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Messages - Myc

#1
Cultivation / Re: Which strain should i use
June 15, 2007, 11:23:39 AM
I found Cambodian to be a very aggressive colonizer finishing long before any of my other cultures.  May have just been a fluke/ luck of the draw on my choice of supplier.
#2
Cultivation / Re: another new guy
June 15, 2007, 11:17:50 AM
I've never had any real success with cakes.  You'll learn the basics such as humidity control, air exchange, aseptic technique for substrate preparation etc. while doing cakes (or at least I did).  My suggestion would be to go for the bulk right off the bat.  Use this to start your grains    http://www.shroomery.org/9030/Docs-Wild-Bird-Seed-Tek .  Incubate in a double tub setup (should you choose to even use an incubator---many people don't and they aren't truly necessary unless your house is really cold).  Then use this to spawn to bulk substrate   http://www.shroomery.org/8397/Horse-poo-substrate-preparation.  Then I use a modification of a monotub setup with an aquarium pump/ hepa filter combo for my substrate container.  It works quite well and didn't cost much.  I think Baph has great success using a Martha closet.  Depends on how much space you have.  Follow those teks to the letter and you'll be o.k.  Good luck with your project.
#3
PF - Tek / Re: pickin
June 05, 2007, 12:57:33 PM
The logic behind picking the fruits just after the veil breaks is that theoretically the fruit is at its maximum potency at that point.  Further growth of the fruits drains the substrate of nutrients which could be better used to support future flushes.
#4
Cultivation / Re: Vermiculite hard to find?
June 04, 2007, 02:41:03 PM
I live in a big city too and it was a bitch for me to find verm.  Ironically, I found it at a True Value Hardware store in a neighboring small town.  Call some of the small "mom and pop" hardware stores instead of searching in the logical places.
#5
Cultivation / Re: mushrooms
May 26, 2007, 08:04:37 AM
Someone will probably flame me for this but here goes anyway:  go to www.mycotopia.net   It appears as though there is a language barrier here since I didn't understand your post very well.  Mycotopia seems to have other languages and you might find what you need.  From what it looks like, you'll need to do some more grow research and the same methods apply for most fungi --medicinals, exotics, or otherwise ;)  Good luck with your project!
#6
PF - Tek / Re: I NEED HELP!!! please !!!!
May 20, 2007, 02:17:50 PM
All may not be completely lost with the cakes under the porch.  I'm refraining from further comment on that issue--LOL.
If those cakes aren't dry here's what ya do.  Collect some dry, aged, leached, cow or horse manure.  Make sure it doesn't smell like amonia or shit by sniffing it.  The manure should smell like dirt if it's the right stuff.  Dig a hole under your porch about six inches deep.  Crumble up the manure and put it in the hole.  Wet the manure until it is......wet.  Don't worry about too much water it'll drain away over time.  Crumble up your cakes and mix them with the manure.  Cover this outdoor bed with dead leaves, straw, or similar.  Keep it moist by watering with a watering can, garden hose sprayer, etc. (don't flood it!!!)  Wait a really long time for the manure to colonize.  After it is completely over-run with mycelium (like the cakes were when they looked fully colonized) case it with rotten leaves, dirt, peat moss,...Wait for your fruits to come out.Be prepared to wait quite a long time.  You can also do this with spent cakes and casings after you have studied the art of cultivating for awhile.
This will really work.  Don't worry about contams, pastuerizing, pressure cooking, or pests since you're gardening in the great outdoors now buddy!
#7
PF - Tek / Re: Flipped a Lid
May 20, 2007, 02:04:08 PM
Axis,
You're cool to put the cakes directly on the perlite.  Don't turn your perlite into soup.  When you set up your fruiting chamber just get the entire mass of perlite moist.  Here's a good trick.  Put your intended amount of dry perlite into your fruiting chamber (I used about 2 inches leveled across the bottom).  Take back about 20% of the dry perlite and set it aside.  Add a hydrogen peroxide/ water solution to the perlite ( 1 1/2 tablespoon peroxide to one gal. of spring water-----more peroxide is not better!!!)  After mixing the water and the perlite, you should be able to tip your fruiting chamber to one side, scrape the perlite up to the high side and see no water running to the lower end (I hope this makes sense).  If you've got a little water running to the low side -- just add your dry perlite that you set aside earlier and mix it in to take up the excess.
As for the innoculation and using less solution.  So long as your jars are contaminant free to begin with and you don't open them for any reason, you shouldn't be increasing your chances of contamination.  Your colonization time may take a little longer but just let 'er go.  The mycelium will take over the whole jar in due time.
#8
Cultivation / Re: bulk without the bulk
May 15, 2007, 06:53:53 AM
This looks like a simple straw tek:  http://www.shroomery.org/8392/Straw-as-a-Substrate  .  I hope this helps you.  In obtaining straw,  I will share one of my mistakes.  I bought hay from a pet supply store thinking it would be just as good as straw.  Apparently hay is LOADED with molds and endospores and difficult to use in a substrate where straw is more easily cleaned up by pasturization.  I had some contamination problems with dactylium and really created some problems for myself.  I'm still trying the straw as a bulking agent in cow poo but I used a bleach dunk idea (1 1/4 tbsp per gal of water submerged hay in solution overnight) to see if the contams could be cleaned up and the nutritional value left intact.  Guess I'll know in a few days.  If it doesn't work.......anyone got a rabbit that needs some hay?

I have read about people buying straw from Michael's craft stores.  It comes in little bales and costs $3-$4.  I use laundry bags for delicates (Woolite brand) to pasturize with.  Available @ Wal-Mart.
#9
Cultivation / Re: bulk without the bulk
May 14, 2007, 08:06:30 PM
I recently had a pf cake which had colonized to 50% and then stalled.  Ever the experimenter, I put the cake into my glovebox and split the colonized half between two pc'd grain jars I had hanging around waiting to be innoculated.  The grain jars colonized completely in around 5 days!!!  The grains are cased in bread pans and in the fc right now.  Got access to horse manure?  I have some pasturized h-poo and cow poo cooling in the bathtub right now.   I saw Anno suggest pasturized straw as well.  Maybe some more details of your limitations would be helpful.
#10
How do you achieve such decent sized fruits?  I'm wondering if you have a better substrate formula, better hydration tek, or if it's just the strain.  I've cultivated B+ and Cambodian in the same manner as your photos and the yields were comparable in dry weight but there must have been close to 100 tiny fruit bodies.  That's a lot of picking and cleaning!  My results were consistent with both strains so I think it is something I am doing different.
#11
Cultivation / Re: High temp and no condensation
May 10, 2007, 05:28:14 AM
Regarding the low humidity:  I live in the desert so I built myself a "ghetto" air humidifier consisting of an aquarium air pump, some tubing, 2qt. jar, and an air stone.  Run an air tube from the output of the aquarium pump, through the lid of some type of jar, all the way to the bottom of that jar.  Place an air stone on the end of that tube (the stone will rest on the bottom of the jar).  Fill jar with hydrogen peroxide/ water solution ( 1.5 tbsp H2O2 per gal. of water) to within about 1.5 inches from the top.  The air gap at the top is important.  Run a new tube from just inside the lid of the jar (only poke it inside about .25 in. or so) and extend this new tube into your fruiting chamber.  While running, the air stone generates tiny bubbles which rise to the air gap in the jar, pressure drives this humidified air through the sencondary tube into your f.c.  I use H2O2 in the water to help keep down molds and contaminants.  This cost me around 20 bucks to build and I run it 24/7 with no negative results.
As for the temps.....I dunno.  Try running a small fan directed at the outside of the f.c. ?
Necessity if the mother of invention.  I'm sure you'll figure it out.  Good luck!
#12
PF - Tek / Re: Is it just a "Rip-Off"?
May 08, 2007, 12:22:31 PM
If you read their shipping policy, they state that orders may take awhile.  That's why I wouldn't deal with them.  I like instant results too!  I also tried dealing with a company called ShroomsNmore.  I had to go to my credit card co. and dispute payment since those guys never shipped what they promised.  The best place I've tried yet, in regards to shipping, viability of samples, and overall satisfaction with results, has been www.sporeworks.com.  It just plain sucks sitting around and waiting to get started on a project!
#13
Like any good experimental process....I cast my net wide on this one.  Weraroa did not like grain (millet pc'd in quart mason jars), nor the sawdust adaptation of the pf tek (3pts hardwood sawdust to one part oat bran, with some rye grass seed thrown in for good measure), but it did like the liquid culture I described.  Third time is a charm I suppose.  The liquid culture is colonizing fine and should be ready to transfer to a prepared fruiting substrate soon.
P. Azurescens readily colonized all methods described above with relative ease (and quite rapidly I might add).  I am also trying it on the standard BRF recipe and it is responding rather slowly.
P. Cyanescens appears to be much more selective and is reluctantly colonizing the liquid culture.  I have switched up the formula to hickory woodchip "tea" to see if I have faster results.  I will also try the ever popular alder woodchips.  The sawdust pf tek is also showing some reluctant colonization so I'm wondering if more patience is required with this strain than with cubensis and others.  This strain doesn't seem to care for BRF, but again, patience may be the key.
#14
I've done some scrounging since I posted this and found an article that offered some great ideas.  I am creating a liquid culture using a "tea" created by soaking fresh hardwood sawdust in water and left in the sun all day (like making sun brewed tea).  This "tea" is then strained through a coffee filter to remove all of the small particles.  I put 250ml of the "tea" into an inexpensive baby bottle prepared by snipping the tip of the nipple off and stuffing with polyfil (like used for the polyfil jar lid tek for grain).  Then I added one tsp. of 100% natural raw honey (or light white Karo syrup can be use as well).  Microwave and bring to a boil for 3 min.  You may have to adjust the power setting on your microwave to prevent the solution from boiling over.  Watch carefully and don't let the solution saturate the polyfil.  Let this cool overnight and then add spores from a spore print much like preparing spore syringes.  I used a glovebox to reduce the potential for contamination.  I suppose one could also innoculate this solution with a prepared spore syringe as well.  The mycelium will populate this nutrient rich solution very rapidly.  This solution can then be used as liquid innoculum to create PF tek style jars or simply add it to your final fruiting substrate. 
I will be experimenting with a mixture of soaked, bio degraded hardwood chips (soaked in a bleach solution of 1 1/4 tbsp. / gal. of tap water overnight), hardwood sawdust (soaked using same tek), and organic mushroom compost obtained from a local garden supply.  I'll post proportions and results here as things develope. 
It is my understanding that this procedure will work with any wood lover.

Just so I don't come across as some kind of super genius, this basis for this tek should properly be credited to a gentleman who calls himself "Waylitjim".  Thanks Jim!
#15
Cultivation / Weraroa Novea - Zelandiae cultivation
April 22, 2007, 07:09:16 PM
I was hoping to find someone who has cultivated or can direct me to a guide for cultivating the New Zealand hallucinogenic pouch fungus.  I've done some searching and can't seem to find anything other than the fact that it likes decomposed wood.  Incubation substrate, temp, spawning substrate composition, Rh, etc...  would be a real help.
My guess is to attempt to innoculate to grain (like most other wood lovers) and then spawn to a pasturized decomposed deciduous wood substrate collected from a local wild area.   I might also attempt an encriched cellulose substrate unless someone can offer me some better ideas.
Hope you can help.        Thanks!
#16
Cultivation / Re: Lost on where to start
April 09, 2007, 12:27:19 PM
I started with the site www.fungifun.org and used the method labeled "PF Tek for simple minds".  I figured I'd qualify as a simple mind.  Good luck on your treasure hunt obtaining some of the ingredients--that was half the fun for me.  Prepare to be very patient, deliberate, and to follow instructions carefully.  This is a really meticulous hobby (at least that was my approach).  By being patient and careful you'll avoid many of the contamination pitfalls and substrate to water content issues and have a successful first time project.......like mine thus far!  I have found it easier to search the archives on this and other sites with my questions since all of us new guys have the exact same questions over and over.  In other words....if I have a question it's probably already been asked and answered in the archives.
In purchasing ready made kits, be careful who you deal with.  I understand that there are a number of scammers out there and some whose sterilization practices are lacking.  I have leaned toward the sponsors of this and other sites rather than trying someone new just yet.
Hope this helps and above all....have fun.
#17
PF - Tek / Re: brown rice
April 09, 2007, 12:14:31 PM
Use a blender.  Pour the whole rice kernels into the blender about a cup at a time and blend them until well ground.