By: The Same Cat That Dropped ‘The Rundown pt. 1’, Last Fall. Fool!
A-ight, so, first off, this here pt. 2, is Post Its for the pros. All you newbies, you need this shit, so listen-up.
1.Take your medium and and soak it for 24 hours. Rinse it well. Let it sit in the strainer for 30 minutes. I can’t speak forrice or brown rice accept for one use which I’ll get to in a minute, however truth be told, I could be stuck out in the back of west bubble-fuck and still grow out the most amazing flushes so long as I have the shit on ‘My Grocery List’.As far as grow mediums go I prefer corn, cracked corn if I can get it (animal feed store -$15-20 for a 50lb bag), but if not then popcorn. Yup, plain ole popcorn from the popcorn section at the supermarket. Corn is corn is corn. Soak it for 24 hours and then gently boil it for 15-30 mins. Rinse. Strain. Other honorable mentions include: Birdseed –Finch and Parakeet varieties are your best bet. Low sunflower seed varieties are preferable. The more varied the pallet of seed and grain, types the better. Also Rye Berries. You can find this at your local health food store. Be brave enough to experiment. Try mixes.Prepare jars and let them sit for 24 hours and then open one and nibble on the grains to see how moist they are. It’s better to be too dry than to be too moist. Work out your formula. Repitition. So, to re-cap: Soak for 24 hours. Boil for 30 minutes. Rinse. Strain. Corn.
2.Pressure Cookers: My first two pressure cookers had pressure gauges on top. And here’swhat I learned: Flick the gas on and let the pot get to boiling on Hi.When it’ssteaming hard drop the weight on it. From here, it will take 7-8 mins to reach15 p.s.i. At this point what do you do? You turn the heat down to Low, right? Right. So guess what? My current pressure cooker is a $35, 8qt cheap-o. No pressure gauge on top. And you know what, I run it all by time and ear. Experience allows improv. And my loads are smaller. Which brings me to:
3.To me, Corn colonizes quicker than most other grow mediums. If the mycelium can dominate the medium than contaminants are much less of an issue. Speed is the key. For speed use corn. For more mushrooms, faster, use corn. Because it’s so cheap, buy it in bulk. Use it in bulk. Corn. At some point you have to expose your mycelium to a contaminated environment. Speed is the answer.
My Grocery List
Pressure cooker, Jars w/lids, Heavy duty aluminum foil, Rubbing alcohol, Hydrogen peroxide, Spore syringe, Strainer, Bowls, Spoons, Plastic sandwichbags, Grow medium, Peat moss, vermiculite, Brown rice or corn meal or branflakes or all three, Cracked corn or popcorn or finch birdseed, or Rye (wholegrain), -These following ones make the game sweeter: Coffee filters, Cottonpads (2 inch oxy pad type) which can be found in the cosmetics aisle at the supermarket or better yet a chain drug store or any drug store.
4.So now, you done soaked, boiled, rinsed and strained your grain, it’s time to load your jars. Remember I told you I knew a good use for brown rice? Well, what I do is I throw a handful of dry rice into my soaked, boiled, rinsed and strained grain. Mix that in real good. What it will do is absorb and/or redistribute moisture throughout the jar. Remember what else I said: It’s better to be too dry than to be too moist. Okay, so, back to loading jars. Fill ‘em just shy of2/3 full. Next, take a good firm knife and a chopping board. If you look close at a canning style lid you’ll see it comes in two parts: a ring and a disk. Now if you’ll look at the disk: one side (the inside) has a sealing gum along the edge, that side, you want to place face up on your chopping board and with the good firm knife ‘pop’ a small hole through the disk (practice, you’ll get it).Twisting the knife, open up three pencil sized holes (they don’t have to be perfectly placed) in the disk. Repeat. x12. Next, place one coffee filter overthe mouth of the jar. Next, place one cotton pad right over the mouth area ofthe coffee filter. Now, place one of your reamed out lids - upside-down – on top of the cotton disk. Finally, tighten on the ring and trim away the excess coffee filter. When you remove the tin foil you’ll have top notch gas exchange and growth will explode if temperatures are around 80ºF. Pressure cook at 15p.s.i. for 60-80 mins. Cool.
5.http://www.hawkseye.com/-Man, just copy and paste. Pre paid visa’s at the drugstore. Totally Legit. Shit comes on time, sterile, as advertised, and all very low key and under the radar. Thai Koh Samui Super Strain is strong and hardy. On a scale of 1-10, for potency:8 Ease of growth:9 Yields:Heavy. I grew some on pure horse shit, and they tasted bland at worst.Treasure Coast. They grow tall and lanky. Potency:6 Ease of growth:6 Yields:Medium. They´re a more fibrous, woody mushroom.
6.When you inoculate your jars do as follows : 1.) –never remove the tin from your jars atthis stage. 2.) –soak a cotton pad in alcohol (alcohol prep) and lay it atop your jar to be. 3.) -fire. Sterilize the syringe tip and shaft. Fold an alcohol prep over the now sterile needle to keep itsterile.4.) –rub the lid with thealcohol prep. See the indentations through the tinfoil. 5.) –plunge the syringe into the jar through the coffee filter and the cotton disk filter and the tinfoiland skeet a bit of spores into the jar. 6.)–twist (without loosening or removing) the tinfoil to close the hole over. 7.) –Repeat. 8.) –Leave ‘em alone for seven days. Yea, Iknow, you wanna fuck with ‘em and look and shit. Go find something to do. Go outside and play or something. Stop fucking with the jars. Leave ‘em alone. Now I know, if you’re a newbie you’re all excited and shit. Everything’s all exciting and new. N…,Nigga! Sit down! Fucking touching everything and shit. Sit down!Corn!
Hot Tip No#27
Okay. I aught-a charge you motherfuckers for this one here. Here goes.Okay. You ready? Okay. Okay. Here goes. …,okay. …, …, …, okay,-use smaller jars.¼ pint -1/2 pint size,for syringe spawn methods, and larger sized jars, 1 quart or bigger, for grain spawn methods. Yea, see, smaller jars are great for getting shit going, while bigger jars are better for bulk work. Smaller jars will fully colonize in a shorter span of time. Shorter time= less chance for contaminations to get a foothold. Use smaller jars.
7.Alright, so,those little spots of fuzz done took control of the whole damn jar huh? No signs of contamination? Good. Get a sandwich bag. Open a jar and dump it in the bag. Now break it up into smaller pieces and chunks. Good. At this point you can go in a dozen directions, all of them good. Here’s another hot tip.
Hot Tip No#15
Fuck agars. Remember them? Well, fuck ‘em. Fuck ‘em to hell! Fuck ‘em. Instead,get a corrugated cardboard box and cut it into little 1 ½ inch circles. Soak‘em in H2O for 30 mins and then let ‘em drip for 15 mins. Drop ‘em in a smalljar and pressure cook at 15 p.s.i. for 30 mins. Use just like you would any agar. Wanna isolate strains, use these. With a gentle tap they’ll slide rightout of the jar.
Alright, so, to me,the best way to learn this shit is to do it, a lot; Botch a pot-load, scrub your jars, try again. I call this shit ‘The Hundred Jar Method’. Purchase, use,and re-use 100 jars (of various size) and you should be about competent with the pots and the glass. You’ll know you’re there when you can grow a shit load of ‘shrooms, from scratch, with no issues or problems.
Soak, boil, rinse, strain.Improvise.Engineer.Experiment. Educate.Learn how to use hydrogen-peroxide.Paul Stamets.Pasteurize.Cool mist vaporizer.X-acto knife.Glove box.Flow hood.Sterilize.Corn.
Peace on 8/24/09
And Just in case you missed it
The Rundown - pt.1 (CULTIVATION)
A realistic overview of the art,science, hobby, and business of psilocybe cubensis ,et al.
Getting right down to it,
0.)If you live in an area where Psilocybe Cubensis grows wild Please feel free to experiment with wild specimens, However
1.) Genetics. Don't be CHEAP. Go to The HawksEye ( http://www.thehawkseye.com/ ) and spend $60.They're reliable and fast. You'll get 4 sterile spore syringes of some of the worlds best domesticated Psilocybe Cubenses ( you can mix and match them ).Species and strains known for their potency ,contamination resistance, ease of cultivation, fruiting potential, and other relative factors. When you place your order don't forget to purchase extra spore syringes for $2.00 ea. which brings us to
2.) Don't Be CHEAP.Your pursuit of the mushroom arts will definitely pay for itself 100 times over, in the next 3-6 months if you take you effort seriously, but if you're cheap- you're wasting your time, and whatever money you do spend. You're going to lose material and resources and instead of hurdling most of the major challenges in one giant leap, you're going to find yourself faced with one fuck up, and another, and yet something else, and yes, yet another issue... trust me, the way to go is to skip that shit and apply proven methods and good reason to the issue -Don't Be CHEAP.
3.)Mushrooms like Heat and Humidity, Heat and Humidity,Heat and Humidity.For an in depth article on cultivating Psilocybe Cubensis go Here. Also, check out These guys. The emphasis is on the correct temperature and humidity, and so, to get started you're going to buy ( or beg for, borrow or steal ( your choice ) ) two rubber/plastic storage totes of the same exact make, model, color, everything -of such a type that they can fit inside of each other. go to w@1mart and you should be able to get two 35 gallon totes for $20. Next, go to your local pet store and buy a fully submersible aquarium heater for $20-$40. You want one with numbers to show the temperature or a built in thermometer. Also, about 20 water bottles or soda bottles filled with water. You're going to need several thermometer/humidity gauges ( get the old school type from the 50's. digital is full of shit -Keep It Simple ).Finally, 3 or 4 gallons of water (there are a few other things that are good to have but for now these are the essentials). Take one of the totes and figure a good sturdy place for it and begin to fill it with warm water. Drop in the water bottles and space them. Place the aquarium heater in the tub ( turn it up to full blast ) and wedge a few water bottles around it to protect it a little.Put the second tub inside the first so that it floats on the water. This is a basic incubation chamber setup. Later when your inoculated jars are colonized you'll spray and wipe the chamber down with alcohol and dump about 6 inches high worth of hay or horse manure into it. Then you'll heat sterilize a fork and use it to separate and spread your spawning substrate. For this reason I like to let my jars colonize about 75% of the way and then mix them into my bulk substrate. Ah! Not only does the incubation chamber facilitate the speedy growth of jars of substrate but used in this manner it facilitates a speedy spawn run. Finally, when you're ready to initiate pinning simply unplug the aquarium heater. The substrate temperature will drop over the next several hours.The only way that you don't NEED this is if you live in a region where the weather is in the low 80's. If you think you'll be happy in an 80 degree home, you're crazy, and if you think you can grow Psilocybe Cubensis in a 69degree closet you're in for a long grow. Build the incubator -Don't Be CHEAP.Inoculate your substrate and put it in your 80 degrees incubator box. Oh, and to be certain, you'll probably want to have 20 of these things once you see what one can do. Now check it. Go to your local chain hardware store and get a72" x 36" slab of the thinnest "Plexiglas" you can find. It ran me $50. Measure the top openings of your storage bins and cut a piece of Plexiglas just a little bigger to use as a lid. You can also improvise a sort of "drip shield" out of the Plexiglas. I use duct tape on a dry,clean surface and i reinforce it real good. Plexiglas will allow good light penetration and will give you a greater degree of control over the growth chamber.
4.) Substrates.You'll hear a lot of talk about rye berries and brown rice flour cakes and some other shit -Fuck all that. In the beginning I spent, oh, $100 or more, on all the fancy shit that the experts use and advise for this reason or another-hogwash. Go to the animal feed store and get a 50 lbs bag of cracked corn for$10-$15. Psilocybe Cubensis loves the shit out of cracked corn and you'll proceed at a faster rate on cracked corn. Boil it for about 15 minutes. Snatch a few kernels with a fork and rub 'em on your fingers. when they feel a little slimy they're done. Take the pot to the tub in the bathroom and run the cold water. Using your hand, stir and mix the hot corn using the cold water,staining off the corn and dumping out the hot slimy water. Keep stirring and rinsing until the corn no-longer feels slimy to the touch and is cool. Next,mix in a little vermiculite to an ass load of corn ( 10 parts to 1 is fine ).Fill your jars 2/3 of the way with your corn/verm mix and pressure cook at 15PSI for 60 minutes and allow to cool overnight. It's not my intent to get off into substrate jar logistics and design and/or air exchange mechanics. For excellent detailed Teks on substrate jar preparation, goHere. The emphasis is on the use of cracked corn and how to prepare cracked corn for use as a substrate. When your jars are completely cool shake them to break up the corn.
5.) Horse Manure.If you don't live in an area where someone keeps a horse or a donkey get in your car and go for a drive toward the country and you will see some horses.Don't make excuses, go get the horse shit. How much? as much as you can find,transport, and store. When things get rolling in a month or two how much shit you have will largely impact how much quality 'shrooms you're able to produce.Manure will give you dense 'shrooms that are more potent and lose less weight when they dry. Also, manure should make up the foundation of your grow substrate because, well, it's free (and you're a fool if you pay for a single piece of shit -horse shit is free). If you can stock up a hundred pounds of it then that's about half of what you'll want to horde away. Now, to actual field collection. Climb through, over, or under the fence, ( the horses don't bite -Stop being a pussy! ) and pick up the shit. If you see anybody, wave at them -see how they wave back? That's because they hope you take all of their shit. If they come over, be polite. If they bitch, leave. If they ask, tell them the truth, you're growing mushrooms. If you prefer to lie, do so. no one really gives a fuck when you get down to it. At this point I am obligated to add that Straw ( not hay, straw. ) is right up there with horse manure in terms of quality as a bulk substrate. Going back to manure, once you get it home you're going to break down each individual nugget, by hand -don't be a pussy. You can wash your hands when you're done.Better yet, get This video. Casing.Alright, what I do is I take about a quarter of a 12 gallon storage bin of horse manure and ( I use two 12 gallon storage bins as giant manure mixing bowls. ) I add about the same amount of Jiffy Mix ( not just any old potting mix, Jiffy Mix! ). For casing it works a little better if it's a little drier -you can hydrate it a little more, later. Mix it up real good and break up as many little chunks as you can. Pack it tightly ( Tighter! ) into 1/2 gallon jars and put it in a big pot. fill the pot with water until the jars of dirt begin to float. bring to a full boil. Cover with a lid and let boil for another30 minutes; then turn off the stove and let sit for an hour. Now take them out of the water. Use a long metal cooking utensil to help dig the jars out. This is how I pasteurize my casing material ( more Jiffy Mix ) and my bulk manure substrate ( less Jiffy Mix ).
6.) Shaking Jars.Don't do it! Look, I understand the reasoning that the pundits give in favor of shaking your jars and they're all fine and good, the thing is this: Fuck Shaking Jars. Sometimes the mycelium recovers and sometimes it doesn't. You start out with 10 jars, 2 become contaminated, 2 are going a little slower for some reason and then, when shit starts looking good, here your ass come wanting to shake the shit out of something. Then you wonder why you ended up with 4 jars. Given the correct temperature mycelium will grow at a rate of"doubling" about every 24 hours. There is one time at which, I say,it is appropriate to shake a jar and that is right after you inoculate it. give it a real good shake to make sure the spores are evenly dispersed through the jar. You have a sterile substrate (cracked corn) and the goal is to have the mycelium take over before anything else does. shaking at this stage facilitates mycelial control of the substrate. You want to shake jars? First learn how to isolate and propagate individual specimens. Find a specimen that tolerates being shaken, and recovers consistently. You're ready to shake a jar when losing a couple of jars doesn't hurt deep down inside. So, shake them once and then leave them alone.
7.) Supplies.Spend money on jars. Big half gallon ones if you can find them. Spend money on storage bins if you can. Go to the hardware store and buy the biggest, deepest pressure cooker you can find, one with lots of knobs and dials and valves on it. spend $100 on a big one if you can and if you can't, you will soon. Go tothe supermarket and ask for a flavor injector ( for seasoning meats ), buy every last one on the shelf. Then come back in two weeks and buy them out again. They should run $3-$4 ea. File off the end with a hand file and Walla!,you have a 30-35 ml spore syringe for big boy production. Go on and skeet that in your jars. Tyvek type material can be obtained at H_me Depot in the paint department in the form of a disposable paint cover-all. Tin foil, Lysol, 91% isopropyl alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, a 24 inch florescent light that gives off a white-ish/blue-ish light, rubber gloves, build some sort of glovebox, spray bottles, a face mask, a toboggan type hat to act as a hair net, a HEPA air purifier unit, an ultra-sonic cool mist humidifier and I could go on but I wont.
8.) Study and read and practice and perfect. I can't emphasize this enough. Look, It takes a certain cut of person to grow 'shrooms. If you hate learning and researching and experimenting and progressing you're at a severe disadvantage;Knowledge rules here. knowledge begets action which begets knowledge in turn.Go through the forums and communities with a fine tooth comb; Look at the pictures in posts for ideas, digest the basic principles and concepts of mushroom propagation, try to see how other people hooked their shit up,prioritize, and plan around growth stages and time-spans. You're going to have to learn how to improvise. This is where creativity comes in. Necessity is the mother of all invention. Understand what you are doing and devise original,affective, better ways to get it done. Contribute an article -perhaps with some photos- to you favorite community resource. Master this shit. Become intimately familiar with the mushroom strains you work with. Refine your substrate preparation technique to a tee. Constant analysis/synthesis. Start a journal. Keep notes. Whatever brings you closer to the goal.
9.) Economics.There's no reason why, over the next 6 months, you can't grow $100,000.00 worth of this shit. If you don't it's probably because you can't, likely because you lack knowledge, experience or both. tighten-up. Get a little bullshit job so you can buy the shit you need to do the job right. Obtain a copy of the video tutorial Lets Grow Mushrooms!Go to Youtube and Type in Psilocybe Cubensis. Shit! For $100,000 in 6 months, half of that, hell, a quarter of that, I'd learn to speak Chinese. You motherfuckers better tighten-up. And what would the economics segment be without a few words on yields? 1 pound of dry substrate should yield about 1 pound of wet mushroom. More is definitely possible. When fully dried that will weigh about 45 grams or an ounce and a half. In other words 1 pound of dry substrate yields around 1.5 ounces. So, 10pounds dry substrate to produce 1 pound dry mushroom. If you are astute10 pounds dry could produce 2 pounds dry. Now, you go do the math.
10.) One Time.With the exception of Florida, Psilocybe Cubensis is outright illegal to grow,possess, sell, give, or receive in the U.S. -God Bless America. If you get caught you'll be in about the same amount of trouble you'd be in if you got busted for Marijuana. My advice to you is to... Keep your mouth shut. No one should know you're growing anything ( except the horse manure guy -lol ). Grow your shit, dry it, and run it through a coffee grinder. Bag it. Tag it. Push it. Find 3 or 4 guys to move it. Give it to them on consignment and give them a good price. Study these guys. Hang out with them if you can. How do they hustle? Who do they hang with? How do they handle the money that they make? The answers to questions like these will tell you whether or not to cut them off (People of poor habit will fuck you up every time ) or keep them on the team. Finally, and I can't emphasize this enough, every 6 months shut your operation down, Throw all your shit in a U-haul and move to a different state or at least across the state you live in. Keep everyone guessing. Having said all that, I think a final comment is in order: Fuck The Police.
Hey RogerRabbit, Hey Dog -let me live. You might not be about money or radical politics, but many folks are. I'm not hurtin' no one. Don't delete my shit, Dog. Read the comments for 'The Rundown -pt. 1'.
