XPost: alt.drugs.psychedelics, alt.drugs.mushrooms   
   From: marx2k.remmy.spc@gmail.com   
      
   On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 01:42:38 -0700, Musky Lure wrote:   
      
   > Pasteurize (170-180F for an hour is sufficient) and drain (in a large   
   > wire basket until dripping stops) your straw and immediately transfer it   
   > into plastic trash bags perforated with a few hundred pencil holes.   
   [...]   
   > Full colonization can be expected in 1-3 weeks.  Any taking longer than   
   > 3 weeks probably have occult contaminants.   
      
   Have you tried this method using grow-log bags? I mean, this is the same   
   technique but using trash bags instead of grow log bags.  The advantage I   
   think that grow log bags would have is that you get more surface area for   
   the amount of weight of your material whereas with the trash bags you get   
   a lot of surface area but you also have a lot more in the center.  Now a   
   good deal for this might be to colonize in the trash bags, fruit, then   
   since what you're left with is a pretty big f*ckin' cake-ball, carve off   
   the outside layer, maybe roll in a tub of casing material and place into a   
   new trash bag for a new flush?  Just a thought...   
      
   > Casing is another story.  50:50 vermiculite to clean potting soil, 2-3"   
   > deep and kept evenly moist at all times via daily misting, is a fine   
   > casing substrate.   
      
   I have never used potting soil, personally.  I've thought about it but   
   never hard enough to where I tried using it.  Isn't the point of a good   
   casing to be non-nutritive? Isn't potting soil nutritive?   
      
   > Keep the cultures in tubs with the casing applied   
   > on top with plenty of room around the uncased sides of the cakes for   
   > mushrooms to develop there, too.  Keep the cakes on top of an   
   > inch-or-two layer of pea gravel or lava rock to allow for good drainage.   
   > Mist as needed; don't overdo it.  Let CO2 accumulate as the casing   
   > permeates.   
      
   I thought you want to do your best to rid the CO2 from the equation since   
   the fruit breathes oxygen, expels CO2?   
      
   > Cool the cultures down when the casing is nearly grown   
   > through, give them several hours of horticultural artificial light or   
   > indirect sunlight each day, and allow for more air circulation as the   
   > mushrooms grow.  Try to resist rescuing contaminated cultures.  It's   
   > always worth it to get clean and start all over, methodically.   
      
   I have had stellar results with 15 minutes of direct fluorescent light in   
   6 hour intervals.  They don't need much light, it just tells them which   
   direction to grow into.  They are not photosynthetic, after all.   
   Abundance of light may promote other growth you DON'T want.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)