Hello!

Yeah - this is a mushroom question - a little out of place, but cannot reach the section for it so far, so here it is ;D

I have some mushroom mycelium and can clearly see it through a plastic wall.

Now I moist it very often and keep it away from potential mold sources.

I guess it is less than 2 weeks until the mycelium will start to grow some mushrooms itself, but I have passed more than 3 weeks, possibly even 4 and nothing has happened so far. I mean: the mycelium looks exactly like on the 1st day.

This is somehow strange as I thought that just mold can stop or hinder the growth of a mushroom - and I clearly have a shroomie free of those here.

I start getting nervous about my little boy, do you know what could be wrong with him ?

Things to say about:

1. I have him 4 h a complete water soaking and then started just to moist it inderectly and only a little bit at once. Some sources say you should do a 24 h soak ... so was mine too less ? Would it make a difference to make another one ? But I don't think that 4 h is too short to make ANY growing impossible.

2. I had a spraying flask with isopropanol (desinfection stuff) and poured everything out to fill it with water to add it to my friend. But I did not come up with the idea that the tube inside of the spraying flask also must be emptied. So when I sprayed, possible soooome of the isopropanol came into the container - but not directly on the shroom. Do you think this little portion of isopropanol is hindering it from growing at all now ?



THXXX for any Help !

hello there

what method are you using? is it a grow kit? and also what kind of fruiting chamber you have?

from what i know the major pinning factor is the evaporation of water off the cake surface, the ideal mist technique is to mist it with a fine spray from a distance until small droplets of water form over the surface like dew, and as these droplets evap they form pinsssss! yaaaay!

you should have done a longer soak for a better flush but that's not a problem

don't worry about the little iso

what i would do is wash the cake with water, dunk for 12 hrs, wash again and place back in fruiting chamber

pics are helpful if possible

good luck!

Look up Willy Myco on YouTube. Everything is there..

Are you fanning frequently to ensure adequate fresh air exchange?

Is it getting sufficient light?

Great to hear you are trying your hand at some Mycology Hi Five I have a couple questions to start with

1. Has your Substrate fully colonized yet
2. What temperature is the room you are trying to fruit these in
3. What method are you using

If your substrate hasn't fully colonized with mycelium yet then stop misting and let it colonize first
If it is fully colonized then make sure you have the ambient room temperature within Fruiting Temps mist and fan heavily 2 - 6 times per day

yeeeeeah cool to get so much answers in so short time!


OK - yeah ... I'm just as any other noob just having a straight regular growing box.

And to answer more questions:

The substrate came already 100% colonitzed, well I don't know if its 100% but the mycelium is completely grown through the box Temperature: It is quite what it wants to have - like 20°C or maybe a little more, during night possibly a little lower - but that will only be like 1-2° change ...

I read putting my friend in the fridge for 1 night is good as he thinks *maaan it gets autumn I have to hurry to produce kids* and then he will pin faster - maybe I can try that to get it working :S any thoughts ?

Method: Well yeah it's that regular grow kit - any noob who wants to do it just buys this - soak it some hours and then just place it in the zipper-bag - that's it.

What do you mean with fan it? You mean I shall use a fan to get some fresh air in there every half a day?

1. Why should I get fresh air in there? It was said that I shall just place the cake inside the zipper bag and this is everything needed for the perfect growing conditions.

2. If I don't have to use it all the time and just use it for a short time every day, then why do I need to use a fan? Couldn't I just let air come in *by hands* and after some minutes of shaking the zip bag (or whatever) I can close it again and repeat later ? It sounds that it is only a short process every day so why using a fan?

Sufficient light: yeah definetly ... it's not extreme sun, nor too dark - it should be perfect.



And so you say: *wash the cake* and this means that I shall let it soak once more ? Than letting it soak for X hours (what is X in this case ?? ) and then it may get a second impulse to start growing ?


The thing is: I'm really sure that there is still no contamination in this box so far and therefore it MUUUST be still alive and be well ... please my little friend, start working!
I'm so desperate to check out what you can do when you get friends with Harmalas aaaahaahah

So yeah a little all over the place my answers, I hope you can figure out what is meant to which forum friend

myth

the purpose of fanning is to cause evaporation

the purpose of fresh air exchange(FAE) is to replace CO2 with O2, the best way to do that is passively by making holes in the grow bag... yes the kit manual doesn't say that but you should do it to improve conditions for your cake so it pins


what i meant by wash is to take the cake out and wash it under the faucet to clean it in case some bacteria got on it, then dunk it for few hours, the wash it again and place it back in fruiting chamber like in this video.. but since you're using a grow kit i bet you wouldn't feel safe about removing it from the box.. the thing is when the cake is fully colonized it's very unlikely that it will get contaminated(of course after few flushes the risk becomes higher), contamination happen when a non-colonized part of the substrate is exposed to a contaminant..

if i was in your place i'd do this:
-wash(skip if you want) and dunk for 12 hours then wash(skip if you want)
-punch some holes in the bag and put the cake back in
-mist 3 times a day like described

good luck

That might apply if you had something like Psilocybe cyanescens or a similar woodlover. It's not the case for P. cubensis.

Okay I will try the wash - as I have the Iso, I won't have so much fear removing the cake and placing it back in. Sadly the Youtube Video does not proper link me, but I will try to check it out.

Furthermore you did not exactly mention it, but I guess that I am indeed right that even there is no myco-movement in the box so far, the cake should be pretty much healthy and still alive + able to grow ?

Yeah I can do more holes, it was just stated (as you already may guess that I'd say this) that the zipper bag closed would be the perfect growing condition. But I will try your idea - so I will do some holes and then moisture it MORE often ? You said like 3 times instead of 1 time.

Last question: I did NOT moisture it so far all day, maybe only all 1-2 days. The reason is: I was spraying a good load - but no overload - into the bag and then when I came back the next day, the bag was still very moist in it - even a little layer of water is at the bottom of the zipper bag (below the growing box) all the time. Therefore I thought: Well then why spray it even more, if there is still so much water in it ? Well but at least I sprayed every 1-2 days, not leaving it out completely because of the water at the bottom bag.
Now with holes I'll definetly have to spray every day and multiple times I guess ?


THXX ! Really hope to see my little friends sooner : S

yes it should still grow fine

iso? don't put any iso on it, you could try clean the box with iso when you remove it to dunk it...

are you spraying the bag and not the cake? that's a common mistake

if you read the large amount of posts(on shroomery) about people having trouble with grow kits you will see that the problems are always similar, the grow kit manuals are really not good, sometimes it works well, most of the times it doesn't... so for this problem there is these solutions always, make holes in the grow bag bcz the mycelium and mushrooms need to breath, and spray the cake not the bag bcz you know bags don't grow mushrooms cakes do, high humidity is not important, only the microclimate(right at the cake surface) matter, so when you have small water droplets on the cake surface evaporating with time.. this creates the perfect humidity for the mushrooms to grow

about misting learning to read the surface is better than following a schedule, when the surface seems dry, mist.. very simple... but 3 times a day is a good rate

^^^ Everything Sakkadelic said above
Here is another video you can try to watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvIZ6alQ_Nk
it covers the standard grow kit method it should be similar to the kit you have i think.
Pictures of your set up and current progress would help as well, this guy Willy Myco has some great tutorials and information on growing mushrooms

Why don't you try a higher temperature? I am trying to grow truffles in myco bags. 4 weeks at 17C-20C resulted in minuscule amounts of mycelial growth-less than 1 square cm. I transferred the bags to my airing cupboard which is at 23C-26C and the bags were fully colonised in 10 days.

Well for the temperature:

the cake has 100% colonized (it already came like this), so this is not hindered by temperatue anymore - but I may indeed test some higher one nevertheless...!

And this made me a huge laughter:

*you know bags don't grow mushrooms cakes do* .... ahahahaha!

True ... yeah, I will try now with making holes into the bag and spraying it directly.
Maybe when I figure out how the picture function is done I could add some pictures.

THX for your help to get my buddies coming.

Hey man, i can help you out with shrooms. Whats your average temp in the FC? how many times do you mist/fan?
Your temperatures seem a little less. What you said about temp not being important after colonization is totally false. Mushrooms need an optimum environment for "pinhead formation". This will be effected by temp/water/air exchange.
-Too much water is bad,24h Dunk is enough. In fc only add water indirectly.
-Keep temp close to recommended point. maybe around 23-24.
-Air exchange is a necessary precursor for fruiting.
if sub is fully colonized but not fruiting, the problem is mostly with one of the parameters.

Okay man!

That is a good source of information.

Sadly I'm a newby: what is *FC* ? Does it mean *fruiting chamber*? Well I have this totally average, standard commercial growbox in a zipper - then I guess I have one?

So in this case I shall only add the water to the sides of the bag and not on the cake? Because lately I was told to spray it directly on it o.O

Temperature: Yeah it is only like 15-19°C ...

Now I placed them in front of a window behind a courtain, there is a flat heater below it and I think this should raise it to more than 20°C, but I will have to check tomorrow, when it's day.

Question here: Placing it below the heater may expose it to very dry air. Will this cause the zipper bag to get too dry too fast?
I have done some holes into the zipper bag as I was told. Now I guess that if the air around it is too dry, it will also dry out the zipper bag fast with all those holes (?)

Air Exchange question: So I never did air exchange before and thought the climate should be kept completely closed into the zipper bag and left for its own. So how shall I do it? I now used a fan and opened the bag and fanned into it for like 20 secs.
Is it okay this way and how many times shall I do it (per day or week)#

Yeah ... so now more holes and on a warmer spot. Hopefully it works and you can answer those question to make it even more comfortable for pinning buddies.

You should spray the cakes directly, look it up and see for yourself

If temp is 15-19 you must bring it up... you said it was 20 at first

Don't put it under heater

Holes create passive Fresh Air Exchange that's all you need

Well I was not aware that you're fruiting in a plastic bag.I guess its okay to spray directly in that case. at those temperatures pins will not form. You should've invested some time in making a neat Fruiting chamber.Plastic bags are like the least efficient way to fruit.
-Hold temperature above 22-23 for 2 days. It will fruit surely.
-Also if the surface looks too wet then reduce the watering. Evaporation is a also key pinning trigger.
-people have had that problem before, so look it up on shroomery.