Popcorn method

[Pokkahontus]

Many out there tried this way, how did you go?

[in_spirit]

Nobody here has done that or any other method, now whatbexactly are you trying to infer????

[coolname]

I like popcorn

[Amazonian]

I have heard of popcorn as a medium for myc' , cant remember the results though, doh.

[coolname]

Amazonian I have also heard of popcorn being used as a delicious salty snack for watching movies

[Distracted]

Wheat seems to work well enough for me, popcorn is more expensive isn't it?

[Dreamwalker.]

Many out there tried this way, how did you go?

any pic's?

[Massner]

You will do better with white millet, it is cheaper and gives higher yields. I like rye but it is more expensive and harder to get hold of. There is actually a shortage of white millet at the moment..... It is still around as it is used in bird seed mix but more expensive than what it was.

Popcorn is like 80s retro.

[migraineur]

I've read numerous posts from professionals which criticise the use of popcorn because of higher rates of contamination. There are numerous grains available to use though. In Australia wheat seems easy and cheap to get. You can also use barley, millet, oats, rye and milo. Supermarkets always stock bags of wild bird seed too which will contain some kind of combination of the aforementioned grains.

[Hex_OMEGA]

If you want to use popcorn I know someone who has bought feed corn from a pet store and used in the same manner with more then acceptable results...a lot cheaper then buying bags and bags from of popping corn from a super market.

[Pokkahontus]

thanks for the info and positive answers guys cheers

[Hex_OMEGA]

great avatar by the way pokka..did you see them when they toured this year?

[Burleyman]

you need to be careful when it comes to said grains and animal feed.. eg corn feed and grain.. I have gone down that path before trying to replace with a cheaper alternative to organic rye grain.. You need to be careful as many grains and feed used for myc substrate are treated with fungicide and will result in nothing bad sad faces.. from experience i would say look on the back to see the way it has been treated.. even then some packaging does not even state it has been treated with fungicides... I have used popcorn (including woodlovers) before and millet (white) but i have had more successful yields with ryegrain. i have been getting organic biodynamic rye for a while now and it seems to have the best result for me..
Never tried the aus wheat though.. willing to give it a try

[Massner]

With your grains you want the stuff treated with Damascus earth and you won't have problems. Wheat and a few other grains have a tendency to "stick" or clump which is why people seem to stick to Rye or white millet. Stick to the basics and do not try and get all fancy and shit find something that someone has done with success and do the same thing.

In my experience Millet produces better flushes and bigger mushrooms than Rye but rye seems to colonise a little faster than millet.

[Burleyman]

I know diatomaceous earth is good, you can even add Gypsum which is an anti-clugging...

[lindsay]

gypsum works, but making sure the grain is also dry before you jar up and presser cook is a must.

I use wheat, and have no trouble with clumps or sticking together. except for when I got a bad bag,

that had a heap of broken damaged grains, 20% I guessed. the sugars leach out when cooked, stuck

to the outside of the grains and made shaking jars a nightmare. the bags was marked premium, more

like premium crap. well next door got 2 free bags of wheat for there chooks and the feed supply mob

let me open bagsto check now.

Edited November 11, 2014 by lindsay

[Pokkahontus]

looks like I might go with rye or wheat,ive only done the vermiculite and brownrice flower thing ,do I need to make either moist before the pressure cooker? can someone shed some light ther? the-silent-one never got to see them man ive been a fan eversince heartwork but cheers

[lindsay]

with wheat, soak 24hrs with gypsum (1 table spoon gypsum per 2 litre of dry grain) then heat to almost boiling point.

Then kick back to a simmer until the grain is fully hydrated (about 10 min). this is when the white in the grain goes from dry flour to

moist. then dump in a sieve while still hot and toss until the steam disappears. then grains will be dry on the outside

and moist on the inside.

2 1/2 litres of dry wheat easily fills 4x 1/2 gallon jars.

Edited November 11, 2014 by lindsay

[Distracted]

I buy my wheat from a grain and fodder store. There's tonnes of them in Adelaide for some reason.

Wheat is really dirty and you need to wash it a LOT till the water runs clear.

Organic rye seems like a luxury here. I worked with someone who had a second job inspecting the grain harvests, I asked them if they knew anyone selling rye and they laughed at me saying there was no point. ? :/

My only problem with wheat is I tend to burn it a bit but that could just be cooking using an electric stove top

[migraineur]

I don't know why wheat is copping so much flak. If you overcook it when you do your soak and simmer (before pressure cooking) then you can end up with burst grains which end up gluggy. Buying poor quality grain that's already cracked would give you poor results. Not letting your grain dry properly before pressure cooking will also give you problems but you can experience the same problems when using other grains.

I've never had overly dirty wheat but not all wheat (and other grain) is equal. It's graded for a reason and sold for different uses and at different prices as a result. The wheat that you buy from the trendy organic shop is obviously going to be cleaner and of a higher grade than the stuff used as chicken feed or wild bird seed. You get what you pay for.

Furthermore, as previously mentioned you can add gypsum to your grain to stop it from sticking together. It's also good to add to your bulk substrate to increase your yield.

[lindsay]

yep that's one of the draw backs of wheat, having to wash it so much. but

if soak for 1/2 hr, before washing it, saves some water .

when cooking, stirring from the start and more often will give a more even

hydration and lessons the chance of grains splitting.

[Shrooman]

I have done the popcorn tec for growing out SRA myc a few years back and it grew REALLY REALLY well, however purely from a price point of view wheat and rye would probably work out cheaper, plus since wheat and rye grains are smaller they have a much larger surface area, therefore more points of contact with the substrate so you should get faster colonisation.

with wheat, soak 24hrs with gypsum (1 table spoon gypsum per 2 litre of dry grain) then heat to almost boiling point.

Then kick back to a simmer until the grain is fully hydrated (about 10 min). this is when the white in the grain goes from dry flour to

moist. then dump in a sieve while still hot and toss until the steam disappears. then grains will be dry on the outside

and moist on the inside.

2 1/2 litres of dry wheat easily fills 4x 1/2 gallon jars.

That's the way I do it and works for both rye and wheat.

[Massner]

Saw the comment ref brown rice flower, one thing I can tell you as a fact as I have done it side by side is that if you get brown rice and make it into flower it produces much better results than using the organic brown rice flour from a shop. You can REALLY tell the difference between them.

[Massner]

Also Liquid Culture cops some flack for some reason but it is great stuff to make and use especially if you plan on doing a lot.

[migraineur]

Also Liquid Culture cops some flack for some reason but it is great stuff to make and use especially if you plan on doing a lot.

Yeah, this is another one I can't get my head around. I understand that it's easy to make a dirty liquid culture but it's also easy to make a dirty spore syringe. Making a liquid culture a good way to stretch your supplies a lot further. One small scrape from a print or a small drop from a spore syringe can give you more liquid culture than you know what to do with. If you're worried about having a dirty culture then inoculate one jar of grain with it and see if it's successful.

Another handy thing about liquid cultures is that jars of grain spawn colonise faster.