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The Corroboree

Hyphal

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Everything posted by Hyphal

  1. Im writing to inform the community of the passing of a dear friend and member of the SAB forums, who was a member from the beginning, who sadly lost their battle with cancer this morning. Naja naja was a fine man and a great contributor to the community and his passing will be felt by those who have had any dealings with him over the years. He was taken far too young. Please spare a thought and raise a toast this evening or whenever you receive this news. Naja naja, thanks for being such a legend
  2. Hey mycophiles! There seems to be a little confusion about bulk substrates, what goes into them, pasteurising and spawning, so I want to take a moment to write a brief description of the terminology and give an example of how to go about this task. I firmly believe if you are capable of culturing a healthy jar of mushroom mycelium - then you have already done the hardest part. Spawning is easy, and bulk susbtrates can quadruple the amount of fruiting mycelium easily, while supplying valuable moisture/nutrients needed for healthy and prolific fruits. Remember, there are many ways to skin a cat - this isn't by any means gospel, () - always experiment and innovate - that's what makes this hobby so much fun! Ok, firstly, here is an explanation of the various terms - Substrate - Refers to the media used for fruiting. Some example are a Pf style jar, Popcorn, Wild Bird Seed, Rye or a Bulk Substrate (see below). Spawn(ing) - 'Spawn' refers to any colonised media (Pf style jar, Popcorn, Wild Bird Seed, Rye etc.) if it is used for the purpose of colonising a bulk substrate. 'Spawning' is the term used to describe the act of mixing the 'Spawn' with the bulk substrate, in order for it to colonise. Remember, if you are using the media to fruit from, then it is still referred to as the substrate, not spawn! Bulk Substrate - Is a larger volume of media used to spawn to. Pasteurising - This is the process of heating a media to between 71°C and 82°C (160-180°F). Pasteurisation is carried out for a prolonged time (minimum of 1 hour) and is supposed to kill only heat susceptible organisms and their spores, as opposed to sterilisation which works at a temperature of 121°C (250°F) and is supposed to kill all organisms. The beneficial micro - organisms (mainly bacteria) that are left alive when pasteurising, guard the substrate against other contaminants, for instance different moulds, but don't affect the growth of mushroom mycelium. Pasteurisation is used for bulk substrates like straw, dung, composts and wood chips - and casing materials. If you sterilise a bulk substrate you leave it more open to contamination and therefore have to practice sterile techniques when spawning, therefore sterilisation of a bulk substrate isn't recommended! Bulk Substrate Additives For those interested in preparing bulk substrate, there are many recipes and additions you can use that add valuable nutrients, bulk (weight) to the substrate or both. A few examples are - Horse Poo Horse Poo is full of nutrients and beneficial bacteria, holds a lot of moisture and makes an excellent bulk substrate. Horse poo is best if aged and leached of all ammonium (the poo pictured is perfect - basically if it doesn't smell at all it's fine). If you can only obtain fresh horse poo you can leach it yourself by laying it out on a tarp, spraying it down a little with a hose and leaving it in the sun for a week. It can however be a little hard to come by (if you live in the middle of the city and have no car for example) and can be a little labour intensive as it needs to be crumbled up until there is no big clumps left in it. Other manures are viable (eg. cow, sheep), but they lack the fluffy straw like consistency that makes horse manure so ideal, and shouldn't really be considered. Probably the only other manures I would suggest are either Elephant or Kangaroo - if you can get them... Straw Straw is an excellent addition for adding bulk to the substrate, but lacks the moisture holding capabilities and nutrient value needed for ongoing flushes. Coconut Coir Coco Coir is another excellent substrate that is cheap, easy to find, holds a lot of moisture and has a decent stash of nutrients. It can however contain high amounts of salt (though this is easily washed out and doesn't seem to impact mycelium), and be careful as some companies add slow release fertilisers or anti fungal agents (for use in horticulture and hydroponics). Other additions to bulk substrates are things like used coffee grinds, seaweed extracts, worm castings, vegetable oil and I've even heard of someone mixing in a tin of crushed tomatoes - this is where experimentation comes in, and anything you think will be a good nutrient addition to your bulk substrate can be used. A good rule of thumb is if it grows mould on it when left out for a week - it would probably be good to throw in. Bulk Substrate Preparation and Pasteurisation Ok, so you have your ingredients - what do you do with them? Here is a little guide to get you started... You will need - Straw Aged Horse Poo Coco Coir Seaweed Extract (optional) Oven Bags LINK A bucket An esky One or Two large kitchen cooking pots A meat thermometer (any kitchen supply store) In this example, a rough mix of 40/40/20 Straw, Horse Poo and Coir is used, with a splash of Liquid seaweed Extract to prepare a Bulk substrate. -> Firstly, throw the straw, finely crumbled Horse Poo, Coco Coir and half a cap of seaweed extract into a bucket and cover ingredients with hot water - -> Then soak this overnight to soften the straw and allow the straw and coir to soak up some moisture and nutrients from the poo, when done it should look something like this - -> The next day, squeeze handfuls of the substrate mix one at a time until only a few drops of water come out and stuff the mix into your oven bags. Squeeze out all the air and tie 'em up. -> Fill your Cooking Pots with water and, using the meat thermometer, heat them on the stove to around 180F - -> Take your bags of substrate and put them in the esky. Once the water reaches the desired temperature, pour it on top of the bags and put the lid on the esky (the bags will float but this doesnt matter as the esky is insulated and the inside of the esky should heat up to the right temp) - -> Leave this to sit for an hour or more, then pour the water from the esky BACK into the pots - and re-heat it to 180F. Once again, pour this water back on top of the bags and let it sit for at least a further hour. At this point, they should be pasteurised enough - but I always do this a third time just to make sure, and usually leave it overnight in the esky to cool down. The next day you will now have Bags of pasteurised bulk substrate ready to spawn to. Spawning Now that you have your pasteurised bulk substrate ready, for the next part of the process you will need - Colonised grain or Pf style jars Pasteurised Bulk Substrate A tray or container to spawn to (and eventually fruit from) Foil Glad Wrap Micropore tape LINK (Found in the bandage section at any chemist) Alcohol Spray (such as Glen 20 Surface Spray) Paper towel -> Firstly, get your colonised jars ('spawn') and Bags of pasteurised bulk substrate ready, and the containers you are going to spawn to. Wash, dry and spray the trays you are going to spawn to with alcohol spray to sanitise them as best as possible and then dry with a paper towel - -> With washed and gloved hands, dump your pasteurised bulk substrate into your trays, and carefully crumble and mix your spawn through the mix. If you are using PF style jars, just try to crumble them as small as possible - putting the cake in a plastic zip lock style sandwich bag will make this a lot easier. You can do this at a ratio as low as 10%, but the more you use the quicker it will colonise and the less chance you will have of contamination setting in - -> Cover the tray with foil to keep out light. Poke some holes in the foil with a pen and cover these with squares of micropore tape to allow gas exchange but keep out contaminations - -> Put this somewhere warm and dark to colonise, and after a few days it should look something like this - -> You are now ready to case as normal with whatever you choose (eg. 50/50 verm peat). Once you have cased, cover your trays back up with some Glad Wrap and again poke some holes in the top to allow gas exchange, and put somewhere dark to allow the casing layer to start colonising - -> After a few days you should start to see spots of mycelium appearing on the surface of your casing layer, at this point you are ready to take off the glad wrap, give the casing layer a fine misting, put your trays in a fruiting chamber and expose them to fruiting conditions (80-90% humidity, fresh air exchanges and light) - If all goes well, you should hopefully get pins within the next week or two and a healthy flush of mushrooms! *phew* I hope this clears things up and helps people to move on from fruiting using plain cakes and grains, but most importantly - to help people get the most out of their mycelium...
  3. Hyphal

    Sry for my absence and some finds from today

    Epic hedgehog finds, and very tasty indeed. Thans for sharing some with me Naja
  4. Looks awesome, how many hours has it got on it? Is there a reason you won't post?
  5. Hyphal

    What is the most delicious gourmet mushy?

    Fat King oyster steaks are one of my favourites so far.
  6. Hyphal

    Efficacy of casing

    Ive seen someone who used to use it for cubensis, and got lazy once and left it off. The flush was as good if not better, so they stopped using casing altogether from then on, and is perfectly happy. This is in a small, enclosed fruiting environment with high humidity levels.
  7. Hyphal

    Mushroom seeds

    Has anyone tired growing them out on the board as directed? Of couse going to agar will contamiante, but wood is always more resitant to contaminant growth.
  8. Hyphal

    Shotgun fruiting chamber

    I agree there should have been a clearer write up from the start, that would have been heaps more helpful...
  9. Hyphal

    Shotgun fruiting chamber

    I think he didnt bother writing a specific tek because it was as easy as you see in the photos - spawn in a bucket, put on a shower cap and colonise/fruit. Its that easy. Here is a link to a more detailed explanation - http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/18892960/fpart/1/vc/1 And another one here - http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/9501009 There is lots of talk these days about side pinning happening not because of light hitting the substrate, but because the substrate pulls away slightly from the side of the container and provides a brilliant micro-climate for the pinning to happen on the sides. That seems to be the consensus rather than light.
  10. Hyphal

    Shotgun fruiting chamber

    Its worth reading through the thread, he never wrote a tek on it, but that thread describes everything in detail. There are four holes around the top, and two near the substrate level. The holes are covered with micropore tape, and the substrate is spawned in the bucket, leveled out, and a shower cap thrown over the top, pushed down, and the bucket is thrown under a blanket to colonise. Once colonised and starting to fruit, the shower cap can be lifted up to increase fresh air. To fan the bucket, the shower cap can be lifted up and down like a lung - pulling in filtered air through the micropore covered holes. The best option however is to have a small fan on in the room, but not pointing at the buckets, to keep air circulating. This eliminates the need to maually fan and basically keeps them as a completely automated neglect tek. You can mist every few days if you want to stop things drying out. The whole thing is protected from fungal gnats so these won't ever be a problem again using buckets, and if a contamination occurs in a bucket, its isolated from the other buckets and can be disposed of easily. These can be used to fruit anything, King oysters perform really well in buckets.
  11. Hyphal

    Shotgun fruiting chamber

    Nope, but here it is - http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/6696796/page/3/fpart/1/vc/1
  12. Hyphal

    Subs 2014

    Gallerina Marginata mate, death by fungus - dont touch those guys....
  13. Hyphal

    Subs or Azures ???

    Pics?
  14. Hyphal

    Refrigerating Cakes

    Hi and yes - you can store cakes for many months in the fridge to stall growth, but dont leave them much longer than 6 months or they will start to deteriorate.
  15. Hyphal

    Eucalyptus mulch vs Pine forest

    So how about a wild eaucalyptus forest patch? I would think there are differences between states as well... SA has some very unique eucalyptus subs, and the WA eucalyptus subs are just ridiculously large, aggressive and potent.
  16. Hyphal

    WA Gyms, tis the season

    First finds south confirmed as of the 9/5/2013. On track for my very rough 'second week of May' rule of thumb... But very thin on the ground on that day, only 5 specimens located. Edit - Subs, that is - not gyms.
  17. Hyphal

    Awesome Pick Porn

    Wow, you know yoru edibles.... Fantastic photos thanks for posting!
  18. Hyphal

    morel season

    ...and hang out in the forest hugging trees and finding awesome mushrooms
  19. Hyphal

    morel season

    Hunting time in SW West Oz! My first find -
  20. Hyphal

    Does anyone have any spore prints to buy?

    In america, the way they get around it is the specimens are grown and prints taken in a country where it is legal to do so...
  21. Hyphal

    Does anyone have any spore prints to buy?

    I've personally had a cubensis spore syringe confiscated by customs, and got a letter from the Federal Police. It said it fell under a 'narcotic related item', and if I wanted the package I needed to collect it personally. I didn't, and that was the last I heard of it.... Other than that, the chance of a spore print in a well packaged envelope being seized is pretty low. Inside a birthday card, then the card folded in a couple of peices of paper or newspaper has never let me down - either to, or from, any destination.
  22. Hyphal

    Does anyone have any spore prints to buy?

    Really? Where do you get this information from?
  23. Hyphal

    Meet up: Perth

    Hope you guys had a beautiful night, looked perfect for it.
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