Tips for NOOBS

[Bigred]

a good tip for inoculating is to put a spoonge soaked in alcohol on the end of a needle so you dont have to keep sterilizing the needle

just [ull it into the sponge after inoculating and i started this thread with positive karma to help others if you dont have nothing nice to

say dont say anything at all

[Bigred]

if any one has any info on using the precooked rice bags that would be a great start for a beginner or even when you just whant a small batch of mushrooms

i think it would be great if it worked

[Bigred]

a good place to get coffee grounds is to take a container to your local coffee place and ask if they can put the grinds in

i leave mine there for a couple of days they normaly fill a 4 l bucket for me fucking ledgends

[myco]

and i started this thread with positive karma to help others if you dont have nothing nice to

say dont say anything at all

 

Who has been not nice out of interest

I can't see anywhere where anyone has not been nice haha

[Bigred]

no i did not meen it like that sorry this topic is for begginers so i ment you have to be understanding and patient with noobs

[myco]

Ahh ok

[Cue]

Vermiculite comes in fine, medium and coarse. For making jars using PF tek you want a medium verm. Fine should be avoided, not only will colonization be slower but I've had quite a problem with needles clogging.

[Bigred]

another goob one is when you are filling petrie dishs stack each one one top of each other this will reduce condensation

[qwertyuiop]

Dunno if this will be useful to anyone but while fruiting, I placed a bunch of toothpicks into the substrate (WBS and verm casing) then misted misted as usual. Once the toothpicks where saturated the mycellium took quite a liking to them and encased fairly solidly the lower portion of them. Using the straw in an envelope technique somebody posed in another thread It looks to be a very efficient way of spreading these these myco specimens instead of spore prints n such.

[goneski]

I imagine with test tubes, you could make master slants from that

[Bigred]

If you want to cultivate mushrooms indoors YOU MUST STERILIZE with a pressure cooker.. no if's no buts. I know it sucks, and i can tell you from many attempts to work around this, i have grown every contaminate possible that is living in my house. so lash out and buy one kmart has them for 44 dollars its a nice stove top one

bargin

[goneski]

I dunno about that.. I've come across people who have done bulk without a pressure cooker..

I suppose you could even make BRF cakes using the standard PF tek without a pressure cooker and then crumble / spawn the cakes to bulk.

Might be a bit harder working with agar, though.

I got a pressure cooker for peace of mind. As a beginner, I'd rather have the stakes on my side as much as possible.

And, I definitely wouldn't go smaller than the 23qt Presto pressure cooker I've got.. I'm planning to do bulk shortly, and extremely glad I didn't get a tiny 8 - 10 L pressure cooker.

Edited August 11, 2012 by SYNeR

[waterboy 2.0]

Sterile technique - get it down pat....even with PCs if the technique is shit you are going to get a degree of contamination.

If you are looking to keep going or scale up your hobby, a Presto is the go IMO.

[goneski]

I'm looking at making liquid cuilture for inoculating grains..

However, instead of shooting a spore syringe into Karo/Honey/whatever, you're better off inoculating a jar of grains.

Once it's colonised, add some water and shake, then draw out the water which will now contain mycelium -- and you now have live culture.

Apparently this way you know the LC is clean.. If you shoot a multi-spore syringe into an LC mix --- it's hard to know if it's contaminated until you knock up

a jar anyway..

I'll probably make my grain jars using a spore syringe, then choose a colonised jar to make LC from.

Edited August 11, 2012 by SYNeR

[qwertyuiop]

Another lil' trick I use atm for drying uses kitty litter

You can get a bag for like $6 of the silica gel kitty litter from coles/safeway/kmart (the resealable top ones are the best)

I half the bag into just another couple of large ziplock bags So I don't have to mix fresh mushrooms with 3/4 dry ones etc...

I have a bunch of spent no2 cartridges that are just scatter inside the bag, so it allows plenty of airspace between everything but also prevents the mushies touching the silica gel and getting stuck to them. (Annoying to pick them off even though when they are in contact with them they do try considerably faster)

I don't have much of a fan setup so just using a blow dryer to get rid of the initial water content helps then just letting the desiccants do the rest seems to work good for me :D

[goneski]

has anyone had issues with contaminations when making liquid culture from a spore syringe?

I'm thinking of doing something like this:

http://ragered.forum...tek-baby-bottle

I picked up a 3 pack of el cheapo baby bottles or $4 and have some red RTV silicone.

I'm unsure if my WBS contains fungicides or not.. So i thought I'd make some LC first so there's no issue (as the spores will have already germinated),

however, I've read a few people now talk about contamination risks when making LC from a spore syringe.. Not to mention having to inoculate a jar to find

out if there are any contaminations..

The alternative seems to be inoculate a jar of WBS with a spore syringe, then once it's colonised, add water and make an LC that way..

Edited August 12, 2012 by SYNeR

[Bigred]

that is a awesome tek great for a noob like you and me lol i just use specimen jars i get them at the chemist they are a 100ml and i put silicone

on top then i get a syringe and take out the plunger pack it with polly fill and put a needle on the end then cut it just long enough to get

through the silicone then i sterilize it and when the culture is under way i give it some h202 and colloidal silver and put the syringe air filter

in it LC's are the way to go as long as you have a sterile method inoculating times are speed up and you dont need to wait for the spores to

hatch i had one culture and it looked perfect white and fluffy but when i innoculated my substrate it was tricoderma mould its the worst

contam any way 44 dollars is a bargan for a PC so and you would save $$ on wasted substrates

[Change]

Multi spore in LC works fine for me, I normally do half a dozen at a time and i never loose more than 1 or 2.

Could you use a fully colonized white fluffy agar plate for LC ?

Pressure cookers aren't needed for noobs, Steam works fine for BRF cakes

Id recommend not rushing into getting a cheap pressure cooker but instead holding back untill you can afford the 23qt Presto, being able to PC 24 half pints at a time is a dream.

[Bigred]

i know you can grow mushrooms without a pc but when you can get a really good one for $44 witch i think is a bargin

and you can always use it in the kitchen to make yummy stews or do what i did use it to make a still i got a condenser

from wiltronics and a splash head now i have a still witch cost me 90 dollars i know you can sterilize without a pc

but it is always good to use a good tek if you know of a fool proof way of sterilizing without a pc please post

peace out big red

[Cue]

i know you can grow mushrooms without a pc but when you can get a really good one for $44 witch i think is a bargin

and you can always use it in the kitchen to make yummy stews or do what i did use it to make a still i got a condenser

from wiltronics and a splash head now i have a still witch cost me 90 dollars i know you can sterilize without a pc

but it is always good to use a good tek if you know of a fool proof way of sterilizing without a pc please post

peace out big red

 

Don't forget about canning foods too.

But getting back to tips

I hear a lot of people talking about the expensive RTV silicone and just ya'll to know the cheap stuff works just fine. I just use any cheap 100% clear silicone it stands up to the heat just fine and being clear helps you find the hole in the jar lid. If you doubt that it may hold up in the PC just check its specification ratings on the side of the tube.

[Bigred]

your local tree loper is a great source of cheap fresh woodchips and you can put in requests for certain types i got a heap of fresh jacaranda it is the bomb

my portabelo is loving it and i am about to do a ferment with oyster mushroom to check out the no pc tek will update

[BentoSpawn]

Any tips for noobs on how they might be able to get a spore print to start their microscopy research without doing anything illegal?

Obviously picking mushrooms to take prints is illegal and purchasing spore prints from overseas websites is also illegal - so neither of these methods are recommended.

It would be great to have an easy way for noobs to get spores so that they may be able to perform research without breaking the law in any way.

Edited August 20, 2012 by BentoSpawn

[Bigred]

well not everyone is into illicit mushrooms i really enjoy growing my own edible ones but every one to there own try the free spore ring if you want to reasearch the spores there is enough genetics in australia so i dont see why you would need to import them so check the free spore ring and as long as you are only doing reasearch try earths tounge they have a great selection or edible and medicinal mushrooms

[BentoSpawn]

Isnt the free spore ring europe based? Hence it would be imported ?

[Bigred]

its in the corroboree