Recommendations for first time fungi growers

[ZizzleB]

So I am seeing posts about mushrooms pop up more and more and I love it. From reading some of your guys’ experiences, I have become very interested in trying to grow some of my own.

Not here to have someone explain the process to me by any means.
Just wanted to see if there are any tips or advice that some of you more experienced fungi growers wouldn’t mind sharing with a beginner… Things that you wish you would’ve known when you started.

I’m also really thinking about trying out microdosing. Been reading about it for a couple weeks and really haven’t heard anything but good things.
Anyone have experience??

[Hansel]

Micro dose with a purpose in mind. I try to build or do something with my hands. Or take the family out and adventure in the forest (old service roads are endless when I’m at).

That’s just me though.

[ZizzleB]

That is great advice. seems like a recurring piece of advice I am reading in the research I have done so far.

[se7en]

my current mix is roughly:
150mg psilocybin 250mg lions mane 250 mg cordyceps 50mg niacin 50 mg Maca root

learn how to make your own agar plates and work with agar to cut your contamination issues early.
If you can afford to make a flow hood, its worth it though if you cant, a still air box works.

be OCD about cleanliness and being sterile. The number one challenge I have is contamination.

I use wbs/rye for my grain and coir for substrate fruited in monotubs.

[TwistedStill]

See post #8 by @blackie. That PDF is worth looking at

Recommended reading/tutorials on fungus cultivation

I had my first success growing shrooms using the PF tek over 20 years ago, pre-internet. There was a PF tek booklet about 20 pages long sold by Robert McPherson. It was advertised in high times. I would go that route if trying to learn, or buy pre-sterilized substrate.

[ZizzleB]

Thanks so much!

I’m glad you shared your mix. I just looked up Lions Mane mushrooms and now I want to try that. I am type I diabetic so the anti-diabetic properties in them alone interests me.
This is something I need to look into more - which varieties I should be using to achieve a certain effects.

[NewLevelProcess]

Best advice from my failure and my friends successes, be sterile as possible. Don’t put your hands over open containers or breathe near open containers. Premade injectable bags exist and are good to start with.

[se7en]

i would look into reishi, maitake, and turkey tail as well then.

[ZizzleB]

Will do. Thanks again!

[ZizzleB]

like pre-filled bags of sterile substrate??

[NewLevelProcess]

Yes this thing

Mushroom Grow and Spawn Bag w/ injection site – 2lb Sterilized Rye

[ZizzleB]

thanks!!

[Kushite]

… get some sterile bags with sterile rye… Inject which ever spore syringe you like… let it sit till it colonize… Get you some sterile substrate… 50/50 manure and straw from outgrow works awesome… Look up monotub Tek… basically cut some hole in tub mix spawn(colonized rye bags) with 50/50 substrate in tub spray let it sit with lights off for about 10 days then bring in to 12/12 light for fruiting… and boom! Couple days later you’ll be happier then a kid in a candy store…

[ZizzleB]

you’re the man. thanks for sharing this brotha

[se7en]

for the Gourmets, I use the bag method. I use the hardwood pellet and wheat bran mix with good success.

[chefrobert]

You can never be too clean if you have a spare room to work in try and make it your clean room if a room isn’t available then a still air box with glove ports built in is a awesome way to start

[very.good.hemp]

Create sterile liquid culture. It will change the game for you. Isolating sectors on agar in Petri dishes is preferred over spore syringe. Fill a jar with corn syrup, RO water and a handful of marbles…and autoclave or pressure cook. Inoculate. Incubate. Once you reach about 50% colonization of your sugar water, then shake. The marbles break up the hyphae. Instead of tons of haploid spores needing to meet to make for viable mycelium for fruiting, every little piece of mycelium becomes a viable inoculation point. Don’t over shake your jar. Draw agitated liquid culture into sterile syringes. Use instead of spore syringes for any application and watch your colonization times drop to half or less, and with good sterile techniques your contamination issues will be a thing of the past. Your healthy mycelium will grow to fast to give competitors a chance.

[ZizzleB]

^ this guy has grown some fungi lol.
probably a ways to go before I get to this, but still great info nonetheless!

[Cthulhu]

As a tip for cultivation, specifically environmental controls, I had the easiest time and best yields when I was using an ultrasonic fog generator.
It was kept in a closed side chamber with a small computer fan attached to the top, water and ultrasonic mister on the bottom and then 1/2" pipe connecting the two chambers. It would pump in a fine mist mixed with fresh air. In the fruiting chamber was myceliated corn with casing layer in tin trays.
The humidity created by the ultrasonic mister is so fine(small particluates) that, from observation, it’s very easily assimilated by the mycelia and fruiting bodies. I had larger fruits and more flushes after switching to the mister versus larger particle spray or more passive humidity.

[hypnotoad]

check out shroomery.org
tons of knowledge to be gained there