A new take on the classic BRF & vermiculite grow operation.
Attention!
The documents In this archive are meant for historical research purposes only. The Shroomery will not be held liable for any failed attempts to cultivate using the Techniques herein. To find updated growing information and procedures please refer to the Getting started > PF Tek and General Cultivation links provided under the mushroom info tab of your home screen
Materials
Pressure Cooker
Blender /w All Metal Blade Base!
Large Mixing Bowl
Sterile Ice Cream Pail
Pyrex Glass Stir Rod
Stainless Steel Knife
Stainless Steel Medical Scissors
Stainless Steel Medical Scissor Clamps
20guage 10cc Syringes
Certified Organic Brown Rice
Medium Grade Vermiculite
243mL Polypropylene Jars
500mL Glass Jar /w Lid
Spring Water
Rice Preparation
Add about a half cup of brown rice to the blender and blend until the rice is all blended up into a
very light almost white color flour, and dump it out into the sterile ice cream pail for later and seal
it to keep it sterile and to keep the natural moisture in of the flour!
You will need 1/4C of rice flour per polypropylene jar that you plan to use!
Mixture Preparation
add the following to the large mixing bowl:
1/4 C - b.rice
1/2 C - vermiculite
57ml - water (sit out over night - chlorine free!)
243ml - polypropylene plastic jars
mix them up quick and thoroughly until there are no rice clumps left!
use a big plastic spoon to put the mixture into one of the 243ml polypropylene jars.
then put just plain vermiculite on top of that mix in the jar to fill to the top! (level it!)
wrap a square piece of foil over the top and make sure there is no air space around rim!
put lid upside down on top of jar & place in pressure cooker @ 15psi for 45minutes.
when finished, take lid screw off PC and let steam out.
let sit until all steam is out.
open lid and leave ajar for about 6 - 12hours.
use oven mits to take off lid of PC.
leave foil on jar but take the lid of each jar and flick the water into a sink that is sitting on the top of
jar lid and place the lid right side up again on top of the foiled jar and place in a cupboard to cool
until you are ready to inoculate it.
make sure you inoculate it within 3 - 4 days, or it may start to mold!
the mix and jar is now ready to be inoculated with a spore syringe!
if you do not have a syringe with spores goto #5, #6 & #7 first then come back to #2, #3 & #4!
Inoculation
spray air in kitchen air, oven, and gloves with lysol.
wait 20 minutes.
place torch on low on the open oven door.
take a jar from cupboard put in oven on rack.
lift lid and place beside jar right side up.
take foil off carefully & throw away to the side somewhere.
heat the needle on syringe up side to side until it's red.
don't heat it too long or it will bend and the water will boil and damage the spores @ 104degrees!
put in 1/4cc in 4 spots around the jar at 90degree angles and slant the pin so that it drips down
the side of the jar and you can see it kinda. (important!), and put another 1/4 CC in the middle of
the jar if you want. (optional)
put the lid on and seal it on the jar and place jar off to the side.
repeat from ">" sign above for each jar until all are inoculated and are ready to colonize!
Colonization
place jar in cupboard at 80-88? Fahrenheit.
let sit for about a 8 - 12 days.
put about a half inch of water at the bottom of a tub.
add about 2 1/2 inches of vermiculite to the bottom of the tub on top the water.
the vermiculite will soak up some water.
put the lid on the tub and make sure humidity is under the lid after a day or so.
make sure your colonization is at 80-88? and your tub is at 68 - 75?waiting.
do this on the 8th day or so of colonizing the jars.
then when the jars are all white take the lid off and scrape the vermiculite off the top with spoon!
flop the cake into the tub on top the vermiculite leave about 2 - 4 inches between each cake.
put lid on tub and lift the lid off the tub for about a minute 3 times a day or more if you want the
mushrooms to be more consistent in size and shape for cultivation.
Harvesting
spray gloves & knife with lysol
wait 20 minutes
open tub
wait until all the mushrooms on a cake are almost fully grown before picking the entire flush!
picking the entire flush is better, so that you can just clean the vermiculite off the bottom
of the cake and flip it over, add a very thin later of vermiculite to the new top of it again, and
drip 1 or 2 drops of spring water on it, then sprinkle a little more vermiculite over it again to
cover up the wet spot to keep away contamination from sticking to it easier! (master method!)
doing it this way you may be able to more than 5 flushes from one cake before it starts going
greenish, pinkish or blackish.. watch out for blue cause it may just be bruising, make sure you
aren't throwing away cakes that are just a little bruised from you touching them!
pinch lightly near base of the shroom you want to pick and twist it off gently!
use knife to remove remaining vermiculite that is stuck to base of mushroom
place mushroom on some type of rack, screen or dehydrator to dry
repeat from ">" sign above for each cake that is ready to pick!
TAKE YOUR OWN SPORE PRINTS AND MAKE SYRINGES!
Sterile Water Preparation
20guage-10cc Syringes (?)
500mL Glass Jar /w Lid
Pyrex Glass Stir Rod (1)
Spring Water (approx. 100mL per plastic jar)
Stainless Steel Knife (1)
Stainless Steel Scissors (1)
Stainless Steel Thick Wires (2)
Stainless Steel Clamps (1)
put a hole in the middle of the glass jar lid for a Pyrex glass stir stick.
put a smaller hole off to the side about 3/4 inches from the stir rod hole.
then put water in the glass jar.
put foil under and kinda wrap onto the top of jar lid and sit on top NOT screwed on!
put knives, stir stick, 2 thick wires, small hospital scissors, and clamps inside also at
the bottom inside towel kinda.
pressure cook 15psi for 45minutes.
make sure you always have a thin bath towel on the bottom of the pressure cooker,
that is a little bigger than a dish towel!
the 2 wires are placed on top the jar in an shape to hold a shroom cap on top later, so make
sure they are able to kinda clip around the edge of the top of the glass jar.
after 45mins in the pressure cooker @ 15psi, take the pressure screw off and let steam out.
let sit until all steam is out.
open lid and leave ajar for about 6 - 12hours.
spray kitchen air and inside oven with lysol.
wait about 20 minutes.
take jar out of pressure cooker and place it in the oven with the wires on top and lid on top of
the wires that are placed on top the jar in a shape.
close oven.
let water sit over night in oven to cool to room temp again and don't open the oven!
now you have your sterile water ready for a shroom cap to drop it's print into!
Spore Print Prep (only if you have some already growing!)
spray kitchen air, oven, and gloves with lysol.
wait 20 minutes.
open oven.
open the tub where the shroom is that you want a print from.
cut cap off that shroom with scissors with one hand.
with the other hand have clamps to kinda pinch the cap.
take cap over to sterile oven with jar /w sterile water & wires, etc.
lift lid of jar with gloves by grabbing from the top carefully, don't knock the wires off!
place cap on top of wires and put lid back down on top of cap.
close oven.
turn light on after a day or so and keep checking each day to see if print has dropped into
the water!
once the print drops you are ready to prepare the syringe for spore retrieval!
Syringe Preparation & Spore Retrieval
fill empty syringes with water that has been left out (chlorine free)
place in pressure cooker for 45mins @ 15psi.
after 45mins in the pressure cooker @ 15psi, take the pressure screw off and let steam out
let sit until all steam is out.
open lid and leave ajar for about 6 - 12hours.
lysol the kitchen air and the oven.
wait about 10 minutes.
lysol gloves.
wait 10 minutes again.
open oven.
place torch on low on the open oven door.
poke glass stir rod through hold in lid & through the foil.
stir the spore print up in the glass jar really good.
take a syringe with sterile water in it and put it in the small hole of the lid.
now push the water out of the syringe and into the 500 ml glass jar.
draw the water back up into the syringe.
if there isn't much water left in the jar, you might have to slant the jar a little to get at the water.
take the syringe out of the hole in the lid and put the needle cap back on the syringe.
there you have it a spore syringe!
repeat for each jar until all are syringes are filled with spore water!
This method is almost fool proof because of each jar being isolated and sterile, so if you lose one
you still have all the others that you mixed up just in case. Although in this method i only explain the casing method with the harvesting and flipping of the cakes, this is an ideal start to any composting system, because you just need to crumble one cake or even part of one cake into a tray of sterile compost mix and you may be able to increase yields but it definitely can end up becoming a problem if your not careful and you may end up with less in the end because of the shrooms possibly having to fight off more contamination that may set in during the crumbling process. Good Luck!
