Grow Log - And So It Begins!

[ben ttech]

the precise diameter of the dish their sitting on would do...

[A Bloke Down The Pub]

the precise diameter of the dish their sitting on would do...

Good point. It's 3.5" (6cm).

Here are a couple of pix with a match head included, for comparison:

[A Bloke Down The Pub]

And todays pictures:

Sorry if the pix are a bit large.... lots of detail to get in!

As you can see, the shrooms are developing apace.
All of the cakes have at least a few forming on them now, and they're all looking good.

Nothing happening in the jar I kept closed yet.... but we'll see how that one comes along over the next few days.

[A Bloke Down The Pub]

And for today:

Sorry they're not as sharp as they could be. I was a bit rushed and did them all hand-held.
I'll try and get some better ones later.

[webeblzr]

Since I have been concentrating on culitivation techs, you forget, (until seeing your thread), just how fucking fast these things grow!!
Thanks for sharing it!

[A Bloke Down The Pub]

Since I have been concentrating on culitivation techs, you forget, (until seeing your thread), just how fucking fast these things grow!!

They buggering well do, don't they?

As you can see, there are some ready for harvest already. I'll be leaving them for a day or so though, as I want to get some spore prints, and need to wait until they're fully open and producing the max amount of spores. These TEDs don't produce as many spores as some varieties, but they still make a reasonable print.
Best time to harvest for consumption is just before the veil under the cap breaks.

[A Bloke Down The Pub]

And probably the final pix before I start harvesting:

[A Bloke Down The Pub]

I'm going to be doing some spore prints so I'll need some equipment:
Alcohol (methylated spirits in this case) for sterilising.
Scalpel (or sharp knife)
Kitchen foil
Mixing bowls (to use as a cover)
Cleanish place to work.

There's no need to be utterly anal about sterility, but the cleaner you work, the less problems you'll get with contaminations.
I'm working on a glass table which I've wiped down with alcohol to sterilise it. I've also wiped down the foil and the insides of the bowls to sterilise them. It's important to let the alcohol evaporate before work starts, otherwise it will kill the spores you're collecting.

Next, cut the caps off some mushrooms as near to the top of the stem as you can.
Place them on sheets of sterilised foil cut to about double the size of the print and overlapping at both sides. We're going to be folding them in half later and sealing the edges by double-folding them.

Cover them with the sterilised bowl to keep air currents to a minimum and prevent airborne contaminations from settling (make sure the foil doesn't stick out at the edges).

For the harvest, just gently pull away the shrooms from the cake (singly or in clusters). Scrape away any remaining vermiculite from the stems, and cut just above the "stump". You can make tea from the stem butts, but dosage is difficult to calculate, and you need to filter out the vermiculite bits, so it's a lot of hassle.

Once that's done, pop them on a rack and place them somewhere warm & dry with good air circulation for a few days. I usually pop mine over a radiator, but whatever you have will do. Drying in direct sunlight is not a good idea, as strong light degrades their potency. Once they're "cracker dry", that's it!

Of course, you can consume them fresh, but I hardly ever have a trippy mood on when harvest time comes, so I usually dry everything ready for later.

I've wetted the vermiculite on the bottom of the cakes and popped them back into the fruiting chamber. They should produce a second flush of shrooms in a week or so.

[A Bloke Down The Pub]

So, after about 6-12 hours, remove the cap from the foil and you should have a good dark spore print:

Now they really need drying properly if they're going to be stored for a while... I'll do that with my next batch. I'm only going to use this batch for making up some syringes in a day or two, so they're not going to be stored long enough for it to matter.
I've got a couple of dessicant jars with silica gel which I use for the final drying of the shrooms and these are ideal for drying out spore prints, too.
I use sterilised rubber gloves for all handling of the prints.
Once your print is dried, fold it in half, double fold all the edges, label it and pop it into a baggie.
Kept cool and dry, it should remain viable for several years.

This is the first time I've done any prints for a couple of years, so this was really just a shakedown run to make sure I remembered what I was doing.

[thepureskunk]

Hey Bloke...just popping by!!

Really nice Thread and some great pics!! I still have some mushies in the freezer somewhere...been saving them till my GF is brave enough to dose for her first time!

I'm gonna have to stop being soooooo lazy and actually grow some for myself! It seems really easy!

Anyway take care bro and all the best, tps