So, tell me Bloke... How Do YOU Grow Shrooms?

Shrooms and related goodies
User avatar
A Bloke Down The Pub
Karma Bhudda
Karma Bhudda
Custom Title: Shaman to the Gentry
Location: Teku Benga
Posts: 2948
Joined: Wed May 20, 2009 3:35 pm

So, tell me Bloke... How Do YOU Grow Shrooms?

Post by A Bloke Down The Pub »

By far the easiest method of growing shrooms is the "PF Tek" which involves growing them on a substrate of brown rice flour & vermiculite.
There's lots of info on the PF Tek about the web. A Google search will bring you lots of results, and a visit to http://www.mycotopia.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or http://www.shroomery.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; will provide you with lots of food for thought.

There are lots of minor variations on the method, but I'm going to show you how it works best for me.

First of all, you'll need some equipment & materials:

Brown rice flour (“BRF”) (preferably organic)
Vermiculite
Water
Glass jars with lids (without a "shoulder")
Pressure cooker (the largest you can find)
Mixing Bowl
Aluminium foil

You’ll also be needing some mushroom spores. By far the easiest species to grow are Psilocybe cubensis and I wouldn’t recommend trying other species until you have some experience behind you. They’re available in many strains and can be obtained from many sources. I’ll try and remember to list a few later.

You’ll also need somewhere warmish (around 20-25C) to put the jars whilst the spores germinate & colonise the substrate,and somewhere warm & humid (I use a fish tank) for them to fruit and produce shrooms!

The jars need to be slightly tapered towards the bottom, and have no shoulder on them. You’ll be sliding the mushroom “cake” out of them, so any shoulder will prevent them coming out easily.
You’ll need to drill or punch four holes in each jar lid, fairly close to the edges but not through the sealing rim.
bonne maman.jpg
pf jar lids.jpg
The first thing to do is to mix the substrate:
I’ve found the most reliable ratio of ingredients is 1:1:2 - water:BRF:vermiculite (by volume)
You need to be reasonably accurate in the measuring.. A mixture that is too wet or too dry will cause you some problems.

I usually find it easier to measure out all the ingredients before I start.

Measure your vermiculite (I have “1 cup” and “½ cup” measures) into a large mixing bowl and pour in the water. Mix them thoroughly until the vermiculite has absorbed most of the water. If you’ve measured correctly, you should find that there’s a little water in the bottom of the bowl when you’ve finished stirring.
pf verm+water mix.jpg
Next, add the BRF slowly, stirring all the time. Mix thoroughly. The aim is to get each grain of vermiculite thoroughly coated in the BRF.

Once mixed, the substrate should hold together when you squeeze a handful of it, and no water should drip out, even if you squeeze hard.
pf mix lump.jpg
Fill the jars with the mixture, leaving 1-1½ inches of space at the top.
This gap will be filled with dry vermiculite, which acts as a barrier to contaminations whilst letting gas exchange happen easily.
Wipe the inside of the jars with a damp paper towel so that there’s no substrate adhering between the top of the substrate and the top of the jar. Any mixture left on the jar will provide a path for contamination to creep in, so make SURE it’s clean!
pf wipe jar.jpg
Last edited by A Bloke Down The Pub on Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:38 pm, edited 8 times in total.

User avatar
A Bloke Down The Pub
Karma Bhudda
Karma Bhudda
Custom Title: Shaman to the Gentry
Location: Teku Benga
Posts: 2948
Joined: Wed May 20, 2009 3:35 pm

So, tell me Bloke... How Do YOU Grow Shrooms?

Post by A Bloke Down The Pub »

Once you’ve done that, fill the remaining space in the jar with dry vermiculite and screw on the lid.
pf top verm.jpg
pf lidded jar.jpg
Cut some squares of aluminium foil and cover the tops of the jars. Scrunch it round the bottom of the lid to provide a reasonable seal . This is to stop water getting in when you pressure cook them.
pf foiled jar.jpg
Load up your pressure cooker and cook the jars for 60 minutes at 15PSI.
This sterilises the substrate and kills any moulds or bacteria.
Pressure cookers can be dangerous if used incorrectly, so follow the manufacturer's instructions and be sure to add enough water to avoid it boiling dry.
pf loaded pc.jpg

Once that’s done, you’ll need to leave them in the cooker for a few hours (I usually leave them overnight) to cool. Once they’re at room temperature, open the cooker and take out the jars.
Now you’re ready to inoculate them with your spores.

I’ll cover that in the next post……..

User avatar
A Bloke Down The Pub
Karma Bhudda
Karma Bhudda
Custom Title: Shaman to the Gentry
Location: Teku Benga
Posts: 2948
Joined: Wed May 20, 2009 3:35 pm

Inoculation:

Post by A Bloke Down The Pub »

This is where you introduce the spores to their new home!

If you’ve purchased spores, they’ll come in a water-filled syringe.
If you’ve bought or been given a spore print, you’ll need to make up a syringe from the print.
Making up a syringe is the point where you’re most likely to introduce contaminating spores & organisms, so if you’re just starting, I’d recommend buying a ready made syringe.
I’ll cover syringe making & spore printing later if there’s a demand for the info.

Remove your cooled jars from the pressure cooker, and remove the foil.
If any of the jars feel noticeably heavier than the others, it means that water has got in during the sterilising process. The contents of these jars should be discarded, as the mushroom mycelium will not grow well in an environment that’s too wet.
PF cooked jars.jpg
The environment you do this in should be as clean & sterile as possible, but there’s no need to be anal about it. I just use a kitchen worktop that’s been wiped down with disinfectant.
Some folks recommend doing it in a glove box or flow hood, but I’ve never found it necessary.

Now we come to the inoculation!
First give the syringe a good shake to help distribute the spores evenly.
Then sterilise the needle by bringing it briefly to red heat in a gas or alcohol flame
hot needle.jpg
You only need to heat the needle for a very short time, just until it’s red hot - if you leave it in there too long, the plastic mount will start to melt, and you’ll be fucked. :notamused:
You can let the needle cool in the air for a few seconds, or you can gently squeeze the plunger to squeeze out a little solution to cool it (just a tiny drop is enough).

Introduce the needle into the jar through one of the holes you made in the top of the jar, angling it slightly outwards towards the side of the jar so that the tip ends up resting on the glass about ½ in below the dry vermiculite layer.
pf innoc.jpg
Squeeze the plunger gently so that a few drops trickle down the inside of the jar and onto the substrate.
pg innoc.jpg
Repeat the process with the other three holes in the jar.
You should be aiming to use about 1cc of liquid per jar (1/4cc per hole).

The reason for using four holes is to ensure that the jar colonises quickly from multiple sites.

Repeat with your other jars, and that’s it!

It's helpful to mark the jars with the strain & date of inoculation, but obviously not essential.
I use a Sharpie (as chinagraph pencils don't seem to be available any more :cry:)

Now you need to put them somewhere warm (22-28C) to allow the spores to germinate.
I use a couple of plastic boxes sandwiched together with water in the bottom one, warmed by an aquarium heater. (I’ll describe this with pix in a post in a day or two… I just need to get it up from the cellar & ready for use!)
An even and constant heat is more important than the actual temperature, but going above 28C or below 22C will cause slow colonisation, and if you get much over 30C, you may stunt or even kill the growing mycelium.

I’ll post the progress of the jars I’ve just inoculated, but if anyone has questions in the meantime, fire away!

User avatar
Munchy
Board Administrator
Karma God
Karma God
Custom Title: Golden Member
Location: ~Sims Universe~
Has bestowed Karma : 470 times
Received Karma : 957 times
Posts: 3998
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 1:55 am

Inoculation:

Post by Munchy »

very nice, but here's the part where i really get stuck at...
A Bloke Down The Pub wrote:If you’ve purchased spores, they’ll come in a water-filled syringe.
If you’ve bought or been given a spore print, you’ll need to make up a syringe from the print.
Making up a syringe is the point where you’re most likely to introduce contaminating spores & organisms, so if you’re just starting, I’d recommend buying a ready made syringe...
Prohibition is Futile Image THC will be Assimilated
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ How To Pass Drug Tests ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. -Albert Einstein

User avatar
A Bloke Down The Pub
Karma Bhudda
Karma Bhudda
Custom Title: Shaman to the Gentry
Location: Teku Benga
Posts: 2948
Joined: Wed May 20, 2009 3:35 pm

Inoculation:

Post by A Bloke Down The Pub »

Munchy wrote:very nice, but here's the part where i really get stuck at...
Which part of that part? :p

If you mean making the spore syringe, I don't have any pix at the moment, but all you're needing to do is mix the spores with sterile water & suck it up into a syringe.

I usually just pop a print into a medium sized sterile baggie, squirt some sterile water in the top (enough for as many syringes as you want to make), seal it up, shake it around a bit then open it & suck up the water. Bingo: spore syringes. :tup:
I use the water that was in the pressure cooker when cooking the jars, but you can do a separate jar with just water in it and cook it with the others when you're doing the sterilisation (leave the lid loose, or it will burst).

If you do it that way, you can open the cooled jar, scrape spores in with a sterile scalpel blade, put the top back on, shake it, then fill your syringes.

User avatar
Munchy
Board Administrator
Karma God
Karma God
Custom Title: Golden Member
Location: ~Sims Universe~
Has bestowed Karma : 470 times
Received Karma : 957 times
Posts: 3998
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 1:55 am

So, tell me Bloke... How Do YOU Grow Shrooms?

Post by Munchy »

very interesting, but there's still the purchasing part... the how & where of obtaining these magic syringes... is it like ordering cannabis seeds? any legal difference? i'm sure i'd need a safe addy. but maybe you can pm me a good place to get them from? thx
Prohibition is Futile Image THC will be Assimilated
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ How To Pass Drug Tests ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. -Albert Einstein

User avatar
A Bloke Down The Pub
Karma Bhudda
Karma Bhudda
Custom Title: Shaman to the Gentry
Location: Teku Benga
Posts: 2948
Joined: Wed May 20, 2009 3:35 pm

So, tell me Bloke... How Do YOU Grow Shrooms?

Post by A Bloke Down The Pub »

Munchy wrote:very interesting, but there's still the purchasing part... the how & where of obtaining these magic syringes... is it like ordering cannabis seeds? any legal difference? i'm sure i'd need a safe addy. but maybe you can pm me a good place to get them from? thx
Ah!

Well, it depends on where you are (as ususal :roll:)

In some states, they're not legal, (Georgia is the only one I remember offhand) and in others they're OK ("for microscopy purposes").
In the UK, spores are legal, but I think France & Germany banned them a year or two ago.
Some places it's the syringe & needle that gets you into trouble. :roll:
Most spore vendors have a bit about legality somewhere on the site, so I'd suggest checking them out.

I get all my empty syringes & needles on e-bay (10 or 20 ml syringes are ideal - if you can find them in boxes of 100 they're pretty cheap (I think mine cost me about £10 for 100 a couple of years ago). 2-3in needles are best (the widest bore you can find, usually the "yellow" coded ones).

If you want to buy ready filled ones, I can recommend:
http://www.ralphstersspores.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://sporeworks.com/store/catalog/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.thegoodspore.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (althought this one is currently suspended due to a death in the "family" :( )
All of them have a good selection and have reputations to uphold.
Last edited by A Bloke Down The Pub on Sun Jan 10, 2010 12:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
ben ttech
MPG Ambassador
Karma Hippie
Karma Hippie
Custom Title: godisnotwhite.com
Has bestowed Karma : 389 times
Received Karma : 240 times
Posts: 8234
Joined: Mon May 25, 2009 2:22 am

So, tell me Bloke... How Do YOU Grow Shrooms?

Post by ben ttech »

great thread bloke!

i searched for pictures or illistration to explain what "no shoulder jars" means but didnt find anything.
the explaination is a jar with a shape which only tapers below its lid moving toward its bottom. what this allows is for anything you put into the jar, to come out without having to change its shape to do so...

but an illistration would be much better...


regarding sterility...

one trick is to do your work early in the morning before people moving around and doors and windows have stirred up the dust in your place... which is the mechanism for the mechanics of delivering to your sterile field, the type of infections your worried about...

another is teaching yourself not to lean over your work and its surface...
never forget your entire body is raining debris at all times... bits of you heavily laden with bacteria and fungi...

suscessful techniques involve not just wearing gloves, but keeping your ungloved arms from ever passing over anything you wish to remain sterile...


carry on!
"disaster is the mother of necessity" rSin

User avatar
A Bloke Down The Pub
Karma Bhudda
Karma Bhudda
Custom Title: Shaman to the Gentry
Location: Teku Benga
Posts: 2948
Joined: Wed May 20, 2009 3:35 pm

So, tell me Bloke... How Do YOU Grow Shrooms?

Post by A Bloke Down The Pub »

ben ttech wrote:i searched for pictures or illistration to explain what "no shoulder jars" means but didnt find anything.
the explaination is a jar with a shape which only tapers below its lid moving toward its bottom. what this allows is for anything you put into the jar, to come out without having to change its shape to do so...
but an illistration would be much better...
Yah, sorry about that. :sad:

What you don't want is jars that have a restriction in them like these :
Single_Regular_Jars_Web.jpg
Single_Regular_Jars_Web.jpg (69.74 KiB) Viewed 3505 times

As most of the folks in the UK will recognise, I use "Bonne Maman" jam jars. :)
bm.jpg
bm.jpg (24.01 KiB) Viewed 3505 times
In the US & Canada, Ball/Kerr 1/2 pint jars seem to be favourite.. either the tall ones or the squat ones will work well.
ball_mason_jar.jpg
ball_mason_jar.jpg (8.22 KiB) Viewed 3505 times
8_oz._kerr_jars.jpg


Jars over 1/2 pint take longer to colonise, and I wouldn't recommend anything over a pint.


Good advice on the sterile procedures. :tup:

It's not necessary for your working area to be "hospital clean" and I find as long as I'm working "kitchen clean" I don't have problems.

webeblzr
good karma
good karma
Has bestowed Karma : 134 times
Received Karma : 174 times
Posts: 210
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:31 pm

So, tell me Bloke... How Do YOU Grow Shrooms?

Post by webeblzr »

Thanks for the thread Bloke!
Is this substrate good for the other types of fungus also?
I have a bunch of syringes, and am starting to gather my equipment up, and supplies.

You add in H2O2 in to your water and fish tank heater?

Post Reply