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Empty your cup so that it may be filled; become devoid to gain totality

brf + verm should work, from what I understand you're supposed to avoid anything sticky. So a good choice is to use brf+verm or Hawk's soon-to-be-added recipe.

I know less of rye, I understand its harder to sterilize.

And know that spore syringes don't work for spawn bags, because they're too slow to colonize. So I hear.

Yes. The method you described will work fine as long as there is no contamination on the seeder cake your using. That's pretty much how I did it till I got my sealer from PF...but I used liquid mycelium inoculation to seed the substrate.

I would twist the end of my bag...like a loaf of bread...and use a twist tie. The bag will not blow up. Then after your overnight cool down period you need to double over the twiwted part and secure the loop made. Do this before you do the mixing you spoke of. If you mix first you will loose air in the bag. I wouldn't "squish" the bag...but gently roll it...allowing the substrate to fold in on itself again and again.

Hey Question_Reality:

I use rye grain, rye grass or a mix of these and finch seed or straw; also vermiculite and powdered gypsum. But the reason I stay with these is that they result in a substrate with a high moisture content and a high effective porosity. This is important because it allows the mycelium to quickly colonize the substrate. Brown rice flour reaches a reasonable moisture content but results in a more gummy substrate which means a lower effective porosity and therefore slower growth. It is my understanding that the slower colonization rates are why people use such small containers. A spawn bag of rye grain typically takes about 8 to 12 days to be colonized by cubie mycelium. I typically observe 21 to 35 days for a half pint jar reported in posts at the shroomery for rice flour substrates. I can't speak to these reports...as I never use subtrates other than those mentioned.

I too have experimented with finch seed and vermiculite with great results. Here's my quart jar (2/3 full)formula...for spawn bags just multiply by 6:

200 grams dry Finch Seed: Soak overnight and then cook on low boil for 1 hour. Strain Water. Moisten 100 grams of vermiculite with mineral water and add to cooked and strained Finch Seed. Optional: Add 1 gram of powdered gypsum (highly recommended for controling contams).

Sterilize substrate as usual. This mix seems to be more contaminant resistant than a rye grain substrate. Although the finch seed can not be raised to the same moisture content of rye grain, the higher percent of vermiculite more than makes up for it. The resulting mix has a high moisture content and a higher effective porosity than a typical rye grain mix. Works really well.

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Peace, Love & Light