Agar bitches

[JohnDee]

That would sort of defeat the purpose of this thread. Plus I already have everything and don't want to spend more money. I don't have any fancy lab equipment; trying to show that you can do agar with household items and without ordering weird shit like Petri dishes. I have bought horse poo and spawn that were supposedly sterile but if I run the plates through my own pc at least I know for certain they are.

OK gottcha...totally understand. I'm a diy guy myself. I picked up the incubator really cheap on ebay used...and use it for seed germination (works great) and for Malawi COB fernebtation cures. Haven't actually used it for shrooms...just wanted to make you guys jealous. lol Carry on...
JD

 

[Richard Drysift]

It has been over a year since the pandemic stopped my mushroom project in its tracks. The kids stopped going to school and I didn’t want to have weird stuff laying around. They ask questions; what can I say these kids are damn smart. Well, smarter than me at their age. Anyway the little buggers are finally gone all day so I can get back to growing psychedelic mushrooms like a normal parent. Stay tuned y’all; got spore syringes left in the fridge for a year. Let’s hope they still work...

 

[Budget Buds]

Next step is to make the potato dextrose agar mixture and pour it into the minis while still warm. The recipe is:
2.5g Agar powder
2 tsp potato flakes
1/2 tsp Karo or Honey
1/2 cup water
2-3 drops red food coloring
Measure everything out and have on standby. Easier to measure the agar by weight. Heat up the water in a small pot on the stove. When it's just about to simmer stir in the flakes and corn syrup. Honey could also be used. Stir in the agar. Keep stirring until it begins to emulsify; soon as it simmers it's done. Turn off the stove.
While the mix is hot pour just enough to cover the bottoms of the minis. Line them all up and pour about 1/4 inch into each one. You can go back and refill as needed. Should make 8 minis or so. Once they are getting stiff you can put the lids on and seal each mini.

You use Hella hard agar plates at that ratio. Does the mycelium do OK going that firm?

 

[Richard Drysift]

It’s not that hard actually; it gets kind of stiff but also gel-like. Soft enough for myc to grow on but stays flat so you can see any contams real easy. Guess we shall see how good they are; this recipe has worked well many times in the past.

 

[Budget Buds]

It’s not that hard actually; it gets kind of stiff but also gel-like. Soft enough for myc to grow on but stays flat so you can see any contams real easy. Guess we shall see how good they are; this recipe has worked well many times in the past.

If its proven I'm definitely going to try it. I normally use less agar in my batches but always wondered how far you could take it.

 

[OldMedUser]

I've been debating about getting into growing 'shrooms and have been looking at the Uncle Ben's technique for easy growing but this looks interesting.

Last Dec I scored some 'shrooms for microdosing and it's working not bad but when I can get enough to last me for a couple of years for $100 at Black Friday sales then I wonder if it's worth the effort. Hard enough keeping my pot garden green.

Got really high on New Years Eve all by my lonesome. Bottle of Ukrainian vodka, 8th of Penis Envy and hits off a dozen strains until 6am. First real trip on 'shrooms in over 40 years when we picked them wild out by the Vancouver airport and up the Fraser Valley. Was a bit anxiety provoking at the start but the rest was lots of fun. Some mild hallucinations, twisty shit and lots of colours. A good time was had by all . . . of me.

 

[Lockedin]

View attachment 4848170

I've been debating about getting into growing 'shrooms and have been looking at the Uncle Ben's technique for easy growing but this looks interesting.

Last Dec I scored some 'shrooms for microdosing and it's working not bad but when I can get enough to last me for a couple of years for $100 at Black Friday sales then I wonder if it's worth the effort. Hard enough keeping my pot garden green.

Got really high on New Years Eve all by my lonesome. Bottle of Ukrainian vodka, 8th of Penis Envy and hits off a dozen strains until 6am. First real trip on 'shrooms in over 40 years when we picked them wild out by the Vancouver airport and up the Fraser Valley. Was a bit anxiety provoking at the start but the rest was lots of fun. Some mild hallucinations, twisty shit and lots of colours. A good time was had by all . . . of me.

A strain called "Penis Envy"?
--no wonder the side effects are anxiety & mild hallucinations!
Sorry - I couldn't resist!

Your effort / reward thoughts are one of the things holding me back from giving it a shot.
--- the other is that I seem to have developed a mean grow-gear addiction.

 

[Highlife42]

This is awesome! I currently have Pink and Blue oyster mushrooms inoculated. Pink Oyster on Oak wood chips and Blue Oyster on Oak wood sawdust I like what you're doing.

 

[Richard Drysift]

A strain called "Penis Envy"?
--no wonder the side effects are anxiety & mild hallucinations!
Sorry - I couldn't resist!

Your effort / reward thoughts are one of the things holding me back from giving it a shot.
--- the other is that I seem to have developed a mean grow-gear addiction.

PE is among the strongest varieties of cubensis but requires a little more patience than most others. Golden teachers are reliably easy to get to fruit but Penis Envy requires optimal conditions to get it to pin. Has something to do with the fact that PE was engineered and grown in a lab while most other cubes occur naturally. Cubes are cubes of course but potency varies.
You can grow shrooms w/mostly household equipment but you will need a decent pressure cooker; single most important tool. You’ll also need to build a still air box unless of course you have a flow hood. Agar success requires adept sterile technique but it’s also a great way to learn by doing.
What’s cool about growing shrooms is they don’t take quite as long to get to growing the end product as it does with weed. Fruiting takes days; you can literally watch them grow from a pin to a full size mushroom in a day. It’s a few weeks of waiting; a few more weeks of colonizing the grains, and then a month or so fruiting if you spawn to bulk. You can get several oz of dry boomers from a single mono tub; at $100 per it’s a nice ROI if you can move it. Plus if you mess up you can always just toss it out and start over. Not quite the heartbreaker that your weed grow can be if it ever goes south.
That’s why I like working with agar; you eliminate potential contaminants in the early stage by transferring healthy clean white mycelium to another sterile plate. Once you know it’s clean you can keep it growing indefinitely. Agar plates will even begin to fruit themselves after awhile; have seen pins growing on plates that were thrown in the trash. By the time you finally have isolated a clean culture you can make spawn with just a portion and save the rest of the culture for future grows or use as the base of a liquid culture. Agar takes a few extra steps than the old squirt directly onto BRF jars method does but ensures success later on.

 

[Budget Buds]

Cubes are cubes of course but potency varies.

Yeah I dont buy into that shit that all cubes are the same either .... my experience has shown different levels of potency between cubes, Golden Mammoths are stronger than b+ and rusty Whyte are stronger than GM.

As they are grown for generations in artificial conditions they may mellow out but they're are still differences .

This is my experience and yours. May vary

 

[OldMedUser]

Yeah I dont buy into that shit, my experience has shown different levels of potency between cubes, Golden Mammoths are stronger than b+ and rusty Whyte are stronger than GM.

As they are grown for generations in artificial conditions they may mellow out but they're are still differences .

This is my experience and yours. May vary

You just confirmed what he said but made out like he was wrong about it.

Cubes are cubes of course but potency varies.

Because I mainly wanted 'shrooms for micro-dosing I deliberately picked PE as they are considered the strongest and I'll get more doses per oz as I need less wt to get the same dose as a weaker strain. I have some Blue Meanies and Aztecorum too. Just an 8th of each. I'll try one of those next time I want to go a-trippin'.

 

[Budget Buds]

You just confirmed what he said but made out like he was wrong about it.

Yeah now that i read it , It sounds like that but i promise it wasnt my intention . I was typing and I just failed to finish typing what i was getting at . Normally I dont use the mobile for riu and did that time. @Richard Drysift I wasnt trying to come off like a dick ... EDIT, I fixed it

 

[Rdubz]

Subed!! What an interesting read love to see how this goes just gonna sit back and watch cheers

 

[Lockedin]

PE is among the strongest varieties of cubensis but requires a little more patience than most others. Golden teachers are reliably easy to get to fruit but Penis Envy requires optimal conditions to get it to pin. Has something to do with the fact that PE was engineered and grown in a lab while most other cubes occur naturally. Cubes are cubes of course but potency varies.
You can grow shrooms w/mostly household equipment but you will need a decent pressure cooker; single most important tool. You’ll also need to build a still air box unless of course you have a flow hood. Agar success requires adept sterile technique but it’s also a great way to learn by doing.
What’s cool about growing shrooms is they don’t take quite as long to get to growing the end product as it does with weed. Fruiting takes days; you can literally watch them grow from a pin to a full size mushroom in a day. It’s a few weeks of waiting; a few more weeks of colonizing the grains, and then a month or so fruiting if you spawn to bulk. You can get several oz of dry boomers from a single mono tub; at $100 per it’s a nice ROI if you can move it. Plus if you mess up you can always just toss it out and start over. Not quite the heartbreaker that your weed grow can be if it ever goes south.
That’s why I like working with agar; you eliminate potential contaminants in the early stage by transferring healthy clean white mycelium to another sterile plate. Once you know it’s clean you can keep it growing indefinitely. Agar plates will even begin to fruit themselves after awhile; have seen pins growing on plates that were thrown in the trash. By the time you finally have isolated a clean culture you can make spawn with just a portion and save the rest of the culture for future grows or use as the base of a liquid culture. Agar takes a few extra steps than the old squirt directly onto BRF jars method does but ensures success later on.

Thanks for the education!

Now I need to figure up a way to explain why I need even MORE stuff to my Wife!

I NEED to do this. (but first I need to get my 4x8 squared away)

 

[canndo]

Ok, pe was not genetically engineered in the DNA sense. Nor was it any more "grown in the lab" as any other land race.


Isolation of desirable expressions by agar sectoring is a good thing but it isn't normally meant to "clean" the mycelium.


One does that when attempting to separate your target mycelium from "weed" molds or bacteria.

Or to try to find a single genetic expression among a series of germinated spores.

That process however, requires "running" or placing another slab of agar on top of the one that has growth.


This way bacteria won't spread and weed molds grow in more discrete directions making each mycelium finally separate from each other.

Agar teqnique definitely a good thing to be proficient at but it is certainly not necessary to cultivation, isolation or even cloning.

I read this again, didn't mean to be rude or cut you down here, I like the diy approach and everyone including me can always learn more.

 

[Richard Drysift]

No not at all; I just find agar worth the effort. I’ve wasted so much time, energy, and spores trying to knock up grains directly to then have my mushroom dreams end in disaster & tossed in the trash. In my experience spore syringes can be dirty; I’ve always gotten some kind of contamination on the first few plates I streak with a swab. I find the cleanest ones and pull off a wedge to transfer; once I am sure those are clean I let them colonize out to the edge and drop it all onto grains. Then I just do grain transfers until I get enough spawn for a tub.
Honestly don’t know much about the PE variety nor am I an expert in mycology; everything I do here was learned from somebody way smarter than me. Just because that is what I have heard in online discussions doesn’t make it true; thanks for setting the record straight canndo.

 

[Richard Drysift]

I have found my ol box full o shroom growing related items and gave the myco lab a thorough cleaning. Planning to cook up my agar and pour out the plates tonight. They will immediately be sterilized and cooled overnight to be ready for inoculation... stay tuned y’all

 

[Budget Buds]

I run all mss to agar first, not wasting a jar of grain on a bunk syringe. I do use agar to try and isolate and better my genetics, but thus far the monoculture has eluded me

 

[canndo]

I run all mss to agar first, not wasting a jar of grain on a bunk syringe. I do use agar to try and isolate and better my genetics, but thus far the monoculture has eluded me

Take a bit of the inside of a fruit you like. Place it on agar.


Wait


You now have a monoculture.


Or you can grab a strand of mycelium at the furthest portion from the center. Place that in a new dish
Odds are you have a monoculture. If not do the same thing on your new dish.

 

[Richard Drysift]

Take a bit of the inside of a fruit you like. Place it on agar.


Wait


You now have a monoculture.


Or you can grab a strand of mycelium at the furthest portion from the center. Place that in a new dish
Odds are you have a monoculture. If not do the same thing on your new dish.

Wish I had the foresight to do this long ago. Always wanted to try a clone a fruit body but once I finally have a big sack of dry boomers I get lazy and let everything go to shit until next season.
Minor setback; last night as I was about to begin making the agar plates I realized my PC was missing the little pop up pressure valve. Found the top piece but the backing nut and screw are missing. Luckily it’s a Presto 23q; the Weber grill of pressure cookers. Presto replacement parts are easy to get; new piece should arrive tomorrow and we are back in business.