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 TheChef
Shroom Fanatic
Registered: 08/18/12
Posts: 34
Loc: Montana
Last seen: 2 months, 22 days
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 Starting Up My First Grow 
#16729350 - 08/20/12 02:42 AM (8 months, 25 days ago) |
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Hey everyone,
Me and my brother have decided to start our first attempt at growing these magical mushies and I wanted to start a thread on here so I can get advice as we move along in the process. Right now we have just started to buy the necessary tools as we wait for our syringes to arrive, so I'll lay out our plan thus far and if you can give me any pointers and let me know if we are doing something wrong I would very much appreciate it.
So far, we decided to use a small camper bathroom as our growing room as it is our only suitable environment for this project. We cleaned it out today and made it airtight and sealed off all light sources for pure darkness (we will be moving a lamp or two in for the fruiting process). We used a simple bleach cleaner to sterilize the environment, paying special attention to the small bath tub where our plastic tubs will be sitting.
Today we purchased some long grain brown rice that we will use with verm for our substrate, and we might add some flaxseed meal with it as I have read here that it pairs well with the verm/flour. Any other suggestions (our budget is limited at this point) as to what we might add for our substrate?
We have a very large pressure cooker which we will be using to sterilize our substrate, which we will have in 12 wide mouth pint jars. So far the recipe we have chosen from some of the Teks on this site is one that calls for twice as much verm as flour. Is that a good proportion for our substrate?
After colonization, we plan on transfering the cakes into two plastic tubs, and we plan on using a bottom layer of 50/50 verm/perlite, to achieve optimal water retention as well as aeration.
As for our light source, we have seen references that the blue spectrum of light is particularly good for growth and it just so happens that my brother has a blue light bulb, and since photosynthesis doesn't drive the growth of fungus I see no problem in only using that blue light for the fruiting process. Also, i figure that the blue light will emit less heat than the standard light, so it seems to me that would be our ideal choice. Am I wrong? Will the blue light suffice in signaling the fruiting process to begin and continue?
We decided to order cubensis Cambodia and cubensis Ecuador syringes, and as soon as we start colonizing we will post several pictures and continue to do so as we move through this amazing process.
Any advice so far? We have been doing a lot of research up until now and we want to make sure we have a successful first grow, and hopefully it will be the first of many. Please give me any helpful information/tips that could help us, and let me know if our plan thus far is a good one.
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basqueshaman
trippy humpy creepy guy
Registered: 04/01/11
Posts: 2,134
Loc: hell usa 
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: TheChef]
#16729404 - 08/20/12 03:10 AM (8 months, 25 days ago) |
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watch roger rabbits lets grow mushrooms videos, a light bulb is a light bulb wattage will determine how much heat is put out not colour thats like saying because its green coloured it uses less energy nice thought though not sure about flax seed i use BRF and fine grade verm. other than that stay patient watch your jar dont touch them while they grow and never give up. if at first you dont succeed try try again. FYI i started my hobby with about $35 and scavenged the rest of what i needed. also you will learn from your mistakes. also keep shit between just you and your bro and no one else. that and do not discard your spore syringes you can re-sterilize them for future use when you make a print just remember to use distilled water for spore solution(Ive found it stays viable longer) and never rush anything with this hobby
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 Queen of Kings
Get on with the Fascination
Registered: 12/11/11
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Why did you seal off all light sources for total darkness? Mushrooms like light at all stages of growth.
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TheChef
Shroom Fanatic
Registered: 08/18/12
Posts: 34
Loc: Montana
Last seen: 2 months, 22 days
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Alright well it's good to know that the light will work for our purposes, and we do know enough about the law to know that this kind of project is best left at a need to know basis, and no one needs to know but us.
And michelle, thanks for bringing that up because I honestly was not sure about the darkness. Truthfully, the only reason we had decided to do that was because before i had done any research, people had always told me that mushrooms like warm humid dark places as growth environments, and after I had started my research I hadn't found anything contradicting that idea, at least concerning the first stage of mycellium growth. So were going to take down our light blockers and let sunlight in from the very start.
Thanks a lot for the input, we really appreciate all the help we can get.
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MushyMatt
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Registered: 10/13/11
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: TheChef]
#16730998 - 08/20/12 01:14 PM (8 months, 24 days ago) |
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Have the bottoms of tubs have at least 4" of wet petlite. No verm added. Take your mason jar lids, and set the cakes on them so they don't touch the perlite.
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If I'm alone, I cannot hate.
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TheChef
Shroom Fanatic
Registered: 08/18/12
Posts: 34
Loc: Montana
Last seen: 2 months, 22 days
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: MushyMatt]
#16731302 - 08/20/12 02:03 PM (8 months, 24 days ago) |
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Thanks Matt, I had been reconsidering the verm/perlite combination because I've been checking out some of the pics on the site and straight perlite seems to be what most people use. So yeah we will use perlite on the bottom and just dunk and roll our cakes when they are ready.
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MushyMatt
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: TheChef]
#16731771 - 08/20/12 03:32 PM (8 months, 24 days ago) |
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Drill drainage holes on the bottom too. You don't want ANY standing water.
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If I'm alone, I cannot hate.
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TheChef
Shroom Fanatic
Registered: 08/18/12
Posts: 34
Loc: Montana
Last seen: 2 months, 22 days
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: MushyMatt]
#16732869 - 08/20/12 07:11 PM (8 months, 24 days ago) |
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Thanks for the advice Matt. So if I'm understanding this correctly, than the point of the perlite at the bottom is to drain all standing water below the shrooms, so that when you mist the shrooms several times daily the only water that stays is the water that is absorbed by your cakes.
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MushyMatt
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Posts: 2,218
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: TheChef]
#16732925 - 08/20/12 07:22 PM (8 months, 24 days ago) |
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Happy 4:20 first off.
Perlite is used to keep humidity levels up. If you do not have holes at the bottom of your tub, excess water will pool up which is prime habitat for contams. When you do a bulk grow, the water droplets that run down the side is your enemy. Hence why people liner their tub with black garbage bags inside to have the water droplets fall behind the plastic away from the sub.
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If I'm alone, I cannot hate.
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TheChef
Shroom Fanatic
Registered: 08/18/12
Posts: 34
Loc: Montana
Last seen: 2 months, 22 days
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: MushyMatt]
#16733139 - 08/20/12 07:56 PM (8 months, 24 days ago) |
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Alright, that helps a lot man, thanks. We were actually considering using a couple of our cakes and one of are other smaller plastic tubs to experiment with a bulk grow while we continue with our standard cake grow. We would like to just go for the bulk grow, because they seem to have larger harvests when done correctly, but we don't know enough about bulk growing at this point to risk our entire operation in case we were to overlook something. Not to mention we have already purchased our perlite. Besides, I think if we are careful and take our time, the cake grow could prove to be very fruitful indeed, especially by the look of some of the grows by other people in this wonderful online community.
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MushyMatt
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: TheChef]
#16733211 - 08/20/12 08:06 PM (8 months, 24 days ago) |
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If done well, after about 5 flushesh, each cake can yield close to a half ounce each.
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If I'm alone, I cannot hate.
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TheChef
Shroom Fanatic
Registered: 08/18/12
Posts: 34
Loc: Montana
Last seen: 2 months, 22 days
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: MushyMatt]
#16733935 - 08/20/12 10:05 PM (8 months, 24 days ago) |
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Well hopefully my cakes will be done well, and with the amount of research I've done lately with the amount of input I've recieved I'm very hopeful. What is the normal amount of successful flushes one can expect before having to make new cakes?
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MushyMatt
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Registered: 10/13/11
Posts: 2,218
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: TheChef]
#16734007 - 08/20/12 10:17 PM (8 months, 24 days ago) |
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When they are done they will only produce usually one giant mushroom
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If I'm alone, I cannot hate.
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TheChef
Shroom Fanatic
Registered: 08/18/12
Posts: 34
Loc: Montana
Last seen: 2 months, 22 days
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: MushyMatt]
#16735231 - 08/21/12 01:52 AM (8 months, 24 days ago) |
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Finally watched Roger Rabbits videos on his site, and I'm very tempted to buy the full version, but that will have to wait until my pockets are not as empty. However, his online video of the PF tek was extremely informative and very very helpful, and many of my questions have been answered.
Also, thanks for the info on multiple flushes, now i will know when I need to call it quits on the first set of cakes and start fresh.
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TheChef
Shroom Fanatic
Registered: 08/18/12
Posts: 34
Loc: Montana
Last seen: 2 months, 22 days
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: TheChef]
#16780958 - 09/03/12 01:19 PM (8 months, 10 days ago) |
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Alright well there has been a couple new developments since i last posted, and i have a question or two that needs answering.
First of all, we inoculated 5 jars of the BRF/verm mix on 8/23. 4 of the jars are cambodians, whereas the 5th jar is a golden teacher jar. It has been about 10 days since then, and the jars seem to be healthy, yet something is odd about them. There is a noticable whiteness in the substrate layer, that is quite distinguishable from the dry verm layer on top of it. However, it isn't like any mycellium growth i have seen on this site or others. Instead of having distinct boundaries to the spreading mycellium, it is like the entire mixture has just gained a slightly white tint. There are some slightly larger white clumps, but they are still very small and it almost just looks like the BRF is clumping together slightly. I am not sure if it is mycellium growth or not, and I was wondering if anyone else has ever seen something like what i just described. I am going to put pictures on here as fast as i can, but i am having a little trouble finding my camera and i don't want to have to resort to using my shitty cell phone.
There was one other development, and something I should have forseen but I did not. In my endless anticipation of watching the other 5 jars make very slow changes, I prepared 5 more jars to be sterilized. I could not sterlize recently because the stove i use is the propane stove in my camper and I need to fill up a tank before i can sterlize more. Really i only prepared the jars because I was bored and it seemed like a good idea, but of course I should have known that if I was to prepare the jars like i did and not sterilize right away or inoculate, that mold and other contams would grow, and they did. All 5 of the other pre-prepared jars are very contaminated, but luckily i did not waste any spores on them, so the loss is minimal. I am just glad that the 5 jars i did inoculate are showing no contamination signs, but disappointed in that the signs of growth are not what I expected.
I am going to post pictures of all my jars as soon as i can so that I can get a legitimate opinion on what is going on.
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 DynGBreeD
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Registered: 01/15/11
Posts: 3,430
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Re: Starting Up My First Grow [Re: TheChef]
#16781002 - 09/03/12 01:26 PM (8 months, 10 days ago) |
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Honestly we can't give a legitimate opinion without pictures...
It's hard to understand what your saying. The Mycelium shouldn't be
colonizing the Dry vermiculite layer. Mycelium does tend to start to
colonize it during the time it finishes colonizing completely.
Substrate jars IMO should never be pre-made. Make them the same day
you plan on sterilizing, and inoculating them.
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