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You know, I initially thought to go with small batches, but I decided against it and went with a monotub. I'm so so glad I did.

I would HIGHLY recommend getting a pressure cooker especially if you decide to do a monotub- and a good one at that. This is the one I purchased and it has done wonders for me. You really don't want to start everything up, use spores, and find out that your pressure cooker didn't reach high enough temperature for long enough, and all your jars get contaminated, and you have to throw all of them away wasting nearly a month and a half of time (me, three times in a row).

I recommend ordering spores or syringes (You can purchase a spore syringe for like five to ten bucks, but I prefer spores because 1 spore print makes 5-10 syringes for the same price) from r/SporeSwap. I store all of my syringes in the fridge, and all of the prints in the fridge as well.

Here is what I followed in regards to things for beginners:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

I also want to make the case one more time for doing monotubs if you have the space. You will be much happier with your yield I think, and as long as you properly store them (use a dehydrator on fresh mushrooms at about 115 F until they are cracker dry, store with a desiccant in a vacuum sealed bag. The nice thing is when properly treated, they stay good for a loooong time. Plus, it's super easy to make some cash on the side if you're into that kind of thing because you will have so so much left over.


This is pretty much everything you need to know, besides how to inoculate. That's an easy step though, ask google. Shoot me a pm if you're having trouble with anything related to monotubs.

I'd like to add my two cents and say that while PF tek is generally regarded as the entry point for mushroom growers, I actually think inoculating grains and bulk coir spawn in monotubs is an easier process overall, costs perhaps only a little more, and produces so much more than cakes. Also, monotubs are so easy and just set-it-and-forget-it.

Everything you really need to know about growing mushrooms can be found in RR's Let's Grow Mushrooms series. The series costs $8.99 and is really well worth it, but Frank's 12 steps to Shrooms is a really nice, concise (free) guide with everything you need to know about the method, and How Frank Gets Shit Done is a really awesome link list where he expands on every aspect of his methods.

A pressure cooker is really a necessary investment if you're remotely serious about growing, but it's also a bit of an outlay for a first timer. But really only a bit: I own this Presto 23 qt model, which is enough to do 7 quart jars of grain (really all the capacity you'll ever need), and it's only 90 bucks shipped and works great.

Probably the biggest limiting factor in any first time grow is keeping your procedures sterile when they need to be, and it may be that wild bird seed is simply more vulnerable to contaminates than verm/brf. I've used a basic glove box from day one, and I would definitely say that I had more contamination in more of my jars of wbs than I did doing PF tek. However, I only did a couple of PF grows before moving on to the bulk tek, and when I was finally successful, my first monotub yielded over 200 dry grams (inoculation to harvest took a little less than two months). Your syringe has the potential to do at least two tubs.

Anyway, I would say whatever method you decide to use, don't expect to be able to run out and buy every single thing you need tomorrow. It may be technically possible, but I would take some time to do some research, find out where you may be willing to drop a little extra coin to make things easier on yourself (injectable lids are very nice, although they can also be made yourself), and relax, those spores aren't going anywhere, they'll last months in your fridge.

Warm the surface up. I use a heat gun for a few seconds, but a hair dryer will work as well. It cracks because the plastic is brittle. Give it a little heat and it gets a little more pliable. Not too far or you create a whole different problem. There are also different drill bits you can use. I've had great luck with Forstner Bits
and an almost perfect record with Step Bits

As u/FungalScripture (great name BTW) says, go slow. Keep pressure on the tool very light, and some support on the back side of the plastic you're drilling through can help too. Best of luck.

Check out the PF-Tek method. I can't link it b/c I'm at work... but you should google and do a lot of research. Watch a bunch of Youtube tutorials. PF-Tek is the easiest and most reliable (IMO) for a first time grower. If you are interested in supplies, you basically need:

For the substrate:

• 8 oz. wide mouth mason jars
  
• vermiculite (you want fine ground... closer resembling sand as apposed to small rocks)
  
• brown rice flour
  
• Foil
  
• Spore syringes (you can PM /u/seekknowledge and he will hook you up)
  
• Pressure cooker or pot/steamer combo with a lid
  
  For your fruiting chamber:
  
  
• Sterilite container (can be found at home depot)
  
• perlite (found in the gardening section at home depot)
  
  Other:
  
  
• Rubbing alcohol (sterilization)
  
• Rubber gloves (for inoculation)
  
• A drill to drill holes into you fruiting chamber to provide fresh air exchange (FAE)
  
• Food dehydrator for when your little buddies are picked and need to be dried.
  
  And that's about it. There are some luxury items you could also buy like a fan for further providing FAE, or even an air pump to pump fresh air into the container.
  
  I would recommend buying your own items separately. When you buy a whole kit, you are paying for a lot of stuff you may not need and all the supplies are easily available on Amazon or at Home Depot/Lowes.
  
  I'm sure I'm leaving some stuff out, but that will get you started. Just one piece of advice... research, research, research. This isn't a quick turn-around project. It takes months from inoculation until you have dried product. If you skip steps, you may have wasted quite a bit of time.
  
  PM me if you have questions. I'm also somewhat a noob but I've had some successful grows.

It sounds like you're well prepared - you've got set and setting covered. Having a dog there to love up on will be an added bonus. If there's a park nearby or a place to go outside that's close to the house, that would be good too. Being able to get outdoors and connect with nature is always great on mushrooms.

But definitely invest in a scale - especially since this is your first time. Better to know the amount you're taking so that you're not overdoing it or under doing [I think 2g is a good place to start]. Also, you'll know whether to adjust up or down for the next time. You could certainly wing it - but how do you eyeball 2g if you don't know what 2g looks like? Shrooms come in all shapes and sizes - one decent-sized shroom could be 2g. Or, if they're smaller, you might need 3-4. Weigh it out. Safe travels either way. Have fun!

I've never tried wrapping them up. If you try this make sure your holes in the jar lids aren't blocked.

Last winter I did put some in the oven and turned the oven light on. Worked fairly well. You want to put a thermometer in there so you can monitor the temperature. If it get's to warm crack the door just a bit.

This year I have an oil filled electric radiator heater in the grow room. It's only heating one room and it holds it right at 75F while the reset of the house is in the 60-65F. Fruiting chambers are in there. Myc is in an incubator this year and it was worth building.

Don't know if you want to go this far but the best method for colonizing myc in colder temperatures is a Tub-in-Tub incubator. Here's a link to building one:

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/17954773#17954773

I have heard of people using a reptile warming pad in an ice chest. I've never done this but don't see why it wouldn't work. Something like this and you may be able to find one at a local pet store:

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiTherm%C2%AE-Under-Heater/dp/B0002AQCKA/ref=sr_1_2?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1417729649&sr=1-2&keywords=reptile+heater+mat

Once again monitor your temps. If it gets too hot crack the top. If it's still too much put the heater in a cardboard box instead (not insulated as well). Play around with it and find a combination that works.

I also saw one for less than $6.00, it was 5 watts, I would think that would be enough inside an ice chest and it's got free shipping:

http://www.amazon.com/Reptile-Heating-Adjustable-Temperature-Amphibians/dp/B00MEBH4KC/ref=sr_1_12?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1417730123&sr=1-12&keywords=reptile+heater+mat

Bring a blanket and preferably one that you can clasp together around your neck. Shrooms always make me feel coldish.

You need to think of your fire stuff. Portable grill? Charcoal? It's best for cooking. Bonfire? Best for atmosphere but restricts what you can cook. I'd personally be happy with hotdog buns and hotdogs which were cooked on a stick over a bonfire. By the time I get hungry, I have enough control over myself to cook a hotdog.

If you make a bonfire, then bring a small hatchet, sharp knife and a bow saw. You don't need these tools but if you got them, you can improvise furniture. You willlll need something to relax on. Either bring camping chairs or make some in the field.


Check out wilderness outfitters on youtube.

Maybe you wanna make a ritual of a sort of the mushroom consumption? How about you bring a nice big pot in which you make mushroom tea. First you labor to get firewood and get the fire going, then you watch as the tea is brewing. And then you all drink it together.

Bring portable lamps or these headlights. Flashlights are okay too but are annoying to use when you need both hands.

Maybe something funny like this? https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B008LM32QS/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523283294&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=fire+powder

That's a flame colorant. You throw it into your bonfire and the flames will have different colors.

>How long can I keep the glc syringe before they go bad?

Few months, up to a year if kept in the fridge. I'd recommend putting it into a jar though since there will be air. Without air, yet being in a nutrient solution, the myc will die (not quickly, it'd take a long time) and any potential anaerobic bacteria will take over. The good thing about GLC is that there shouldn't be any anaerobic bacteria present in the first place.

>how exactly do i go about making an LC jar

I use a mason jar, drill two holes, one will have the self healing injection port (made with high temp silicone) and the other will be for the syringe filter that you secure with the same silicone. I use these filters. Whatever filter you use, just make sure it's synthetic and hydrophobic. The idea is that when you draw LC out, the volume has to be replaced with something (creates a vacuum) so the filter will filter the incoming air (HEPA is 0.3 micron, those are 0.22). I've tried micropore tape before, it works but when you shake the jar, it'll get on the tape and bacteria will grow.

I use 1tsp malt extract to 500ml water. (Note that there are some guides that recommend using 1tbsp malt to 300-500ml water. I prefer to have my mycelium in low nutrients until I'm putting them to grain). Heat the water on a stove to just below boiling, add the malt, stir it well, then pour into the jars. It's ok to have sediment, I actually like sediment since those are "anchors" for the mycelium to grow on. Fill it about 1/2 to a little over half, add a small piece of broken glass, pebble or a small screw that won't corrode from the LC (this will help break up the myc when swirling/shaking), wrap the top with foil and PC for 15-20m. Let it cool then add however much you want from the GLC. GLC is preferable as a starter since the idea is that a fully colonised jar won't have any contamination to carry over to the LC. Let it colonise for a week or two then you can put it in the fridge for longer storage. I made four master P. galindoi LC jars about two months ago and put them in the fridge. I checked them last week and they've barely grown.

If you can't get access to malt extract, you can also boil some potatoes and use that water as your LC. Many people have had success with using karo/dextrose/honey as their nutrient but I've never had much success with it. It's worth a shot, though, if you can't get malt. I wasn't able to find malt where I live so had to get it online.

Agar plates are best used and handled "upside down" with the surface of the agar facing down. It's harder for crud to fall up.


Put a speck on a plate or two and have five or six as backups. This is a multispore culture so a bunch of siblings should start up and go into completion for space. As the growth spreads clear wedge shaped separations should appear as some of the siblings outrun the weaker ones. You can take an inoculum from the leading edge of a fast grower to transfer to clean plates, grow that out and you are ready to go to grains. Just cut a hunk of colonize agar out with a sterilized X-acto blade.


Got mold? Resistance is futile.

What if the first bit of gill shows mycelium and bacterial or yeast contaminants?


Cut a slab of agar out of a clean plate and cover that entirely with it. The mycelium can easily grow through and emerge on top, clean. The bacteria or yeast will remain trapped beneath. Source: Paul Stamets


Hit YouTube for vids on basic aseptic technique. The learning curve on agar can be steep, the rewards are huge.

I ordered my jars from Amazon because I also couldn't find the wide mouth jars at Home Depot/Walmart/Ace/Lowes. Dfw-guy is spot on, he is a helpful dude. Good luck dude, hope you get some nice fruits!

If you have the money, Excalibur dehydrators are incredibly nice. Otherwise, the nesco dehydrators like this one work great. Make sure you go through Amazon or someone who will handle warranty issues for you, though.

GreenHouser 108"X48"X80" Reflective Mylar Multi-Chamber 2-in-1 Grow Tent Large Version Room for Hydroponics Indoor Planting https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JDNZ88N/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_I4R5CbXBZ6K96

This is the tent I use. Its perfect.
I recommend buying four 4foot long rubbermaid containers. install a low wat light on each lid. Then connect a lid to a timer.

One the right side of the tent is where i store my inoculated jars. When the jars are ready, I put the in the top two rubbermaid containers. After the second flush, I transfer to the third or fourth containers.

this process will ensure a constant yield.

Side note......

I also live in Colorado. You should look into growing truffles....

Read Paul Stamets book Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, and also The Mushroom Cultivator which details a lot of info on spore storage and culture practises.

Its so easy to get one contam spore into whatever you're doing - ordinary air has so many contam spores in just 1cm^3, its almost impossible to work 100% sterile. But not to worry: the best we can do as cultivators is hold off the inevitable. A good cultivator will do what he or she can to work clean but all the time understands that all grows will ultimately end in contamination - thats just natures way.

The contaminations themselves often sporulate on the surface of cube spores which after finding residence on nutrient media will then 'piggy-back' using the spores which touch each other. The contaminations can often be 50 times smaller, and so can easily rest like a pest on the spores surface. An electron microscopy picture can really show you well what I'm trying to say here. They also reproduce far faster than their larger basidiospore cousins in the cubensis family, so can out compete them for the available resources that you have so kindly provided for them.

Its not that having a lot of spores in a syringe is a bad thing, its just that throughout my experience with cubes I've found that 'less is more' - the more spread out the spores are from each other, the more you can isolate the good strains and culture out the contams. :)

I strongly suggest you watch this, then find or buy the whole DVD. It is comprehensive, and RR is well respected (mod on Shroomery). It is, give or take, gospel.

You can find the exact mason jars for BRF cakes here. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jarden-Home-Brands-Mouth-Canning/dp/B0000BYD0F/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Jarden+Home+Brands+12Pk&qid=1572027665&s=kitchen&sr=1-1

​

You can probably get them cheaper if you are in the US, or bulk buy from https://www.luckyvitamin.com/p-673056-kerr-wide-mouth-8-oz-half-pint-mason-jars-freezer-safe-12-count

Do a dub tub with the bottom tub filled with 4" or so of water to cover a fully submersible aquarium heater.

You only need a 50W aquarium heater to keep a tub warm. I used this one

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AFELTT2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And these were great for monitoring the temperature, I had two, one for water temp and one for air temp in the shroom tub. Temp probes are waterproof/submersible.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C6PE4G2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

No worries man! I’m about to start my fourth grow when my spores come in so I totally get where you’re coming from. It’s such a fun process and I’m constantly learning more and more. You should check out this book called The Mushroom Cultivator. It’s such an invaluable reference tool that I’m constantly flipping through when I’ve got questions.

Edit: It’s a little dated, and PF-Tek was published about 10 years later, but everything in the book is still valuable and informative.

this Nesco.

edit: $8 over your budget but get over it :)

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01LNP50KA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They work rather well, great that the remotes are universal.

​

Actually I use these, but the original sale is no longer available. https://imgur.com/DOmPX4u

If it's a $ you can use a hand scale for small amounts: https://www.amazon.com/Postal-portable-analog-weight-detection/dp/B000HKPN7I/ref=asc_df_B000HKPN7I/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312152778655&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3218714584647596173&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9018827&hvtargid=pla-569394986790&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=57631862330&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312152778655&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3218714584647596173&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9018827&hvtargid=pla-569394986790

Half Pint Wide Mouth Jars (12)

These are the jars that I bought for my shrooms.

You of course also have to pressure cook your jars with the verm and BRF mix for 90 minutes.

Tips?
Don’t be dirty :p

good luck!!!

It's this one right here. I use the same one. Fantastic piece of equipment. Actually may not be exactly the same one, but looks very similar. Anyways, I have the one I linked and it's worked great. Bought used and have had no problems.

no. get the stuff yourself at stores and such. this way you know exactly what is going on. You can go big as hell for about 250$, bigger than this kit.

Heres your supply list


Quart jars -12$ for a pack of 12

Aluminum foil- cheap

spores- find a good shroomery sponsor

Pressure cooker- just got this bad boy the other day. get it. http://www.amazon.com/Presto-01781-23-Quart-Pressure-Canner/dp/B0000BYCFU/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1367466002&sr=8-4&keywords=pressure+cooker

Some 66 gallon sterilite tubs - ~10 dollars each where i get them

some rye berries or wild bird seed - i get it at whole foods by the pound. cheap

vermiculite - 5$ a 32oz bag i believe where i live

coco coir- ~10$ a 3 pack at petsmart

some sterilie supplies such as gloves and isopropyl alcohol and disinfectant spray. etc.


If you want any help at all shoot me a message! im more than happy to help.

http://www.amazon.com/Jarden-Home-Brands-Mouth-Canning/dp/B0000BYD0F

These are the ones I use. They are short and wide which is better than the taller alternative. Shorter jars mean faster colonization time and less likelihood it will stall towards the end. I've never come into any problem birthing them as the walls are straight as an arrow on the inside.

Wait until the jars are cool enough to touch and inspect them. If the jars are not cracked, go ahead and sterilize them. If any of the jars are cracked, go ahead and throw them away and use the remaining jars that are not cracked.

Look into a pressure cooker for next time. This one will hold 10 quart-sized jars.

I’m thinking it’s a Nesco FD-75A

these are the ones in the tek:

https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Mason-Quilted-Jelly-Bands/dp/B00B80TK2K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504708577&sr=8-1&keywords=small+mason+jar

any these will work:

https://www.amazon.com/Kerr-00500-Mouth-Glass-Mason/dp/B00A0KUGYU/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1504708577&sr=8-11&keywords=small+mason+jar


https://www.amazon.com/Nakpunar-Piece-Mason-Glass-Ounce/dp/B00SFOHW5E/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1504710737&sr=8-22&keywords=small+mason+jar

https://www.amazon.com/Jarden-Home-Brands-Mouth-Canning/dp/B0000BYD0F/ref=sr_1_62?ie=UTF8&qid=1504710811&sr=8-62&keywords=small+mason+jar

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets

http://www.amazon.com/Presto-01781-23-Quart-Pressure-Canner/dp/B0000BYCFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416156640&sr=8-1&keywords=presto+canner&pebp=1416156641589

sorry lmao, this is the same one theyre selling for 150 at my hardware store, I think it might be worth it for me to hook up some sort of online banking for amazon, maybe ill buy one of those pizza cards -_- stupid internet