Mushroom Grow Journal - PF-tek, Casing

[MonkeeMan]

Hey everyone, used to grow a lot of mushrooms a while ago and stopped to grow weed... but now im back and I thought id make a grow journal for anyone new or thinking about growing mushrooms

Im attempting to grow as many as I can as cheap as possible, Ill be using the pk-tek to make the base and then case to get the most from them

I'll go into as much detail as possible to help out anyone who wants to follow along... and please feel free to post or ask questions

Making The Jars

First thing you have to do is make some jars to intially grow the mushrooms in, this is a super important step to get right because it determines how successful you are

One thing which I will stress this entire grow is BEING CLEAN... there is high risk of contaimination which causes people to get very sick, so every step I take I usually clean my hands with rubbing a, and all the surfaces and the jars

What you'll need:

1) 12 - 1/2 Pint Jars

I use 1 pint jars usually because you get more but theres a lot more risk and it takes a lot longer, so for this grow i went and picked up some 1/2 pint jars... you want them to be wide lid so you can take out the substrate easy when its done... this will cost you around 7 bucks

2) Brown Rice

I use any brown rice you can find at the store, I find organic works better... alot of people use brown rice flour but I can't find it around here so I make it myself... also I find the flour is to fine and doesn't work as well... put brown rice into a coffee grinder... below is the before and after product... you'll need a fair size bag, which should put you back 3 bucks

3) Vermiculite

Get vermiculite, dont get really fine stuff

4) Water
5) Tin Foil
6) Big Pot


Putting the Jars Together

First take a nail and pop 2 holes in the lids of the 1/2 pint jars, this is where you will be putting in the mushroom spores later on... then put your jars to the side

Next mix the vermiculite (6 cups) with around 3 cups of water, if you find that there is water pooling at the bottom of the bowl you mix it in then drain that part out because there is to much.... Next add 3 cups of brown rice flour to that wet vermiculite mix

You will get something that looks like this:

Next fill the 1/2 pint jars to about 1/2 inch from the top of the jar... clean this rim of the jar so that its dry and perfectly clean

Then fill this top 1/2 inch part with DRY vermiculite, this will stop the muchrooms from growing to the top of the jars, and keep contaimination out

Finally, cover the top of the jars with win foil so it looks like the jar below... this is to keep water out of them for the next step

Cleaning the Jars

You'll want to make sure the jars are 100% contaimination free before you fuck with them anymore

Put as many jars as you can fit into your big pot... put lids or something at the bottom so the bottom of the jars does not touch the bottom of the pot... fill water in the pot till around half way up the jars

A lot of people swear by pressure cookers but for this style of mushroom growing I tend not to be bothered with it... one thing to note is that when you use a big pot this white shit may be all over the jars, this is just calcium build up and shouldn't be concerned with, this happens a lot with old or not 100% clean pots

Bring the pot to a boil for 90 MIN!!!! this is very important

However you will want to cheak now and then to make sure there is enough water in the pot lol so it doesn't burn

After 90 min turn off the stove and DONT open the pot, leave them overnight to cool... 6 hours min time needed for this... if you have to use the pot again for more jars make sure you put the ones you take out in a very very sterile place while you wait

Tomorrow ill show ya how to knock up the jars with shrooms

 

[jazz98]

omg thats so sweet im so gonna b following this

 

[Chewwy1234]

I will definitely be following thisright after harvest I will be starting my own shroom grow hopefully on a large scale.I would like to get a few pounds a year any suggestions?

 

[MonkeeMan]

I will definitely be following thisright after harvest I will be starting my own shroom grow hopefully on a large scale.I would like to get a few pounds a year any suggestions?

well in a year its possible to get a few pounds with the way i do it, but it makes a lot more sense to use a bulk production way... and thats a lot more expensive and complex

also if you've never done it before dont expect pounds in a year lol, because ive seen people work very hard on it and get an ounce from 12 jars, whereas ive gotten a half pound from 12 lol

theres a layer of chance with pf-tek

 

[Dabu]

I am interested in this too. I ordered a 10mL syringe of Amazon spores from spores101.com

 

[MonkeeMan]

I am interested in this too. I ordered a 10mL syringe of Amazon spores from spores101.com

the jars will be shot up with Z strain, the pint jars which you may see as well in the process are Golden Teacher

its all the same shit though

 

[MetalSmelter]

Monkee what kinda time are you looking at for them, not familiar with spore and flowering times, Z strain are good, and you can't go wrong with golden teachers. Cubes are most prevelent though.

 

[MonkeeMan]

Monkee what kinda time are you looking at for them, not familiar with spore and flowering times, Z strain are good, and you can't go wrong with golden teachers. Cubes are most prevelent though.

both are types of cubes, and truthfully i've done a lot of mushrooms and they really have no difference between then, just what you expect the mushrooms to look like... the potencey really comes from how you grow them... but again this method to the best methods is very little difference in how strong I personally find (and other people i know)

Z are amazing for 1/2 pints becasue they will grow small and very close together when cased... and golden teachers are good starter strains and are good for casing

the spore and flowering times are very very random but ill try to break it down for you for the difference size jars

1/2 pint jars
Growth in jars: 1-3 weeks (but can max at 2 months but super rare)
Casing Before Flower - 3-4 days
"Flower" - 3-5 weeks

all and all expect to take 6 - 8 weeks... for the first flush (which is a picking of mushrooms) then you can grow from them 2-3 more times which only take a few more days

the only difference between 1/2 pint and 1 pint is that the bigger jars take 3-5 weeks to grow in jars but you get twice as much, everything else is the same

im expecting to pick mushrooms from the end of sep to the end of oct, max mid nov

 

[MonkeeMan]

Knocking Up The Jars

This entire process it is so important to be CLEAN! and thats all im really going to say but you should really really really be clean

What you'll need:

1) The 12 - 1/2 pint jars which were sterilized yesturday (still in the pot or wherever they were kept)

2) Spore Needle

You'll need to have at least 10 CC of spores for 12 jars, this means that you put about .4 cc in each hole you made. These can be made from fresh mushroom prints or bought from retailers online. I'll show how to make one from a fresh mushroom at the end of the grow

3) Cleaning Materials

You'll need disinfectant for sure, a lighter and some gloves... I make sure I clean the area and shower before I do this process

I steal cleaners gloves from the cleaning crew around here, just dip them in 100% rubbing a. before I use them

4) Big Tupperware Box

What to do:

Its hard to take pictures for this step because you are very sterile but ill do my best to explain and if you have any questions I will respond

First take out all your jars and put them together so you can easily access them

Next light the end of the needle with the lighter... do this for a while until the needle looks really clean, this should be done again every 4 jars to make sure the inside of the needle is clean... some people do it between each jar but I tend not to because it takes time lol

Then take off the tin foil and throw it away, you wont be putting it back on because it cuts of gas exchange

Put the needle in one of the holes and push it towards the sizes of the jar, then press around 0.4 CC of spores into the hole, you should see the side of the jar get a bit wet, this is more then enough spores for it to start growing

Here is a picture of how to put in the needle

Once you have all the jars done clean them off with some paper towel and spray them and the inside of the tupperware with your cleaning solution

These are the pint jars in there tupperware, i put the 1/2 pints in above them

Put the lid on the tupperware (MAKE SURE IT IS A NON SEE THROUGH TYPE OF CONTAINER)

Put into a closet or somewhere the temperature is around 25 C

For the next 3-4 days the jars shouldn't look any different then when you cooked them, thats fine... however open the box twice a day for gas exchange with one time to inspect them, looking for anything that isn't white growing in them or anything that looks weird... if you find something then toss it out... When you check your jars you dont have to be super clean, the jars should be ok against most contaminations unless you fuck up and put something really bad in them, almost all problems come from the needle stage

I'll post again once I see some growth in them, with what to look for and what not to look for... also how to gauge how long you have before its done

 

[MetalSmelter]

Havn't looked into mushrooms in awhile, but always had heard that golden teachers are a little more visual and introspective than some of the other strains, i may be completely wrong, 4-5yrs ago lol. But should be a good experience, have never tried myself, i trip very rarely, and when i do it dosent take very much to go VERY far, i'm highly reactive, i'm talking 1g in lemon, and becoming completely disconected with reality, i've always been highly sensitive to psychadellics and i mean in a good way

 

[Dabu]

Just a question MonkeeMan... you said half pint jars, correct? When I think of half-pint jars, I think of the short and fat ones, like these:

Is there an advantage to using taller/skinnier half pint jars? Or are you using 1 pint jars?

 

[MonkeeMan]

Metal - the reason you experience that kind of high from golden teacher is because usually the caps are very big on them... eating the caps give you more of that kind of high wereas the rest of the shroom gives you a different more subtile high

Dabu - yes the short ones which you have pictures of are 1/2 pints just like mine, i use the taller ones because of personal preference, i tend to find them easier to do stuff with, but both are good to use

 

[FlipDV]

Thanks man, I'm planning to grow some soon as it's basically impossible to get mush where I'm from, I could probably make mad profit off it too.

Just want to know though, can you only buy them online or can you at headshops or something. Because I live in an apartment and I'd be worried that someone else would pick up my mail, it's happened before then they've come knocking on my door giving me my mail.

 

[Dabu]

My friend is getting in on this with me. He's the organized engineer-type, and I'm typing up a bill of materials for him right now on Google Docs (spreadsheet thingy). He texted me "Make a bom of eqipment and one for consumables (bought each cycle)"

I'm excited!

Monkee, do you recommend buying multiple syringes in case one messes up? Or just stick with one. Also, how long do the spore syringes last?

 

[MonkeeMan]

Thanks man, I'm planning to grow some soon as it's basically impossible to get mush where I'm from, I could probably make mad profit off it too.

Just want to know though, can you only buy them online or can you at headshops or something. Because I live in an apartment and I'd be worried that someone else would pick up my mail, it's happened before then they've come knocking on my door giving me my mail.

you can get spores in 2 different ways, but only online

1) you can get them in a needle which i have to say when i got them i didn't think the package was stealth

2) you can get them as a spore print which would be almost impossible to detect, and i only think they are illegal in 3 states and the rest they are not bad in (this could be wrong but i live in a place that isn't bad for them)... they only look like black cirlces... and you make needles from them, but ill go into that later

they look like this (mushroom on the left, print on the right)

My friend is getting in on this with me. He's the organized engineer-type, and I'm typing up a bill of materials for him right now on Google Docs (spreadsheet thingy). He texted me "Make a bom of eqipment and one for consumables (bought each cycle)"

I'm excited!

Monkee, do you recommend buying multiple syringes in case one messes up? Or just stick with one. Also, how long do the spore syringes last?

buying multiple gets a bit to much, i got 2 and im making 24 jars worth of stuff, which is a lot... also you can not case with mutliple difference kinds of mushooms, so you'd need to get the same types... i'd say stick with 2 because they can get expensive

if you keep them at room temperature id say they are good 1-2 months, if you put them in the fridge i think they are good for 8-12 months... prints last 1-5 years I believe

 

[Chewwy1234]

I just ordered some B+ from Hawk Eye,I should have it by the end of the week

 

[MonkeeMan]

I just ordered some B+ from Hawk Eye,I should have it by the end of the week

i find those tend to grow so you dont get to many on cakes, rather case them and youll see tons more

 

[jackonthebox]

I'm real excited about this! good thread monkee. maybe by the time your grow is done, I will have decided to get one going myself!

 

[Chewwy1234]

i find those tend to grow so you dont get to many on cakes, rather case them and youll see tons more

I'm sorry i'm new at this shroom thing,what do you mean by case them?

 

[MonkeeMan]

I'm sorry i'm new at this shroom thing,what do you mean by case them?

its a process where you break the cakes into pieces and put them in like cake dishes, ill be doing it and since youre a few weeks behind me just watch and ill show ya how in a few weeks