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Topics - erasurehead

#1
Cultivation / to uncover or not to uncover...
October 07, 2007, 10:44:20 AM
Hi,

someone I met at a bar showed me these pics of woodlover pinheads just starting to fruit:



as you can see the patch is still covered with cardboard, which is half disintegrated:




Under the cardboard it looks like this:




Can the cardboard be left on, or should the patch be uncovered now? If the cardboard is removed, can/should some sort of minimal covering, like some plant cuttings (e.g. there are some fresh trimmings from those little hedge plants to be seen at the bottom of the second pic which could be used), etc. be placed on top?

I'd appreciate any advice on this in case I bump into that person again since they were anxious to get a tip on this...

cheers,

-e
#2
Cultivation / too much rain?
December 03, 2006, 10:29:45 AM
Hi,

The Psilocybe azurescens outdoor cultivation tek recommends uncovering the patch in the fall.

A person I met at a bar was relating an experience to me, where he uncovered the patch late in september and shortly afterward there were heavy rains.  This person didn't have a casing layer, except for some dead leaves and about 1cm of additonal wood chips, but nothing that would keep the patch from getting soaked in heavy rain.

Before uncovering the patch, he said the patch looked very good, with lots of mycelium growth all over, colonizing the the cardboard etc. After the rains, much of the mycelium seemed to have disappeared, and a good portion of the wood chips turned dark brown showing no mycelium growth. Since it's been a wet fall, the chips are very wet, though not quite soaked, right down to the bottom of the patch, and there isn't really any thick ropy mycelium, just a white veil on lots of the chips.  No fruiting ever occured even after temps got down to 5°C for over a month.

Can too much rain in the fall ruin a patch? Would it have been better for this person to have left the patch covered for the fall? Are the dark brown chips "ruined" and need to be removed? Does this patch need a casing layer? Can it be saved? Is it still possible for it to fruit this year?

I've also read that watering too much in the summer will encourage aggressive mycelium growth in the summer, but can abort fruiting in the fall. Could that the cause?

cheers and thanks for a great web site!

-e