MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH - FASTER PINNING VIA TEMPERATURE CYCLING - Mushroom Cultivation

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Hannibal88
Aryan Psychonaut

Registered: 07/03/03
Posts: 71
Loc: farfromvalhalla
Last seen: 22 years, 9 months

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH - FASTER PINNING VIA TEMPERATURE CYCLING

2
#1945207 - 09/23/03 04:44 PM (22 years, 9 months ago)

Rapid Mycelial Pinning Response Via Temperature Cycling: A Prelude
By C. Thomas
cheatsman43@yahoo.com
9/23/03

Bottom Line: With this method, you can get your casing to pin whenever you want it to, regardless of how much the mycelium has grown in. Read: No more waiting 2+ weeks for pinning. I?m eager for someone else to try this to see if they have the same success.

Background:
I generally let my casing pans grow at 86 degrees for four days to speed up mycelial colonization of the soil, and then subsequently cold-shock the pan and leave it at 75 degrees until pinning begins.

But recently, I had one pan with which I did this, but I was not satisfied with its colonization level. So I decided to put the pan back at 86 degrees overnight, in hopes that it would grow in a bit more.

The next day, I pulled the pan out again, figuring it was sufficiently colonized, since it would grow in a bit more anyway (though it was not well colonized for pinning). This time, I didn?t bother to cold shock it the pan, but instead just put it back out at 75 degrees and left it there

What happened next was startling. Within 24 hours, the relatively un-colonized pan had started to initiate pinning, even though the casing wasn?t nearly as colonized as pans I had previously prepared.

At this point, a signal went off in my mind. This process had previously taken two weeks (give or take) of waiting and hoping that the soil didn?t get overlay. Now, I suddenly had a 5-day-old, semi-colonized pan shooting up mushrooms at a very predictable time. The temperature cycles were key.

The Cycle:
Here?s what I did in the first trial:

The substrate was inoculated, colonized at 86 degrees, and subsequently broken up and made into casing. Casing was kept at 86 degrees for two days, after which additional casing soil was applied over whatever mycelium that had popped through the soil. The pan was placed back at 86 degrees for two more days (so 4 days total at 86F). It was then removed and cold-shocked in the refrigerator overnight. The pan was put at 75 degrees for 1-2 days, and then placed back into 86 degree conditions overnight. Finally, it was removed, and once again placed at 75 degrees.

The result was that pins began to form within about 24 hours. Keep in mind that this first trial was not intentional, and was rather early, since the mycelium had not spread to the surface very extensively.

My Recommendations:
Put at 86 degrees for 2 days. Check pan, cover mycelium over with casing. Keep at 86 for 3 more days. Cold shock overnight. Place at 75 degrees for 2 days. Place at 86 degrees overnight. Place at 75, and wait.

This will come out to approximately 5-6 days of preparation, and a day or so of waiting, for a total of no more than a week to pinning. This is far superior to simply leaving it at 75 degrees and being forced to wait for up to two weeks and run the risk of overlay and contamination.

Why It?s Not Just a Theory:
While the first trial may have been due to chance, I?ve done the same thing intentionally with two other pans and gotten the same results. In addition, each pan has been colonized to a different degree than the others, but has still pinned.

Speculations on Mechanism:
As somewhat of a junior science expert, as it were, I think a good hypothesis for this phenomenon is as follows.

When the mycelial network is forming, it responds to drops in temperature, which in the natural environment, would signal the coming of cooler weather. However, I don?t the usual method of jerking the temperature down 10 degrees and leaving it there does the trick. Why?

Well, look at the situation from a biological standpoint: If you?re a fungus, you want to spread your mycelium as thoroughly as possible before pinning, so that you can sprout as many fruits, and thus spread as many spores, as possible. On the other hand, you don?t want to wait too long to produce fruits, or you?ll lose your chance. So you use a temperature drop as a signal to start pinning.

But here?s where things get tricky: Seasons can also change quickly, so a large temperature drop can also signify that it?s too late to pin. So it?s not in the best interest of the fungus to sprout fruits if they?re only going to die and the new spores aren?t going to take hold.

From the fungus? standpoint, the key to maximizing growth and survival is to ensure that growth conditions are favorable while simultaneously waiting for as long as possible, so that growth can be maximized.

So why doesn?t the traditional growth method ? that is, changing from 86 to 75 degrees and nothing else (except cold-shocking) ? work very efficiently? Because the mycelium thinks the temperatures are going to stay cold, so it holds off until it?s sure it?s safe to go ahead with pinning (e.g., 2 weeks later when nothing has changed).

So how do you get a mushroom to pin when you want it to? You give it confirmation of cooler temperatures, but also give it some warmth in the process, so that it knows the world hasn?t frozen over already. In other words, you create a trend from hot to cool, but in a cyclical pattern.

A temperature reduction from 86 degrees starts off the process by giving the mycelium a warning that cooler days are coming. But subsequently raising the temperature to 86, and then dropping it back to 75 again, gives confirmation that it?s still warm enough, and not too late to produce fruits. But it sends the signal that the window of opportunity for the fungus to proliferate itself is shrinking.

The end result? An immediate, ?panic? response, if you will, to send off spores as quickly as possible while it?s still got the chance.

Obviously, this is all theoretical, but the genetic code is amazingly complicated, and such a hypothesis is not unreasonable. In any case, the subject warrants further research.

Disclaimer:
All aforementioned experiments are imaginary and have never been performed by myself or anyone else, with the exception of the space alien Sorlag that came to my window last night. I have never seen or experienced a psychedelic mushroom of any species; nor do I even know the definition of ?mycology.?

Contact:
If you want to share experiences personally, give feedback (be it good or bad), etc., you can email me at:
cheatsman43@yahoo.com

Extras:

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