hi everyone! i bought a mushroom grow kit in amsterdam 2 weeks ago. the instructions were a bit vague. is there anything in particular you guys think i should know? i really dont want to fuck up as they cost me quite a bit. they said something about making sure not to contaminate them, but they dont say how? any ideas? thanks guys i would really appreciate any advice! Jenn
Hi Jenn, I'm assuming your kit will consist of some sort of block of colonised grain, underneath a casing layer of vermiculite, all contained within some sort of tinfoil or plastic container. if this is so then you will have to put this kit into suitable conditions (temp 21 - 25 degrees C, High humidity = 85%+ Relative Humidity, suitable air exchange = fresh air wafted over kit 2 or 3 times a day, and some daylight) "contamination" can occur when any microorganism (from the air or your skin / breath) lands on the kit and out-competes the fungus. Essentially the kit is made in part of what could be termed "food", and if it is not kept fairly clean, it can go mouldy. Wash your hands before handling the kit, do not breathe on the kit, and keep it in a fairly clean place. why don't you come over to the http://www.magicmushroomforum.co.uk where we specialise in growing mushrooms from kits and from scratch. there are other U.S. sites that will give you good info, but the MMF is mostly people from the UK and we are allways glad to help a beginner
when doing much of anything involving the mycelium, do it in a clean environment. i'd suggest a closet or small washroom or something, and spray the hell out of the place with lysol, wait a few minutes for all the lysol in the air to settle down mostly, and then go in and work with it. use clean, dry hands, preferably with disposable rubber gloves (new pair each time). this should help prevent almost all bacteria or fungal contamination. next time i suggest heading over to the www.shroomery.org and learning about how to grow mushrooms yourself from scratch, such as by means of the PF Tek. it will be infinitely cheaper. the kits you guys can buy are far better and more convenient than the ones we can get in the US, but if you learn to do it without the kit you'll be doing everything for next to FREE.....
and be CAREFUL with that lysol. its a highly effective fungicide and can very easily destroy the mycelium. you need to wait for a while before opening the fungus up to an environment that's recently been treated with lysol. you want to kill the competition, not the harvest.
