Hyphal

I think at a commercial mushroom farm they use only 1% spawn - but they also have bulk commercial pasturising rooms where they pasturise the substrate for 3 days, then use large machines to mix the spawn evenly through the substrate before incubating. I think that in our applications, contamination problems are more common and seem to occur at the lower spawn rates. I think you could easily get away with 1:4 but any less and you increase you chances of contamination. Its easy to make spawn so IMO, its better to use a higher ratio rather than losing your project to contamination and having to start over from scratch.

This could turn out to be a pretty epic little flush..

Tell me about it, 29 tomorrow and 30 on saturday. Wtf is going on with the weather? Lol - only people obsessed with fungus would complain about the weather being TOO nice... :saufen2:

I didnt realise there were so many WA hunters. Perhaps with these cold nights, and the heavy dew, the mycelium will be spreading nicely... I reckon we are very close - I wouldnt be surprised if that rain a few weeks a go brought a couple out early. My first ever hunt was on the easter weekend about 5 or 6 years ago - and we found plenty.

Amen mate - I can smell it in the air already.... It started raining for the first time here just yesterday - not long to go now..... :D

I have found that using a quarter to half strength solution of seaweed extract to bring your poo to field capacity before pasturising it works wonders. There is a fine line though, too many nutrients isnt good. Another great addition is a small amount of vegetable oil or canola oil to the poo - about a teaspoon per couple of litres, added after you have moistened it to field capacity (otherwise its hard to mix in properly and clumps). Oil encourages 'flocculation' of the mycelium, which is the point where the mycelial strands join or 'network' with other strands.

Id use 40/40/20 Verm/Coir/Peat Ph adjusted and brought up to 'field capacity'. You can pasturise this by putting it in oven bags that you get from the supermarket, tieing this off with the metal twist ties included with the bags and submersing this in water that is 80 degress C. Leave it for 3 - 4 hours. Alternatively, you can just sterilise it by putting it in those same oven bags and sealing them with the metal twist ties, then putting this in the oven at 140C for an hour.

You will need to spawn your mulch bed with sub mycelium if you want them to start fruiting from it.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I dont think what your seeing is mycelium - it looks more to me like a contamination of some sort. I think you will be very very lucky if you get any mushrooms popping up.

iluvpills - assuming you meant worm castings, I think your recipe sounds pretty fantastic, although I might suggest leaving out the straw - only if you dont want the hassle of it - but I think it is still a good addition. You can even just use STRAIGHT coir to spawn to - although it is lacking in nutrients, it will still colonise and fruit on its own without any additions.

Never get bored of pictures of reishi mate - keep em coming...

Well thankfully that never came about. I live in West OZ and stupidly ordered a syringe from the USA about 8 months ago, as a friend had done this previously and it arrived without a problem. The package arrived but it was empty and inside was a note from the customs narcotics division saying they had seized a prohibited import. Basically the note said that if the recipient still wanted the package they had 1 month to come and collect it. Obviously I never went back and never heard anything from it since. Ive wondered for a while though if they had my name on a 'watch' list or if they let small things like this blow over.

So could anyone tell me what might happen IF you decided to order a spore syringe and it was confisacted before the package arrived? Would this warrant a special 'watch' on your premises or your name being added to a watch list?

There should be heaps and heaps of mushrooms around the paddocks surrounding the springbrook area. Think outside the square, find some cows and go for it! And ask permission if possible as the farmers dont want wierdos wandering around their paddocks un-invited.