Auto-SummaryThe post discusses the process of starting with a single jar of grain spawn, testing and selecting the best strain, and then creating multiple generations of spawn for fruiting. The spawn is prepared and PCed in quart jars, then used for G2G transfers in clear bins with a lid. After colonization, the jars are placed in a dark, humid bathroom to fruit. The post includes updates on the progress of different generations of spawn and their fruiting results, concluding with a second flush of the chosen strain, Texas.
Getting The Right Genetics
First you need to start with a single jar of grain spawn that has proven itself. To "prove" a strain to myself, I order 5 strains or so, and make a pint of each one (or two pints, for a backup). When (if) all 5 pints colonize (usually one or more contaminates, those strains are eliminated) you split each one into 4 quart jars. Test 1 quart from each strain by mixing it with a little coir/verm and making a bag of each strain with that. Fruit out the bags. Whichever strain(s) colonized quickest, and fruit the best, I stick with. For the last 8 months or so, its been Texas.
Then you have the other 3 quart jars you made of that strain to be "first generation" for G2G transfer, so label them Texas1 or T1. Each one will make 10 new jars, and each of those will make 10 new jars. A good strain will last you til the 4th or 5th "generation" without problems, as long as the spawn wasnt started to long ago. After 6 months or so going off the same T1 genetics, the 4th and 5th generations dont look so good.
This is a T3 jar ready to go:
You can see its getting older, its from 3/9.
Label for the new batch of jars, keeping the dates for the previous generations, just to keep track:
 
Preparing and PCing WBS in quart jars
Jar prep begins with a soak. Everyone does their prep different this is just how I do mine. Although its old, there is a link in my sig "How I do Grain" that gives a few more tips. But basically get a big pot, this is about a 23quart PC with a 10 lb bag of my favorite bird seed.
You can see the birdseed has no corn and no dust.
Fill the pot up to about 1/3 of the way:
Fill with water:
I grab off about 10 handfulls of the floaters, but I leave most of them:
 
Throw in a bit of gypsum:
Stir:
Let it soak for 4-24 hours. Usually I soak the night before so they usually soak for 12-16 hours. This time was about 8 since I started the soak first thing in the morning. Bubbles bubbling:
Then I put the pot right onto the stove on high. Stir every 10 minutes to keep the bottom from getting to much hotter then the top, you can overcook the bottom seeds while the top ones arent ready. I let it simmer for about 15 minutes, but really I go by the kernals. When they start to swell like theyre going to pop, I drain immediately.
Stir constantly for the first 5-10 minutes while straining, and let it steam. No rinse here, that will stop the steaming process.
Then I let it drain for about an hour. 30 minutes minimum if I'm in a rush. Stir every 10 minutes. If its still wet, mix a handful or two of dry verm in to soak up that little extra moisture.
Kernals shouldnt be popped:
 
Now you just load into jars 2/3 of the way and put a lid on it. I use PO envelopes for my filter. My lids, I just stab twice with a screwdriver.
Take a PO envelope and cut the top, bottom and middle strips with glue on them out. They will melt easier in the PC causing a mess. Then if you cut the two pieces into thirds, you end up with 6 pieces.
Double wide
Put one flap of tyvek down, then the lid in the middle
Put the other flap of tyvek over and push the ring down on it:
Tighten down, and PC for 90 minutes at 15 PSI. 60 minutes is sufficient, but you may as well go the distance. Remove the jars from the PC and shake them while they are still warm. Thats very important since all the grain sinks and compacts in the PC and will for a solid mass if allowed to cool that way. Shake the jars again once completely cooled (the next day or so).
G2G Transfers
To do G2G transfers I use a clear bin with no lid, turned on its side, with a piece of tinfoil over the top half. Theres a slit in the foil to the top, in the middle, to look through. I put it in my bathroom which has been sprayed down. Jars go next to me. Just pop one in, G2G, then pop it back out and move on. I sit on the little stool and the tub goes right on the toilet. I've done thousands of G2G transfers in bathrooms, using them as clean rooms. Works without the tub, but the tub just makes it even better. Most contaminations fall into the jar, so you just need an awning for them.
  
The spawn on top:
Shake it gently and in a swirling motion and you can move the spawn from the top, down one side, then rotate the jar and do it down all four sides. You can see its all on one side right now:
Now all four sides:
Then when it looks like that, after gently swirling it around, I give it like 5 good hard shakes up and down, just to knock the mycelium cells onto other grain kernals. A good shaking process is key to quick colonization.
Colonizing Jars
Those were transfered on 7/6, and this was two days later:
7/8
Tonight they are even more done, but its to dark for pics, I'll get some tomorrow. Nothing exciting yet anyway.
7/10:
 
Day 4 and they are almost done.
7/12:
Day 6 and I call it 99%, tomorrow they will be done, but I have plans, so bags on the 14th. I'll go through the process of making them, easy stuff.
Coir Prep
First I start with a bunch of dry coir. Its about a brick, probably a bit more. I get big ol bales and break a bunch off.
Put two big pots of boiling water on and wait for them to boil:
Add boiling water to the coir to expand and break it up. Dont add so much that it puddles, just enough for the coir to soak up:
Add about 1 quart of gypsum and mix:
 
Add more water until it pools a little bit:
Mix in verm until you have the right consistency. About 5 quarts? Add more coir/verm/water as needed. You want a light substrate, not to wet, not to dry.
Then cover it and let it sit for a bunch of hours. It will stay to hot to handle for an hour. Itll still be pretty hot for an hour after that. Just sit back and smoke a bowl while you wait.
 
After 2-3 hours once its cooled, spray the bathroom down and get it ready to work with all you need. Jars, spoon, alcohol, napkins, bags, clips, an extra tub, the coir/verm and the tub its in, and lysol:
Clean bathroom and close yourself in. Dump about 1/4-1/3 of the coir/verm mix into the smaller tub and set aside.
 
In the big tub with most of the mix, spoon or dump the spawn in:
Break it up and mix it in well:
In each bag, I take one handlful from the coir/verm mix that was set to the side and put it in the bottom (to soak up moisture, give the mycelium somewhere to grow, and to provide a surface for pins in the later flushes). Then I fill the bags up with 5 or 6 inches of substrate, then another two handfuls of plain coir/verm mix on top to act as a pseudo casing layer.
  
Do this for all 6 bags, making sure theyre even. Usually I do the bottom layer and substrate for all 6 bags, even them out, then add the top coir/verm layer to all of them at once and clip them closed all at once.
  
Stick them in a dark place thats not to warm and let them colonize until done. Usually about 7-8 days for me.
Bags Colonizing
7/15 (Day 9)
Spawning day:
7/17 (Day 11) recovering:
 
7/19 (Day 13) Mostly done already:
7/22 (Day 16):
Bags were done yesterday, but the tops were pretty much colonized, so I made a bit more coir/verm mix and added some on top.
 
I also used 5 jars of some 3rd gen Texas I had to make 4 more bags. This spawn is alot more livly then the 4th generation bags this threads been following.
This was spawned 24 hours ago so these T3 bags are 6 days behind the T4 bags.
I'm going to let the T4 bags colonize the top layer for a few days before giving them fresh air and light.
7/24 (Day 18)
T4:
Top layer is partially colonized. Kinda in wierd clumps because the spawn is getting old, but I'll take it.
 
I opened up the tops and gave them good bright light, but no time to poke holes so I just left the bags open for a few hours, I'll poke holes later. Sadly 1 of the 6 got cobweb. I misted it with 3% peroxide and will do so the next two days. Then its going outside to my hole. I could probably fruit it inside, but Id rather not.
Whats shocking to me is the T3, spawned 3 1/2 days ago:
   
This is actually catching up to the 6 day lead T4 had on it.
7/26 (Day 20):
So all 9 bags are ready to be fruited, including the 4 T3 bags spawned only 5 days ago. You can see the T3 bags look a bit healthier:
Then the T4:
Holes were melted into all 4 sides of the bags, about 15 on each side, 60 holes total, with a few extra for good measure. And on each of the 4 corners I cut 5 small slits going all the way up, for 20 slits in total. UPDATE: I dont usually put slits in, just the holes. I thought that wasnt enough so I added slits, but 20 was to many, and I put 4 right at the surface. It dried out the corners a bit after the first flush and the substrate in general, so be careful with putting large slits in right that the surface. They are probably an inch or more long, and the way the bags sit sometimes they can be wide open.
If you mist and wait an hour, the bag around the holes starts to dry around them and you can see them here:
Light is on full blast for the next two days straight while I'm gone, and they wont be touched.
7/28:
T4 (Day 22):
 
T3 (Day 16):
 
7/29 (Day 23):
Knots are forming on all the bags, though tough to see. I will start posting the 9 bags in the same way/order each day. The bottom 4 pics are the T3 on day 17.
    
T3 (Day 17):
   
7/30 (Day24):
Look close and you'll see tiny pins starting.
    
T3 (Day 18):
   
8/1 (Day 26):
    
T3 (Day 20):
   
8/2 (Day 27):
    
T3 (Day 21):
   
8/3 (early am) (Day 28):
    
T3 (Day 22):
   
Same day 6 hours later (still early am):
    
T3:
   
At this point I had no time to harvest until about 14 hours later.
Still 8/3 (almost 8/4) (Day 28):
    
T3:
   
They grow up quick the last day.
Some more harvest pictures:
    
You can see 3 of the T4 bags didnt do well on the first flush, I expect their second flush to be alot better then the others though. 6 bags I ended up harvesting, with the scraps from the other 3 bags, dried to be 214 grams. I like to see alot better, but the good thing about bags is you just tuck them away and they keep on giving you mushrooms. I'll post pics of the bags until they get tossed.
After harvesting, mist very very heavily, and fold the bags down to just past the filter. Clip and leave in the dark for a day to recoup.
After a day in the dark, I keep them clipped, and give them some light for about 12 hours. Then unroll the folds and leave it clipped with the top open, just like I did before the first flush. And start with the usual, spray once a day and turn the light on and then light off at night.
These pics are from 8/6, 3 days after harvest. You can see they start to get fluffy from all the wetness and being closed up (co2 buildup).
 
Of the 3 that didnt do a great first flush, one I just harvested, the other two are forming knots/pins:
 
And I forgot about the bag that had cobweb on it, which seems to be gone, so I never dumped it. Its pinning right now:
No holes in the bag, no light, no misting, just sits there.
8/12 update
Ive been harvesting over the last few days here and there. As the veil pops, I pull them, leave the rest to mature. Heres about 1/3 of the second flush:
The slits in the bag caused the substrate, especially in the corners, to dry out a bit. It also caused heavy FAE though so these fruits are very meaty, even though dryness caused some aborts. Its very much as if the substrate was fruiting outdoors. Here you can see bluing and cracked caps showing the drying out a little:
  
So I misted them down heavily and will keep the tops folded over to keep humidity in.
Heres some more 2nd flush pics:
     
After the second flush has been picked clean it time to turn the substrate. This is the reason I put a layer of coir/verm on the bottom (besides not liking grains caught in the little bottom flaps) so that after the first or second flush (it might be better to do after the first flush) I can turn the substrate on its side. Pins will form better on the bottom where they havnt before then on the top where they have. You can flip the substrate or turn it on its side, giving more surface area exposure:
So thats the side from the top view. I tend to make the substrate almost as deep as the bag is wide so that when I do turn it on its side, it comes almost to the edges. "Side pinning" is being promoted by doing this, which would actually be pinning from the top and bottom, now the sides.
The total time including 5 harvests is about 14 hours (for the 10 bags, including the one contaminated pre-first flush and a few around the forth), and the total dry weight is 457 grams. They are now going outside.
Edited by scatmanrav (09/08/11 11:09 PM)
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