tultedspoon said:

I've already gotten some growth in cups from a spore solution, is this wrong? or not ideal? I'm attempting custom dirty tek, with straight to soil. I've had successful mycelium growth with just spores, spores in water, and straight mycelium transfer if it's fresh (which sometimes is hit and miss), and sometimes mycelium in solution.

I use a miniature straw with my finger to drop the solution in several spots over miniature cups filled with moisture control soil. I did try "pasteurizing" soil with boiling water for some time, but oddly no growth, so there must be some type of symbiotic relationship with whatever is naturally in the soil. It seems like just getting the soil wet and then transferring some solution works the best. I'm still optimizing though. Some of the cups looked really good, but I got greedy and took chunks out and made new cups, and I probably would have had fruits by now if I hadn't cut all the cups in half. None of the cups fully recovered like I thought they would. I potentially exposed the mycelium to contamination, most of the cups still smell fine though.

I know people say overlay isn't usually a thing but I'm almost certain one of my cups has it due to incorrect conditions.

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el boso said:

My bispo is taking a while to pin. All healthy growth, was a bit to wet there. It's mid 10s here atm. I'm guessing it's temp related for sure. Is it just a waiting game now? Or do I have to get that temp up somehow?

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Kloakk said:

I can't say I've heard of "dirty tek", but the preferred method when starting from spores is to put it on agar. Take transfers to a new agar plate and if it looks clean put that to sterilized grains. Let the grains colonize 100% and then send those grains to pasteurized substrate. Let it colonize the substrate and then case it with pasteurized casing.

Boiling water is not pasteurization, you should get your substrate to field capacity and then heat it until the middle of the substrate is around 60-70°C(140-160°F) and then let that sit for about 2 hours. It is going to take some time because however you are heating it, no part of the substrate should be over 70°C or it can be partially sterilized.

Overlay can happen, some species more then others, but that is pretty normal.

You could go from agar to AIO jars or bags, but that would still need to be sterilized and all work(before going to tub or tray) should be done with a SAB or flow hood.

If you have a clean LC you could use that to inoculate sterilized grains or AIO's. It sounds like you are just doing spores to untreated soil and yeah, that is going to be a problem, I'm sure the mycelium will try to find a way, but I would think the chances of success is very low and you are wasting both spores, money and time..

Do you have a pressure canner or autoclave? And do you have any pictures of how and what you are doing any of this?

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tultedspoon said:

The dirty tek isn't a thing, but we could make it one.

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Or you could listen to the people who know that they are doing and actually get some fruits.

Winging it doesn't have a great track record with pans.  If you just want to be lazy then try this with some cubes, you are far more likely to get a few fruits.

tultedspoon said:

No pressure cooker or autoclave. Trying to keep this simple and natural. I know it's possible I just gotta get ratios right. The dirty tek isn't a thing, but we could make it one. I encourage anyone to try it and figure out best ways to get fruits. Now I'm not hoping for great flushes, but that's ok. If I can just get several cups fruiting here and there as I slowly collect for a holiday without a ton of supplies, it's a win in my book.

I may post pics at some point, I don't want to compromise my connection and not sure if uploading a picture would do that. Maybe a hosting platform of some sort i'll try to look into it.

I'm avoiding grains cause I know the contamination when it happens can make some nasty bacteria. I'm avoiding honey because of ants, but I may try a dilute honey agar if it comes down to it. And ok yea boiling water is 212F so I prob got that soil too hot and "sterilized" some of it. The soil is already bought, the spores are collected naturaly, so only thing I'm wasting is time.

Some of these setups I have are an absolute joke, but some of the worst ones actually have really really tiny pins believe it or not. I have a really tiny jar no bigger than my thumb with just scraps of cardboard lasagna-style I inoculated with mycelium and some spore solution. It's been sitting for 2 months in the dark. The growth is pathetic, but believe it or not there is a super tiny pin popping up from a primadora. Literally the tiniest pin I've ever seen. IDK if this could ever fruit or not, I can't imagine it growing big, but maybe there is some way to use this miniature pin to an agar at some point idk. Maybe I should try a random jar with just some cardboard at some point for a slow maintenance-free method. I've like never even had to water it, it's just damp.

And to the question about the capillary tube, lmao, no it's a miniature milk carton straw. If I can get some pics up I think I should because some of these setups are so bad but good u wouldn't believe it unless you saw it. Once I get more experience I'll set up mini trays and mini monos. The dirty tek takes some trial and error first. I don't want to waste a ton of soil.

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As far as I know, this site removes anything traceable from the picture we upload

Ahh I see, well as long as you are enjoying it and willing to do the work, then I think you should keep at it, I think it's going to be a long hard road for a few mushrooms at best, but I really don't know shit about doing this any other way then what I've learned here, so I could be wrong

I wish you the best of luck and hope you keep us posted on the progress

fahtster said:

Weza finishing out its second flush..


I love days when all the trays in a tub are doing something I can stare at lol

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Muffa said:

Hello! I collected some cow poop patties from a sanctuary, it is totally dry, super light and without smell. Is it okay like this or should it have more humidity?

I have a Pan. cyanescens "Estero" spore print to work with, right now I'm waiting for the spores to germinate.

I am a little lost at finding the right path for me tho. I have a grow tent with air exchange and humidity control that I use for gourmet, I think it could work, what could be a good first grow path for me? Could you share a link to updated teks for the species I have? This thread has too many posts it's hard to read and gather information 😪

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