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camelslaper13
slaperofcamels

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 127
Last seen: 9 years, 3 months
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Starting My First Reishi Grow 1
#14586114 - 06/09/11 03:16 PM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Greetings, my fellow fungi enthusiasts! I've recently started a new project. I'm going to grow reishi to try and help my step-mothers lymphoma. Expensive as the stuff is, and as interesting as this hobby is, I figured it would be worth it. Plus the stars happened to align such that thesporedepot gave me a free agar wedge of it and a sterile syringe with my order!
Im starting with a mix of brown rice flour, sawdust, coffee, and a bit of wheat germ I had laying around. I would have made more, but my blenders blade assembly melted after the second cup of brown rice... it wasn't made for that I suppose. New blade on the way, next time I'll do intervals. The sawdust is spruce and pine.
After seeing RR's use of paper, even phone books for reishi I decided it couldn't hurt to experiment. I filled three jars with a coil of brown kraft paper, and stuck dowels wherever I could. The fourth jar is wood only, as a control I suppose. I then filled the center and all the spaces between the wood with the BRF mixture.


I got a liquid culture going with the agar wedge by pasteurizing a jar of 3% karo/honey syrup solution, then transfering the agar to the jar in a still air box I made. I tried to keep the process as sterile as possible.

Soon I'll be doing up the lids with silicone and filter disks. Then I'm soaking the jars in coffee and putting them in the pressure cooker for sterilization. I'll knock em up with a syringe and once their ready, into the fruiting chamber they go! Its just two boxes with an ultrasonic fogger on a timer. The top half happens to also be my still air box when set on a clean surface. Antlers like CO2 so I'll just fan them regularly, no holes. This will probably be set on a heating pad with some kind of thermostat, since by fruiting time I'll be in a cold dorm room. You like the color changing LED's on the fogger? Maybe they'll set the mood for the reishi to grow!
 (i dont know why this one is so big)
The only problems I have so far: I did up my liquid culture before I got any silicone... I figure my best bet is to pop a hole in the lid with a sterile nail and lay some silicone on it? Or should I just open it up in the still air box and fill my syringe that way? Also, how do I know when my liquid culture is ready? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!
Reason for edit: corrected type of wood used
Edited by camelslaper13 (08/07/11 08:00 PM)
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curry
Stranger


Registered: 01/09/11
Posts: 276
Last seen: 2 years, 11 days
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I'm also currently growing reishi. I'm not sure how well it will do on a BRF mixture, or on cedar wood, but hey, there's only one way to find out. Reishi is a wood lover, but I've heard most people say to stay clear of cedar wood. I tried using peach wood one time, and oysters didn't want anything to do with it. So, I just stick to hardwoods shavings such as alder and oak. But I've found that if you can get reishi going, it'll take off and do well. Good growin'!
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camelslaper13
slaperofcamels

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 127
Last seen: 9 years, 3 months
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Re: Starting My First Reishi Grow [Re: curry]
#14596359 - 06/11/11 02:26 PM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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Shit...I just realized cedar has anti-fungal properties. Pine is apparently suitable but not optimal. I guess I'll be repacking my jars. It's just hard to find good free wood chips/dowels. I'll probably just use more paper. Damnit! I thought I was making progress. I wanna get these suckers growing!
Any advice on my liquid culture? Could silicone contaminate it?
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Doctor_Inoc
Vintage Hand
Registered: 04/30/11
Posts: 646
Loc:
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Conifers are ok to use but need to be sat out in the sun for a few weeks to dry up the saps and oils before use with the mushroom culture..
Use wood of the hard variety for best results. 2 popular hard woods are Alder and Beech. Both are pretty expensive. Any variety of oak will do. Use google and find out what hard wood trees are indigenous to your area. Begin hunting, gathering, and processing those types of hard wood for your wood loving mushroom species.
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loucal
Focused on Fungus



Registered: 04/11/11
Posts: 96
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Quote:
camelslaper13 said: I figure my best bet is to pop a hole in the lid with a sterile nail and lay some silicone on it? Or should I just open it up in the still air box and fill my syringe that way? Also, how do I know when my liquid culture is ready?
No matter what you do, you should still do it in the still-air box. I would just take the top off for as short a time as possible; you already did it once in there, just be extra cautious with your aseptic technique. If you do want to add a self-sealing injection port do it outside the glove box on a spare lid. When its all dry wipe the entire thing down with alcohol and swap tops.
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camelslaper13
slaperofcamels

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 127
Last seen: 9 years, 3 months
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Re: Starting My First Reishi Grow [Re: loucal]
#14611465 - 06/14/11 11:10 AM (12 years, 7 months ago) |
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I guess I'm just a double dumbass, because it turns out it's not even ceder that I used. It's spruce! So it should work fine. I did up the jar lids with silicone injection ports and synthetic filter disks. But I have doubts about my liquid culture... the mycelium is all spread out on the bottom of the jar, it used to coagulate back into a mass after every shaking. I only pasteurized it after all so it would probably contam anyway. I think I'm going to go dump it around the base of a dead tree or something, maybe it will take. I gave in and ordered a liquid culture syringe from thesporedepot anyway. I'll probably knock up my jars then propogate whats left to a properly sterilized liquid culture with a proper injection port and filter disk.
About that, how exactly is shaking done without getting the filter disk wet? Is a filter disk totaly neccesary for a liquid culture anyway? I wish I still had my homemade magnetic stirrer but alas I donated the neodymium magnets to a knife sheath I made...
I also decided I'm going to case the top of the jars with vermiculite once they're fully colonized. Thanks for the help you guys! Hopefully in a few months I'll have some beautiful fruiting pictures to share!
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camelslaper13
slaperofcamels

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 127
Last seen: 9 years, 3 months
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 Just an update. Left my babies alone for 2 weeks and this is what I came back to. There are two other jars that don't show any signs of growth, this may be due to visibly high moisture content, as the jars that are doing well don't appear as damp. However the injection port was in the middle so growth may be taking place in the center first. Sadly I overfilled these jars and whilst pressure cooking the rice expanded and pushed off the filter disks on two jars. silly me. I glued em back on right away and injected them after doing an anti-contamination prayer, I guess it worked because those jars are showing the most growth!
Happy growing! More to come!
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x7x_x7x
x7x, my problem child.




Registered: 05/05/07
Posts: 3,816
Loc: buenos aires
Last seen: 1 day, 23 hours
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amazing, i do the same a few years ago and i called my experiment "supernucleus" hahah nice time
http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/7838463#7838463
-------------------- cultivando en la miseria SuctoSpore® Pictorial Tek
 x7x_x7x@shroomery.org carl_jung_in_lsd@yahoo.com koh samui and oak ridge are my favourite strains
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camelslaper13
slaperofcamels

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 127
Last seen: 9 years, 3 months
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Re: Starting My First Reishi Grow [Re: x7x_x7x]
#14737772 - 07/08/11 07:08 PM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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I can't say I didn't read your Supernucleus project before trying this! Sorry for not giving you any credit, the kraft paper roll is my own addition however 
Youre all so inspiring! lol
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loucal
Focused on Fungus



Registered: 04/11/11
Posts: 96
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sorry I didn't reply to this sooner I didn't see the question.
It all depends on how long you are going to store the liquid culture. If you don't plan to store it at all what I usually do is leave half of the jar empty and there will be enough O2 in there for it to grow and just have a self sealing injection port (use silicon if you want). Shake it all you want, but don't try to store it for a prolonged period of time, that's a recipe for disaster.
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x7x_x7x
x7x, my problem child.




Registered: 05/05/07
Posts: 3,816
Loc: buenos aires
Last seen: 1 day, 23 hours
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Re: Starting My First Reishi Grow [Re: loucal]
#14740067 - 07/09/11 08:46 AM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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you rules camelslaper13!
-------------------- cultivando en la miseria SuctoSpore® Pictorial Tek
 x7x_x7x@shroomery.org carl_jung_in_lsd@yahoo.com koh samui and oak ridge are my favourite strains
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camelslaper13
slaperofcamels

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 127
Last seen: 9 years, 3 months
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Re: Starting My First Reishi Grow [Re: x7x_x7x]
#14780739 - 07/17/11 08:24 AM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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Reishi certainly does grow faster than cubensis, my jars are almost fully colonized. But in some spots it's having a hard time penetrating the dense overcooked goopy brown rice, mostly at the bottom. I might only pressure cook for 60 minutes next time...
So I was wondering, is it okay to fruit jars like this that aren't fully colonized at the bottom? Can contams really get through the thick stack of reishi and take over the bottom before the reishi does?
Also, I re-inoculated the two jars that weren't showing any signs of growth with the LC I made from the LC I bought. I figured it couldn't hurt.
By the way. I was making some new jar lids with some silicone I found in the basement. I never knew it could "go bad" but it certainly has, left it over night and it still hasn't set at all. It's been pretty fun cleaning it all off ....
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camelslaper13
slaperofcamels

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 127
Last seen: 9 years, 3 months
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I decided that I'm probably fruiting these tomorrow, but I'd really like somebodies opinion on whether or not it's a good idea. On the exterior they are about 95% colonized. It's starting to sweat metabolites so I think it wants to be fruited. I'm just worried about contamination.
I'm going to case with vermiculite and put them in the fruiting chamber with a fogger.
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markos
Smelly Hippie


Registered: 04/14/10
Posts: 52
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Looking good! Keep us updated
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camelslaper13
slaperofcamels

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 127
Last seen: 9 years, 3 months
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Re: Starting My First Reishi Grow [Re: markos]
#14835850 - 07/27/11 10:27 PM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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I finally fruited the jars. I decided to clone one of them to a liquid culture to keep it going. So I opened a jar in my still air box, and the mycelium had grow up onto the lid! I could hear it rip as I turned it. There was plenty of mycelium stuck to it so I plucked a piece off and put it in my 4% honey solution. So here is the (assumed) problem:
Where the mycelium ripped it left exposed substrate. I'm worried this will lead to contamination. As you can see, one of the jars didn't rip at all. And another looks white and well colonized despite the ripping. However the two on the left look exposed and vulnerable. I haven't cased them yet and I'm wondering, should I? I'm thinking of pasteurizing some vermiculite and putting it on the top, then putting a layer of dry vermiculite on top of that as a contam barrier. Is this a good idea? If not, what is? Right now they are still sitting in my SAB. (BTW, sorry for the shitty pic, I was in a hurry...)
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camelslaper13
slaperofcamels

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 127
Last seen: 9 years, 3 months
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So this morning the exposed substrate was mostly colonized. I'm still a bit worried as the new mycelium looks a tad different than the furry stuff that originally took over the jars. It looks a bit like cube mycelium actually. Either way, me and my girlfriend put together a fruiting chamber for them, so I can use my SAB for it's intended purpose. We'll just see what happens. For humidity I've got an ultrasonic fogger sitting on half a Mt. Dew can in a gatorade bottle. Hi-tech, I know.
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curry
Stranger


Registered: 01/09/11
Posts: 276
Last seen: 2 years, 11 days
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The following pics are of reishi I'm growing right now. The first one I took out of the bag probably a month or two ago. Even though I put it in my FC, it dried out quite a bit and is really light... which I think is making the fruiting difficult. The second bag, I learned my lesson and left it in the bag, with just the bag opening open to the air, and it is much heavier and seems to be fruiting easier (not just on the bottom edges). So, you should be OK with your jars since they will retain most of the moisture, but it probably wouldn't hurt to put some vermiculite on em if you haven't already (my verm is brown, so... ). Don't worry about contams, reishi can hold its own once colonized. It might be a while until you get fruits (month or more), so don't get discouraged. Good job!

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mycoelf
Agent Of Chaos



Registered: 06/26/09
Posts: 555
Loc: hyperspace
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Re: Starting My First Reishi Grow [Re: curry]
#14846985 - 07/30/11 01:52 AM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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Stay clear of aromatic woods, relish are versitile, but the strain of relish you have will have a preference based on their wild origins. Some relish switch hit, some do not.
-------------------- Mycoelf Sterility is a process that can be likened unto infinity, which is a long walk, the closer to the end you start before beginning, the more achievable the goal of infinity becomes. Remember, cleanliness in next to goddessness
      
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mycoelf
Agent Of Chaos



Registered: 06/26/09
Posts: 555
Loc: hyperspace
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Re: Starting My First Reishi Grow [Re: mycoelf]
#14846993 - 07/30/11 01:54 AM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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That should b "reishi" not relish. Stupid auto spell check
-------------------- Mycoelf Sterility is a process that can be likened unto infinity, which is a long walk, the closer to the end you start before beginning, the more achievable the goal of infinity becomes. Remember, cleanliness in next to goddessness
      
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camelslaper13
slaperofcamels

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 127
Last seen: 9 years, 3 months
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Re: Starting My First Reishi Grow [Re: mycoelf]
#14847520 - 07/30/11 07:27 AM (12 years, 6 months ago) |
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Damnit, so spruce shouldn't be used either? I already broke up a board of it and mixed iit with a bag of broken up poplar that I'm saving for my next attempt... Maybe I'll try to pick them apart.... They look the same though! Or I might just go for wood pellets next time.
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