| The Growing Cycle |
| This section is relatively short considering its topic. That is because when you get to this point you are only needed to make sure the fungus has the right conditions to thrive. Once you place a fully colonized rice cake in the terrarium it just needs several things to grow mushrooms. It needs high humidity, temperatures below 85 degrees F. and a little light. Once the mycelium network has gained access to enough nutrients the cake can initiate mushrooms if conditions are right. The initiation of mushrooms requires some light and temperatures in the mid to upper 70's F. The mushrooms can grow at higher temperatures, and in fact grow faster at higher temperatures. But the fact remains that the temperature range is fairly narrow to start new mushrooms. Normally, it takes about a week for pin heads to form if the rice cake was removed from the culture jar as soon as it was 100% colonized. It can happen after just a couple days if the mycelium network is well established, or it can take several weeks if things aren't just perfect for the cake. If you keep the terrarium's temperature in the mid to upper 70's F. you will be constantly initiating new mushrooms (pin heads) while providing a good environment for the growing mushrooms to mature. This is the simplest way to grow if you can arrange for this to be the case. Adaptation-16 If you deviate outside of this temperature range, you will still get a few mushrooms, but the fungus will initiate new pin heads only occasionally. You will spend a lot of time waiting for a mushroom to form. The rice cakes need a small amount of light to initiate pin heads. Mushrooms are not plants and do not need light to grow. However, P. cubensis is a phototropic mushroom. This means it needs light to trigger a hormonal response in order to form mushrooms. If you can see the rice cakes, there is enough light for this to happen. Many mycologists believe the reason light is important in the growing cycle is because it provides a reliable clue to the mycelium that it has reached the boundary of the substrate in which it is growing. In nature, P. cubensis often lives in a pile of cow manure. Once it has grown through the entire substrate and reaches the edge, light hits it and provides the mycelium with the information that if it forms a mushroom there, it can release spores into the air for distribution. It is not productive to form a mushroom inside the substrate because the spores can not be distributed in that case. Any normal spectrum of light that you have available will work. Sun light, fluorescent or incandescent are all fine and will work. A few minutes of light a day is sufficient but an hour or two will guarantee that pin heads form if everything else (temperature, humidity, the mycelium network is well established, etc.) is right. Be careful not to heat your terrarium too much if you use artificial light near the terrarium. The rice cakes will have a very bright white appearance when they are first placed in the terrarium. Soon, they will be coated with a thin layer of fluffy mycelium. If the cakes refuse to fruit but continue to form more and more fluffy mycelium this is an indication that the humidity is too high and needs to be adjusted downward. For people using a humidifier in their terrarium setup, this is the single biggest cause of failure assuming they get the rice cakes colonized successfully. When pin heads form, they will look like a short section of a common pin. Hence, the name. The end of these pin heads will soon grow dark brown. This is the cap beginning to form. When the rice cakes are fresh, the small mushrooms will start adding bulk rather than grow longer. They will form balls the size of a marble. Then, they will start to thin out and grow long, adding bulk the whole time If the mushrooms have mycelium growing on the caps, it is an indication that your humidity is too low in the terrarium. In this case, you have just enough humidity to allow the cakes to fruit, but you are right on the edge of failure. You should avoid the temptation to grow the mushrooms as large as possible. Significantly more psilocybin is produced during the early periods of growth. By letting the mushroom grow too large you are simply consuming nutrients and moisture from the rice cake for no purpose. Also, the mushrooms taste increasingly bad as they get larger. Lastly, the mycelium network in the cake can only provide so much in the way of nutrients and water to maturing mushrooms. If you let the mushrooms grow too big, they will hurt the development of other mushrooms on the cake. The mushrooms should be picked just as the veil underneath the cap is starting to tear away from the stalk. On the average, you should expect to get between 4 and 6 average size mushrooms per 1/2 pint cake. On the average you should expect each cake to produce 1 mushroom a week but this number can vary in either direction greatly. As the cakes get older, they will produce less and less and it will be more difficult for the mushrooms to grow. Adaptation-17 This is a result of the moisture in the cake being consumed by the earlier mushrooms. You will eventually see mushrooms form and start to grow but never bulk up during the initial phase of development. These mushrooms will seldom get big enough to develop caps. You can harvest these mushrooms but it is an indication that the rice cake is about exhausted. |
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