RogerRabbit said:

It sure seems having BRF exposed in a non-sterile substrate is an invitation to contaminants.
RR

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Absolutely.  I've been playing with this in almost the exact ratios agar described above, except I was using rye flour.  I actually got the idea out of TMC... don't remember the exact passage but there's a blurb about supplementing a bulk substrate with a small amount of rye flour in those late stages...

At any rate, first try seemed encouraging, nice healthy crop.  Next try I went without as a sort of pseudo-control, just as nice a healthy crop.  Third time, rye flour back in, same results.  Fourth time, I decide to up the amount of rye flour a bit to see if there's really anything to this... not so nice!  Green mold shortly after casing... and it appeared to be coming from underneath... broke up the substrate before throwing it out to analyze, green through and through from the bottom to the top.  Definitely happened in the substrate.  Coincidence?  Maybe... doubt it... all was properly pasteurized "by the book" by the way.  Maybe making up your trays in a gb or in front of a hood could alleviate this - I'm not going to put in the effort to add 5% more to my bulk and I'm not going to trade the convenience of spawning in open air on the kitchen counter

So granted none of this was very controlled or there's obviously not a big enough sample to really draw concrete conclusions, but I certainly wasn't impressed in the end.  The whole time I'm asking myself what's this little bit of rye flour I'm sprinkling in here *really* going to do?  It doesn't seem like enough to effect change, and too much causes contamination.  I've never lost bulk trays to green before they even fruit... so it wasn't very encouraging.  When it did work, I didn't see any significant difference to really convince me it was having much effect either.  Seems like you're playing with fire without any real reward if it works.

I'm also sketchy on all the other special ingredients.  Its a lot of running around finding exotic items, spending money on them, mixing them together, and so on.  I'm not convinced its worth the effort.  I can pull crops of mushrooms off wbs->coir & coffee so dense that another single solitary mushroom wouldn't have had room to grow - and potent too.  It gets to the point that there's simply not much room for improvement   Interesting stuff to experiment with maybe, but IMO better technique beats exotic ingredients hands down...

There is one elegant solution to increasing the nutritional diversity of your coir grows.  Use better spawn (a mix of WBS & rye is probably tops), and use more of it.  1:1-1:2 ratios with coir will knock your socks off performance wise.  Pretty straightforward.

rygo796 said:

I'm with RR when he asks, what's artificial? The basic recipe boils down to coconut husks and coffee beans.

Wouldn't the coffee make this recipe to acidic/basic(i'm unsure which way it leans on the scale but I wouldnt think its neutral)

How would you rate this compared to straight H/poo...would you ever consider a similar recipe replacing the coir with H/poo?

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The object is for folks, who cannot find there own source of free h/poo.
Or don't care to pay big bucks & shipping for it.


I have tons, yes TON'S of h/poo.
Not everyone is so lucky.

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I'm also sketchy on all the other special ingredients. Its a lot of running around finding exotic items, spending money on them, mixing them together, and so on. I'm not convinced its worth the effort. I can pull crops of mushrooms off wbs->coir & coffee so dense that another single solitary mushroom wouldn't have had room to grow - and potent too.

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Wiccan_Seeker said:

Coffee grounds.. does that have to be used or unused grounds, or doesn't it matter?

What pasteurization method was used? How much water should be added?

From the sound of it 3:1 coir/coffee would be good too.

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