Yeah, that is exactly what they are for. about 10 hours after veil breaks the caps usually open up to become flat and drop theirs spores everywhere. If you cut them off under the cap and put them on fresh aluminum foil in a relatively sterile, closed environment (like a wardrobe)(spray some lysol or similar disenfectant), store for a day or 2 you will have some dark spore prints that you can fold up and store, or scrape in to sterile water and suck up with a syringe to make a spore syringe so that you can inject your new jars easily rather than doing grain 2 grain (g2g).

Recommended is a SAB (still air box) just a plastic tubs with holes cut in it for sterile work like making spore syringes or g2g transfers of mycelium. Also a good technique is AGAR which improves yields. Have a search on shroomery

https://youtu.be/mZhbrHYtshc
Don't leave it for 2 days it might rot.. 12 hrs is good

Sweet!
Here they are just after being picked last night and this morning after 3 hours in front of the fan.
With the next ones I'll send a telepathic message to swim to collect the spores!

Cheers

Those look fantastic.

My friend was wondering about posting pictures, so far as he knows only the shroomery removes EXGIF(I think that's it) data from pictures. He really could use some tips as there's been a very long delay in fruiting however he isn't interested in having his geo location and everything else available for anyone who can look at metadata.

Does the nexus have a similar data removing process when uploading pictures?

Nice yield, and wonderful mushies! I bet you'll be enjoying them soon.

I wouldn't get into taking your own spore prints until you've successfully started cultivating with mini or full sized monotubs. Work on your cultivation skills especially sterilization, then once you've got those covered you'll know if contamns are from your print side, or the cultivation side of your skill set. That and you still have a lot to learn in terms of dialing in air flow, humidity control, and nutrients.

You would be amazed at how many Mushies a single spore syringe can yield. My original monotub yielded 4.5oz dried using ~6ml (60%) of syringe liquid, you can use even less if you do a liquid culture first.

That being said ultimately it's up to you! You won't learn to successfully make spore prints until you try, so if you feel it's time to try GO FOR IT!

In regards to Nope's question, I have no idea if the nexus automatically removes metadata. You can download a tool called batch purifier, or others and have it scrubbed before uploading. This is better opsec than sending it to the nexus or shroomery server and having it do the work, that way if the server is ever compromised you haven't just handed hackers/Old Bill your geo data because you thought it was safe.

Thanks for posting the journal, it's been wonderful to share in your grow journey.
Nobody

and It's been fun to share it!
I can't thank u enough for all the help, hopefully ill be able to give back soon.

Anyway, first thing swim did this morning was to pick a few more that had their veil broken and took spore prints
Here they are. Everything was sterilised with acetone, chair included.

Swim also picked that mushroom that was a bit weird. what is that white stuff? is it safe to eat? maybe even just the stem and throw away the weird cap.

aaaaand... loads more pins popping out! yey !

you have a mushroom growing upside down on your mushroom .. it's safe to eat

Sweet! So now swim picked up more mushrooms that were ready and took more spore prints. This is what remains in the bulk... two boys almost ready and a lot of pins. Will they carry on growing?

Yes, you'll get more flushes. Those pins will become full mushies as long as they have enough moisture. You'll probably notice the substrate pulling away from the edge of the tub. You can dunk the whole thing in water, let it absorb as much as it can and then tip off any excess, ready for round 2.

Might try cutting the shrooms off with a sharp blade (scalpel is best) as low as you can too. It disturbs the substrate less and you will get better yielding later flushes.

Looks like a lot of fun right there.

Should swim soak the whole cake in water now? I had in my mind the idea that the soaking process should happen at cold temperatures (~4C° ) and with the lid of the box on. But you're saying it's not a must, right?

yes soak it to get a much better second flush
since you already have pins i suggest you do something similar to bottom watering, so just fill the container with water as much as you can without pooling the surface, the cake will float so do something to keep it from floating like putting some weight over it or fix it with something without hurting the pins, leave it for 12 hour then pour of the water and fill it again and pour them directly(just as a wash) and then you can add a bit of water daily to help the cake. no need for the 4C temp

Alright so now swim picked all the mushrooms that were big and left only pins. he put some clean water (as hopefully you can see in the picture) and it sits on the bottom but the cake doesn't float. He is worried that the pins that are soaked in water will rot or form moulds if left there for 12 hrs. Should he remove those pins?

ohhh you have lots of side pins.. to save them get a big container and fill it with water, submerge the cake container in it and the cake will float, if it's stuck to the sides of the container bend the sides a bit with your hand and it will free and float... then place the cake on a flat tray and back into the fruiting chamber mist well and do bottom watering by adding a bit of water and changing it daily or adding more if it was all sucked

Thank you so much Sakk, swim used the box of the shrooms as a tray and flipped it upside down to put the cake on top. Watered the fruiting chamber up to the level of the cake but without touching it so to leave the pins breathing. They have grown overnight already!

I have to say I am quite confused about what happened here cause it seems that the substrate has never stopped fruiting so it's hard to distinguish between flushes. I don't really understand anymore what the soaking inside a closed box inside the fridge is for... not that it ever made sense since I have no clue about mushrooms biology, but I'm realising that maybe I should find a good book about it

you're welcome
as i said before the cake was probably prepared with MS not a clone so uneven flushes and variations are expected..
the soaking is called a dunk and the purpose is to rehydrate the cake so you can have better flushes and it's almost necessary to do if you want good results.. mushrooms are 90% water so each flush the cake loses a lot of water and must be rehydrated for better results in next flushes
the fridge is thought to give a cold shock for the mycelium to trick it to produce more mushrooms but that is something debated on and most people don't do it, just a dunk will be more than enough..
imo it's better to do the tray thing with bottom watering as i described, i'm not sure it's a good idea to surround the cake with this much water..

cool swim tried to do bottom watering, hopefully he understood it well.

Here is the 'island' version before and then how they are now.

keeping humidity up is important but fresh air exchange is as important for healthy mushrooms growth, you need to make some holes in that chamber if you don't bacterial growth will spread over the cake which will reduce your yields... look up SGFC and make holes in that pattern...

there's still water in there right? that's not how it should be, you either use wet perlite or if you can't get that just use wet paper towel that you change every couple of days, the water evaporating from them will keep the humidity up

So if fruit flies develop, should they be considered to have wandered in through the FAE hole or should one be concerned about seeing only 2 of them? Paranoia?

Would a diluted hydrogen peroxide misting be the best way to insure no complications?

Presuming the mycelium is already well established and showing partial fruiting.

I always use an apple cider vinegar fruit fly trap. I don't like spraying my myc with anything other than water if I can help it.

1. Place apple cider vinegar in cup.
2. Cover with saran wrap.
3. Poke several holes in saran wrap.
4. Place near FC

They will fly into the trap but won't be able to find their way out. After a while, all the fruit flies should be gone and/or dead. If there are persistent fruit flies in your house, you may want to place a trap near your kitchen sink and your main garbage can as well. I once lived in a rental house where the garbage disposal was broken. This created a breeding ground for the little suckers. Two of these traps and the problem resolved itself. Since the garbage disposal was never fixed by our landlords, we kept traps near it all the time, and they didn't come back.

There are many other methods out there such as leaving a slice of lemon out in a similarly fashioned trap. They should be more attracted to the fruit than your fungus. People seem to have mixed results and preferences when it comes to controlling the pests, so it may be wise to try a number of different things to see what works best for your situation. Some people even take a vacuum hose attachment and suck them right out of the air!

Good luck!

Vinegar solution it is!

A million thank yous and blessings. ^_^