Hello fellow RIU members, I have just recently started a small shroom grow that I wanted to share. I used the basic PF Tech method from Shroomery consisiting of Brown rice flour and vermiculite. All the supplies can be picked up at most local stores.
I purchased the shroom spores from Microtech Industries here--->
http://www.micro-supply.com/index.htm
The spore syringes came to about $20 US dollars for 2 syringes which can do twenty 1/2 pint jars.
Here's a cut from Shroomery to expain what I'm doing.
http://www.shroomery.org/10256/PF-Tek-v2
1. Brown rice powder, vermiculite and
distilled water are mixed and loaded into a 1 pint jar, which is steam sterilized. The jar is then inoculated by the spore syringe. 2. After the substrate cake in the jar colonizes and begins to show signs of fruiting, the cake is released from the jar and placed into the dual chambered terrarium (or a different fruiting chamber of your choice) to fruit.
3. A mature mushroom is decapitated and spore printed in a jar.
4. Spore syringes are prepared with the spore print jar to begin another life cycle.
For my mix I ground only half of the brown rice and left half whole so it's easier for the mycelium to spread thoughout the cake. I have a pressure canner so that helped sterilize but you can still do this with a good pot and lid and I went with 1 pint jars instead of 1/2 pint.
I inoculated 7 jars last week and 5 are now showing signs of growth. No signs of contams yet but also no signs of growth in the other 2 jars yet.