In reply to:

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This is a variation of Old Timer's tek that has proved succesful for me.

Leave grass uncut somewhere in your yard and let it grow tall and go to seed. Clip it down and dry it in the sun for a couple days to weeks until it looks a bit bleached and quite dry. Clip into 2" lengths. Soak it as per the OTtek and pasteurize at 170F for one hour. In a roughly one square foot tub or tray with holes in the bottom for good drainage, lay 1/4 inch sterile vermiculite, or perhaps a tad more. Take one or two fully colonized pfcakes,(a most excellent way to cultivate mycelium, here's to you, pf) blend till smooth in blender or break up with your carefully cleaned fingers, and mix with the drained, cooled pasteurized grass. As per the OTtek, mix well so that the mycelium paste or goo or powder is smeared on every surface of the grass stem and blade. Now layer in on verm in tub lightly packing it into a bed. Cover with saran wrap for two days, in light or dark, then open and mist and let it air out in clean fresh air. Mist again and cover. After a week or so, full colonization will take place, and you can case with sterile vermiculite to a depth of 1/4 inch or use your favorite casing soil. Make sure periodically that the drainage is good, and you can sit it in a sink or bath or somewhere the water can go. Good drainage is a must.

It's important to make sure no dust etc blows in on the ingredients and work surfaces and tub, and that your hands are clean, and try not to drop any hairs or flakes of dandruff in there. (Of course) But like with OTtek, sterility isn't vital. Very simple, and within two to three weeks from innoculation you should see about a hundred full-on shrooms coming on. I used Hawaiian race, and had very few aborts.

posted by lichen

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Edited by jonnyshaggs420 on 07/02/01 01:02 AM.