I'm looking to get a shroom grow box soon, and while I have one place to order from I'm looking for others. I know you're not allowed to post them, so if you could, please send them to me in a PM or email. It would be much appreciated. Thanks
Alright, everything you need to grow mushrooms can be acquired through Wal Mart/Home Depot. I'm going to assume that money is kind of tight, since it usually seems to be. So the first step's going to be acquiring a pressure canner so you can sterilize your growing medium, and buying a box of pint Mason jars, or canning jars. You've got a couple of choices for substrate to innoculate, and they're essentially grain or PF tek, which is brown rice flour and vermiculite. I've always had great success with grain, but some people swear by PF. Do your homework, see what's going to work for you. So you've got grain, a pressure cooker, and some spore syringes, which are easy to find on the Internet unless you live in GA or CA. Fill your jars with your substrate and follow the instructions on the pressure canner to sterilize your jars for 1.5 hrs at 15 psi. This will insure that nothing will be competing with your mycelium for food. Next thing you need to do is go to Big Lots, (or Wal Mart if you don't have a Big Lots) and get 1-3 18 gallon Sterilite containers, which you don't want to be able to see through, and one container that you can see through, as in clear plastic. The reason it's 1 to 3 is you'll only need 1 if you can keep your ambient temperature in the low 80s, otherwise, you have to buy 2 more to make an incubation chamber using a fully submersible aquarium heater with water in the bottom container, then you slide the top container full of innoculated jars into the bottom container, let the water rise up since you've got the tub weighted down. After you PC your jars, you have to make a glovebox for sterile transfers. This is accomplished with a small amount of engineering using your clear plastic container. Get 2 PVC fittings, 2" diameter will work well, and a pair of the green chemical gloves. the PVC fittings should be easy for you to slide your arms through, and will be attached to the box with epoxy. You cut the holes in the plastic with a wire coat hanger that's been heated on the stove for a while. You'll have to heat it a few times to melt the plastic. Fit the PVC fittings in the holes, and put the gloves on the inside, gluing or taping them into place. Epoxy where the PVC meets the glovebox so you get an air seal. Now, with a small enough spray bottle to easily maneuver in the glove box, spray down the glove box after you have your syringe and ready-to-innoculate jars inside. This will sink any free-floating particles, which are bad. After your jars are innoculated, put them in a dark place (like the incubator) and chill out for about 5 days to a week. Let them grow out without looking at them. On the 5th day you should see white linear growth on the grains. Distribute this evenly. When all of the jars are completely white, you use your 1 remaining Sterilite, your aquarium heater, some chicken wire and a half gallon mason jar. Insert the chicken wire into the bottom of the Sterilite, slightly elevated so the jars don't get water-logged. Insert the aquarium heater into the half gallon mason jar full of distilled water. Take the mycelial masses out of the jars, expose to 6/6/6/6 light schedule, and you'll see fruit in a few days from that point.
While I highly appreciate taking the time to type all of that out, I'm actually not tight on money so I was planning on just ordering one of those kits with everything included, so I don't have to go through all that trouble. Unless you think that the method you posted would be a much better choice?
It probably would if you live in America, since most of the grow boxes come from the Netherlands and the UK, which means there's a good chance of customs siezing them. While spores are legal, I don't think mycelium is (small amounts of psilocybe). Even if it is, customs can just be assholes and confiscate it. Growing it from spores isn't exactly rocket science man, just go for it.
Well, I'm going to buy them from another members website and he's said that he ships them discreetly and he's only had one box ever be seized by customs, so I don't think that will be too much of a problem, hopefuly.
kits are a waste of money man. Everything you need to grow besides spores can be had from Wal-mart and Home Depot. You can set up your own grow for around $20. More if you are trying to go outside the limits of PF tek. I suggest you visit - http://www.shroomery.org Everything you ever need to know about growing shrooms can be found there If you want some help.. feel free to PM me and hi there Alounacara
Well the way that I figure it is that the spores cost $20 and the other materials cost around $20, and that's roughly the same price as a grow box, but the grow box saves me all of the trouble. My only concern would be which produces more shrooms for the same amount of money?
Well man, that depends what comes in the kit. And spores come with the kit? personally I get much more satisfaction out of doing everything myself, from scratch. You learn more that way. I never bought a kit and I've been growing for 6 years. Tell me what comes with the kit? 90% of kits are complete wastes of ripoffs. If you want easy and maintenence free, get a couple mycobags (from mycosupply.com) and a syringe or two, it's basically foolproof for a beginner, and you get to experience the wonders of grain. I did PF tek once, then switched to grain, and never went back. Invest in a pressure cooker.
Yeah Shroomism knows his shit for shure...we have been online friends for over 3 yrs Hey Shroomism thanks for the link here....*raises beer bottle **whacks head
Kits aren't always a waste of money(when time is money and the kit actually contains useful components and works), but if you're in US it might be a waste of time, and possibly bring harrassed by law enforcement, postal inspectors and/or customs. If it's traveling intercontinentally. You can do the pf tek with spore syringes and utilize tupperware containers, first disinfected with 10% Cl(bleach) and then wiped out with alcohol(not beer). Then fill with the mixed brown rice flour, vermic, and water media(don't forget top layer of v). Microwave it for 6-8 mintues, cooking it but not burning it, and then let it cool. Repeat this step again and then let it cool to room temp in clean room. Inoculate with spore suspension. This works quite well and is easy. Cheap too. Good luck.
Ok, the grow box just got here today. It got through customs from the UK to California without a problem. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I didn't actually inoculate it myself, the spores were already injected. And not only that, but most of the substrate has already been colonized by the mycelia. Basically, I haven't had to do a single thing.