Aight before I begin, I will apologize for the picture formating I do here lol. Im not too savvy on this shit. Anyway. moving on.
I bought some kings last year from the grocery store and enjoyed it so much I wanted to grow my own. Why not?!
So I was left with this
https://i.imgur.com/ClZUZtV.jpg Big ole chonk of a king. Very delicious too btw.
The first course of action was to clone this chonky fella and get his mycelium growing. I decided to use cardboard for this process since they are wood lovers and cardboard comes from wood.
I prepared this by sanitizing my containers and tools. I cut up pieces of cardboard into like 1inch x 1inch squares and dropped them into boiling water to hydrate them quickly. Once done , I dropped them into the growing container. Just a little 8oz food storage container. Anything works really. As long as its clean when you do it.
I put everything into my still air box, and took a piece of inner stipe tissue from a sample of the mushroom near the bottom of the stipe. USing a scalpel by the way. #11 blades on a #3 handle. Works very well for this. Anyway, jus set that piece ontop of the cardboard and let it ride until its fully colonized. Heres a pic of it begining to grow.
https://i.imgur.com/goVn8CW.jpg ,
https://i.imgur.com/8BnMwDV.jpg ,
https://i.imgur.com/8HuMrSy.jpg,
https://i.imgur.com/f9egj16.jpgSo once your ready for the next step, prepare some agar plates. The cardboard is likely not clean, even tho it may be fully colonized with oyster mycelium, it really need be clean up on agar before going to grains first. Just drop a single square onto each plate! Very easy to do. Make sure everything is sanitized and/or sterile! and some pics.
https://i.imgur.com/w3eta3s.jpg Transfer if you have to until its clean! Youll know is good because when is ready to be transfered out you can smell it, and it should smell like sweet almond extract. It smells soooo delicious. One of my favorite smells in the world.
When you have some clean plates, prepare some grain jars! I used wild bird seed for this. Just do a light simmer to hydrate the grains, load the jars up with flipped lids, and sterilize in the pressure cooker for 90min or so. A litle longer wont hurt.
When ready, just load everything into the still air box, and begin transferring wedges over to the jars. You dont need much, but more doesnt hurt. As long as its clean! Pic:
https://i.imgur.com/0lECwbF.jpgÂhttps://i.imgur.com/CktxncI.jpg . Nicely colonized jar of mycelium on grains. Ready to begin spawning the bad bois!!
I like to take my cakes and empty them into a mixing bowl to be broken apart. Before you do this, prepare some coco coir. Just drop in what you need into some simmering water and let it cool to room temp before using.
This tek was done using a 6quart tote container. Can be found at walmart or dollar stores or depot and lowes, anywhere really. Walmart had them for 1$ a piece. A little flimsy, but you dont need anything fancy. For one tote container I do 1 quart of colonized grain with 1 quart of coco coir. So a 1:1 ratio spawn:coir. Mix thoroughly together, and toss it into the container. Pack it down pretty good, not super tight or anything but dont leave any air pockets either. Flatten it evenly and pack the sides good. Toss a very thin layer of pseudo casing coir on top if you want. It wont hurt. You dont have to, but it doesnt matter, anyway. Also make sure you squeeze the coir a little before mixing. Get it to field capacity.
You can colonize them pretty much at room temp, but when you goto fruitt them youll need temps below 70F. 50s-60s seems to be a good range for them to fruit in. Just make sure you keep the conditions on point. Mist if the surface is dry, and open the lid if its too moist. Hopefully yall have done a little bit of growing to know his part lol. Heres a pic when the pins are forming
https://i.imgur.com/MfEImwp.jpgHere are the fruits forming nicely:
https://i.imgur.com/TZlkltg.jpgGetting bigger!:https://i.imgur.com/JFz2nne.jpg (notice the moisture and dark spots on the caps? I needed to add more FAE(fresh air exchange) and I did so accordingly while misting if the top dried out at all.)
Even bigger!:
https://i.imgur.com/Wmrx0Wl.jpg (can see the moisture damage on the caps there. Its not a problem at all!)
https://i.imgur.com/4FZgRaY.jpgReally filling out now:
https://i.imgur.com/JQQElJc.jpgEventually after a few days, they are ready to harvest. I let a couple of my tubs go a bit too long because Im so busy right now, but the fruits are still good!:
https://i.imgur.com/tEaYioA.jpg ,
https://i.imgur.com/TfJjSOI.jpg ,
https://i.imgur.com/uGRzCqM.jpg (this one was a smaller tub, still works though)
Ready to be diced up and eaten!
https://i.imgur.com/iluHcwE.jpgThis was only the first flush, and Ive been tracking this grow for a couple months now. I rehydrated after I harvested those, and put them back into fruiting. I should still get some more fruits from this!
-- The goal here was to fruitt a wood lover in coir in a tote container. Its very cheap, easy to prepare, and simple for anyone that doesnt want to or cant do bags grown in tents with humidifiers etc.. Anyone can do it !
I may have lef something out, so just ask me and I will reply asap. much love <3 D.P.
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Topic: Growing King oysters in totes (Read 9132 times)