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fanatic1
Stranger
Registered: 04/27/15
Posts: 8
Last seen: 7 years, 11 months
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First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai
#21702551 - 05/20/15 02:19 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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This is going to document my first grow after doing a ton of reading on this site I have decided to grow my own mushrooms. I hope this consolidates all the information I have learned about mycology.
I was reading about PF teks as a good newbie start, though I think my aptitude will allow me to handle a bulk grow without any past experience.
I first purchased some Ecuador spores from our sponsors then starting reading more about strains and bought some Penis Envy spores after reading. I didn't get to do as much research as I would have liked but from what I read (which could be wrong) most p.cubinesis strains are similar except for Penis Envy. Otherwise I was under the impression some strains could colonize faster than others; though with more reading most strains fall into a norm of colonization so any "faster" strain would only be relatively faster within the standard deviations.
I was going to do a rye berry inoculation via multi-spore using the syringe, but read more on agar and decided to use that instead due to the ability to make sure there was no contamination and to see which spores grew faster . I also started reading more about how agar could be used to single out a stronger strain, but could be done wrong and wouldn't be worth it in my current grow. I luckily have a friend that works in a lab that could get be sterilized petri dishes with agar in them. I made the mistake of getting complete agar without any glucose in it which slowed the growth. For some reason the Ecuador spores are much whiter and denser, while the Thai Lipa Yai is less dense but more rhizomorphic (check pictures) any input would be appreciated!
I am currently waiting for Ecuador and Thai Lipa Yai (freebie from one of our sponsors) on the agar to grow a bit more than I will be transferring them to rye berries in quart jars covered with special filter discs with a 0.03 micron rating.
After purchasing most of my equipment, the total cost was relatively low, less than 400 dollars. I didn't take shortcuts with buying non-sterile needles, using tyvek covers, and such as I wanted to speed this along and cut down the possibility of contamination. I believe if individuals understood how relatively cheap it is to get sterile needles, special filter discs (borosilicate ones) and other equipment I believe they would do it. To which I hope this post will help echo to skip steps such as flame sterilization and help individual dial in their grow.
I will be using horse manure I got free from craigslist and will be using grass clippings. I don't believe I need anything else for the substrate unless someone may enlighten me or say otherwise; to which I am open to changes.
I will start off with the former two strains mentioned in a monotub while waiting for the Penis Envy agar dishes to grow. After the first flush I'll transfer the 116 qt tubs outside and use the tubs for the penis envy strain. I think I might keep 2 jars of grain to do a grain to grain to mix with the tubs for outside. Any recommendations would be great!
I hope this documentation will help others streamline their grows and make it easier to understand basic mycology.
Cheers!



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mushpunx
Fungus Punk



Registered: 04/20/14
Posts: 13,394
Last seen: 11 days, 14 hours
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: fanatic1]
#21702591 - 05/20/15 02:31 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Sounds like you do your reading man!
Make sure you make several transfers of each culture ( at least 3 but I usually make 5) to new plates before you put to grain. You want to be sure your culture is nice and clean!
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 Amateur Mycologists United AMU Q&A
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Ghatti
Totally not a Federal Agent

Registered: 06/23/14
Posts: 1,733
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: mushpunx]
#21702696 - 05/20/15 03:11 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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mush why are you making that many transfers with that nice new hood to get a clean culture? You should be pouring clean plates and maybe having to make 1 maybe 2 transfers depending on if you're starting from spore
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Mad Season
hookers and blackjack



Registered: 09/16/12
Posts: 12,666
Loc: Canada
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: Ghatti]
#21703083 - 05/20/15 04:57 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Ghatti said: mush why are you making that many transfers with that nice new hood to get a clean culture? You should be pouring clean plates and maybe having to make 1 maybe 2 transfers depending on if you're starting from spore
Definitely. 1 transfer will tell you if it's clean or not. You also need to only do 1 transfer before using slants/petris that have been stored for awhile to make sure it's clean
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mushpunx
Fungus Punk



Registered: 04/20/14
Posts: 13,394
Last seen: 11 days, 14 hours
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: Mad Season]
#21703214 - 05/20/15 05:23 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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I just like to be safe man I have trich problems in my house you know how well the mean green can hide in a culture
As a rule I wont put a culture to grain without making at least 3 transfers
My agar work is pretty impeccable tho I gotta say haha
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 Amateur Mycologists United AMU Q&A
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Mad Season
hookers and blackjack



Registered: 09/16/12
Posts: 12,666
Loc: Canada
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: mushpunx]
#21703259 - 05/20/15 05:34 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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They would definitely be clean after 3 transfers lol and probably pretty aggressive too if you took from aggressive spots.
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Subnet Mask



Registered: 05/08/15
Posts: 903
Loc:
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: Mad Season]
#21703303 - 05/20/15 05:45 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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DeadPhan



Registered: 05/05/04
Posts: 5,260
Last seen: 4 years, 2 months
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: fanatic1]
#21703326 - 05/20/15 05:51 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Ive never done anything with grass clippings. So someone weigh in if im wrong but i dont know if its choice. One would think maybe there would be a bit too much ammonia but im just guessing. Id imagine you would at least want them leached and aged for a little while. Definitly not too fresh. Same goes for manure. Was the manure you got good and composted? Does it smell of amonia? If so youll wana lay it out for quite a bit. To leech and age. If you can find straw locally od definitly go that route instead
Edited by DeadPhan (05/20/15 05:52 PM)
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Ghatti
Totally not a Federal Agent

Registered: 06/23/14
Posts: 1,733
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: DeadPhan]
#21703526 - 05/20/15 06:48 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Grass clippings shouldnt have much or any ammonia. It does have a relatively high Nitrogen content though so you can make your sub too hot using a lot of them
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fanatic1
Stranger
Registered: 04/27/15
Posts: 8
Last seen: 7 years, 11 months
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: DeadPhan]
#21703554 - 05/20/15 06:54 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Oh forgot, will be mixing in about 5% gypsum with it.
Luckily the horse manure has been composting itself and been dried out at the farm I stopped by. They have a huge mound of it, maybe 10 x 10 meters and about 3 meters high. I also mixed it with some other compost and used a compost accelerator, so hopefully it will be ready when my spawn is ready without the need to have to pasteurize using hot water. I would like to think composting it and using that method to pasteurize more efficient than using hot water. To be honest I just don't want horse shit all over my cook ware or buckets to deal with. I think this is an important part (composting) that can be done easily with planning and easily learned.
From what I understand straw, hay and grass are very similar in terms of carbon to Nitrogen ratio (90:1 straw compared to 50:1 dried grass clippings). I've read that some individuals have used grass clippings with success and mixed with horse manure that has hay in it should be fine.
I know this study is done on a different mushroom, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030881460000265X
The question then becomes, do p.cubinesis like a higher carbon content or a lower carbon context, relatively?
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Pastywhyte
Say hello to my little friend



Registered: 09/15/12
Posts: 37,810
Loc: Canada
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: fanatic1]
#21704009 - 05/20/15 08:18 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Looks like you can do some reseach, good job. Take care with selecting transfers from those plates OP, some of the colonies look pretty disorganized to my eye.
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mushpunx
Fungus Punk



Registered: 04/20/14
Posts: 13,394
Last seen: 11 days, 14 hours
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: fanatic1]
#21704071 - 05/20/15 08:34 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
fanatic1 said: Oh forgot, will be mixing in about 5% gypsum with it.
Luckily the horse manure has been composting itself and been dried out at the farm I stopped by. They have a huge mound of it, maybe 10 x 10 meters and about 3 meters high. I also mixed it with some other compost and used a compost accelerator, so hopefully it will be ready when my spawn is ready without the need to have to pasteurize using hot water. I would like to think composting it and using that method to pasteurize more efficient than using hot water. To be honest I just don't want horse shit all over my cook ware or buckets to deal with. I think this is an important part (composting) that can be done easily with planning and easily learned.
From what I understand straw, hay and grass are very similar in terms of carbon to Nitrogen ratio (90:1 straw compared to 50:1 dried grass clippings). I've read that some individuals have used grass clippings with success and mixed with horse manure that has hay in it should be fine.
I know this study is done on a different mushroom, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030881460000265X
The question then becomes, do p.cubinesis like a higher carbon content or a lower carbon context, relatively?
I use straw in my grows all the time, I would stay away from the hay or grass.
I chop my straw to 1-3inches, soak in soapy water for a few hours and then add 180 degree water to it in a bucket with lid.. it should stay between 140-170 for an hour, if it goes below 140 I add more hot water but its usually right on.
--------------------
 Amateur Mycologists United AMU Q&A
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DeadPhan



Registered: 05/05/04
Posts: 5,260
Last seen: 4 years, 2 months
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: mushpunx]
#21704116 - 05/20/15 08:43 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
mushpunx said: I use straw in my grows all the time, I would stay away from the hay or grass.
I chop my straw to 1-3inches, soak in soapy water for a few hours and then add 180 degree water to it in a bucket with lid.. it should stay between 140-170 for an hour, if it goes below 140 I add more hot water but its usually right on.
You do all this for outdoor? I did a couple times at first but after a few times i didnt i found it worked just the same un pasteurized.
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Big Gulps! Alright! Well, See ya later! And if i claim to be a wise man, well, it surely means that i dont know!
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: DeadPhan]
#21704124 - 05/20/15 08:45 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
DeadPhan said: Ive never done anything with grass clippings. So someone weigh in if im wrong but i dont know if its choice. One would think maybe there would be a bit too much ammonia but im just guessing. Id imagine you would at least want them leached and aged for a little while. Definitly not too fresh. Same goes for manure. Was the manure you got good and composted? Does it smell of amonia? If so youll wana lay it out for quite a bit. To leech and age. If you can find straw locally od definitly go that route instead
grab the soil and the roots of the grass and let the roots die. cubes love potting soil too but just plain soil with grass roots should do well. or save your clippings and let them dry out
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fanatic1
Stranger
Registered: 04/27/15
Posts: 8
Last seen: 7 years, 11 months
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: bodhisatta]
#21771407 - 06/06/15 06:18 PM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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Update:
For some odd reason I had all my jars of Thai Lipa contaminated. I don't know what I did differently, but oh well, probably didn't wait long enough in the pressure cooker to sterilize all the grain completely. I poured them all out side with some spores mixed in to see if maybe it can thrive outside.
The Ecuador strain is coming slowly, but surely.

Penis Envy has finally grew enough on the agar for me to transfer to the grain.
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Pastywhyte
Say hello to my little friend



Registered: 09/15/12
Posts: 37,810
Loc: Canada
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Re: First Monotub and Outdoor Grow of Penis Envy, Ecuador, and Thai Lipa Yai [Re: fanatic1]
#21773691 - 06/07/15 11:28 AM (8 years, 7 months ago) |
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Most of the wispy growth on that plate is mold. The smaller whiter spots might be okay but be careful what you do with that plate.
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