So, i've been reading through a lot of posts and I've finally decided I'm going to try my luck at cultivating a nice heap of mushrooms for future use. As they are expensive elsewhere.

I decided I was going to use a WBS tek and I'm just wondering how I am supposed to fruit these things.. There's so many different ways and I'm not sure what exactly I need to do. I've read through near everything on the shroomery and I still can't figure out EXACTLY what I am looking for.. So a little help from somebody more knowledgeable would be great. Thanks ahead.

Let me tell you exactly what I am looking for in my grow..

I was going to be using the WBS tek, and inoculating the WBS in quart jars.
I wanted to grow in some sort of box with little to NO smell where I could just store it away in a HIDDEN place.



Any help is much appreciated!
Thanks again,
Lucy

mmm....what do you mean with hidden?
Mushrooms need a lot of fresh air exange and humidity, so putting the fruiting chamber in a closet will be difficult. You could off course mess with air pumps and humidifiers (and light cause they will fruit better with daylight)
I prefer a shotgun terrarium...cheap, easy and effective.

I'm not terribly far along in the process myself, so be sure to cross reference any information I give you - but as far as I understand it you have two main options -

1) if you have a lot of spawn i.e. a lot of collonized WBS you can dump it in a tub or tray put a casing layer on top and submit it to fruiting conditions.

2) if you have less spawn than needed for casing you can mix your collonized WBS with a bulk substrate such as straw, manure, coco coir or some mix thereof (and I'm sure there's more), let that collonize, then case, and submit to fruiting conditions.

Either way you will probably either do a mono-tub, meaning a big tub where you just dump your spawn/bulk in and figure out how to control the environmental conditions either automatically or manually - such as light, humidity and gas exchange. Or you can take smaller tubs and put them in a bigger tub that will function as a grow-house.

alternatively you can use a martha or a small greenhouse like they use for tomatoes or other plants but this is not really stealthy... some of these greenhouses have shelves that you can put your trays/tubs on. Check out *automated greenhouse* (sorry too lazy to link you) on the shroomery or mycotopia.

cheers
Enoon

i Myself am looking for new ways and terrarium set ups what exactly is a shotgun terrarium?

Okay yeah, that's the basics I got as well with a little more reading.. I guess I need to do a little more research on fruiting conditions.

I was looking for a way I could just throw my WBS in a tub and put it in my shed or in my garage or something similar. I don't need a huge bulk grow, but I definitely could use a discreet, easy grow.

From what I understand so far, I can make a sealed tub with polyfil holes for gas exchange, and just throw my WBS into the tub and cover the bottom layer with a nice even coat. (do i need to make it a deep layer or could I spread my seed out to multiple tubs for more shroom growth?) And then I just need to case it with ..moss? I don't know, I'll go try to find some more information on this.

Thanks again for the help.



OH! So all that bulk substrate, adding manure or hay was to just get more substance colonized. So basically, colonize a jar of WBS and then you can colonize a bulk substrate for filling a BIG tub? Thank you, Enoon. I think you've pointed me in the right direction, I was so confused before... Now it's all making sense.

Okay, let me go over the run down and if anyone could correct me if I am missing something or they feel I should know something else.. or just to elaborate on this technique which I plan to try.

I will start off with the WBS tek and then while I am colonizing the spores in the birdseed and shaking my jars I need to store the jars in a warm place. Then when they are fully colonized I can toss them into a plastic bin (that I already prepared, of course). And just case them with peat moss or some other sort of casing and seal and store them in a cooler location then when I stored the jars. Also, I can get MULTIPLE harvests without contamination if I play my cards right? AND LOL, maybe that's why it's called a flush?



Right?

If you are putting them in a tub with only a few polyfill holes I assume you will have to fan them by hand a few times a day to avoid CO2 buildup. some growers have really crazy airing and humidifying set ups but as far as I understand a simple misting and fanning works as well. Of course this can always introduce contaminants. so you'll want to be careful about it. However if you have full collonization of your bulk substrate it should be fairly resistant to contamination...

Personally I went for the green house variant with a coolmist inside. I'm hoping that the size of it will prevent CO2 buildup and when I open it up it's such a big surface that gets opened I assume the gas exchange is sufficient without fanning. If i'm really paranoid I spray the air with water to drop possible airborne contaminants out...

hope you figure it out Lucent

My goodness, I was so confused earlier. I think I finally figured this out. The WBS is just to get the weak spore strain from the syringe alive and growing. And then I transfer it to the bulk substance, which I don't need to pressure cook because the mushrooms have already grown strong enough to resist any basic contamination. Although I should still ALWAYS be careful and sanitary and whatnot.

Then I transfer that bulk to a bin and case it and just mist, light, and air it? I thought that I heard the polyfill holes did a pretty decent job of helping with the CO2 buildup and won't it stay nice and humid inside as long as I don't open it up?

1) Remember to pasteurize your bulk substrate...you don't need it to be sterile, but you do want to kill potential contams

2) The bulk substrate should already be in a bin (or winds up in a bin) when you birth your colonized cakes to it, so no need to move it to another one.

3) Polyfil does help with FAE, but ime, if you hand fan after you mist the tubs, it really helps give the needed air exchange.

4) The tub will stay fairly humid, but over time will dry out and will need misting to keep the rh up. With monotub grows I don't necessarily poke holes/use polyfill. But I do manually fan and mist my tubs at least twice a day, sometimes I add in a third fanning.


Just some of my thoughts after reading your thread/talking with you in the chat

Well, a good fast and easy way to do it is pretty simple. I'll give you a little guide.

Learn how to and make an LC, Liquid Culture. They take about as long as a week - 3+ weeks (normally not much longer than a week if you do it right) so they take about as long as a WBS MS innoc. You could even do them at the same time... Innoc. the WBS jars (After wetting to Full Capacity and PCing at 15psi for 60 mins) with the LC. Now the WBS will take off compared to a MS syringe (just the one with the spores).

After you have spawn, then you need to get a substrate (food for the myc.), this ranges from a wide variety of stuff such as; vermiculite, c/hpoo, spent coffee grounds, straw, wood, and coir. Theres plenty of teks out there for preparing this.

I like to use Bags. You can do a google search for myco bags, I could give you a website to a nice place if you want... They are easy, you take the spawn, mix with the substrate, and throw in a bag. Close the bag top, throw in an incubator (80-82F). The important thing is the temperature(s). You should find them anywhere in almost any good tek, if not I could give you them...

After its about 15% you can shake it up, just like you did the WBS but just use your hands to kind of kneed it around. This will take off. As soon as its 98-100% colonized, put it into a fruiting chamber. The important thing is the temperature(s). You should find them anywhere in almost any good tek, if not I could give you them...

Each one would fruit about... 1 oz dry every 3-4 weeks. Time it right, with enough (bags are supper low key, fit like 20 of them in a box lol).

The only thing I am really worried about is the fruiting chamber now.

I am planning on making a bin, similar to this: http://www.shroomery.org/10677/Monotub



I'll be storing it in my dresser drawer, so will I be able to just open the dresser drawer and let light pour in or do I need to take it out of the dresser drawer and place it in sunlight? I think I'll be fine misting it and opening the drawer to let light in as much as I can, but I want to be sure before I do this.. I could probably get a small light if I have to, but I won't be able to put the shrooms in direct sunlight every single day... And i'm a little worried about that. I've never grown these before and I'm not sure how much light they actually need.

Also, if I use WBS with straw.. Will it give off any strong odors? I need to be as discreet as I can and even if it doesn't give off foul odors, if it gives off a noticeable odor that would be bad. What are some ways I can deal with the odor, if there is an odor? Basically, I want to know if it's going to make my room smell different or odd.. I want a neutral smell.