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Old March 14, 2014   #1
RootLoops
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Default RootLoops Mushroom Grain Spawn Prep

I finally got into my old laptop and got the pics of my grain prep method. There are lots of ways to prep grain for mushroom spawn but this is how i've been doing it for the last four years with no problems.

This thread will be a work in progress as i find more pics, and will tie in to the rest of the process of growing mushrooms i'll be posting as the stuff i ordered comes in. growing mushrooms is a pretty long process, so this thread may take a while to complete.

Growing mushrooms relies on several processes, the first of which i don't yet have the gear to post. soon i will get some cultures and some agar to start them on, but for now i'll post what i already have pics of. this is written assuming you know how to make jar lids and inoculate grains with clean cultures so don't hesitate to ask about any of that, i just don't have pics of those parts yet.

Process One: Grain Prep

Most people will use a "soak and simmer" method to prep birdseed or other grains. Soak and simmer requires you to soak the grains overnight, skim off all the floaters and rinse repeatedly to clean the grain. That is followed by simmering the grains at a low boil to hydrate them properly. That is all fine and good and it works but it is not necessary.

This is my favorite brand of birdseed, but just about any will work, look for ones with no or little cracked corn as it can really starch things up which can make the grains clump a lot more while cooking.



For me, grain prep is simple and easy. I just add WBS and water to the jars and pressure cook.





Quart jars:

400 ml WBS
200 ml tap water

Pint jars:

200 ml WBS
100 ml tap water

Step One:

Add the measured grain and water to the jars.



Step Two:

Seal the jars with the filtered lid of your choice, i use Poly Fil, and then i cover them with tin foil. it took me about twenty five mins. to make all these jars, and that is including the time it took to make each poly fil lid.



Step Three:

Pressure cook the jars for 90-120 mins. at 15 p.s.i., or 2.5 hours at 10 p.s.i.



Step Four:

As soon as the pressure drops in the PC remove each jar and shake it until the clump breaks up and the grain is nice an fluffy looking. Let the jars cool. it is absolutely critical that you shake the grains up as soon as it is safe to open the PC while they are still hot or they will clump together and you'll have to reheat them to get them to break up easily.



Step Five:

When you are ready to inoculate give the jars another shake and inoculate as you would any other. Clean inoculant is the most important thing, a dirty syringe or liquid culture will give you contaminated grain. Because of this i strongly recommend using agar to get clean inoculant first.

Step Six:

Wait.

that is it for that part of it, once i get supplies in i'll post how to start your inoculant, make jar lids, and prep substrate to grow them on.

thanks for viewing and feel free to post any q's in this thread!
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Old March 14, 2014   #2
epsilon
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Very nice, I had never thought to use WBS. I was using a mix grain that was available at winco, because it was on the cheap side.

Gaston
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Old March 14, 2014   #3
ChrisK
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Looking forward to the rest of your guide and learning from your experience!


No pictures are showing for me though.
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Old March 14, 2014   #4
RootLoops
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can anyone else not see the pics? i can see them just fine. sometimes i have to refresh my browser to see peoples pics no idea why
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Old March 15, 2014   #5
ChrisK
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This seems to be a recurring issue here for some people but not others when images are stored at tomatoville rather than an offsite link (e.g. photobucket)

Quote:
Originally Posted by RootLoops View Post
can anyone else not see the pics? i can see them just fine. sometimes i have to refresh my browser to see peoples pics no idea why
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Old March 27, 2014   #6
Paul R
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I was having a tough time posting pics a few weeks back. I tried emailing the pics to myself then copy and paste it in the post. and it worked



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Old March 27, 2014   #7
RootLoops
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looks great is that with the no soak method? what variety is it?

edit: now i can't see the pics in the first post. i'm gonna get some birdseed maybe this weekend i'll take new pics with the phone, i wanted to get better ones anyway.

i'm cooking some agar/lc jars now to start the blue oyster culture i got in the other day maybe soon i can get them going well

Last edited by RootLoops; March 27, 2014 at 02:32 PM.
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Old March 27, 2014   #8
Delerium
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Hope you don't mind if i tag along on this thread.

So I've been wondering. I took some cuttings from the mushrooms we harvested (this would be the 2nd generation clones now) and wanted to see how well they would produce compared to the first time around. Do you happen to know if production starts to go down as you continue to clone the same strain? Wonder if this happens with tomato clones as well..

Using the DE to suck up all that extra moisture.
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Old March 27, 2014   #9
RootLoops
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can't wait to see how that turns out! a clone will eventually run out of steam, but i don't know how many it takes, it's probably different for every culture. it'll be interesting to see how they do, if they get contaminated put them in the compost and maybe it will survive like those in your raised bed
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Old March 27, 2014   #10
Delerium
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Oh i will get these to produce. My plan is to introduce these to my macrobins outdoors (I have 4 bins) where i grow Tomatoes pretty much all year long.
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Old March 28, 2014   #11
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If you're using the same mother batch then yes. The mycelium will only expand so far. I think I went four generations once from a oyster patch kit. If I remember correctly a spore sample can expand by G10, G1 being the mother culture. Meaning If you got an indoor patch it probably was G 7-8 which will put it at two more strong fruiting cycles before the mycellium mass "tires out" luckily oysters can hijack a lot of substrates with minimal effort. You should refer back to my comments in this discussion

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...yone%3F&page=4

With it you'll be able to get a fresh new mycellial strain that will spread much farther and give you much stronger fruiting cycles.
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Old March 28, 2014   #12
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Are you referring to this Epsilon?

Choose fairly mature mushrooms and submerge them in a 5-gallon bucket of water. A gram or two of table salt inhibits bacteria from growing while not substantially affecting the viability of the spores. With the addition of 50 milliliters of molasses, spores are stimulated into frenzied germination. After 4 hours of soaking, remove the mushrooms from the bucket. Most mushrooms will have released tens of thousands of spores. Allow the broth to sit for 24 to 48 hours at a temperature above 50°F (10°C) but under 80°F (26.7°C). In most cases, spores begin to germinate in minutes to hours, aggressively in search of new mates and nutrients. This slurry can be expanded by a factor of 10 in 48 hours.


I just happened to re-read this thread earlier today and.. copied and pasted the instructions to try it out - since i have been getting huge flushes. All the Myco terminology at shroomery.org can make your head spin. This i can do!
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Old March 28, 2014   #13
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I grew from kits a long time ago and it was easy as long as I bought the spore innoculant (living in humid central Florida probably didn't hurt). When I tried to make my own, I always messed that up, and my jars of sustrate went bad.
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Old March 28, 2014   #14
epsilon
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Ahh yes, that would be the one.

I wanted to mention that you can technically grow into any celluloid medium. Interestingly you might consider during expansion growing into newspaper mulch (sans color inks) before growing into a signigantly more nutrient rich base as hay or maybe even start rounding up coffee grounds.
because that works pretty well too.


The guys on shroomery are good intentioned, but sometimes expect everyone to be up to snuff on their terminology. understandable, but I believe for the most part their interest into the world of fungi is by certain bio active constituents, and most mushrooms that they hunt tend to posses rather insidious doppelgangers, so Science is their shield.
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Old March 28, 2014   #15
luigiwu
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I really wish I can see the picture from RootLoop's posting!
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