| Bulk Substrate Growing |
| Step 3 Loosen the lid and place the jars in a warm, dark location. In 3 or 4 days you should see isolated spots with white mycelium growing. Check the spawn jars periodically. When you see large areas of aggressive growth, tumble the Rye to mix things up. Rotate the jar enough to thoroughly mix the kernels. The idea of mixing the Rye is to get kernels with mycelium growing on them scattered throughout the jar. Ideally, no kernel should be too far from a kernel with mycelium growing on it. Repeat this process every 3 or 4 days when the mycelium growth has been aggressive for a while. Once there is mycelium growing within 1/2 inch of every other location no further mixing is needed. At this point just let the mycelium expand outwards until it is every where. Step 4 Once every kernel has mycelium growing on it, leave the jar sit undisturbed for a week. The idea is to let the mycelium grow as fast as possible. Step 5 Sterilize more jars filled with rye and water. Let the jars cool. Step 6 Most food processors have a plastic blade that comes with them for the purpose of mixing things instead of cutting things. Use this if possible. Make sure your food processor and blade are clean. Empty the contents of a colonized spawn jar into the food processor. Turn it on until the Rye kernels are all broken apart. Add some of the freshly cooked Rye to the food processor. Depending upon your confidence and the sterility of your environment you can add anywhere from 4 to 20 times the amount of grain in your spawn jar. The less you add, the less likely you will have problems with contamination. The more you add, the faster you can create substrate. Initially, you should stay on the low side. Turn on the food processor and mix the freshly cooked Rye with the colonized Rye from the spawn jar. Place this material in a container that can be loosely covered. This material should be treated exactly as the earlier spawn jars were treated except you should see quicker growth of the mycelium patches. The amount of spawn you have can be compounded again and again until you have enough to inoculate massive substrates. Step 7 Once you have sufficient spawn colonized and available for your substrate, lay it out in a deep cake pan to a depth of 1.5 inches. Attempt to keep the surface even. If you have a very clean environment, you can perform a mass expansion and lay out the uncolonized grain instead of waiting for it to colonize in the jar. This will save several days and a little effort, but in general it is not worth the risk. Cover the pan with a sheet of plastic wrap. Do not seal it absolutely tight, but make sure that very little air is exchanged. Note that some air does need to be exchanged to keep the CO2 level from getting too high. But air exchange increases the likelihood of contamination. Keep it to a minimum. This is one of the big benefits to bulk substrate growing. Whatever grain is not used to prepare a substrate can be used as spawn for new jars. When you get to this point in the process, you can easily be preparing a new bulk substrate every couple of days. You just make sure you never use all of the colonized grain as substrate. You hold back some to use as spawn for the next set of jars. Step 8 Wait a few days until the freshly laid out substrate is showing aggressive growth. Laying out the grain breaks up the mycelium networks, and it takes several days for the mycelium to recover. Step 9 Casing the substrate is the next step. Various recipes are available but the simplest one consists of course ground vermiculite and water. Course ground vermiculite is a requirement because the fine ground vermiculite packs too tightly and seals the substrate. Soak the vermiculite in water. Wring it out, but leave it fairly damp. Later versions of this guide will have exact measurements but for the moment, you will need to adapt. If any of you think you have an optimum mixture, please post it in the alt.drugs.psychedlics and rec.drugs.psychedlic newsgroups. Lay out the casing material to a depth of 3/4 of an inch. Try to keep it smooth because this will result in the mycelium poking through everywhere at the same time. Cover with plastic wrap and wait. Typically, it will be about a week for the mycelium to break through the surface of the casing. Step 10 Initiate fruiting. Take the plastic off of the pan and place it in your terrarium. Make sure you have the temperature at about 75 F. Have some indirect light available. As pins start to develop, use a hand sprayer to mist the casing and keep it moist. But be careful. Do not saturate it to the point of being wet and having water drops that will not soak into the vermiculite. Step 11 After the first flush, you can get a smaller second and third flush if you let the substrate rest for a while. There are a lot of factors affecting this. One particularly important factor is home much of the first flush's moisture came from the substrate and how much came from the casing. If you can mist your casing several times a day, that will help the longevity of your substrate. |
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