Mushrooms

So basically when you got all the things you need. You start with sterilising your glass petri dishes (if you got plastic ones is good too. They be sealed and sterilised already. So no need for sterilising process. The only down side is that they are one time use.) So if you have glass ones like me wipe them down with alcohol wipes. Put a spacer or something at the bottom of your pressure cooker so there would be space between the bottom and where you gonna place your petri dishes. KEEP IN MIND. That contact of Petri dishes with the bottom will pop and break them.) Stack your petri dishes on top of eachoter and cover them with foil. (Not too tight, just enough so the water that's being boiled wouldnt get inside.). Make an agar mix take your glass jar or media bottle or whatever you're gonna use to keep the mix. So to prepare enough agar for about 20 agar plates this is the measurements. 10 grams agar 10 grams light malt extract 500 ml water 20 petri dishes Media bottle or jar with hole in lid (Narrow neck passata bottles are great) Close the lid of your mix and cover with foil. Don't close the lid tight cause it will cause the glass bottle explosion 🤣🙏it should be able to remove the gasses and bacteria so keep it a lil loose. So after that put your mix in the pressure cooker next to the petri dishes. Put water(I used bottled water since its cleaner than tap water) inside the pressure cooker till the point where it almost meets the petri dishes and your agar mix . But do Not submerge them under water.🛶⛵🛥️ Then you close your pressure cooker and keep it going for about 1 hour.(make sure you start to count after your pressure cooker starts to whistle that means that it got to the right temp to kill all the bacteria. Exactly what we need) When it's done wipe down the walls of your SAB(still air box) and the table it's on with alcohol wipes. Wash your hands with senitiser very well. (You should do it almost every time you touch something or even when get your hands out of the SAB). Place your petridishes and your mix inside your SAB . Let it cool down for a about an hour so the mix will cool down and will be okay to hold in your hand. Ones it's the right temperature you can start your work. Now what you have to do is pour your agar mix in your Petri dishes maybe till half not a full. (You don't need too much). You will find technics on YouTube of how to do it properly. Your movements should be settle and calm but in the same time quick and steady. The pouring that's accurate and done in right way will show you great results and gives you a very little or no chance at all for contamination to ruin your plans.(while pouring stack them on top of eachother it helps to prevent condensation on the dishes) When the pouring is ready leave your now -AGAR dishes to cool down for like 2 hours in your SAB. After that time make sure the agar inside the dishes is solid and cooled down. Now you have to clean your hands again and bring your spore syringe inside your SAB. Now what you have to do is shake the living thing out of your spore syringe so it will break the clumps of spores and distribute them around the syringe. And slowly open your agar dishes and just put one little drop from your syringe in the middle. Not more. Just one little drop. It's enough to bring the mycelium in. After doing each one, close them with parafilm around the edges. First step is done. Now all you have to do is put them inside maybe a box and in a dark place. Check for the right temp and humidity online.. I didn't use anything and just winged it.(which isn't recommended at all)

Hey again so from when we made our agar plates. With everyday you will see some mycelium forming and growing bigger. Theres such thing as cloning the mycelium(what I did) in order to find some good genetics. You choose the best part and make a bisection, cut a small triangle and transfer into a new freshly made agar dish(to prepare them just like I explained in the last week's same method) and you can repeat it until you find a strong strong genes you're looking for.

After you found some good sector and clone it you let the mycelium grow and fill almost all the petri dish like I did last week. So now you're ready to move forward. Making grain spawn!🍄🍄 For grain you can use Organic Rye Berries, but you can also get away with wheat berries, or brown rice or even corn kernels(which I used myself) ! And you'll need some mason jars or honestly I used some jars that I had home just clean them very well and sterilise before using Making a grain spawn can be broken down into 6 easy steps. 🍄Hydrate Grain By Soaking 🍄Make Specialized Lids 🍄Simmer, Drain and Dry The Grain 🍄Sterilize 🍄Put your agar in the jar 🍄Colonize 🍄Soak the grain by placing it in a bucket, covering in water, and leaving it for 12 -24 hours. Easy. 🍄Drill 1 hole on top of the lid. Right in the center and cover with a small dab of high temperature silicone sealant, and leave it overnight to dry. And your jars are done. There other diff types for different methods like liquid culture etc. But I'm just going roughly through what Ive done. 🍄The next step is to simmer the grains on the stove. This will thoroughly hydrate the grains, and will soften them to make them easier for the mushroom mycelium to consume. Cook soaked grain on the stove for about 15 minutes. You don’t want to cook it too long, because eventually all the grain will crack and you’ll get some mushy grain spawn. We don't want that. 🧐After the grains have simmered on a low boil, you’ll need to drain them off. What I did is I drop them in the sink with the drain cover on. The grains will drain over an hour or so, after which you can go ahead and fill your jars. 🍄Once your jars are filled, they need to be sterilised.This kills off all the other nasty contaminants in the grain cover the lids in tinfoil (to prevent water dripping into the lid) and then just pressure sterilise them for about 90 minutes at 15 psi. 🍄After that let them cool down. Get your SAB, wipe down the walls with some alcohol wipes and place the jars inside. And wait untill they will be warm to the touch... not hot and painful 😤patience is key. Bring in your plates that had been stored by you in a dark place. And what u have to do is sterilise your scalpel and just accurately and efficiently decide your mycelium into about 10 pieces and quickly place them in your jar. And complete for every jar u make. You have to be very quick. The more you keep you're jar and your agar plates lids open the more cans they will get contaminated. There certain technics you can see online.. 🍄Ones you're done close all your jars lids tight and Jake your jar so the mycelium pieces will mix around the jar and place them in the dark place to colonize. And just keep waiting... 😅 Untill the mycelium will conquer your grain. Keep your eyes on the jars, any weird smells or colour during the waiting time.. because that would mean you got a contamination going on. Oh yeah and when about 55% of your jar is filled with mycilium shake the sh*t out of it so it will break the mycilium inside and make spread more faster.

Hi again. So now your jars are filled with mycelium. All clean and white. No contamination. Great. 🍄Now DIY time again. I made 2 monotubs (plastic boxes where the mycelium is going to live and grow into mushrooms). I'll show u my measurements in the picture 🤠. And make sure for the inside of the monotub you will need to make a black liner have a look online more about them because they are important and save you a lot of trouble In total I had 6 jars.. but I lost 2 in the process.. got a contamination. So I was left with 4 jars. 😔 But enough for 2 tubs. 2 for each tub. 🍄So for my substrate I used 1 brick of coco coir with some vermiculite. You will have to pasteurize your bulk substrate by cooking it in an oven or steaming it. You need to mix the two ingredients together and hydrate the mixture to 'field capacity.' If you grab a handful of the substrate and squeeze it as hard as you can you should be able to get one or two drops of water to drip out. Put some rubbing alcohol into a spray bottle and sterilise your monotubs. Spray your hands, your working surface, any scissors you might use to cut. Spray the outside of your spawn jar as well before opening it. Make sure the room that you are inoculating in is clean! If you have pets make sure the room has been recently vacuumed. So now we're gonna build our habitat for shrooms. You want to start by sprinkling about one inch of bulk substrate into your sterilized monotub, or in the liner if you're using one. Make sure you can squeeze out a couple of drops of water your bulk substrate. If it dried out during pasteurization you'll need to add sterilised water to it. So first 1 inch bulk substrate then shake your jars so the colonized mycelium will break apart into small pieces and add a thin sprinkling then Add another inch of substrate followed by more spawn. Keep sandwiching spawn in layers of bulk substrate until you've reached your desired depth. Use a paper towel with more rubbing alcohol and wipe down the sides of the monotub just above the inoculated bulk substrate. Put the lid on your monotub and don't remove it again until the monotub is fully colonized!(you can peak at it sometimes but not every moment we get coz it puts your grow at risk of contamination) Keep the monotub someplace warm, but not hot, and out of direct sunlight but with some ambient light present. And keep waiting. Check on your bin daily to watch it colonize. You'll see white spots start to expand from each point of grain spawn. Over time they will completely cover the surface of the bulk substrate. You should see small droplets of mushroom exudate. This is natural and a sign of proper hydration and a speedy colonization. If you see your substrate is getting dry get a fine mist bottle spray and spray it not at it but more like up in the air and let tiny droplets land on the substrate and spray your tubs walls. I haven't got any photos or detailed ones for you but you can find a lot of info online. It was just a curiosity research trial🧐🤔

So ones it fully colonised I kept the lid a lil open for some air exchange and kept mist spraying it when it needed too. And it started fruiting!!! FINALLY! After some more weeks it got really hot in my country and you can see some fuzzy feet on my mushrooms.. it's the white fluffy bottom thing. It's not a big problem as I was reading online. Soon is time for harvest... 🍄😔🤞💪

☮️🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄This grow I did was about 3 years ago. The joy you feel when you're done with is actually very satisfying and releaving ahaha. It took me about 7 months in all. Lots of stress but very much worth it. For some one like me who had no idea about growing, not much of an equipment and just curiousity and willing to try got me to harvest :))) nature is a beautiful thing. The process of growing, creating living conditions and all it's just amusing and fun!!! I got 46 g dry! Was very happy with this grow. Thanks for spending some of your time to have a look and checking it out. 🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄☮️