I will be trying this method within the week with some BRF+verm equador, anyone else who has please share your results!
Here is most of the relevent info on this method from the thread on DD, hope this helps you guys out:
------------------<OldTimer,dd>
A method I use might prove useful to you. I simply start 1/2 pint jars using traditional PF Tek. Once jars are fully colonized I get ready for straw inoculation. I soak regular old straw (which I get from a Feed & Seed) for 24 hours. After soaking I chop the straw and place in a large pasta pot. Bring to 160F for 1 hour. After pasteurization I allow straw to cool, drain and place in pans with clear "greenhouse" type lids. Take the "cake" and grind it to powder in a food processor/blender. Believe it or not the grinding does not harm the mycelium. Sprinkle the cake powder all over the straw and mix in throughly. Every minute particle of PF cake dust will become a growth point giving super fast colonization of the straw. Allow spawn to run through and case. You will get really good flushes (much more than fruiting individual cakes) and produce many more carpophores for your enjoyment. Of course
optimum humidity must be maintained throughout the entire growing cycle from inoculation to fruiting. For years I
started cultures using petri dishes, replated several times, transferred to grain and fruited strictly on manure/straw compost. Now, thanks to PF I have learned a much easier and quicker method for growing our
fungi friends using straw and cakes with no lab time at all. See, you can teach an old head new tricks.
------------------<OldTimer,dd>
Lots of thoughts & questions on the grinding of PF cakes. Trust me it works...
This is a repost from another forum where I am sharing the process. You may find something useful here:
Geez Hippie.... Where do I start?!
Q: Is it more effective to pasteurize wet rather than dry materials?
A: Hell if I know. I do know it's a lot easier to stir a pan of 160 degree dry soil in the oven. In short, the heat is doing its job wet or dry and it's much easier to work with dry. An additional plus is the fact that you can store the dry stuff for later use. Wet soil is much less convenient to store and is more likely to be infested with bacteria if you tried to use it later. I like being able to sterilize a batch of dry soil, use what I need and put the rest in a clean zip-loc freezer bag for later use.
Q: Why do I prefer a peat based casing mixture that requires the Ph to be adjusted?
A: Well to be honest... I've always used peat based soils for casing because that's what Bob Harris taught me to use about 25 years ago! Actually though, I really like the "consistency" of these soils. They hold moisture nicely, stay fluffy and are easy to spread over the spawn. I assume vermiculite would work but may be hard to wet evenly if spread on dry. You could probably wet it in
a bowl (like you do when fixing up PF jars) and it would do okay. It's just a matter
of what works for me as well as ease of use. As for Ph, well it's no problem to throw in a pinch of lime. It's not like you have to get a Ph pen and really adjust the medium to an exact Ph. The lime just pulls the Ph up a little and takes the acidic edge off. I have used peat soils with no lime, but I do seem to get faster/better pinning with a little lime.
Q: If one did use a 3/4th inch thick casing, what depth of substrate would you recommend?
A: Depends on how deep your container is! Seriously, I usually place about 3-4 inches of straw in the pan and case with 1/2 to 3/4 inches of soil. You don't want your straw too deep since you're wanting the spawn to colonize rapidly. A really deep container of straw tends to compact reducing spawn run plus it can get so dense it can actually mat allowing anaerobic bacteria to crop up ruining your bed. You don't need a thick layer of straw to grow an abundance of shrooms.
Q: Have you fruited directly from straw, without casing?
A: Yes.
Q: I'm told that straw doesn't need to be cased, why do you prefer to case it?
A: Open straw will pin and fruit, as will PF cakes, compost or whatever else you find to grow on. The reason for casing is easier moisture control. Pure and simple. The casing layer acts as a buffer between the air and the spawn effectively creating a micro-environment just under the casing. This protects primordia that are forming and prevents aborts due to excessive drying. Plus you can mist the casing layer without applying water directly to your spawn. The shrooms will thank you for this. By using a casing layer you can eliminate a lot of the stress involved in trying to keep bare cakes or whatever from drying. The casing makes your mushrooms a little more "forgiving", plus you don't need as wet an environment
thereby helping to reduce the growth of unwanted fungi and bacteria in your beds.
Now for Infoseeker:
Q: How many PF cakes to use?
A: I normally grind up and spread one 1/2 pint jar per square foot of bed. My beds
are generally about 3-4 inches deep but one jar should handle beds of 6 inches in depth. Be sure not to get to deep are you'll have unwanted guests from the anaerobic bacteria community. By the way, while we're discussing bacteria, please be really careful handling spawn or anything else that has become contaminated. Some of the critters you might find growing in your jars or beds can make you quite sick if you happen to breath them in or inadvertently ingest them. Dispose of any and all contaminated cultures immediately.
As for the hydrogen peroxide process for bulk spawn preparation I have to refer you to the resident expert on the subject, R. Rush Wayne, Ph.D. His booklets titled "Growing Mushrooms the Easy Way" "Cultivation with Hydrogen Peroxide" Volume I and II can be purchased from him at mycomasters.com. I have read both volumes and find that problems related to peroxide-decomposing enzymes in
organic substrates can limit your choices. He spells out ways to work around this but I have found hot water pasteurization to be an easier route. If you can swing it, set up a clean 55 gallon drum on concrete blocks and place a gas "fish cooker" under it. Make a basket out of metal hardware cloth and heat bulk quantities of straw this way. I have never needed that much straw for psilocybes but I do pasteurize straw this way for Pleurotus (oyster mushrooms), Portobellos and other gourmet shrooms that I grow.
Q: Does anybody sell ready to use compost?
A: Check with MushroomPeople and Fungi Perfecti but don't mention psychedelics
as they probably won't deal with you if you do. Personally, I would suggest making your own compost if you have access to cow manure and straw. It's very simple and I know a super quick trick to get usable compost in 7 days. I'll post the method when the "writers cramp" moves out of my fingers! Later.
Infoseeker,
If you are placing perlite under your straw it probably IS more trouble than it's worth. A good, properly prepared straw bed 3-4 inches deep shouldn't need any additional humidity or moisture retaining additives. The straw itself is moist and should hold more than enough water to produce plentiful mushrooms. My beds stay moist (especially after casing} and the mycelium grows fast and furious. You should strive for a light and airy bed with ample (but not stifling) moisture content.
Beds that I inoculate with ground up PF cakes fully colonize in 2 days to the point where you can literally lift the entire bed out as a block or brick of mycelium within 2-3 days.
Inspection under the straw reveals a moist, healthy environment with no contaminants at all. I think folks are getting too involved with environment control and missing the point (to produce carpophores). Mushroom farming is like any any other growing project. Sometimes folks get so wrapped up in creating environments they overlook the simple, common sense things. Trust me,
pasteurize some straw, drain it and place in a shallow pan with some type of lid.
Inoculate this straw with a jar or two of ground up PF cake powder as spawn and watch what happens. Let go of all the processes and procedures you've read about and let nature take its course. Please don't think I'm trying to sound like some mushroom guru or something, I'm not, I'm just relaying knowledge to you that has accumulated around me over the years. Simple methods work and simple is always better if you achieve the desired results.
If you plant a bed in the method described above you should have no need for hydrogen peroxide or any other sterilants.
------------------<OldTimer,dd>
Straw Bed Construction...
Place a layer of pasteurized straw about an inch thick in container. Just leave it loose, do not compact. Sprinkle 1/4 of your PF cake dust into this layer and work in. Repeat layering of straw/spawn until you reach a depth of 3-4 inches. The loose, airy straw seems to colonize faster than compacted straw. And, since you have literally provided hundreds of thousands of inocculant growth points all over the straw, the need for compacting is eliminated. Older grain spawn methods specify compaction to help the spawn to run by increasing contact between spawn and substrate. In the ground PF cake method the tiny particles of spawn stick all over the damp straw causing mycelium to sprout and run from each contact point. Let the straw grow over (2-3 days) and then case as mentioned above. Mist casing lighting a couple of times a day. You should see copius fruiting within several days to a week depending on your temps, humidity, etc.
------------------<OldTimer,dd>
I grow them to fruition in the same trays with "greenhouse" style plastic lids that I start them in. The trays are kept in an orchid house with controlled temps around 85-90F days and 75-80F nights. I do mist the cased trays at least twice daily. One could keep these indoors at normal room temps and expect good results.
- If you feel a need to feed your shrooms just add a little fish emulsion or bloodmeal to your water while pasteurizing the straw.
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