mushroom cultivation layout, tell me what you think

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drfting07
Stranger

Registered: 10/17/06
Posts: 56
Last seen: 19 years, 6 months

mushroom cultivation layout, tell me what you think

#6180437 - 10/17/06 10:52 PM (20 years, 1 day ago)

Hey guys, im not new to the site but im new to the forums. I have been reading alot lately on mushroom cultivation, for ritualistic and personal reasons. I bought a book someone recomended me read and it has helped. I feel i know enough now but ide like to pass it through you guys first. Please feel free to critise, encourage, ect.. First of all im looking to spend no more than $150. From everything ive read and gathered this is what ive come up with:

I am going to use cakes. A total of 8 will be used at a time in a tubberware container ide say is 16 inches wide, 4 feet long and 2 feet tall give or take with a plexi glass top and weather stripping for windows to keep out contaminants. The cake will consist of 50/50 vermiculite and brown rice flour in a 1/2 pint wide mouth mason jar (i cant find the flour so im going to use a sterilized coffee grinder, I also have walnut sawdust and maple sawdust at my disposal from my work place. Any idea of how i could incorporate this would be great.) I will then add the neccessary amount of water. The only thing im conserned about is the pressure cooker or canner (I also will not be purchasing one). I do however have a three piece steamer im going to use. I will hold in the heat with aluminum foil around the edges. This proccess i have read would take 30 mins but since im new to it ill do 45 mins to an hour just to be safe. The cans will have the holes in them for inoculation and tape over the holes during sterilization, and vermiculite will be used on the top 1/2 inch or so for filtering out contaminants. The seringe will then be sterilized by way of flame and the jar will then be inoculated in a triangular pattern. Three holes. As far as the mushroom strains ive chosen: "Mexi-cube" for its fast and easy cultivation, large flushes and cold weather tollerance. For my second choice I went with "Texes" Its a prolific fruiter with little light needs (good because this will be done in the confines of my bedrooms) and they loose little weight in drying. Lemme know what other strains u've had good results with. As long as its easy and produces well im up for it. As far as the terrarium goes im going to take the easy route with perilite and water for humitity and since i have it, im going to use a fish tank bubbler and air stone as well. 4 of the cakes will be resting on a metal screen above the perilite and the other four im going to case in 50/50 vermiculite/water crystals just to observe what the difference is. The casing will be boiled and strained to sterilize it as well. Now that im thinking of it, just to clear it up cause i know yall are freakin out about it, I DID buy bleach, gloves, lysol, ect to clean everything. I know im missing a few things here and there but i think you got the idea that ive done my research. All im looking for is a better way to keep away from contamination if i have a flaw in my design. I understand the pinning process, flushes, drying, just wanna know what you would do to keep them spotless.

I hope i didnt write too much, hehe
Drfting07

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creamcorn
mad scientist

Registered: 03/13/06
Posts: 2,962

Re: mushroom cultivation layout, tell me what you think

[Re: drfting07]
#6180508 - 10/17/06 11:11 PM (20 years, 1 day ago)

a few quick things:

relax on the sterility stuff. focus on the parts of the grow where sterility actually matters - that probably means doing some more research to get a grasp on things. example: who cares if your coffee grinder is sterile? you're making flour in open air out of a non-sterile beginning product that you're going to sterilize later anyway. :smile:

example 2: where did you read 30 minutes for steam sterilizing? you want at least 60-75 minutes... that's the part i was getting at "where it matters" :smile:

another example, when rolling cakes in vermiculite, you can save yourself a lot of trouble and use it straight from the bag. if you're preparing a proper casing, you pasteurize it, not "boil" or sterilize it. these are all subtle details but important.

another biggie is your fruiting chamber - it is NOT a sterile environment nor does it need to be - so you don't need to seal it up with weather striping or anything silly. in fact, you want the opposite, to allow fresh air movement - fresh air in a fruiting environment PREVENTS contamination.

as for the strains, while they do have their unique characteristics, you can grow every one the same exact way.

and why only three holes in your jar? it will certainly work... but 4 means much faster colonization, not only because of more inoculation points, but better gas exchange :thumbup:

and no, there's no place for sawdust in cubensis cultivation. perhaps some woodloving species... but not cubensis.

sounds like you got some good ideas, also sounds like you need to read up a little more before starting if you really want things to go smoothly. try not to stray too much from proven guides until you get a little experience under your belt and really understand things - so many times people make "improvements" their first time around, and since they don't truly understand the reasoning behind why some things are the way they are, thier improvements make things worse! :smile:

good luck.

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