Another Day, Another Setup...

My Golden Teacher setup did not go exactly as planned. A few things went wrong: I did not use enough spore solution in the original culture, I did not wait long enough for the mycelium to spread, and, most importantly, I did not keep it at the correct temperature.

This doesn't mean the Golden Teacher experiment is a total failure, it just means that is has stalled for now. There is a chance I can bring it back to life. I placed it over a forced-air vent so it can get warm air on a regular basis, and I insulated it with a fleece blanket. It has some surface mycelium  coming up in one corner of the box. It's squishy and white, like a marshmallow.

Golden Teachers

There is also some fluffy white stuff coming up fairly evenly in the rest of the soil, which I am hoping is productive mush and not mold. It's too early to tell right now.

Since this experiment has been proceeding extremely slowly, I ordered a new type of growing kit and some new spores. The spores are the same species, and the variety is called John Allan.

The setup is quite a bit different. It's a mishmash of plastic buckets and aquarium tubing along with the organic stuff, and it look like this when I unpacked it.

Mycodome kit

Yes. Confusing. However, the first steps are pretty much the same as the Golden Teacher steps, so I inoculated the jar of grain and placed it in the white bucket, which was placed into the blue bucket, which has some water and an immersion heater in the bottom. This should keep it at an even temperature. To aid this, I placed it on top of a folded yoga mat and wrapped the whole thing in a fleece blanket to minimize temperature fluctuations.

John Allan spores incubating

The rectangular white device in the upper right corner of the photo is a temperature/humidity monitor. The monitor normally sits on my computer table so I can keep an eye on it and make sure it stays at ~80°F. The temperature may need to be raised in the future.

Fruiting process?

There are some signs that the fruiting process is still in the works. Fluffy white bits of mycelium are poking out of the soil. We'll see how this goes.

Fruiting process 1

I started the fruiting process a couple of days ago, on December 1, 2013. The straw casing was damp, warmish, and heavy with mycelium.

I mixed the bag of soil with the smaller bag of fruit fly casings, added one liter of water, and then microwaved the resulting mud for ~15 minutes until it was hot and sterile.

When it cooled to room temperature (after much mixing with a fork and gloved hands), I spread it over the top of the straw and then twisted the bag closed. When white, fluffy mycelium start to appear on top of the soil, then it will be time to expose the box to light and finish the fruiting process.

(Pics to come.)

Casing after 6 days

The straw is still damp and showing a few fluffy bits on the surface. Not much change. I will place a heating pad under the box and check again in a few more days.

Casing after 4 days

Mycelium is already beginning to show on top of the straw casing. I will check again in two days and then mix or proceed to the next step.

Casing the mushrooms

The mushrooms have been in the rye for 33 days now...much longer than anticipated. I'm starting out on the second phase now, ready or not.

The second phase is sterilizing the straw (casing) and introducing the developed mycelium to it. This involves boiling the straw in a large pot and then letting it cool down to room temperature while minimizing contact to outside contaminants.

Sterilized straw, cooling.

Then the mycelium needs to be broken up with a sterile knife. It's pretty much solid white stuff halfway down by now.

Next, mix the straw with the mycelium culture in a large plastic bag and pat it into the "mushbox", which is basically a cardboard box with a plastic dome which fits inside. Wait 5-10 days before the fruiting period...we shall see.

Mycelium mixed with sterile straw, 02NOV2013

Mycelium, 11 days

This shows the mycelium progress in the rye eleven days after inoculation. The white stuff is the fungus colony. In a few days I should be able to transfer it into its "fruiting" environment, which consists of sterilized straw, casing soil, and casing starter.