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[Mush Zombie]

If you want to learn how to grow mushrooms in bulk, that is cost effective, and easy, then this is the tek for you!

 

 

This technique is nothing new, it has been used by mushroom cultivators for a long time. It is one of the simplest bulk applications that there is, and is great for anyone who wants to learn how to grow shrooms. I hope that this information will expand your mind as much as it has mine, for many years to come. Lets start with the basics:

• Things you will need:

• Spores for your mushrooms (buy these from sporeology for quality spores from a trustworthy source!!)
• 
• Quart sized mason jars about $9 at wal mart for 12 (I recommend 24 jars to start)
• 6 quart "shoe boxes" tubs $1 at wal mart (2 tubs for each tub set up)
• Pennington Classic Wild Bird Seed (or similar) about $8 at wal mart
• 5 gallon bucket with lid
• Pressure cooker (at least 16qt PC)
• Tyvek Envelopes from the post office FOR FREE
• Micropore Tape (cloth medical tape)
• Butane Lighter
• 70% rubbing alcohol
• Coco coir (sold at pet stores that sell reptiles DO NOT GET THE MULCH KIND)
• Gloves
• face mask
• aluminum foil
• COARSE grade vermiculite
• spent coffee grounds
• nail
• hammer
• Silicone or RTV high temp silicone
• pot to boil 1 gallon of water in

• STERILE TECHNIQUE

I will first touch base on sterile technique. i wont go all out with explanations and steps, as its all pretty much common sense. I will say, dont be a freak about it, or mix chemicals and burn your face off. Fumes are bad mmkay? However, This is an important step that should be considered as part of every step of this tek. Some steps require less sterile technique than others, sure, and you will learn that as you get things down, but for now lets say its mandatory for success that you observe sterile technique through all of your procedures until you do. Contaminants to the mushroom culture are public enemy number 1! These contaminants are competitor molds and bacteria that can and will overtake the mycelium that you are attempting to cultivate, if proper sterile technique is not observed. That is not to say that you will have a 100% contam free experience every time you cultivate mushrooms.. Contams happen to even the best of us. So some basic sanitation procedures:

• First understand that you, as a human, are a walking, breathing, contaminant to your mushroom culture. You must take precautions to sanitize yourself. Before doing any work that requires extreme observance of sterile technique, take a shower, brush your teeth, and use antiseptic mouthwash. Put on freshly laundered clothes, if you are going to wear clothes at all.

• All work areas must be clean! Clean surfaces with 1:10 bleach to water solution, rubbing alcohol, Lysol, oust, or any other product that kills molds AND bacteria! Sanitize the air with Lysol, oust, rubbing alcohol, etc.

• Wipe all tools etc with 70% alcohol before each use, and that means right after you use them too

• Wear protective gear like gloves, and dust masks.

That said... Use common sense!

[Mush Zombie]

SECTION ONE: GRAIN SPAWN

 

Note: This section must be completed before moving onto any other section entirely

 

 

The type of grain spawn that we are going to use to grow mushrooms in this tek is Wild Bird Seed or WBS for short. WBS is cheap, and can be found at wal mart or hardware stores. Try to steer clear of WBS that contains cracked corn in it. Cracked corn sucks and turns to creamed corn. Not good.

 

• WBS PREPARATION

Str0bes NO FAIL wbs tek is excellent. It is the easiest there is for newbies, and experienced alike IMO. You do not have to worry about too much moisture in your jars leading to bacterial contam bc he puts the coarse verm in the botom of the jar, which sucks up the excess! Just make sure you learn the shake so that you dont mix the verm up in the WBS too early!

 

 

• MAKING SPAWN JAR LIDS

Beyonds easy tyvek lids
These are the best lids you can make for your spawn jars. The tyvek works great as a contamination barrier, and it is free at the post office, plus there is no guessing as to where to stick the needle in! The rtv acts as a self healing injection port (S.H.I.P.) so there is no need for micropore tape.

 

 

 

• GLOVEBOX

A good glovebox will make success rates in this hobby skyrocket, although with the type of lids that we use in this tek, a glove box is not necessary. A good glovebox is a box that when sealed up is air tight to nearly air tight, and has gloves attatched to sleeves, that are attatched to the box in some practical way. I use the shadow box. It costs about $30-50 dollars to make but it is well worth the cash. You should find a glove box that works for you, and use it.

We have two of these here at this moment of writing. Both of the glove boxes are awesome.
Shadow box version 2.0
High Quality Glovebox by Str0be

 

 

• INOCULATING WBS JARS

 

Wipe your needle with alcohol before and after you noc any jar.
Wipe your lids with alcohol before you stick the needle through the tyvek.
Cover holes with micropore tape, to keep contamination out!

Inoculate the WBS by sticking the needle in the jar through the ship, aim the needle at the glass side of the jar, then squirt just a little onto the glass side of the jar. Try to make about 4 inoculation points in each jar by squirting a little spore solution in 4 places of even distance apart from each other.

Use 1cc per jar.

Set in incubator @ 75-80* F If you do not have an incubator you can use a cardboard box on top of your refrigerator

It can take up to 14 days to see growth from spores.[/size]

 

 

 

• SHAKING THE WBS JARS

When the mycelium has colonized about 20-25% shake the crap out of the jar to redistribute the colonized grains around the jar. This will speed up colonization immensely.


Time to shake!

Pic courtesy of Str0be! Thanks!

Once your jars are 100% and it is time to spawn you can begin your sub prep!

[Mush Zombie]

SECTION TWO: SUBSTRATE PREP, SPAWNING, AND SPAWN RUN

 

NOTE: This section can only be completed once section one is complete and the grain spawn jars are colonized 100%

 

• SUBSTRATE PREP

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=R2-J3qGcOko

THINGS YOU WILL NEED:

Brick of Coco Coir
Spent coffee grounds
5 Gallon Bucket
Oven Bags (optional)

Coco Coir will be the substrate that you spawn your colonized wbs to. You will be adding the spent coffee grounds to add nutes to the coir. Coir does not contam as easily as other poo based subs, so it is a good bulk sub for the beginner.


Add spent coffee grounds @ 1 cup per brick of coir.

1 Brick of coir should make about 4 6qt tubs worth of sub, so use 1/4 brick per tub.

1 Gallon of boiling water is required to expand and hydrate the brick of coir, so use 4 cups boiling water per 1/4 brick.

Bring water to a boil, put coir, and spent coffee grounds in the bucket.



Slowly pour boiling water over the coir, then place the lid of the bucket on, or use a towel to cover the bucket. Let it sit for about 15 min, then stir it up so that its all broken up and fluffy. Re-cover the bucket and let it sit until the coir is cool enough to work with.

DECISIONS... DECISIONS...

At this point your coir can be used as a sub. The hot water, and steam has probably killed off anything malicious living in there. But this is not gauranteed. So here is your choice. You can either use the coir straight from the bucket, and spawn to your sub, or you can load it up in an oven bag and pressure cook it to make sure that it is sterile. I recommend PCing it, just for optimal success rates. Just sayin... Now back to the sub prep:

When the coir is cool enough to hold, grab handfuls of it, and wring the excess water out of it so that it just barely dripping.

You can either load that field capacity subtrate straight into your tubs, or into an oven bag. If you decide to load it into an oven bag, you will need to squeeze the excess air out of the bag, seal it with the ties provided, then poke two holes in the bag, and cover those holes with micropore tape, so that the bag does not swell up in the PC and block the vent pipe.


Let the substrate cool completely to room temperature, and you are ready to inoculate your bulk substrate with colonized grain spawn.

 

• SPAWNING TO BULK SUBSTRATE

 

THINGS YOU WILL NEED:

6QT TUB
1 QT OF SPAWN
3 QTS SUBSTRATE
BLACK TRASHBAG
ALUMINUM FOIL
MICROPORE TAPE
RUBBING ALCOHOL

As with every step you take in this hobby use proper sterile technique and common sense.

Wipe your tub out with alcohol, and while that is drying cut yout black trash bag to cover the bottom, and the walls of the tub.



Line the tub with the black trash bag, and dump 3 qts of sub into the trash bag, then dump 1 qt of 100% colonized spawn on top of the sub.



Mix in the spawn and sub very well, making sure to get spawn all over the bottom and in the corners of the trash bag. Break up any clumps of spawn as best as possible with your hands.


Once thoroughly mixed make the sub as flat as possible without packing down the substrate. You want the sub to be light and fluffy so that the spawn can run the substrate easily, and quickly, but flat for proper pinset.

Cover the tub with foil well, making sure there are no leaks around the edges.

Poke a few small holes in the foil for gas exchange, and cover them with micropore tape.

 

 

 

 

 

• SPAWN RUN

​Incubate the substrate at 77-80* F

The incubation, and colonization period of a bulk substrate is known as the "spawn run." During the spawn run DO NOT MESS WITH THE TUBS OR "CHECK ON THEM" FOR ANY REASON unless you smell something very foul coming from the area that the tubs are in. Allow at least 6 days for the myc to run the substrate fully. Mycelium needs very high levels of c02 to colonize properly, and if you peel the foil back prematurely, not only are you asking for contamination, but you will be reducing c02, which will most likely increase colonization times.

This is what the sub should look like 6 days after putting this sub in the IC:


Could be better if the spawn is allowed to run for 10 days

[Mush Zombie]

SECTION THREE: CASING LAYER, FRUITING, AND DRYING

• 50/50+ CASING

THINGS YOU NEED:

SPHAGNUM PEAT MOSS
COARSE VERMICULITE
HYDRATED LIME (PICKLING LIME)
CRUSHED OYSTER SHELLS (chunky kind) ((optional))

A casing layer is a thin layer of a non-nutritive medium, in this case mostly sphagnum peatmoss, that will hold a lot of moisture for the developing mushrooms to utilize. After the spawn run you will want to apply your casing layer to stimulate a decent pinset, and protect the mycelium from drying out in the tubs (this is not optional). Casing depth should be 1/4".

This is a 2 qt recipie which should be good for about 3-4 tubs if cased 1/4" deep:

1 qt. Sphagnum peat moss
1 qt. Vermiculite
4 TBSP lime
1 cup crushed oyster shells
2 cups water

First add all the dry ingredients together, and mix them up well.

Then add the water, and mix well again


This is what the PH should be about:


Load this up into jars, or an oven bag, and PC for 60-90 min.

• CASING THE TRAY

Case the tray by putting 1/4" of casing material over the surface of the substrate as evenly as possible. Once this is accomplished mist the casing, and the walls of the tub, and the top tub. Install the top tub.

• FRUITING THE TRAY

Fruiting the mycelium successfully will only happen if several environmental factors are present at once to stimulate primordia formation. Those factors are:

• Temperature reduction
• Reduction of C02
• Evaporation from the surface of the substrate
• Exposure to light (minimal)

• TEMPERATURE FOR FRUITING

68-72*F

Temp range is anywhere between 68-80*F. However the hotter the temp, the more hollow the stipes. For quality mushrooms fruit at temps of 68-72*F.

• REDUCTION OF C02 AND EVAPORATION OF MOISTURE FROM THE SURFACE OF THE SUBSTRATE, OR MISTING AND FANNING

Mist and fan at least 3x times a day. Misting consists of GENTLY misting the casing and misting the walls of the tubs including the top tub. When fanning, fan the casing for at least 60 seconds vigorusly. Make sure not to use water with chlorine or other chemicals. It can cause bruising on the mushrooms and mycelium. Use distilled water preferably.

Another pinning strategy, which is much more time consuming, but very awesome is this one:
Here is a fanning set up with this tek:

• LIGHTING

Mycelium and mushrooms do not use light like plants do. Instead light is used to determine which way to grow in some species. For those species we use either natural day light, or 6500k "daylight" bulbs. light does not need to be intense, just natural diffuse daylight works great.

• PINSET

And now the part everyone loves. about 7-14 days after you set the tubs into fruiting conditions you will start to see pins pushing through the casing. Dont lose it though, continue to mist and fan.

• HARVESTING

Harvest the mushrooms before they begin to dump spores all over the place. Generally people harvest right before the veil breaks, or right after. To harvest gently grab the base of he stipe, and twist to the left and right until the mushroom separates itself from the sub and casing. Do not rip them out. Remove all mushroom matter from the casing. Bring some kind of bin or tote lid with you to put the mushrooms on.

• Spore Printing

Spore printing is important, if you wish to preserve your strains, for future use.

How to make a spore print

• DUNKING

After the harvest you will want to dunk your sub. Set something heavy on top of the sub, then pour water in the tub until it is submerged. Leave the sub submerged for 24 hours. After 24 hours dump all the water out, and set the sub on something to drain for 30 min, the reintroduce the sub to normal fruiting conditions.

• DRYING

There are several techniques to drying mushrooms. This is how I do it (fast forward to 4:20):

[Mush Zombie]

Optional step to this tek: Liquid Culture

• Liquid Culture Process (you can skip this)

​http://www.youtube.c...h?v=JKdu87LkqCo
As I said before, liquid culture, or LC is necessary TO ME in this hobby IMO. By making a LC you will have virtually infinite living mycelium to transfer to your grain spawn. You only have to wait for germination once with an LC, and the spores germinate in LC light years ahead of spawn jars.

• THINGS YOU NEED:
• Mason jar ( I like to use half pint jars)
• SHIP lid (as described above)
• Karo light corn syrup
• Distilled water
• Pressure cooker
• Aluminum foil

Simple LC Recipe:Quart Jar:600 ml distilled water30 ML (2 TBSP) light karoPint Jar300 ml distilled water15 ML (1 TBSP) light karoHalf Pint jar150 ml distilled water7.5 ml (1/2 TBSP) light karoSet all your supplies out on your work area (after it has been wiped down)



Pour the correct amount of water, and karo into the jar. Put the lid on, and the ring. Tighten the ring down ONLY so that the ring jiggles loosely! This is important that you do not tighten the ring down all the way so that the vaccum can release itself after being cooled all the way in the PC, and so that the jar wont crack or anything. Cover the lid and ring with foil.



PC this LC for 30 min at 15 PSI. That means when your PC is at 15 PSI, you set the timer for 30 min. Let the LC cool in the PC overnight, so that it completely cools. This will increase your chances of having a vacuum free LC. If there is a vacuum, it will not hurt the myc, or stop it from growing.Now you have a nice clear LC that you will be able to detect contamination easily in. Easy huh?

• INOCULATING THE LC (you can skip this)
• Things you need:Spore syringe
• Butane lighter
• 70% Iso. Alcohol
• Paper towels

Soak one paper towel completely with the Iso alcohol. Wipe the silicone ship with the alcohol towel for a few seconds, then set it on top of the silicone S.H.I.P. and leave it there until ready to inoculate the LC. Soak another towel with alcohol Prepare your syringe by shaking it furiously for about 20 seconds, then take off the cap.

Flame the end of the needle until it is glowing red hot, cool it down with your alcohol towel, by wiping the needle. Stick the needle into the jar through the silicone S.H.I.P. while holding the end of the plunger on that syringe in case of vacuum, so that all your spores are not sucked into the LC. Inject 1cc of spore solution, remove the needle, wipe with alcohol, and replace cap. Store syringe in fridge until next use. Put LC in incubator at 80-82* F. You should see growth within 2-10 days.



LC is used to innoculate the WBS, just like spores. The reason why experienced cultivators use LC is because

• LC creates an almost infinite amount of innoculant
• LC makes for shorter colonization times
• LC makes for stronger growth (as you are just transfering live mycelium to the jar)

However, most new people have some trouble with LC, due to buying spores from crappy vendors that are contaminated with bacteria or yeast from improper sterile technique, which is why I recommend trying LC, then innoculating the WBS with spores, which this tek clearly states.

This tek is a lot to take in at once.