

[Tainted]

You'll know when the bags are ready for the tubs cos they'll be full of mycelium. Just let that shit populate until they're packed, and then spread into your coir. EZ.

I haven't done it for years but recently started looking into growing Lions Mane, for teh yums and for teh cognitive benefits, shit's full of neural growth factors and I hear it tastes AMAZING.

I fucking love mushrooms.

If i remember right when the jars or whatever of mycellium are like half full it helps to give them a shake to speed up the growth i can't remember if you can do that on every tek though or just with the substrate I was using

[MoeMentim (OP)]

so right now the bags of grain are 80-90% white, advice is to wait 100% white then one week before mixing with substrate (coco/perlite for me) & putting in tubs with indirect light & some but minimal air exchange.  i'm going to just leave the lids off a bit, others close lids & drill holes in the tubs sides & stuff with cotton.  i guess i delayed the initial stage of growth by keeping my apartment too warm, i like it 75-80, having lived in vegas 25 years.  low 70's are supposedly best for growth rate but it slowed things & i just had to wait an extra month, plus i split one spore syringe between two bags of grain which may have made things slow but looks 90% inoculated & i'm impatient.  i'd say all is looking well & i'm gonna mix with substrate (coco/perlite) this weekend & tub.  i'm winging my way through this digging through https://www.shroomery.org/7/Community for info but so far everything seems on course.