Items Required
1.Sterile spore syringe (or agar wedge of mycelium culture)
2.Pressure cooker
3.Birdseed (cheap brand, mostly millet with a minor amount of other seeds)
4.Quart jars with lids
5.Nylon or Polyester floss (pillow stuffing from a fabric store, Polyfil)
6.Tinfoil
7.Plastic wrap
8.Plastic tray with lid for fruiting (8"x12"x2")
9.10-gallon aquarium
10.250 ml glass baby bottle with graduations in milliliters
11.Clean water
12.Peat moss
13.Vermiculite
14.Agricultural lime (low magnesium)
15.Plant misting bottle

Drill a pencil sized hole (exact size is not important) in each of the jar lids. Stuff each lid hole tightly with a plug of pillow stuffing.
Measure out 250ml of birdseed with the baby bottle (fill it up) and pour into each quart jar. Now measure out 130 ml of clean water
(well or distilled) with the same baby bottle for each quart jar. Place the stuffing plugged lids on the jars seal side down and tighten
the rings to just snug. Cover the tops of the jars with tinfoil. Place in the pressure cooker (follow the directions for your type) and cook for 1 hour at 15 PSI.

Allow jars to cool overnight in the cooker. Shower and put on freshly laundered clothes. Remove the jars from the cooker and place
on a clean table in a draft free area. Remove the foil. Take the cap off of the spore syringe and inject through the floss (actually between the edge of the hole and the floss, the center is too difficult to puncture) 1 cc of spore solution (open lids slightly to insert agar wedge if using agar). Repeat for all jars. Replace the foil on top of the jars and shake well until the birdseed breaks up into individual grains. Incubate at 80-85F (see below). Shake again on day 3 or when germination sites start to spread onto several adjoining seeds. Shake again on day 7. Complete colonization should take about two weeks at this temperature.

Prepare the casing by mixing 6 parts peat moss, 2 parts vermiculite (optional) and 1 part agricultural lime (1-2% magnesium ground limestone). Add water until a handful squeezed allows water to trickle a bitween your fingers. Place it in an ovenproof container and cover tightly with foil. Bake 3 hrs at 275F. Allow to cool overnight (or microwave covered with plastic wrap for 20-30 minutes).
The casing will dry out somewhat and require additional water to bring it back up to the proper moisture level. Empty two fully colonized jars into the fruiting tray. Break up the clumps only enough to level out the birdseed. Sprinkle in the casing, making sure not to compact it. You want it airy and full of nooks and crannies. Level it out to make a even layer about ? an inch. Place the lid or plastic wrap on the fruiting tray and incubate at 80-85F until the mushroom mycelium starts to poke through the casing
(approximately in 4 or 5 days).

Remove the lid from the fruiting tray and place the tray in an upside-down 10-gallon aquarium with a board for a bottom. This is not supposed to seal perfectly, CO2 should be able to leak out the bottom. Mist heavily the sides of the aquarium and gently on the
casing. Puddling of water on the board is ok.. Place a portable florescent light on top of the aquarium and leave on 24 hrs a day.
Reduce temperature to 78F. Give a gentle mist every day or so, especially if the casing seems to be shrinking or drying. Lifting the edge or removing the aquarium for the daily mistings should provide all the fresh air required for proper mushroom development.
Pins should develop in 5 to 7 days and will be ready to harvest in 5 to 7 days after that. A second flush will start soon after picking the first one. No change in temperature is necessary to induce these subsequent fruitings.

Later,
tweedy.

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My mind is corrosive...