My first class with the golden teacher

Logs are easy enough. ...we just do not have much logging
where I am.

You can inoculate small wooden dowels, and then hammer them
into holes drilled in the logs. You can also make sawdust spawn
and pack it into the holes like putty.

Good luck,

JD

I think I'm going try some oysters too and play around with them like put colonized substrate into potted plants I really like poly's pics where there are cubes coming up next to chives. But im not sure how well this would work here since the RH is generally 35%. Maybe I could get some mosses with domes in buckets outside or well shit maybe just dome the top of the container or around the container of raise the RH.

I hear you about the low RH. I live in a coastal desert.

...but the RH is much better in a well watered pot, nestled
among herbs.

Take care,

JD

i live in an area where logging is verry abundant...so finding some fresh logs would be easy..what kind of logs would i be looking for? oak/hardwood or would decent pine logs work? lots of birch up here too. also debarked or not?

i guess i can read a bit too. enjoy discussing it more than reading though lol

Yeah, I could just start spewing Shroomery URLs at you.

I am a Mod there, and whether or not I am biased, I can tell you
that it is a great place to learn mycology. I am also a Mod at myco-tek.org.

I do not mind chatting this stuff out.

I will also type out a novella if I think that the audience wants and needs one.

Oak is probably the best wood we have for Shitake.

They grow well on most hardwoods....pine is to be avoided (though if aged and
supplemented properly it can work too).

Good luck,

JD

Javadog said:

hardwoods....

Click to expand...

thats what she said!

Javadog said:

Yeah, I could just start spewing Shroomery URLs at you.

I am a Mod there, and whether or not I am biased, I can tell you
that it is a great place to learn mycology. I am also a Mod at myco-tek.org.

I do not mind chatting this stuff out.

I will also type out a novella if I think that the audience wants and needs one.

Oak is probably the best wood we have for Shitake.

They grow well on most hardwoods....pine is to be avoided (though if aged and
supplemented properly it can work too).

Good luck,

JD

Click to expand...

yeah i mean i dont mind researching but sometimes its just fun to indulge in convorsations with people rather than read a ton of age old threads..

polyarcturus said:

thats what she said!

Click to expand...

tee heeee

I got an oyster from the store and I just pulled an agar jar out of the fridge how long does it need to warm up before I can transfer tissue on to it? I have seen people say 24 hours but can it just be 8 hours or enough to bring it up to ambient temp? I should have been thinking about this and pulled it out last night when I started soaking popcorn to do a couple more jars.

Once the agar is at a temp that will not damage the mycelium I think
that a transfer can be done. ...grow will be slow until the dish gets to
room temp.

Make sure to take the transfer tissue from inside the fruit. Rip it open
and take a transfer from the open area.

There are optimal locations for taking transfers, but Pleurotis is strong.
You should rock.

Good luck,

JD

kk thanks. Itll go in the incubator after the tissue transfer. Yep yep. I also put (a small amount of) GT spore solution on agar a couple/ few (?) days ago and while I did that I left one agar jar open in my glove box to try and get an idea of how sterile my box/ procedure is and/or to see what spores/ species are in my environment. I haven't seen growth on either yet there are some little dark spots on the one I injected I think most of that is from the needle after flame sterilizing.... I had been thinking of not mentioning it until I saw growth to make sure I'm doing something right with it.

you dont have to warm the agar to transfer to it. its just the mycelium wont grow till its room temp. i personally wouldn't work with a cold jar for the simple reason that the glass will cool the air causing some contams to get sucked in.

So I talked to homestead books today and was very pleased with what I learned. The only kit you can buy online is the basic kit, which is 130 and has 3 pounds of material with it. They offer a "refill" kit however if you call them for only 95 which has 5 lbs of material in them! So any way they still have them and I may be ordering some 5lb kits very soon. I got great flushs of the 3lb last time so I'm sure 5 will be even better!

$130 ?!?!? Link please.

http://www.homesteadbook.com/store/ez-gro-mushroomkit-p-141.html

I grew one of these kits out years ago with blue meanies. It was awesome, very simple the whole first half is completely sealed and contam free. From my understanding if you get a contam in it, they will replace it for free as well. After the rye berries are colonized you add this to the pasturized manure and close it back up and let it do its thing. I mean you know how its all done, this is just what the kit entailed. I got 3-4 good flushes off the 3 lb bag I ran, and that was kept in a storage shed with terrible temps. If you call them to place teh order or do it by mail you can ask for the refill kit which is the larger one for less money. Its cheaper because the main kit includes a dvd with instructions and all stuff like that. The lady told me I could get a max of 4 refill kits for $30 which is actually 90 a piece instead of 95. This would give me 20 lbs of substrate to work with which I think might out produce my previous trays, and even if it didn't I wouldn't have to have the same level of setup to achieve similar results.

This is my third try at replying to this one. (you had a great
time with one, and I am happy for that)

These kits are something that I would never let a myco-friend
waste his/her money on.

Fuck, but unless I am mistaken, their "Growing Chamber" amounts
to a filter patch sack! Try $1!

Ugh. Better to buy the X-Ray specs from out of a comic book.

Sorry to be blunt.

JD

Not sure why so negative about it them man. The filter patch bags are a very common item from what I've seen. The fact that you have no need to a PC, and have almost no sterile work in the first place is huge. The yields were fantastic from what I remember, and that was with terrible conditions, now that I know what I'm doing I an posative it will be better. The substrate I believe is manure which I thought was perhaps part of the reason for the good results. Its also gaurenteed against contams which is huge. I have the knowledge to do a more advanced grow, but no decent space where I currently am. This is going to allow me to get some nice harvests with minimal effort when I couldn't easily otherwise. No they are not cheap, and its not supposed to be any thing fancy. That is part of the idea is its simple enough anyone can do it almost anywhere, and it is fairly discreet brown box shipping. I've seen other grow kits which are far more advanced with humidity pumps and all kinds of stuff, but they are all pricey and if you are gonna go that far I say DIY thus what I did before. This is all about simple, and getting a nice harvest, I'm not expecting to get lbs, but I'll get ozs and that will keep me happy for another couple years.

seems really expensive though. you can buy a 25 lb bag of rye berries for $15.50

http://www.amazon.com/Rye-Berries-25-Bag-Each/dp/B000RHVIQG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1364294939&sr=8-4&keywords=rye+berries

filter patch bags for 75¢ each

http://www.amazon.com/Mushroom-Grow-Substrate-Autoclavable-Presealable/dp/B004NOV2E2/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1364295044&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=filter+patch+bags

so say you wanted to do 5 lb bags you could do 5 bags for roughly 20 bucks..that would leave 70 bucks savings...

with that 70 bucks you could probabally purchase a decent sized PC and some spore syringes...

if you buy a nice PC then your expenses will be cut drastically on your next order.

and if im reading correctly my calculations are based off 1 5lb refill so to buy 4 of them you could really get a nice setup with a really nice PC

my 2¢

I am sorry to slam them so, and if they made you happy, that is that.

...but Retired pretty much nailed it.

I would lust like to see you get full value for your $'s.

That is a great Rye berry price BTW.

On the topic of grains, let me suggest a great outfit that services most
of the Western US: Azure Standard.

This outfit uses a Co-Op model where people gather into groups, make
their orders, and then pick up their goods *from a single drop point*
(usually the "ring-leaders" home). NO SHIPPING COSTS. When you
are buying 150 lbs of Rye, Wheat, and Milo, then this matters.

Take care,

JD

You guys seem to think I'm not aware of how cheap is can be and havn't been down this road before. I have a PC, I have my incubator totes still, I have my fruiting chamber totes still I have spores, I have syringes, and I even have jars. The thing I don't have is space, not even a closet or anything practical to use for this currently nor do I want to spend the time fcking with preparing bags as that I don't have experiance with. This will cost me more up front for sure I would never deny that or suggest this method to someone trying to do this on this on a budget. This kit is perfect for those who are limited on space, and don't desire to do the sterile work and PCing like I said before. Its a trade off higher cost, for simplicity, no mess, and a gaurentee. Back when I had my mushy grow set up I bought about 6 3lb bags of rye, and shot them up and all failed. I personally blamed the spores, but I don't know what the problem was. With this kit I don't have to guess anything or really do anything. Open the bag drop in the spores, shake and stick it in the corner .....done for a month or so till it colonizes. Then dump into the substrate shake and stick it in the corner for another month. Then expose to some light and lower temps and fruit that bitch. I'm gonna be wrapping the bottom of the block in foil I think to try to prevent side fruiting. It wasn't a big issue last time but seems like a good idea.

Its also not just rye berries either. The bag with the berries in it has the spores, there is also a the 5 lb bag of manure which I couldn't find a 5lb bag but 5 1lb bags were about $22. Not that it can't be found cheaper that was just at the bottom of one of your links. Also not that $22 accounts for the rest of the price, but it is one more cost.

Anyway I'm not trying to change your guys minds, just explaining I don't think I'm crazy. I'm just willing to spend the extra money right now rather then having the extra work, hassles and time involved in running a regular setup. Time being a big one of those, as I used to spend many many hours preparing everything, pcing, and steralizing when I was gonna make a run of jars, making trays or whatever step really. If I had a place I would have set up my original operation along time ago, but since I don't I'm just gonna be happy to have some shroomers growing again.

My reaction was actually relatively mild compared that the
reaction that those kits typically get at the Mush Cult sites.

..but you are right, I was shooting in the dark. All apologies.

Good luck!

JD