10lb per month production, 2005

[greek_mystique]

Tokin, ya thats eventually why I got out of it. Its pretty much a seasonal product and the market can't sustain a consistent supply. Once or twice a year is optimal in my view. I remember the taz being one of the strains i worked with initially, i have no idea of the current situation as to mushroom strains but the b+ stuff were the higher yielders at that point.

With the tubs you might try what i was doing with a short tube stuffed with alcohol soaked cotton for ventilation, or if you leave the top open a cloth thats been soaked in alcohol or 5% bleach solution can be layed over top. Otherwise my best advice is to spray the shit out of your area with the 5% bleach daily, for 2 or 3 days before you do your tub work as well as several times while you're working and then follow up with a ventilation solution. Without a flow hood it's kind of a crap shoot unfortunately and those little invaders are pretty tenacious and tend to stick around in some capacity but that process should help.

 

[tokinafaty420]

Tokin, ya thats eventually why I got out of it. Its pretty much a seasonal product and the market can't sustain a consistent supply. Once or twice a year is optimal in my view. I remember the taz being one of the strains i worked with initially, i have no idea of the current situation as to mushroom strains but the b+ stuff were the higher yielders at that point.

With the tubs you might try what i was doing with a short tube stuffed with alcohol soaked cotton for ventilation, or if you leave the top open a cloth thats been soaked in alcohol or 5% bleach solution can be layed over top. Otherwise my best advice is to spray the shit out of your area with the 5% bleach daily, for 2 or 3 days before you do your tub work as well as several times while you're working and then follow up with a ventilation solution. Without a flow hood it's kind of a crap shoot unfortunately and those little invaders are pretty tenacious and tend to stick around in some capacity but that process should help.

Thanks for the advice, I'm about ready to just quit anyways. I'm tired of weeks of waiting only to be ruined by some hidden mold spore or bacteria particle. What can you expect though? You are making the perfect environment for those nasty buggers to thrive in. Weed seems to be more forgiving, albeit takes longer to get results.

 

[bird]

damn man looks killer

 

[greek_mystique]

Thanks bird. Tokin, ya I hear what your saying, its a hassle. Especially when you're losing your hard work to contamination. But still, watching a literal pin prick grow to a full size mushroom inside 72 hrs is awesome, its so much fun. I can tell you like it, my suggestion would be to find a new strain, something bred for cultivation, it will be alot more resistant than the landrace tasmanian with bigger yields. Then come back and do a thread and I'll follow along. Once you're able to clone your strongest and best mushroom you're tubs will seem like they're from another planet!

 

[tokinafaty420]

Thanks bird. Tokin, ya I hear what your saying, its a hassle. Especially when you're losing your hard work to contamination. But still, watching a literal pin prick grow to a full size mushroom inside 72 hrs is awesome, its so much fun. I can tell you like it, my suggestion would be to find a new strain, something bred for cultivation, it will be alot more resistant than the landrace tasmanian with bigger yields. Then come back and do a thread and I'll follow along. Once you're able to clone your strongest and best mushroom you're tubs will seem like they're from another planet!

Have any suggestions on strains? B+ alright?

 

[Maracuja]

Have any suggestions on strains? B+ alright?

Depends on what you expect and need.

I like the Orissa Indian and Argentina Strain.Also check out the Z-Strain.

B+ is fine,but I recommend Psilocybe azurescens.Most potent, most aggressive , easy to grow , grows everywhere

 

[sneakinman13]

i could sure use a nice trip to clear my head. been way to long!
awsome grow

 

[clp]

Wow thats awesome! I've never seen a big production setup like this for mushrooms.. I wondered how the bomb ass ones were grown!

Just curious.. How much does a setup take like this to setup? $$$ And to run each month?

 

[tokinafaty420]

Wow thats awesome! I've never seen a big production setup like this for mushrooms.. I wondered how the bomb ass ones were grown!

Just curious.. How much does a setup take like this to setup? $$$ And to run each month?

From my own personal experience most of the cost of running mushrooms is the initial investment in jars, pressure cookers / pots, fruiting chambers, incubators, glove box etc...

After you have everything like that a syringe is gonna cost you about $10-15 dollars online, and the substrate is gonna cost ya around $10 for a small amount or up to a couple hundred if you are doing bulk. Other than that the only thing you will need to be buying every now and then is bleach, hydrogen peroxide, lysol, latex gloves; maybe new jars from time to time.

I'm about to fruit my last 3 cakes of Tasmanian. Wish me luck, my last bulk substrate got contaminated by bacteria and had to be tossed. I decided i'm just going to fruit the healthy cakes themselves and not bother with crumbling into larger bins.

 

[Phedrosbenny]

How long does it usualy take "B+" to form the Birthing cake? Does it make a difference on what you choose to grow it on? Using the Jar Tek.

 

[tokinafaty420]

.

 

[red foreman]

i was just wandering if you fruit them in the clear containers? i am a newbie to growing shroom but have seemed to got the inculation down... i have about 100 jars fulled taken over by the mycleium... cant imagine shaking 1200 jars every couple days tho...but i plan to...my question was have you ever tried to make one big fruiting chamber over all the tubs? i made a big ass fruiting room with shelves everywhere and was just wandering if this would work....you being a pro and all, your advice would be greatly appreciated...i should post a few pic

 

[tokinafaty420]

red_foreman, I've seen people take those plastic closests Martha Stewart sells and turn them into a giant fruiting chamber with multiple shelves. I think they are meant to protect silk from moths instead of using moth balls.

 

[greek_mystique]

Well, as tokin said, the majority of the cost is locked up in the initial investment, your ongoing costs consist only of substrate, labour, cleaning and sterile supplies and whatever property costs are involved. It also depends on the method of cultivation, for instance I had used a liquid inoculant with a pump injector and that requires the magnetic stirrers, but you can save some bucks by using a rye grain inoculant. I also saved a good amount by building the flow hood and magnetic stirrer myself as those bits can be fairly expensive as well. I don't have my notes handy mind you, but if I remember correcty I was off the ground for about 5-6000 in equipment costs. That would have included things like 1500 500ml jars, 6 high capacity pressure cookers, 2 stoves, materials for flow hood and things of that nature, several dozen tubs, several hundred pounds of substrate (brown rice flour, rye flour and vermiculite), a good microscope and other labware, etc. With only 20-30 total man hours required per week, it's pretty economical. One thing to mention that i didn't show in the pictures is that you also need to install a garburetor in a sink, preferably close by, for efficient and quick disposal. One jar-cake fits perfectly down the hole.

Benny, pretty much regardless of strain, it takes about a month for an average jar to incubate and fully colonize a brown rice/rye flour substrate. Other substrates can take longer, sometimes quite longer. Theres no real easy method to speed that process up other than to keep the temperature and humidity constant and in the optimal range. Also the speed, size, and quality of fruiting will depend on your choice of substrate and there's definitely many to choose from.

Finally, good luck Tokin with the last cakes. Please post some pics if you can if and when they come up! A mulch of vermiculite over the cakes can sometimes help with contamination. I would put them in a sterile bin with a few holes for ventilation, and stuff some vinegar soaked swabs in the holes and a little bit of mulch. Best of luck and take it easy.

 

[tokinafaty420]

.

 

[greek_mystique]

Foreman, yes you can definitely just create a large fruiting chamber instead of hassling with the bins. You will however have to build it largely to established 'clean' room standards if you want to reduce contamination to an absolute minimum. This is best done by creating positive pressure with ceiling mounted hepa filters blowing constantly. You'll also want to have a buffer room at the entrance that also has ceiling mounted filters and that's where you'll want to change, clean up and put booties on or whatever. Luckily, its pretty easy to build, especially if you have experience with grow room construction. I used to just use the black and white plastic and red shrink tape to construct the rooms, cutting in a few hepa filters a piece and then running everything off a single 8 or 10" inline fan. In between fruiting and whenever necessary, I would use a home built fogger to sterilize the chambers with a 5% bleach solution.

If you're going to ramp up in the future, save yourself the trouble with the jars. It's more straightforward but you will be far better served by investing in a sizable industrial autoclave and then using 5-10lb substrate bricks in foodsaver vacuum bags. 1500 jars equals ~10lbs perpetually, however investing the 6-10 000 for an autoclave can give you 5-10 times that amount with a minimal increase in total man hours. Best of luck!

 

[greek_mystique]

That sounds like a good plan tokin, i found crumbling into larger bins was just to inconsistent in terms of contamination which is why i switched to a liquid inoculant originally. i have a good feeling the cakes will tough it out this time! I think you'll be happy with the b+, maracujo was right in that the azurescens is also very strong and quite potent. I think the b+ will hold up well under a higher load of contaminants in this situation though. I'm not sure now but I think this production strain was a b+/azurescens hybrid. Remember to keep some spores from the tazmanian so you can maybe play with hybridization in the future, that's alot of fun.

 

[red foreman]

as this is kind of a side venture for me as i want to see the potential before i fully commit i choose to start with 2 pressure cookers, 100 lbs rye, couple hundred half/pint jars, heater and shelves for my inculation tent, humidifier for my fruit tent and only half of the shelves... the first batch was done using vermculite cake method and the results were less the impressive.. mine looked nothing like yours but they vertically unlike yours on the side... the jars i have going now are rye grain inculation which is simple and easy....haven't seen any containments yet.... so my trial batch of fruiting on the rye grain i took like 20 jars and poured into sterileized silver trays with either vermculite or soiless mix as a topping...the mycelium took that over too...it was going good till me ac for the house went out...needless to say it was 100 outside and heat inside dried them out...1 tray had about 20 shrooms popping out when all that happened...so i fixed the ac and poured some water on them, only thing i could think to do so we'll see what happen...

 

[tokinafaty420]

 

[red foreman]

both rooms...incubation on right, fruiting on the left





incubation chamber....roughly 5x6 withe like 5 or 6 shelves to start


closeup of first shooms... dried up in the heat so tried to rehydrate