An excellent cultivation method using quart-sized canning jars. It's quite a bit simpler than the other methods and should be easy enough for most beginners.
There certainly is not a shortage of cultivation techniques on the internet. There are many marvelous methods, a few of which I've
tried with great success. The PF method is an excellent way to go, provided you have the equipment, the extra space, and the time.
Not to mention the personal intrusion growing your own may force upon your home's co-occupants (spouse! roommate! etc!)
My little procedure is something I found on the www, but have modified to my domestic situation. You won't need the humidifier, or
the growing chamber set-up.
Here's what you will need:
Pressure cooker (17 qt. works great-will fit 7 jars)
Kerr wide mouth 1 qt. jars. (buy a case, you'll see why later)
Brown rice (get 1 lb. box)
Distilled water (buy two gallons..it's cheap)
PF spore syringe (get one per 7 jars)
Extra-long tweezers, a scalpel (for reaping the wild wind)
Lysol spray (buy a few cans of this...very important)
Here's what to do:
Step One
Prepare your pressure cooker. This means to read the owner's manual and be safe. Then prepare the jars. I run the jars
through the dishwasher the night before with the heated dry cycle (this is NOT a sterilization step, just my paranoia).
Step Two
Here is where we prepare the growth medium. I do 7 jars at once, since the pressure cooker holds 7, this works nice. If your doing
this for you and your loved ones spiritual purposes, this should be plenty to start with. In each of 7 jars, put 1/4 cup of uncooked brown
rice to 1/3 to 1/2 cup of distilled water. Place the jar lids in the 'classic' upside down configuration (seals up), and place bands on
loosely. Loose is very important here, as steam must be able to escape during the sterilization process.
Step Three
Place jars in the pressure cooker with water about 2" from the
bottom (note-water rises as mass is added, so start with 1" and it should work
out). Be sure that your jars aren't tipping and getting water sloshed into them.
This isn't good. Sterilize for one hour at 15 p.s.i., and be careful! After the
hour, turn off heat. I just let the whole works sit and cool to room temp. Then
you can open the cooker, and remove the jars. Be sure you've cleaned up around
the area real well. This means to nuke the place with lysol, and clean all
surfaces with anti-bacterial cleaner. Make sure the jars are cool to the touch
before continuing. If they need further cooling, be sure and tighten the bands
to discourage contaminates. When you're ready to inoculate, be sure you're
clean. Wash your hands with rubbing alcohol. A dust mask would be nice, but I
usually use my shirt (pull over my mouth and nose). Get your syringe out. If this
is a PF syringe, it's supposed to be sterile, provided you haven't opened the
needle cover, so no 'flaming' is required. Being very careful, cover your mouth,
and one by one inject 1 1/4 or so cc's of spore solution per jar by gently lifting
lids and inserting needle so that it barely fits under the rim. After you've done
this, tighten the lids, and shake the jars until the rice breaks apart from the bottom.
I know this is sometimes hard, but it's important because you're distributing the
spores all throughout the rice. This helps give you rapid colonization. After shaking,
loosen the lids so that they are barely on the jars, but be careful not to knock them off.
Just keep the bands loose to where they jiggle around a bit.
Step Four
This is where the fun begins. After you've got this far, you need to put
your jars somewhere dark for 3 or 4 days. If you bought a case a jars for this,
use your box and the neat little divider they came in. Just soak the box in
Lysol, then line with tin foil (you'll see why). If you don't have the box, head
for Wal-Mart. There you'll find Rubbermaid containers close to the same size.
Mine fits 7 jars perfectly. This is your grow box for the remainder of the
project. The only thing I've found that needs improving is the bottom of the
container. It needs something to simulate 'earth' so mushrooms don't grow
downward (can be a mess...). I've began using a black t-shirt (soaked with Lysol),
and this works well. The temperature needs to be between 68 °F. and 89 °F.
I've found that cooler temps usually are good all around, but this is really
pretty flexible due to the strain of mushroom we're dealing with here. Find a
spot in your closet that fits your box snuggly and inconspicuously. Be sure your
closet is clean. This means to clean it up real good. As a matter of fact, keep
your house clean while your doing this. All of it. Growing mushrooms is a very
deep mind-enriching experience and it would be a shame to ruin it because of
poor cleanliness! After 3 or so days of darkness, you should notice little white
fuzzy spots all throughout the jars. After a week, they need 6 or 8 hours of
light per day. I've used sunlight, and incandescent and both are fine. P.
cubensis are not phototropic, but the light gives the mycelium the clue to
fruit (and to go UP!). Also, you need to tip the jars twice a day to dissipate
CO2 from the jars. My closet I use is in my master bathroom, so I do this when
I'm getting ready for work, and at shower time after work. It doesn't take
long (for 7, that is) and it is easy to keep things under the hat this way. After
2 weeks of mycelial growth, pinning should be close. After 3 weeks, you should have
fruit growing. It's hard to see 'pinning' because the mycelium will have completely
covered the jar sides (from shaking, a rice gunk will smear all over the sides--no big deal).
You'll notice the dark brown heads, though, as the games begin!
Step Five
This is the growing cycle. Now is when you need to get a spray bottle full
of distilled water for humidification purposes. Once fruiting has begun, I would
lightly spray tops of jars (lids on, but loose, of course) twice a day. The
moisture will make it inside the jars, and work great. Really, this may be
overkill. Just pay attention, and adjust accordingly. You'll be surprised how
fast things begin to happen. I usually get 4 or 5 in a jar at once. At first,
the jars will flush every 4 or 5 days. If all your jars are healthy, you'll get
piled with fresh mushrooms real quickly! To pick one, I use long tweezers. Try
to grasp the mushroom at the base and twist free. If this isn't an option, flame
your scalpel (alcohol flame best, use caution!) and cut stalk near base. This will
look nasty in the jar, but has never been a problem for me. Along with the big
fruit, comes little nasty fruits that really need to just be plucked and
discarded (you'll learn to recognize this). Try to keep your jars picked clean,
and don't let a big mushroom go too long and sporulate all over the
place (basically, the end of the show if this happens). Fruiting can last for as long as
2 months. Be sure to watch for contamination. This means little odd-colored spots (red, green, brown, etc).
Your jars will become a multi-blue-green-grey color, this is normal. Watch for the funky stuff, and
use your head. I've never had a contaminated jar with this method. Luck? No, I think it's the rapid
colonization and the sterile techniques that make this so. Anything's possible, though, so be awake,
aware, and have fun.
Final Thoughts
I hope this helps the person with limited resources, time, and space. I've used the PF method with success,
but I've found that my little 'jar' method yields more fruit, and bigger, more potent fruit (largest to date is 32 grs. wet!).
I've had mushrooms grow all the way to the top and push against the lid!!
Please, please be of a mature, informed nature before using any cultivation technique. There's a lot of reading on the internet
regarding this. Also, you can get a lot of ideas on preservation. This method is intended to provide the grower with enough fruit
for endless exploration of the Other place. With the instructions for making a spore syringe in the PF Tek, you can easily maintain
your operation ...forever.
Finally, the sale of our sacred 'friends' should not even be a thought. Once a price is put on the Mushroom, it loses it's spirituality.
Don't sell, but encourage micro-cultivation throughout the world. Happy growing!
