Beef Supreme on: Rescuing Your Fucked-UP All-In-One Kit (Or whatever less-than-ideal situation you have)
(by BeefSupremeJr)
SO YOU BOUGHT AN ALL-IN-ONE (AOI) KIT FROM THE INTERNET AND ITS NOT EXACTLY GOING AS PLANNED
NO WORRIES! It happens to the best of us, friendo. Just count yourself lucky that youve found your way here. This is the place. This is the premier authoritative community on growing mushrooms, hands down! And I find it frustrating that our sponsors endorse us, at least financially, but we as a community do not--for the most part--endorse their products outside of standard equipment or clean spores. Its not what I would have wanted, but guess what? The Shroomery doesn't pay for itself by mere supporter accounts and merchandise alone. Its a sad state of affairs, capitalism, but I digress.
Anyway, first of all curb the insecurity. Its nothing to be ashamed of and its really little wonder at all to me that I see so many of these kit victims come through here almost daily. I try my best to help them salvage what they can from their hard work and investment, but I've recently realized, I just don't have time to get to them all. I also realized the other day, that I invariably tell people the same things over and over ad infinitum, so I thought, why not just make a tek? This should prove to be one of the most controversial things I've ever published!
Okay so you're getting bombarded with advice from god knows who or where and you have no idea what to do. "MORE FAE" "LESS FAE" "POKE HOLES IN IT" or the very worst bit of advice "DUMP IT". "ITS BACTERIAL". *in a whiny George Costanza voice* (If youre one of the older members whos been telling people these sorts of things, I respectfully ask you to please take a seat and watch the show. I'm certain you'll have plenty of opportunities in the future to tell people to dump their money in the trash, or better yet, you could write an entire TEK on how to dump their money and effort! Step by Step, just as I have!)
To the noobs: I'm going to do my best to silence the voices in your head and help you get a handful of good mushrooms off of your project to munch on while you *hopefully* at least learn to do things the conventional way and at best, integrate into our cozy little global community of growers.
Lets circle back to that later. For now...
DONT DUMP IT
I mean, within reason. Commons sense prevails, but do post pictures--right here in this thread--and we (or I personally) will try to help you decide if its a dump or rescue situation For now, reader, lets just say if it looks white,(and not any other color aside from maybe a tinge of blue) is colonized, and isn't putting off a foul odor, chances are you can probably rescue it and harvest a handful of good boomers for your efforts, but more importantly than that, LEARN. (also, not all blue's are good blues. more later)
IF YOU'RE STILL READING IT MEANS YOUD LIKE TO RESCUE INSTEAD OF DUMP
Thats the spirit. In the words of one of my favorite members, B Traven "Let it ride".
Be one of us! Never quit. Never surrender. Just learn and carry on. Do not become discouraged. No matter how bad you think you are doing, I probably started from a worse place than you did. The internet was a dimly lit dungeon of paranoia and misery in those days and questions were met with hostility and ridicule. I had a 66qt BLACK monotub with 8 quarts of bacterial spawn jars that I mixed in with spent coffee grounds. I then taped it sealed shut and left it in a dark closet for a week and the smell it it developed put all questions I may have previously had about dumping or rescuing to bed. Major dump.
We all start somewhere and sucking at a thing is the first step to getting good at a thing.
Hi, I'm BeefSupremeJr, I wrote the THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE SHROOMERY (volume 1 and 2, and presently working on the third) I'd like to think of it as a primer to our written collective conventional wisdom. Its more or less a beginners guide to how to do stuff right, but don't worry about that right now.
Lets rescue your grow kit first. Time is of the essence. Read the HHG later. Ive been wordy enough already.
Most of these kits end up looking the same. I did one myself back in 2017 and it looked a lot like this recent post:
I'll be using this guy's project as an example moving forward. So, his myc was matted down and suffocated. It was very unhappy. Bud was discouraged and confused and getting pulled in every direction. I found him just in time. I can't promise you that you'll be as successful as this guy was, but theres no harm in trying.
EDIT 2/21/25: Guys I don't want to give the impression that EVERY AiO bag should be treated this way. I wrote this for people who have AIO bags that are fucked up. Suffocated. Matted. Generally humiliated and left in the sealed bag way too long until it develops that nappy layer that will never fruit.
I think with a good idea of how surface conditions work and experience growing, an AiO bag could be successful on its own. Lots of people fruit in bags its just a matter of figuring out the FAE and environment. Making a "tent" with the empty loose bag at the top of your substrate and poking some holes with a nail to get it to fruit in bag is one option thats probably a lot easier and cheaper than this TEK. One of these days I'd like to buy one myself and try it out.
Another possibility: with a bag that hasn't been sitting in its plastic dungeon too long-- has young, white, uncontaminated fuzzy mycelium-- would be to break it up and spawn it just as you would if it were a jar of spawn. This woulud be the ideal situation I think for a decent bag that doesn't seem too suspect.
Okay, so if you're still reading this, lets assume your bag is FUCKED and needs rescued from the dungeon:
END EDIT
LETS TRY TO RESCUE IT
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Supplies:
 Bucket with lid.
Brick of coconut coir. (preferably cocobliss because its the best and people who say otherwise probably don't even love themselves)
Tub with a lid. It needs to be considerably bigger than your cake is. How much bigger? Big enough for your cake with a healthy head of shrooms growing on it okay? Don't overthink this. You don't need latches. You don't need the expensive tub just a tub. I prefer around 20qt for all intents and purposes.
Tape. (masking tape is fine. Micropore tape is fine its just expensive)
---------------------------
1. Your surface is fucked. You'll understand why later but for now you'll need some coconut coir prepared to "field capacity". Use this TEK. Real simple. Got your bucket of prepped coir? Make sure its cooled to room temp. Okay. Lets move.
2. We'll start by agitating the surface a bit. a lot. I always tell people to try my PUNISHER TEK. I.e. Blasting the surface with the dish sprayer to get the matted surface of or at least agitated a bit. Use a fork or a got-damn cheese grater if you need to. I do not care how you get this surface scuffed off. Just do it.
3. Take your humiliated cake now, and roll it around in the prepped coir. It should come out looking like something like this here "dinosaur egg:
He's all dressed for his first day of school.
4. At this point the "experienced" growers are laughing at you saying "what the fuck? Kill it with fire". Let them laugh. Laughing at people who are presently under good instruction from experienced growers in this hobby invariably will afford you nice hot meal of crow to eat later. Let them eat their crow in silence. You do not need to get into it with other members or get into arguments. Let the veteran members and I handle that please. Just do your best.
5. Lets build a humidity chamber-- Beef style. Take a hot screwdriver and melt some holes in the sides of the tub. About in the center. Three on the long sides, two on the short sides. Don't overthink this. You don't need to measure them exactly just melt the got damned holes. Great now put a piece of tape over the holes.
Take about half the prepped brick and pack it into the tub. Just use your hands or whatever. I use a tile float to do this. You don't need to be terribly clean but maybe wash your hands and don't spit or shit in it. Cool. Now you have a humidity chamber.
6. Kiss your dinosaur egg on the forehead and put it in there. Personally, I'd lay it flat, lengthwise to give it more surface to pin, and Id 'embed' it a little but that seems like over-thinking of which I am always careful not to do. Careful not to brush off any of his new cool clothes on his first day of school.
7. Now you can go ahead and read the HHG. (Its linked in my signature, you don't need to scroll back up). Learn. Absorb. Meet some people. Come say Hi! Post some updates of your rescue here in this thread! Whatever you do, don't panic! You got this!
PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE SECTION ABOUT SURFACE CONDITIONS! And do NOT skip reading Combackkid's surface condition/FAE TEK. Your success with this rescue absolutely depends on understanding surface conditions and knowing what to do and when.
8. I'll try to summarize: As your new surface grows in, it should develop "surface conditions" own its own. I.e. Tiny droplets of water resting gently on the little fuzzies of your new mycelium. This is we want. Sparkly. Dewy. Once your surface is both fuzzy yet sparkly, you have proper surface conditions. Now watch closely. Are the droplets getting bigger? Are they getting too big? As big as a bb? Thats too big. Take some tape of. Every other hole for now. Balance is what we want.
Look, surface conditioning isn't something that can be readily taught and received. Its a concept that is absorbed through experience. Its not a schedule. Its not a regimen. Its not a do this or do that. Its a balancing act and I'm trying to get you to step away from the purgatory of following blind advice like "POKE HOLES" "CRACK THE LID" "FLIP THE LID" "REMOVE TAPE" "PUT MORE TAPE". Forget these things. Learn to balance FAE with Surface moisture as a concept and you will begin to intuitively know what to do. All of these things listed above might be viable, but whatever you do, do it slowly. *More on misting/fanning in just a minute.*
Lets be clear about some things at this point:
 The instructions that come with these kits are hogwash. Throw them in the trash.
Reddit is wasteland. Don't get me wrong I actually use it sometimes for other research, but I've been there and seen. They know fuckall about cult.
Youtube has one dude there that knows his shit, and his name is Stipe n Cap and he's one of ours. Read his posts, watch his vidoes and abandon youtube.
Misting is something that is done if you make a mistake and dry a surface out too quickly. I do it sometimes in the winter due to forced air furnace. Its not something that we do on a schedule so please get that out of your head now.
Don't ever fan. People that fan worship the devil and hate themselves. You're with us now. You're safe. You're loved and celebrated.
9. Got it balanced? Great. Take some more tape off. Time to get this show on the road.
So heres what can happen.
   
Here's another guy I helped out. Looks like he'll get a similar flush.
10. Recover genetics. If you don't have anything left from the syringe you used, you'll need to gather your genetics. As per the HHG1 I highly recommend getting into agar and taking a clone. See something you like? A nice cluster? Take a clone! Otherwise, you can either take a spore print, or swab.
The member I helped rescue this project is still in the process and I do expect that he will get a decent yield of some very potent apes for his efforts. I'm hoping to see a finished product pic very soon. It should be noted that this guy went with water tub which is a tub with water in it as his humidity chamber. It works too. I don't like them for several reasons I'm sure we'll get to in the comments. Like I said earlier, unless its VERY OBVIOUSLY fucked up, it can likely be saved. Some blue can mean bruising of the mycelium, but some bruising can also be a mold called pennecillium (and then you're proper fucked).
Is it perfect? Is it a canopy? No, but is it better than my first attempt? Fuck yeah! Is it better than "dUmPiNg It?" Fuck yeah it is. Was it "BaCtErIaL"? Who gives a fuck? Probably, but who gives a fuck?
Hopefully by now you've met a couple members. Chopped it up a bit. Made a friend or two. Read the HHG and hopefully the wonderful teks linked within. Hopefully you understand at this point now why we don't like AOI's. Hopefully you're one of us now, and eager to do things right from now on! Welcome to the family, friendo. Let me know if you need anything, and please,
Never, ever, do this again.
 Beef
*note this isn't fully edited so please let me know if you have editing suggestions*
Please let me know if its okay to post your rescue as a testimonial.
Justaspore:
 
Edited by BeefExtreme (10/16/25 12:03 PM)
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