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AmericaOnLSD
Stranger


Registered: 10/14/06
Posts: 240
Loc: USA
Last seen: 11 years, 7 months
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A Year Later (Pics)
#7789463 - 12/22/07 03:31 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Last winter I grew several strains of edible mushrooms. I saved grain spawn in my refrigerator over the summer. About I month ago I decided to grow again. I spawned the grain jars to sawdust. Sawdust is from hardwood fuel pellets, which I pasteurized by heating in a microwave oven until steaming after adding water. Spawn ratio approximately 1:5 by volume. I punched several rows of holes in the bags with a fork. I placed the bags in a cupboard above my refrigerator, where temperatures average in the 70's.
Here is Lions Mane, which I spawned on November 18th and placed in the fruiting chamber on December 6th. The largest growth is from a tiny hole made by the fork. The smaller growth is from a larger hole where I made with a the point of a scissors (this is where I intended it to fruit from):

Here are the bags of Shiitake, which I spawned on November 25th. The left bag was spawned with grain spawn made from an agar clone of a large mushroom. The right bag was spawned with grain spawn from spores from the same mushroom grown on agar. I noticed that the bag made from grain clone has slightly (maybe 10 to 20 percent) faster and denser growth than the bag made from grain spore. After 3 weeks, all but the bottom of the bags had colonized, so I carefully turned the blocks in the bag. Now (a week later) everything is colonized.

I'm going to leave these another week then chill, remove the bags, and place in the fruiting chamber.
I also had blue and white oyster grain spawn left from last winter, but experienced contamination problems with these. I managed to recover the spawn and separate from contamination with agar. Presently I'm in the process of colonizing grain with this agar. I also isolated a clone from another strain of blue oyster purchased from a different vendor recently. That also is presently colonizing grain.
AOLSD
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lorbitherize
Stranger

Registered: 11/24/05
Posts: 328
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Re: A Year Later (Pics) *DELETED* [Re: AmericaOnLSD]
#7790200 - 12/22/07 06:45 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Post deleted by lorbitherizeReason for deletion: ...
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure



Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 11 months, 3 days
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Looking good there except the ziploc bags on carpet. That always gives me the creeps, becauses there's nothing nastier than carpet.
Keep the air exchange up, since lion's mane is fairly CO2 intolerant. I'd raise the hericium up, but not to protect it from the perlite. That primordia that's forming on the side will be large enough that it's going to be against the perlite before it's mature. You could probably just set the substrate on a couple of inverted jars or something similar. RR
-------------------- Download Let's Grow Mushrooms semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat "I've never had a failed experiment. I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work." Thomas Edison
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abesh
Warrior SixDelta




Registered: 07/31/07
Posts: 321
Last seen: 15 years, 5 months
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So you let the grain colonize 100% and then stored it in the fridge?
This is awesome. I have had some spawn go bad, because I was to busy/lazy to transfer it. Next time I can just put it in the fridge till I have time / room in my FC.
-------------------- If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions? - Scott Adams
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AmericaOnLSD
Stranger


Registered: 10/14/06
Posts: 240
Loc: USA
Last seen: 11 years, 7 months
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Re: A Year Later (Pics) [Re: abesh]
#7804863 - 12/27/07 05:44 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Yes. I had a hard time breaking it up after being stored all summer - had to use a spoon and spoon it into the sawdust bag, then break it up in the bag. My oyster mushrooms (2 species) contaminated that way though. Luckily I had some LC left over - but this too is contaminated and I've been trying to isolate it again on agar. Thus far, I have 1 strain recovered and colonizing grain and the 2nd I think I have recovered but still waiting for more growth on the agar.
Here is a pic of my lion's mane now. I have placed aluminum foil under it because I want to be alerted for spores so I can do a spore print.

AOLSD
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AmericaOnLSD
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Registered: 10/14/06
Posts: 240
Loc: USA
Last seen: 11 years, 7 months
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I do have a couple of other questions for those who know more about this than me.
First, I ordered a Shiitake from Stamets back in November. The instructions said to look at the date on the bag, and chill it after 40 days. Despite the fact that there was very little brown on the bag, I chilled it in cold water for a day. Only afterwards did it start to get brown on it. Here is a picture about a week or so after chilling:

I have been misting it at least twice a day. It has been over 4 weeks since I chilled this. Now the log has turned almost completely brown. Cracks started developing about 5 days ago, but they are only one one side of the log and are not growing very fast:

Should I chill the log again, or just wait?
My other question concerns a Perl Oyster culture. I'm pretty sure I have some contamination, so have been trying to isolate on agar. The original sawdust bag did colonize, but the fruits do not grow very well. They are only about an inch long, and they appear to have stopped growing. Would that be because they are contaminated? It looks like they are dry, but I mist regularly and humidity has never gotten below 85% (stays 90%+ most of the time).

Should I chuck this and wait for the culture I am presently isolating on agar?
Thanks, AOLSD
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AmericaOnLSD
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Registered: 10/14/06
Posts: 240
Loc: USA
Last seen: 11 years, 7 months
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Here is a pic of the two Shiitake blocks taken today. The clone is fruiting nicely. The block from spores has not fruited just yet.

AOLSD
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