Shroomery - Magic Mushrooms: Bulk Neglect Report

All the information below is an account of a particular adventure in mycology. None of it is recommended as the ideal, only a fictional account of how things can go. For example, peroxide is used in the grains even though it probably wasn’t required. It was simply to hedge the bets on the grain-to-grain transfers. As should be noted, the experimenter in this case was rather experienced, although an intermediate beginner with a head on his/her shoulders shouldn’t have much trouble with similar things.

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, a tenacious mycophile tried to push the envelope of massive simplicity in bulk fruiting environments. At a point before our pictorial feast, we begin with a spore syringe of Psilocybe cubensis, Hawaiian strain. The syringe is used to inoculate birdseed. The birdseed spawns synthetic compost. The most charismatic fruit body is selected to continue its existence through the marvel of cloning. The rest of her life is the subject at hand.

Cloning

Harvest day for our main lady is a busy time. As such, a chunk is cut from inside her stem near the base. The chunk is rinsed in 3% H₂O₂, and placed in a small jar containing sterile distilled water and peroxide (roughly .0015% H₂O₂). A filter disc in the lid of the jar allows the gasses produced by the peroxide to be vented. The jar is left at room temperature until the initial harvest, drying and bio assaying are completed. A period of roughly 2 weeks passes. Peroxidated MEA is prepared in the standard manner. Peroxide concentration is on the higher end of the recommended levels. The chunk is removed from the jar and placed on the agar. The plate is mostly colonized in a week and a half with temps hovering near 70 deg F.

Spawn

A quart of birdseed spawn is selected from several prepared in the following manner. Birdseed rinsed clean several times in cold water (which btw removes a lot of sunflower seeds if you aren’t careful, or want it to, sunflower seeds float and are easily poured off from the rest of the BS). Boil an excess of water first. Reduce heat once boiling. Seed is simmered on low for 30 minutes (no more since we will be adding peroxide later and don’t want too much moisture). The grain is strained, rinsed and dried thoroughly before being loaded into the quart jar, ½ full. The lid has a filter disc in it, but polyfill, or even coffee filters or cardboard can be substituted since we will be adding peroxide later. The jar is pressure cooked to sterilize and also destroy peroxide decomposing enzymes. When cool, the quart is injected with 12 cc’s peroxide, shaken and inoculated in front of a flow hood with a piece of the peroxidated agar. Colonization is complete in a week with temps around 80 deg F. A huge filter patch bag is prepared with birdseed as above. Peroxide amount is proportional to that listed above. In the flow hood, the bag is inoculated with the colonized quart jar and sealed with an impulse sealer. The bag is colonized in 11 days at room temps.

Bulk Substrate Prep

A large trashcan is loaded with straw and aged cow dung appearing to be about 75% straw 25% dung by volume. A pillowcase with extra dung is put on top of mixture and weighted with a cinder block. The thermostat on the hot-water heater is turned up as high as it goes, 160 deg F. The trashcan is placed in a bathtub and filled to the cinder block with the now very hot tap water. Enough boiling water from a pot on the stove is poured into the trashcan to bring the temp up to 175 deg F according to a thermometer in the can. The lid is placed on the trashcan and allowed to sit for 45 minutes, at which time the water has cooled to only about 155 deg F. Big ass heat resistant gloves are worn, and the trashcan is inverted carefully for draining, not allowing any substrate to escape the can. The can is left inverted to drain overnight.

Spawning bulk sub

The cooled dung/straw is mixed with the bag of grain spawn and put into the fruiting container. Fruiting container is a big cardboard box a little bigger than 2’ square and about 8 inches deep, lined with several layers of plastic bags. The extra dung from the pillowcase is mixed with the remaining grain spawn and layered about ½ inch deep on top. The dung top layer helps to protect the straw from contams and moisture loss. Often large chunks of casing are removed with fruits, exposing the substrate below. With straw becoming exposed, this can be a bigger problem than if dung gets exposed.

Spawn Run

A perforated plastic sheet is laid over the box for colonization, as shown below. The mixture colonizes quickly due to the dung and the large amount of spawn.

Casing

A casing of 25% verm and 75% coco coir (by volume) is prepared as follows. The verm is baked in an over for 30 minutes at 200 ish. The coir is hydrated in a bowl with boiling hot water. The two are mixed, a dash of lime is added to bring the pH to about 7.8 and the mixture is hydrated to field capacity. The casing mixture colonizes rapidly as is the norm with coir, but retains moisture much better than coir alone. The same perforated plastic from spawn run is used to cover the box during casing run.

Fruiting

The plastic is removed only once a day to expose the mycelium to light and to mist with tap water. The plastic is left off for only a few minutes after misting to allow the moisture to absorb. Pins show in a few days. Once pins are noticed, care is taken to not disturb them with the plastic. It is only loosely draped over the box.

The daily (actually sometimes only every few days) misting and lighting continues while fruits mature. A few spots show a little tiny bit of overlay, and some casing is applied. Pin set is acceptably even. Note that absolutely no attention was paid to environmental parameters other than the sheet, the misting and occasional light when the box was checked on. The box simply sat on the dirty floor of a well-used closet, and enjoyed typical room temperatures.

The caps seemed to be rather light for the strain, likely attributable to the lack of light exposure. And of course all fruits were harvested before committing the sin of over maturation. (My humble opinion only of course). A tip is to water the casing surface just before harvest. This helps to minimize the chunks of casing that are pulled up with the fruits if the casing has dried out.

Nearly all fruits weighed in at roughly 30-50 grams wet, of course some heavier, some of the few aborts were lighter. total yield for first flush was 8 oz dry. Very similar 2nd and 3rd flushes followed, each with even less time being covered by the plastic sheet. For each harvest, everything large enough to be harvested without touching the casing was removed. Then a light sprinkling of casing mixture was sprinkled over the surface and used to fill the divits left from harvesting shrooms.

Repeat Experiment

This experiment was repeated several months later to prove it wasn't a fluke. This time, a different strain was used and one of the boxes was only half filled.

Some random second or third flush shrooms show that dung/straw can make some downright humongus fruits, even if you don't take special care of it.

And this proves that I occasionaly missed the perfect harvest time and accidentally let a fruit mature.