Mushroom cultivation is not hard when you know what are the things that can go wrong
People often struggle with these common mushroom cultivation mistakes, when they try to grow for the first time. When you are first starting off your mushroom cultivation journey, be sure to look out for these.
Here are some mistakes that we made when we first started mushroom growing. Sometimes it’s good to learn from your own mistakes, other times it’s enough to learn from others.
1. Sterilization of mushroom growing substrate
Contamination is the lead cause of failure when growing mushroom. Incorrect sterilization is the lead cause of contamination. You must treat all equipment, work surfaces, containers and gloves with alcohol before any work commences.
- You should fully sterilize the substrate. Always follow the sterilization method with no exceptions.
- Check the pressure regularly when using a pressure cooker to achieve a heat sterilization.
- While working with liquid cultures flame treat the syringe needle after every penetration, same goes with the scalpel when you are using Agar.
The working environment is just as important. It is vital to keep a clean, tidy and sterile work environment, in order to maximise the chances of success.
2. Slow and steady wins the race
First-time mushroom growers are always eager to get to the finished product. Mushroom Growing can be a meticulous and thorough process that you should not rush.
Incomplete preparations or not following and sticking to one chosen technique will lead to a higher risk of contamination.
Trying to rush each stage will also lead to a high failure rate. Always allow your substrate to completely cool before inoculation. Be sure that Mycelium has fully colonized your substrate before starting the fruiting stage.
3. Cutting corners will not give you a satisfying result
There is often a temptation to cut corners in order to save costs. There is no justification for this when growing mushrooms. The cost of production is so low, to begin with, that it is worth investing fully into the right equipment from the start to increase your success.
If you try to grow too much, too soon and don’t have the right equipment to deal with the workflow, you will quickly become overwhelmed.
4. Right environment for mushroom growing
The wrong environment will quickly lead to failures. It is very important to always check the requirements for each different strain of mushrooms that you grow.
Mushrooms grow in a multitude of habitats around the world, so each one requires separate attention. Most critical aspects are:
- Air and ground temperatures
- Humidity
- Light conditions
- Fresh air exchange
5. Be aware of thermogenesis
Thermogenesis happens when the mycelium is decomposing organic matter. Like compost piles, the mushroom substrate will start generating its own heat.
There is a possibility that the temperature in your substrate will become higher than the air temperature in the room. If your fruiting room is running at the optimum temperature, then your substrate could rise above it and cook the Mycelium. This could mean that your mycelium will get cooked and die.
Other things to watch out for
There are some mistakes that can only be avoided with experience that you gain by cultivating your own mushrooms. Here are some of the common things that will dramatically increase your success rate:
- Learn how the early signs of contamination look like. It will save you time and money. As soon as contamination is spotted the contaminated item should be completely removed from the growing area.
- Usage of a substrate that is too wet or too dry is a common mistake. It should be damp but not wet, with a gentle squeeze enough to release a few drops of excess water.
- Label your jars and samples with species, date and batch number to avoid confusion.
- Always stick to the technique you started with.
- When working with spores it is important to ventilate the work-space once finished and samples are secure.
Conclusion
It is important that you start practicing proper sterile methods early in your mushroom cultivation journey. Most contamination issues can be avoided by proper technique and good equipment.
Don’t rush your first grow. Be prepared when you start and don’t improvise or cut corners in the beginning.
Make sure that your environmental conditions are proper for the type of mushroom you are growing. Humidity, air exchange, light, and temperature are all important factors to keep a constant watch on.
Growing mycelium generates its own heat. Try to aim a few degrees below the optimum temperature to avoid cooking your mycelium.
Do you know of any other common mushroom cultivation mistakes that should be added to this list? Please let us know in the comments below.
Do you want to learn how to grow you own edible, medicinal, and sacred mushrooms? Check out our Online Sacred Mycology Program!
Responses
What is wrong when spams become yellowish on day 5 what is any mistake or any indication
What to do if my mushroom kit smells bad?
It is my second harvest and I have passed the 24 hour soaking time now it smells bad.
Thanks you for your help.
Get rid of it. At least separate it from the rest of the healthy grow.
I am pretty new too, what I do it put the bad smelling jars / bags in my yard so they may have a chance to grow.
It’s contaminated
When cakes or substrate begins to turn yellow after mycelium has formed or started to form, generally this means that the cake or substrate has become dehydrated and/or no longer has sufficient nutrients to allow fruiting. Rehydration can sometimes solve the issue, but more often than not, it means that the cake/substrate is no longer capable of supporting further mycelial growth.
The problem I am having with mine is, the mycelium will start coming out and all of a sudden, it will be one out of hundreds of them that will survive and grow, and sometimes, all the mycelium will turn yellow and die. I do water them 3 times daily, yet most of them die. This is my first time and am discouraged with what am experiencing. This is the fourth week I started it. Advise me please. I don’t have any website. But this is my face book account name: Ozoufuanya Lucy
Dont water them three times a day…. look up how to grow. Use substrate at field capacity. Mix with colonized spawn in mono tub. Wait for full colonization of the substrate in the monotub before introducing fruiting conditions. The substrate if at field capacity should have enough moisture to throw two maybe three flushes without adding any water. Only mist the sides and top of monotub not the fruit directly as ths can cause aborts. Good luck
If the mycelium starts to have yellow tenths in small places is that good or bad?
Don’t water them directly. You can get an ultrasonic humidifier to help keep it moist. You don’t want water directly on mushrooms but having a humidifier just barley to the point were water rivets are almost forming on the walls of the environment which you are growing.
Don’t water them as much and try taking 3 percent peroxide and dilute it with water and mist your substrate every now and then especially if you think it’s contaminated
Yellow can also indicate that the mycelium have metabolized a nutrient. I’ve seen cases where people use potting soil substrate and small bits of nutrient rich matter go through this process leaving a ‘yellow snow’ type effect from consuming the nutrients and excreting the waste.
At each stage of the growing process,pay attention to that step only. Get those fruiting bodies out of your mind. Nature will take care of the rest, assuming you provide her with the right causes and conditions to produce those fruits. So, just basically be mindful along the way. For me, that’s become part of the joy and satisfaction of growing.
You want pasteurized substrate not sterilized if you sterilize your substrate you make it very vulnerable to all contams if you pasteurize and mix casing into it and evenly mix it with your colonized spawn grain its almost impossible to get contamination and it will grow twice as fast
This is the best comment I’ve ever read..how do I get pasteurized sub
So growing mushrooms only inside, what about banana stalks and rice stalks, how do you classify these kind of mushrooms. Thanks
Commercial spawn bag has water droplets in upper part of polythene bag why does it happend and is it ok to use this spawn for grawing
Do I need to open my bags after pinning for 30 seconds twice a day for oxygen ?
Absolutely
Inspiring ,
Gratitude
JAC
I think I may have taken my mushroom bucket out of the incubation process too early. It looked completely colonized, but this is my first time. Can I put it back in the incubation process after two days of air and indirect light? Thank you in advance!
You can but watch for contamination and next time give it 3 to 4 days after 100% Colonization before pulling it out you shld notice the mycelium and cake will shrink in the jar when fully colonized check out my IG @cap_out if you need help I’ll help you
How do I know when the mycelium run stage is complete snd its time to move on to the next stage? Thanks.
Depends do you mean cColonization if so your joy should be completely white give it three days four days after that to make sure that it’s fully colonized know if you’re talking about flush like after the flash you’ll notice no mushrooms coming in or very little after you’ve harvested A loud of shrooms I am personally will pluck my as the caps Start to flatten out but you’re supposed to pull on when the veil brakes and the gills are shown But I keep going after I fully harvest a cake till it starts getting a few pins then I take it out pour Distilled water in a bag and I’ll put the cake with a little pins in the bag for 18 hours in the fridge and as long as you’ve done it when the pins are just popping from the cake I mean little pins your pins will not abort(meaning turn black) “ have to be same pinks like looks like little mush heads “ after the birth and dunk Thea little pins will keep growing and you won’t have that 3 day grace period between flushes
I bet there is a lot of good info here, but due to your lack of punctation & spelling errors it’s practically ineligible. Wait till you get to a keyboard next time, because your texting skills are lacking.
I think the word you were looking for was illegible. The irony of giving someone a snarky message about spelling errors and not proofreading your own made me laugh.
Absolutely. I can’t agree more.
ACTUALLY, if you’re going to be the grammar police, you should really make sure that YOU’RE using the correct word. Illegible is an adjective that refers to writing that is not able to be deciphered because of certain factors; such as small print, smudge words, etc.
The word you’re looking for is unreadable or indecipherable. Both of these words refer to confusing, nonsensical, or exceptionally poorly written statements!
👍 THANK YOU for pointing that out (I found it to be pretty hilarious, myself🤣)
I thought the same thing.
I heard about mushrooms consume oxygen I use a bubble humidifier. Hint fill 1/4 pure water 1/4 hydrogen peroxide which turns to oxygen and pure H2O plus keeps things sterile fights contamination provides sterile water small amount of oxygen have found great success with this method
How long have you been doing that method? It hasn’t stunted the growth of mycelium?
How can I get in contact with you Rick?
What is your setup, and which humidifier do you use?
In a monotube ?
Very helpful advice…
Moisture
I have three monotubs. They are starting to fruit.
I’ve read that I should open and spray four times a day. That accurate. I have condensation on the lids and wonder if that means it’s toooist
Very curious about this Rick this is the first I’ve heard of it.
I see some of the grow kits contain something that’s maybe close to your bubble humidifier… They give u a large glass jar, tubing, air pump w/HEPA filter but since I didn’t buy this I’m not sure what goes inside the jar – kinda looks like an LED mister gadget I see on AliExpress…
Okay, but what about the other half? 1/4 + 1/4 =1/2?
I use about 5 to 1, H²O to 3% hydrogen peroxide usp; respectively, when making my misting mixture for hydration during the fruiting process. One thing I would like to point out is the misting of the fully colonized bulk substrate in the monotub. I find it crucial, especially when introducing the tub to fruiting conditions, to mist not only the sides and lid, but also the cake itself, as the evaporation of the water droplets on the surface is what signals the mycelium to start pinning. Many people are very overprotective of their hard work, understandably, but skipping or not correctly doing one step will leave you with a mushroom-free tub. In nature, mushrooms generally fruit at the crucial time in the morning when the sun isn’t up very long but warm enough to evaporate the dew from the previous evening. So relating to the environment that we are simulating in a monotub, the cool air fae, tiny droplets of water on the surface, ambient day light, healthy, warm mycelium cake; these factors are the best way to ensure timely arrival of a very well earned harvest of precious fruits of labor.
Zozo here a mushroom grower since 2017. The fisrt time I started to grow mushrooms at my farm everything went well. I did them straight on the ground and i didn’t experience any contamination I harvested about 3 kgs everyday. But as I continue growing them in buckets the contamination appeared. I am having a big wendy house which I devided into two sides. The first side is for pestorization, inoculation and its very clean and tidy. And second one for growing with an aircon inside to control the temperature. But from the 15 buckets 3 of them is contaminated. I tried everything to make sure that everything is 100% clean and the subtract is not wet or dry and I pestorize the subtract correct in a boiling water for 10 minutes. I’m in need of help to be less contamination good people. I’m growing Oysters and now busy with shiitake in logs.
Zozo I think the problem you are having is your sterilization process. I’m positive 10 minutes isn’t enough time. If your cooking your substrate either by pressure cooker or just in boiling water you need to be at optimal sterilization temperature for at least 90 minutes, sometimes I can get away with 75 but I would recommend using the whole 90 minutes to ensure no living contaminants occur. I would start with that if you’re still having problems then check your innoculation process. That is the only place I’ve ever had an issue but it was due to my error in proper sterilization, trying to rush processes and learning the hard way. Good luck hope you solve your problem.
pastirize your substrate for a minimum of 90 mins if using coco for tubs . but if your using bags steralize for 90 mins at 15psi in a pressure cooker and no bad shit will be left . or a little trick is to put some dry casing on the top of your substrate so the mold or bad bacteria can grow.
How do you maintain temperature for oyster mushroom?
The best way to manage temperature is to grow a variety of oyster mushroom suitable for your climate and season. For instance, pink oyster mushroom likes warmer tropical climate and a variety of blue oyster likes temperate and cooler climate. By growing the right variety there’s less of environmental temperature control you have to do. This equals less energy (often monetary investments) input.
At Fungi Academy, we have incubators for the spawn colonization stage. But at home, you can easily make this by getting a cooler pox or an old broken refrigerator. This helps to keep the temperature more stable.
Mush love and I hope this helps.
Oliver
incubators? never heard of that? What does anyone think and experience…..I would love to hear.
Can I make an incubator in my closet?
I just use my closet with a digital space heater as an incubator no problems.
Peltier thermoelectric moduals are fairly cheap, solid state cooler, heater, n generator all in one, joined with a temp regulator if the area gets too warm it’ll turn on n cool but if the area get too hot it’ll take care of it. Handy little things!
How do you suggest you set up the Peltier device for heating and cooling for mushrooms? Do you even know how these work? One side gets hot the other gets cold and the temperature is dependent on the delta between the two sides…. So how would you heat AND cool the same area with that device?
Oliver, you are the best. If I innoculated a grow bag and see a nice white patch in it about the size of a half dollar what do I do next? Wait a few more days, move the substrate to a layer of vermiculite in a plastic shoebox with airholes and allow 8 hours natural light and mist sides 2x day till I have results?
Wait until the bag is about 30% colonized (that white blotch gets to be about the size of 4 or 5 half dollars, then shake and break up the contents of the bag until well, evenly mixed. It should take 3 days to reestablish the mycelial growth. Then allow it to fully colonize 100%. The whole bag should be completely white, and another sign is the mycelial mass will shrink slightly. Wait two more days to ensure a full colonization. Now the grain spawn is ready to be mixed with bulk substrate. To ensure that you will have success, I would mix 1:1 grain to bulk substrate, (preferably coco coir 65% with vermiculite 30% and a 5% mixture of some coffee grinds and gypsum powder (this 5% is not necessary but I found that it speeds up the process quite a bit.) Ensure that your coco/vermiculite and gypsum (CVG) mix is pasteurized and not sterilized, unless it is in a bag. I don’t know if you are doing the work of making your own substrate or buying your sub ready to go. If you are doing a lot of mushroom growing consistently or a large grow, it’s a good idea to start making your own substrate and grain spawn. I’m only about 4 months into growing and I recently started to use the canner I had bought when I first started out. O was a bit anxious about doing my own over buying it on Amazon. The deal breaker was when my success rate was at 5% to 10% despite buying everything (allegedly) pre-sterilized. I had only two tubs that gave a full flush, one giving me a single flush before becoming contaminated by green mould, probably from over hydration. But the best blessing did come from the single tub that, after four full flushes and between the flushes, I got 2-4 giants that would pop up before the next pin set came, when said and done, that tub gave me about 130 grams of cracker crisp psilocybin cubensis mushrooms, they weighed 1500g fresh before being dehydrated. I was wise enough to get a spore print from 80 percent of these as well as from the single flush of about 24 mushrooms of the first tub. At the time, I didn’t know how valuable those prints were, but at the moment I am able to track and monitor 20 jars of brown rice flour (BRF TEK) all with different spore syringes from both strains and 3 syringes of each. I am about 5 days in to making my first batch of 4 jars (32 oz) of liquid culture. This should definitely speed up the mycelial growth as opposed to spores. I have been able to provide free spores and I am also going to be trading spore prints (I have had a lot of people that have commented about the quality and abundance of my spore prints.) You can’t go wrong and can’t ever have too many prints. They are the single most effective way to store and preserve the strain of mushroom and even many years later, they’re art and a definite way to identify an unknown strain. I hope all of this knowledge that I have aquired over the last 4 months helps you, and everything I have listed here is either proven or disproven through actual experience. There are many many people who are in the online mycology community with a load of knowledge and little to no experience of ever have even seen firsthand the process of growing mushrooms. I thought that this was an issue that was creating a vast expanse of misinformation in the cannabis growing community but it pales in comparison to the amount of people who are, quite frankly full of shit in the mycology community. As I started to get a little experience I am more and more able to spot these posers very easily. Godspeed and Aloha. If ever you have any questions about my experience with mycology and cannabis horticulture…. Anyone can email me at growHIstyle@gmail.com
-RG
How do you pasteurize your substrate? You must not pour water over 180 degrees then it tips to sterilized you don’t want that you must keep the temp in between 150 to 180 so it pasteurized
Hola, Simply pouring your boiling water, which will be your “field capacity moisture”, over your coco/ vermiculite/ gypsum (CVG) substrate in a clean 5 gallon bucket with lid. Mix it up and cover the bucket with the lid. The 212F boiling water looses too much temperature too quickly to “sterilize” the substrate, however the temperature of the mix will remain hot enough, long enough to effectively “pasteurize” the substrate if left for 12-24 hours or when cooled to 80 degrees F. The bucket must be covered until its time to use the substrate and mix with grain spawn or you expose the substrate to spores of molds and other crap.
Happy growing!!
I think it might be because you boiled it instead of just letting it simmer…
Its pasteureize, not pestorize
And substrate, not subtract, this isn’t math
.
No it’s not math, but you’re negative. And that a truth. 🙂 Be nicer, it’ll make you a better person. Good luck Jr.
Misinformation makes this a dumber place…said with a smile.
Can’t argue with that!
Petty much?
Thank you for these corrections. As a NUUB, typos are very confusing. I come here for information, not to wonder if what I have read previously is incorrect, or I am simply on the wrong path.
relax
Its not spelling errors people its spellcheck correcting things incorrectly, stop the spelling policing please, you are not better than them, let’s all be we instead of us and them please. Soapbox stowed.
No. When you repeatedly spell pasteurized, pestorized. And subtract instead of substrate, the former not being an actual word, then there’s an obvious issue with vocabulary and not spell correction. I think that any intelligible person would know when a typo slips in, but when one that is involved in a process as acute as mycology, he/she must be able to spell important words like substrate and pasteurized. This is 3rd grade vocabulary. And quite frankly I agree with any individual who states that we don’t want to be getting information from a community of people who are not practically ‘ellatorite’.
He’s a non native speaker, cant you tell? You can’t can you, and you, an intelligible person at that. (BTW your lack is showing… I can now scry the last grade of American school you completed with 95% accuracy simply by your usage of the short phrase “intelligible person” and the claim that the former is not even a word but trust me Gagy, subtract is definitely a word. Allow me to Pestorize you a bit to take advantage of this teaching moment…see if you were good at English you’d know that using former or latter to apply transitively a state or mode to one of two sequentially verbalized entities that preceded said former or latter statement it is incumbent upon the author to include both entities in the same phrase of the same sentence. Simply put former and latter halt at the period. To ensure everyone reads my entire post I will do the big reveal at the end of my immature but oh so satisfying “I am so much better than thou” rants and will spill the beans (or rye berries) as one of the last of my acerbic words.) He was probably commenting on a youtube video, so we’re seeing his phonetic guesses as to the word being used with spell check assist. He understands what the stuff is just cant tell if Louis spelled and pronounced his last name as Pester or Pasture. If he repeatedly typed a word the same incorrect way it would be repeatedly substituted with the incorrect word, right? who has a multi-language book of common fungi words handy when trying to find a quick fix to contamination issues in their mushyroom crops. did we understand what he was saying and what he was asking, I’d say yeah we did, I even understood that your former/latter use referred to the out of bounds pestorize subtract, but Gagy you tried to put on airs and the holes in your 10th grade English socks showed, so I decided to show you how to properly put on airs. You know I nailed the year you dropped out of highschool, respond to this is you want to know exactly how I did it.G’night Gagy.
Is it possible to give too much humidity during mycillium growth stage….i upgraded my fogger system and i think it may be a little much? It soo effective it is causing puddles of water on the bottom of my tent! I mean the conditions are perfect according to my hydrometer. 80 degrees 99 percent humidity. ..obviously it cant read any higer but im just worried its too much humidity. .??
Humidity can be too much, because it will encourage microbial growth in the puddles. Maybe scale back to 90%-95% humidity.
Yes it is definitely too much. Shoot for 98% RH instead of 99%. Observe the visible conditions of moisture, then if you feel better, go to 99% and keep the conditions you observed consistent. If you are using a fogger and leaving it, then how are you fanning it? If you want to have a leave alone tub then you should probably invest in a temperature and humidity control timer. This will allow you to connect a USB PC fan for fae and a humidifier/fogger. I found on Amazon a few inexpensive items, a humidifier with a built-in sensor to control the rh ,35$. For use in my own modified Martha Tent, and I have a temperature sensor with three presets for pairing with a single or double USB fan (20$ for the fan,15$ for the sensor) for FAE. I have one fan intakes air from my a/c room, one fan exhausts. This is the perfect setup and I have fine tuned it to ideal fruiting conditions for the CVG cakes that are almost done in 32 oz mason jars. I plan to fruit them by themselves on the shelving unit I bought for 30$ and I have contractor grade rolls of transparent pvc tarps. I did a very simple and sturdy job of sewing the ‘strips’ together to surround the shelves, I use the top shelf as the roof. It allowed me to attach the thick plastic strips of tarp with epoxy and I just needle and thread sewed them together top to bottom. I have plans to improve with a solid back wall where the fans are installed. As of now I have cut out small squares in the plastic but I did have to steal the fans from my Xbox cool down setup as the ones that I had purchased (120mm) were to large to stay put in the heavy duty, but far from solid plastic. There’s a few issues I did encounter. Make sure that the shelves are not solid and can allow for the humidifier to disperse evenly throughout the whole unit, same for temp. But to ensure that the top or roof is solid. I first just cut a piece of plastic and covered the top. The metal wire shelves then began to rust despite being painted and coated pretty well. So I bought a solid plastic shelving unit and used my hole saw to cut holes to remove as much of the material as possible without compromising the structural integrity. So the best way (I practiced with several sheets of thick cardboard from my new TV box, it worked for what I needed.)was to cut four rows of 1.5″ holes with 1.5″ between the holes, I then drilled out ¼” and ½” holes in the plastic that remained, there is no real order as much as I tried but it came down to just keep removing material with weights on all of the shelves and the end result was pretty astonishing, at first glance, I would never even remotely think that the shelves are stable nevermind support any weight, there’s about ⅔ of the plastic removed and more than enough space for air to pass freely between the shelves. It has been running consistently for 10 days keeping a constant RH and F°. I plan to have 21 of 24 jars that look about a week away from full colonization. If anyone reading this has advice on how to ensure that the jars of BRF coated vermiculite will be solid when done (when I shook them up some of the jars formed little spheres of vermiculite and never fully settled together. I was thinking about trying to reintroduce coco coir into the 32oz jars as a bulk substrate to fill in the gaps and colonize a more stable and full cake. I will then set them on the shelves and let the machine run. I’m pretty confident about the setup and don’t foresee any issues. Please if anything pops out at you let me know! I’m only about 4 months into my mycology hobby and I don’t have any inclinations of stopping. I started growing cannabis on Dec. 1 of ’21 and if everything continues as it has I will have completed 4 very generous harvests in my first year of growing. With three down, it is pretty amazing that I have found something that I genuinely love to do. There’s a bit more sensitive obstacles to overcome with mushroom growing but it’s really been a great experience of paying attention to detail and not skipping or shortcutting anything. I tried that in every way, and no bueno. Everything must be done by the ‘book’ and that’s the beautiful aspect; that we are all writing that book. Everyone who has successfully fruited mushrooms has earned a wealth of knowledge, experience and (at least in my case)lol, character traits, mainly patience and following rules without exception. Mycology is definitely already placed itself firmly in the future of mankind. Sure, it is a shame that it should have been given more attention than it has been given but I am happy that fungi is here now and it’s relevance is infinite.
What does it mean if mushrooms start to grow in the grain bags before you move it to a substrate?
I’m having the same issue please someone help
Anybody ever have their Mercy Liam stop growing three fourths of a quart jar down
Lawdamercy Liam
Hello, I have innoculated 4 bags, with a cotton plug at the bag opening. The mycelium is steadily growing towards the bottom with clear color difference in the non consumed color of the straw. The white mycelium is NOT pure Bright white as seen in pictures. There are patches of white, more like cobweb whites. If it doesn’t turn completely white, what might I be doing wrong?
I am not using breather bags, nor I have punctured the bags. Could this be a reason?
I think I moved my block to the fruiting chamber too soon. I thought it was ready but I’ve seen others and theirs is much more white than mine. It’s been in the chamber for 2 weeks now with no pinning. Is this a failure and do I need to just toss it and start over or can it be saved? Can I put it back in the dark and warmth and hope that it fully colonizes at this point? Please advise.
As a first time grower starting from liquid culture i learned quickly about having a sterile environment. I broke down and built a decent size laminar hood, build a dedicated lab and following the same process, as did prior. I was able to generate uncontaminated grain spawn. If it’s too expensive to build or buy a Flow Hood, build a simple glove box.
Can anything bad happen if you use way too much liquid spore solution? A friend of mine put a whole syringe in a bag that only needs ten ccs
You don’t want there to be a pool of liquid at the bottom of your spawn container. Also, spores need mating so do not shake the jar/bag after if you use spore solution. Good luck 🙂
Im just starting i have 9 dif strains of sporrs and my 1st and secnd try with bags they turned a yellow. Heat around 72 in cupboard near ground and i did not have inoc ports in em so went threw the heppa filter is it that lil hole i make in it that the contaminates getting in
You should definitely close the little hole where you inoculated with some tape. My guess is that the bags were not sterilized properly or the spore syringes were not clean. Maybe increase the time of your sterilization.
The yellow you are seeing might be “Mycelium Piss”. I used a 5 pound mushroom bag with grain and everything inside. It took 4 weeks but the entire thing turned white with yellow water areas. With that said, some of the non white color was from the dirt in the bag.
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So I have my mono tub all set up and ran a test run with no substrate or anything in tub. I have a separate tub with fogged and 4 inch duct fan blowing fog into bigger tub. My humidity was perfect for 3 days continuously but no condensation on walls of tub would the substrate dry out or will the humidified air be sufficient
Once the mycelium is introduced to the tub, the heat emitted will increase the amount of water droplets. Good idea to test run though.
i m facing with contamination in mushroom media culture and grain spawn production please guide me,how to overcome on these problems
Hi there, I need an advice for indsutrial oyster mushrooming. Our land is very close to a dam and
its forbidden covering concrete for the tents.
Is there any alternative
and sanity flooring other than concrete?
Hey so this is my second time trying to grow the first I tried to do it with APE culture I got online which I think could of been contaminated. Because after my grain bags were about 20-30% they started to turn black and with in two days were completely black. So I threw them out and tried agian with a cream lex Luther culture that I made in between the first and second go around. My 60cc spore syringe got clogged while inoculating one of my grain bags on the second time around and I accidently squeezed 10ccs of it in a 3lb bad. And I Inoculated another grain bag with some GT spores as a kinda controll hopefully but it’s been 3-4 weeks now and that bag has no sign of growth but the one I did with the culture is now about 80% colonized but the bottom side of the bag that’s touching the bottom of the tub floating in another tub with an aquarium heater in it as well as the side of the bag that’s closest to the other grain bag so 4 of the 6 sides are complete white.could they not be growing on the bottom or that one side because it’s in direct contact with the bottom of the container or another bag that’s always between 74-78F . And I’m wondering if it will help or fix/finish colonizing if I turn the bag on it’s side so the sides that aren’t colonized are upwards but if I do that the air patch on the bag won’t be stright up vertical like it is currently should I just leave it as is and hopefully growth continues as it has or should I turn it on its side or move it to my other incubator with out water in the set up because just in the past day or two the humidity of the incubator that’s in the water has went up from 25-35% where it was at the whole time it’s been colonizing and now it’s up to 40-65% I added a fan in to the side of both incubators on timers to help keep the conditions more stable. Am I doing something wrong or do I just need to leave it and be more patient or rotate it or what? I have the whole set up in a closed off closet I make sure to use an alcohol lamp when inoculating with the oven door method as well as a UVC and I got a wall mounted UVC in the grow clostetbon a timer also so it steralizes the whole closet three times a day there’s no moving air in the closet besides the fans in the side of the incubators and I always make sure to have the uv-c on if I open the lids at all with gloves mask the whole works and I always use alcohol wipes when inoculating as well as 35% hydrogen peroxide.
Why my milky mushroom r turned red after harvesting
What is the reason
Hi,
Its been 9 days since I inoculated my jars. They jars are kept in a large plastic box, with the lit slightly off. They have not been exposed to sun/electric light at all. The room has about 27 degrees celcius. I can only see a little white mycelium in one of the jars. What am I doing wrong? Thank you
I love Mushroom a great deal. It shows up as often as possible on my dishes however in market, mushrooms are costly. So I am truly giving genuine idea to develop it in my home.
I started my first cultivation process and unfortunately realized that some holes to inject the spores were too small just after sterilization, therefore didn’t inoculate the spores in all 4 holes in some jars (each jar was inoculated in between 1 to 3 holes). its been nearly 4 weeks of cultivation, and the jars are not fully cultivated. should i wait until full cultivation? i reckon it will take at least 2 more weeks
Always wait until full cultivation or you increase the chance of contamination during fruiting. Patience is key.
Can to much humidity in an area that also houses the incubation process cause contaminated jars?
Hi I got this red spot that came in a bag of dried “copes” mushrooms
Looks like the same colour and consistency some blood that got dropped on it and dried.
It’s on the dried mushrooms (final product)
Is this bad? It’s just on one stem the rest of the ounce looks ok.
I have several jars that turned partly black as the white mycelium were developing. Within days the black disappeared and the white mycelium took completely over with no sign of any black in the jars. Are the white mycelium contaminated or can I take these jars to the next growing level and will the mushrooms be safe to use?
You might be lucky and have good finish but next time cut of the black spot with sterile instrument.
Hello, you had black mold, however since your mycelium overcame the contamination, you now have black mold resistant mycelium!! That is awesome!! Make sporeprints and notes!!
I have had a few jars of inoculated rye berries that never form mycelium. The grains seem wet, which suggests that I injected too much spore solution. Is there a way to reduce the humidity in the jars at this point? Some say you cannot use too much, some say anything over 5cc for a jar or 1cc for an Uncle Ben’s bag will ruin it.
I’ve been thinking about taking the lids off in a sterile environment and covering with micropore tape until some of the liquid evaporates. Or should I just start over?
Always use 1 to 2 cc of any liquid
Unless your growing pan cyans i dont know why your humidity is so high…the puddles are fine. Put the fogger on a wifi timer…
Hi, I see standing water at the bottom of my oyster mushroom bags and also a lot
Of water droplets.
I definitely followed the process correctly (not too wet and not to dry) so I don’t understand why this is happening.
I tried to cut the bottom a little and tried to drain the water with a help of some cotton. Will that help?
Please advise.
Thank you!
Everything looks good but heads pop out of cake but never get larger?
As long as your community reader is on point trust it make sure to sterilize before putting it back in or switching containers but take it out and put it in a different tub or leave it in the room and watch how fast the humidity drops or the temperature changes then you know it’s giving you a correct reading. On one of these forums one member really made fun of another member because he said my humidities at 99% I have my polyfill in my holes it’s colonized but not pinning and the guy responded you can’t have 99% that would be like a bucket of water not true whatsoever I don’t know how old that person was but I mean if you just missed your monotub well even with big polyfill holes and everything you put that sensor in there and if it’s warm in the room it’s definitely going to be 99% for at least a few minutes if you get up fresh air and take it and everything else it might truck quickly but that’s kind of what you want you want conditions like mushrooms growing like it just rained and then got nice and hot out or maybe not nice and hot the strongest of all of them which are not wavy caps which most people say but it’s not hard to Google it the flying saucers the psilocybin auczerences….spelling..I know…. Obviously I wanted the strongest one my first was mistake was assuming that they’re all wanted some cocoa choir and they all wanted some manure and it didn’t occur to me that the flying saucers being would lovers like I needed to pressure cook some wood chips and even use shredded wood pellets after being soaked in water for inoculation before adding to bulk and I might put some fertilizer in with it if were me so like some cocoa choir or something but it’s got to be like straw and wood chips watch any video or someone’s growing them and I don’t look like mud manure Coca-Cola etc….cco coir….ha
I stopped I talking to these dumb phones that’s humidity in the beginning whatever you use to monitor your humidity there’s cheap great things for lizard tanks that you can suction cup to the inside that give you the temperature in the humidity and 99% humidity does not mean a bucket of water
I’m using all in one grow bags. Grain on the bottom straw in the middle and horse manure substrate on top. My problem is most of my shrooms are growing in the straw and not on top. What do I do ?? Should I cut the bag or just let them grow like that ??
You should have mixed up the contents of the bag after 30% colonization
Hi , I’m a first time grower ,really small scale as I bought a oyster kit . I’m experiencing trial n error , first flush was bountyfull whilst as the second flush was getting to be to but half the pins where getting moldy ,some grew nicely but the others didnt make it . The kit came with the mycellum in the bag n compost separate to place on top.. the mold started on the compost n seemed to spread.. I think my mistake was I didnt materialise the knife ..as I said trail n error ..wondering if the mushrooms I did harvest are safe to eat pls? N if I remove the mold with sterile equipment should I have anouther go at just topping up the compost or does anyone suggest to remove the mycellum n place it in a sterile container n then topped with compost? Or hay? .. really treasure proffecianl opinions. Thankx
I meant steralise the knife.
after 12 days I noticed a strange hairy brown growth in two places. I continued to next process and 2 more weeks later, still nothing. Looks like its growing a green mold on the substrate. Should I toss this kit and give up?
Yes, abort but don’t give up, try again.
Is it harmful to disturb the substrate after colonization?
Is it harmful to disturb the substrate during colonization?
My golden teachers are growing well but on some of the mushrooms there are fuzzy white-ish tips at the tops. What would cause this? Thank you!!!
They need more oxygen. Fan your fruits!!
Useful and helpful information provided.
If I got brown sludge on my mycelium in my container how do I prevent that next time. Was it cause my container was on the floor? Or was it cause the temp in my closet was to high, which I noticed afterwards.
My spores have already turned my pasteurized subtrate completely white after 5 days. Should I wait to cast for another week?
Hi there,
I have two bags of Amazonian growing. They did grow any tips and are just white.
I don’t think there was any air in my humidity tent.
I’ve picked one off and decided to start again in a decontaminated box.
Any other thoughts?
Thanks
I am seeing a creamy, milky substance at the bottom of my grow bag, after a week after inoculation. What might this be?
I am total begginer..and i still havent decide what mushroom to grow. It depens on ingrediants that i can find near me. So can you point me where, or try to give data, about substrate needed, and other requirement, so i can chose witch one i will grow
Rick, we would like to know a little more of your process as well.
Question, I’m thinking about cultivating mushrooms indoors with a kit and I live in an RV in the PNW, where it’s very wet and rainy. I recently noticed I’m starting to get carpet mushrooms and mold on the wall in that same corner. Will this affect me growing mushrooms indoors in this type of environment?
I started to inoculate my 8 oz jars with vermiculite and rice flour.i made the mix but it seems a little dry but was slightly damp.
The directions indicated that I should fill the jars within an inch of the top and sterilize the exposed glass with alcohol
And top it of with more vermiculite.
I made a mistake and topped it with perlite.
There is mycelium colonization happening. I’m new to this so does the vermiculite mix turn hard into an intact cake?
Will topping it with the perlite have an adverse effect?
Look forward to some advice/comments
Thanks
Yes the mycelium will be firm when colonized and the perlite is not going to harm the process, that top dry layer acts as a contamination barrier.
Oh the fear of being a new grower lol excellent reads, not answering any questions but I’ll say this. Sometimes you don’t choose the mushroom, it chooses you. You have to, have to, have to learn from your mistakes AND ALWAYS have a plan before acting so you can get anything exposed done as quickly and cleanly as possible. Oh yeah, they want you to try again. This field is obviously very new in all realities or to put it its a lost art.
I have been growing mushrooms in mushroom grow bags and I just shook the mycelium and it started showing signs of it wanting to turn in to the mushroom on one side but today I wasn’t thinking at cut the bag when it hadn’t fully recolonized and now I’m worried that the mushrooms won’t grow because I cut the bag can someone please help me ?
Why does everyone else say to pasteurize, not sterilize substrate?
Anybody at expert like level of growing cubeys need someone to take a look at my mycilial growth and throw me a few pointers fb name is Ethan McGee I live in alabama
I recently ordered a grow kit and also a Maui platinum spore syringe. I’ve had no issues until starting the fruiting process. It’s been 20 days now and I’ve only produced 4 mushrooms from the 6 cakes that I have inoculated. I used the shotgun method for air flow. Humidity is ranging 95% And the temperature is a steady 73 to 76ﾟ depending on the time of day. Am I just being impatient or have I made a mistake? This is all new to me but I’m very good at researching and retaining information. Also I can’t find many details on the maui platinum strand. From what I read cubes are cubes, is that true and accurate? I am eager to learn more. If you have any tips or anything that would help me please let me know.
I understand that sometimes after drying they can have a white fuzzy velvet feel and that’s ok but is it ok if it’s not white fuz but black fuz?
Hi there, I am patiently awaiting the cultivation process. I know you mentioned light conditions can affect this but it did not specify what kind of light conditions are good for the cultivation process?
Hey Ashley! We go deeper into this in our Online Cultivation Course! You can get a free sneak peek here https://fungiacademy.com/courses/sacred-mycology-course-sneak-peek/
From South Africa