Growing mushrooms the easy way can seem like rocket science to some people. I am going to attempt to take the fear out and introduce you to the correct, sterile way of growing any mushroom variety with ease. The only hard part, with which you should be aware are several items you will need in order to begin preparation for growing your mushrooms.
You will need:
All of which can be purchased at www.sporworks.com a TN based company
-A spore syringe (the strain of mushrooms you wish to grow)
-Several Large Presealable Autoclavable Gusseted Bulk Spawn Bags
-Vermiculite
-Brown rice Manure, Straw, or wood chips, sawdust depending on what your mushroom variety prefers
-A humidifier or spray bottle
-A small Rubbermaid container
-Canner
-Alcohol or no water hand sanitizer.
– A bag sealer
Now once you have collected to all this together I think it is best to start by preparing the bags first. Open on of the Autoclavable bags and pour in about a cup and a half of cooked brown rice. Next add about a cup of vermiculite and 2 cups of water. Make sure there is enough water to be able to cook the vermiculite, the extra will be drained later. Repeat until you have about three bags for each 10ml syringe you plan on using. Now place them in the canner and put three clothes pins on top of the bags after you turn the top down once, this will hold them together. Now when the canner is at complete capacity tighten the lid and cook these babies at 10- 15 psi for about an hour and a half. (You can also add more substrate to each bag but that is for large and bulk growing, which will be in another article)
Well with that all done and while the things cooled down you should fist pour off any excess water in the bags, leaving no standing water and be careful not to touch the inside of the bags unless using completely sterilized gloves. After this to aid you in cooling the cakes I would recommend running a dishpan full of cold water if you are in a hurry and add some ice. Bring the bags over and let them sit in the bath with clothespins placed back on top of each after you have folded down the top of the bag. Being able to keep outside air out is one overlooked way of keeping contaminants away from your cakes and mycelium. It would take your substrate cakes about 2 hours to cool just sitting out at room temperature, however in ice water they can be ready for inoculation in around 30 – 35 min (65 degrees or slightly lower is the best inoculation temperature). Once the bags are cool enough take them out one at a time and remove the clothespins holding them together but do not unfold the folded top. Get your bag sealer ready to seal across the to of the bag, and be sure you drained any excess water and your substrate is semi-wet not soaking and not bone dry. Open the bag and rub alcohol or hand sanitizer on your hands and then around the mouth of the bag, on the inside as well as the outside top few inches only where it was folded,just before sealing it tight. Repeat same process with the other bags.
Now we are ready for the fun part the inoculation of you newly prepared sterilized substrate bags. Find a spot on top of the bag and use an alcohol wipe or just rubbing alcohol to sterilize it before you gently penetrate a small opening (do not poke and most certainly not jab) the needle into the bag, cautiously holding the needle so the point is aiming at the substrate cake at the bottom while slowly moving left and right release 3ml or 3cc into the bag. Pull out and recap needle. Immediately wipe the area around the hole with an alcohol wipe and place scotch tape over the tiny hole and also wipe around it with alcohol as well. Inoculation is that easy. The spores (seeds) have been injected. Just finish the rest of the syringes you have in the same manner and then take them all to a dark place where they can stay at least 65 degrees F day and night, but absolutely no light in this phase. When the cakes start turning white with growth they are doing great, it’s the other colors you want to watch out for; any gray or green it’s a sign of contamination.
Depending on the size of the cakes we made I would say it would take about 3 -4 weeks to full colonize (turn white with mycelium completely top and bottom). At this point it will be time to remove the cake and place them in your Rubbermaid container that you have sterilized with bleach or rubbing alcohol just recently. The container has to have a 1″ layer of vermiculite on the bottom. Once you place the cakes in also add another layer of vermiculite to the side and top, this prevents disease and holds in water. You can add as many cakes as you can fit side by side but please don’t stack them. You want to keep these watered by spraying them several times a day with jug (store purchased spring) water. Keep a lid on top of the container and give it some light as well, not direct sunlight just room light. In less than a week you should see small pins popping up everywhere these are the little mushrooms. Be carefully about directly spraying them, it is always best to hook a humidifier up and forget the spraying but if you don’t have one spraying will suffice as long as you spray away from the young pins. Before you know it you will have a good harvest. After this the cakes will need to be soaked in water to put out their second flush, and so on until eventually they stop producing.
More articles coming soon on other Mushroom Substrates and Agar, How to take Spore Prints and make syringes, Hope you enjoy
