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I'm only two people away from having a menage a trois!

Oleander, I think the reason the higher ratio is said to fruit with more pins is because it will end up more tightly colonizing the casing. The times I've had the casing very colonized (or even overlayed) I've gotten a lot of smaller mushrooms. The times I've had the casing less colonized, I'm more likely to get a few larger ones.

aims, where did you get that casing receipe? I have both TMC and GGMM and didn't see it.

ShroomGod

I did not make up this idea. This is directly from instructions of the hundreds of kits that were sold at the mushroom fair. And those kits rocked! I have some portabellas going now as well as some pink oysters that look sweet! These guys must know something because their kits are awesome!

Anyway, the point is that by mixing a very small amount of colonized substrate in the casing soil, you can speed up the very dangerous period of casing colonizaiton. It's this period that I have trouble with contamination. Once a casing is run through with mycelium, it is fairly resistant to any contamination given you don't get it too wet.

I am NOT suggesting adding enough substrate to the casing soil to supplement it! I know the casing must be fairly non-nutritive. That is NOT the point. Again, I'm just saying to speed up the casing colonization, one could add 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 parts (or even a lot less, say 1 part in 30) ground colonized birdseed substrate to the casing. You just need a few fragments of mycelium in that casing soil to really make a difference in colonization time and completeness.

I tell you what, I'll start some cubes and give it a whirl soon. Others should do the same. It works on Portabellas and others grown on compost and cased with a peat-based casing, so I don't see why it wouldn't work with cubes grown on birdseed cased with a peat/vermiculite-based casing.

ShroomGod

PS - Mycelium5150, yes I made it to the fair and bought tons of stuff! I bought three kits in fact, all of which are doing well. The pink oysters are particularly beautiful. I also bought mycelium dowels of several species of edibles as well as some of the best mushroom pictures I have ever seen.

[This message has been edited by ShroomGod (edited January 12, 2000).]

It'd be great if this works, though it looks like several people who know more than me have different expectations. Anyhow it'll be good to hear what happens.

[This message has been edited by Buffalo Trance (edited January 12, 2000).]

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I'm only two people away from having a menage a trois!

ShroomGOd

This whole thing was an idea I had last year, only I had hoped it would work to add a cake slury to the caseing mix to function both as the moisture and the innoculant... I never got a chance to try it, as everything in my life fell apart including all experimentation...Oh god that sound pathetic doesn't it... oh well.. have to try it with the cambodia cubensis soon!.... Anyone interested might want to do a search for that thread. It might have some decent ideas in it, I don't remember..

Hey Ryche, you mentioned in another thread that you planned on posting a tek dealing with ecuadors grown on dung... Is that still happening?

ThE JafF

[This message has been edited by Condi1 (edited October 06, 2000).]

mixing the casing layer with colonized spawn medium sounds interesting why dosen't some one try it and see what happens.

shroom god you are saying to mix the casing soil with colonized spawn medium and then case the substrate with the casing soil/ colonized spawn medium mixture?

in the case of psilocybe cubensis which doesn't need a casing layer to fruit or a substrate beyond the spawn medium (whatever medium that maybe) would mixing the entire colonized medium throughly with the casing soil be more benificial then simply casing it or not casing it at all?