First Mushroom Grow!

RetiredMatthebrute said:

i dont know if i would do that but maybe some insight from more experienced peoples. i know i had one jar so far that got contams and it was the only jar that had ripped tin foil on the top, im assuming contams made thier way down into the holes in the lid due to the ripped foil..

anyways best of luck with whatever you decide to do m8, your definatly getting there.

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I was kind of thinking about this as well and figure they should be fine until their ready to begin casing, although they seem to be taking FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!! Not sure what is causing the slow growth but I have noticed an increase in growth over since the last shake.

Javadog said:

First of all, that corn looks both very nicely hydrated and not at all damp.

I see no reason why those will not colonize fine. (otherwise, suspect the inoculant)

Now I bet that no hole would be a safer bet than either a foil or micro-pore
tape covered hole. The air already in the jar can provide the needed oxygen
and no lid is perfectly tight either. I say this because the potential for contam
is too high.

Once the grain jar is prepped, then whatever lid it has on at that time is the lid
it will live with. :0) I would either silicone a patch of tyvek over a 1/4" hole in
the lid, or I would pull a ball of polyfil through the same hole. These lids would
provide filtered GE during colonization and would be sterilized along with the
jar and grains.

Good luck,

JD

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Perhaps I will experiment with holes in my lids with my next run along with various different fillers/filters. As far as the grain goes this third batch looks great compared to the last two(the last two had a slimy/wet coating on most of the corn) so I am really hoping things continue on as they have been. Hopefully by next weekend I will have fully colonization!

Javadog said:

First of all, that corn looks both very nicely hydrated and not at all damp.

I see no reason why those will not colonize fine. (otherwise, suspect the inoculant)

Now I bet that no hole would be a safer bet than either a foil or micro-pore
tape covered hole. The air already in the jar can provide the needed oxygen
and no lid is perfectly tight either. I say this because the potential for contam
is too high.

Once the grain jar is prepped, then whatever lid it has on at that time is the lid
it will live with. :0) I would either silicone a patch of tyvek over a 1/4" hole in
the lid, or I would pull a ball of polyfil through the same hole. These lids would
provide filtered GE during colonization and would be sterilized along with the
jar and grains.

Good luck,

JD

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yes but these methods would be after this run is done and a new begins. i believe he is speaking of removing the lids on the current and i feel that would just let in contams into his nice n sterile enviorment. forgive me if i interperted you wrong but i feel opening these jars before full colonization is just asking for contams.

i feel opening these jars before full colonization is just asking for contams.

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My primary point. Use the air already in the jar.

I need to stop inverting my thesis.... :0)

JD

just re read your post JD and realized i interperted it wrong lol.

Javadog said:

My primary point. Use the air already in the jar.

I need to stop inverting my thesis.... :0)

JD

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LOL no biggie man I got what I needed from your info Thanks for sticking around and helping out

RetiredMatthebrute said:

just re read your post JD and realized i interperted it wrong lol.

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Yes. All is well.

JD

looks like your myc is coming along

Javadog said:

My primary point. Use the air already in the jar.

I need to stop inverting my thesis.... :0)

JD

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If anyone looks at the sticky, the one about growing mushrooms the easy way they will find that the entire proceedure is based on using the air in the jar - people are usually too concerned about fresh air. Mushrooms don't need much fresh air when they are colonizing, all that happens is that the mycelium begins to slow down it's growth and finally halts.

When I do this with shaggys and I finally open the jar, it has the most wonderful aroma of nuts, the day after I open the jar, this sparse, grey sort of mycelium is all bright and white (mostly) the day after I have opened it. I have left them fully sealed for weeks with no problem.

I'm not saying this to Java, he doesn't ' much need my advice - this is for those other folks.

good luck with it!

Been slacking on my updates lately, hopefully well become more frequent now that things are moving along well. The first 3 pictures are from my outdoor experiment(my first round of jars I ended up dumping and burying outside.) and it looks as if things are going very well!!!! Had to dig around a little bit to uncover the mycelium but it appears to be getting larger everyday so hopefully sometime soon I will have a nice patch growing alongside the house. Lmao.

The rest of the pics are of my colonizing jars. Thinking I am going to give them the rest of the week to colonize and this weekend I will begin casing. Feels nice to finally be seeing some kind of results after so many failures, although it is now apparent I was to impatient with my first run of jars.

Until next time...

looking good man, not sure about this but you may want to get some kind of nutriet rich substrate on top of the mycelium outside?

I think that that would be fine, but it should not be mandatory...yet. The grains
should have enough nutrition to support a flush or two.

The soil is the casing that that needs. ...but you do indeed want to avoid exposed
mycelium, if only to help it avoid being eaten.

Outdoor beds do indeed need to be fed. This is very true. I'd scrape away the soil.

Good luck,

JD

Javadog said:

I think that that would be fine, but it should not be mandatory...yet. The grains
should have enough nutrition to support a flush or two.

The soil is the casing that that needs. ...but you do indeed want to avoid exposed
mycelium, if only to help it avoid being eaten.

Outdoor beds do indeed need to be fed. This is very true. I'd scrape away the soil.

Good luck,

JD

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Well after reading this I went out and uncovered as much meycelium as I could in my outdoor patch then took some Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil and covered it back up a bit to provide some cover as well as nutrition. I did see some NASTY green areas(assuming it is tric) also mixed in with the myce and tried to remove as much as possible but the myce seems to be winning the battle so far anyway!

Anyway on to the other matter at hand. I now have 3 jars that are probably 70-80% colonized and I think I am going to begin casing them. I intend to case two of the jars together and save the last one for a G2G transfer. My question is, would it be more productive to case my grains directly in my jars or to use a small pan to dump my colonized grains into? Also curious about how much casing to use, I have come across so many different teks for casing I'm not sure which to go by. LOL Going to be using coir and verm in a 70/30 mixture. This brings me to my next question, are the proportions of coir/verm by weight or volume? Heading up to the store now to pick up some popcorn so I can get it prepared and ready for my G2G tomorrow, may also use the remaining spore solution I have as well. Any and all help would be great, don't want to mess things up at this point!

looking good man. lets get these mushies growing m8!

OK so I have been hella slacking and decided to let my jars colonize a bit longer. I was well rewarded to as my corn was/is fully covered in meycellium growth!!!! I ended up with 3 fully colonized jars and cased two of them yesterday in a 8x8 aluminum baking pan filled almost to the top with my casing. Hopefully in the next week or two I can start fruiting! The last jar I am going top let colonize a bit more and use it for a G2G probably in the next week or two. Anyway just thought I would update those following.

Until next time
MJ

Good stuff. I love G2G for expanding spawn. There is something
trustworthy about a fully colonized jar. :0)

Good luck,

JD

Moving right along here finally! Checked on my casing last night and already have mycelium growing up through the top already in spots (I covered the spots showing through to even things out) hopefully by this weekend I can begin fruiting! Last batch of jars I inoculated are doing well also but are growing a bit on the slow side.... Will probably be doing my G2G transfer tonight and hopefully be casing more spawn here in a week or two! Took awhile but things are finally moving in the right direction.

sweet man glad things are going well!!! my project is at a halt right now but will be starting back up shortly

RetiredMatthebrute said:

sweet man glad things are going well!!! my project is at a halt right now but will be starting back up shortly

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That is too bad, but hope things go better for you this time around!

Here are some before and after pics from my G2G transfer, the first two pics are of fully colonized jar. Hope things go well and take off like crazy! I currently have the 4 jars I did my G2G with and 6 others with healthy growth showing so before long I will hopefully have a nice crop of mushies. I am so excited I can't wait, have been out camping 4 or 5 times now and have been itching to have some enlightenment during one of them. Hoping in two weeks me and a buddy can head out to the woods and have a blast!

nice man, looks good from here. dont be sorry, it was my choice to end the project as it was not working out well where i had it. next time when i set up i will do things alot different and will have some monster flushes i hope.