It is essential to mist and aerate on a regular daily basis. You do NOT want water pooling on your surface. 01:09. A good sized pressure cooker between 7 to 10 litres is recommended for average use. Products on this page ship from within the USA and can only be delivered to the USA. By working within a unique economic niche provided by the state-supported recycling industry, and by drawing on support from sympathetic residents and . This method has worked much better for me. Once you get your pinset, try not to mist directly on the pins. Place the foil with the cake gently in the SGFC, sitting on the perlite layer. After mixing, check your substrate depth. A 10cc multi spore syringe of P. cubensis. Note that the above materials list and the following instructions do not include the bulk substrate fruiting stageweve covered that already in a separate article. Link to Uncle Ben's Tek part 2 Uncle Ben's Tek Shopping List: Part 2 Take a shower and really scrub your hands, arms, and under your nails. Remove your chip clip, and youre ready to go! Psylocybe Fanaticus, shortened to PF, was the business name of Robert Billy McPhersonaka Professor Fanaticuswho pioneered a method of mushroom cultivation called the PF Tek. Mycelium colonizes faster with steady temperatures. A syringe of liquid spore solution. Window light and ambient room light is ok too. Cut a diagonal 1 slice off a top corner of the bag. The SGFC will suit smaller grows but in time as you increase the size of your grows you will find you need larger and more efficient fruiting chambers. Colonization time depends on what strain youre growing, but expect it to take a little longer than with PF Tek because of the cooler incubation conditions. An insulated cooler-style bucket might work better, but this is really fine. Using a heater to maintain temperatures can increase colonization speed. Yes, like the juice pouch, you simply stab your heated needle into the center of the bag (after sterilizing the bag and needle of course) and inject your 0.5-0.75cc spore solution. Lets start with making a Still Air Box (SAB). Uncle Bens isnt even cheaper on a per-gram-of-mushroom basis, because the equipment for PF Tek is re-usable and brown rice is very cheap in bulkplus theres all that plastic waste at the end. So, you want to grow magic mushrooms. Part 1: Understanding how mushrooms and mycelium grow (Very important, do not skip! This is NOT an advanced Tek, and if you ever want to get into other parts of mycology (sterilization, cloning, agar, liquid culture, isolation, better yields) you will need to learn other Teks. #6 Virgenu 12 Jars Mushroom Growing Kit. Read this Tek on surface conditions, for the love of god. In my link above, you can see my first pins coming out of the surface. Now, you need the colonization to happen. Give them some light. Some of the best beginner mushroom strains include: A Strain Alcabenzi Amazon Argentina Allen Strain B+ Strain Ban Hua Thanon Bix Mex Blue Meanies Burma Ban Nathon When you can see mycelium at the bottom of the jar, wait a week to ensure full colonization. Yield varies greatly, with some growers reporting huge harvests and others getting nothing at all. Add the boiling water, stirring with a knife, to the bucket. Youll hydrate your substrate, then make sure its at field capacity, where it is barely holding water, but is still hydrated. You cant really overdo the sterility here. I find that knockoff brand bags, like Aldi or Safeway, have less water and therefore have better results. Colonization Of Substrate & Introducing Monotub Fruiting Conditions. Put bags away and keep warm Place bags on a shelf in a damp warm location away from contamination sources like the bathroom or kitchen. Heres an example of a corner that was cut too much, you should break up the mycelium chunk and shake vigorously to redistribute your mycelium. I find that my bags fully colonize in 1-2 weeks, but sometimes faster. The tek is straightforwardyou inoculate satchels of pre-cooked rice (conveniently pre-sterilized) using a spore syringe. For each jar, screw on the lid and cover with a piece of foil. These processes increase physicochemical ac- The food which get digested in proper time cessibility of micronutrients and decrease the without disturbing the balance of Dhatus and . Place the cakes/bulk substrates into the fruiting chamber only when they are fully colonizedwhen the substrate is all covered with mycelium and the mycelium starts becoming thicker. For more information, please see our Once dry, store in a self-seal bag (or twoone inside the other) with a satchel or two of desiccant and store in an airtight glass jar or plastic container in a cool dark place. Using a torch lighter or (gas stove) heat the needle of the syringe til it is red-hot. Let the Lysol settle. Ill break this write-up into 4 main posts. Just leave them to colonize like they did in the rice bags. MIX THAT SHIT UP. The real reason to use Uncle Bens Tek is to find out whether you like growing mushrooms before you invest in bulk supplies. Break up the rice through the bag (trust me, I learned the hard way! Its not the end of the world if it is, though. The 70% is perfect. Place the jars in your pre-prepared SAB and mist with 70 percent alcohol. Inject 0.75cc of solution into the bag, after sterilizing needle. The Uncle Bens Tek[i] is not a technique belonging to Uncle Ben (Now known as Bens Original). Bucket to pasteurize/hydrate your substrate. To do the uncle ben tek proper one must open the bag from the corner and either inject spores or mycelium into the rice and close up the bag with micropore tape. You will need at least a 4-quart (1 gallon) plastic tub. Heres our full guide on how to dry mushrooms. If you have to use two pieces of micropore tape, tape it vertically to try to only use one piece. A great trick to reach near-perfect "field capacity" is: for every 1g of dry/compressed coco coir, add 5.1g of boiling water and mix extremely well, then let sit. Youll break up your cakes from your Uncle Bens bags into the tub, add your field capacity substrate, mix thoroughly, then move onto the conditions. I recommend IKEA Samla 1 gallon tubs, or something similar, because they have clear plastic lids. They usually colonize in 11 to 20 days, and you'll typically see actual mushrooms within a month or two. A Still Air Box is a small space that can be kept sterile with no air flow. By using a hole punch to add your air holes, you open even less of the bag up to contam chances. I don't even lift the lid to exchange airflow. Thanks to u/question_tek420*.*. Once it recovers, it will explode in growth and will likely 100% colonize within days. Table 1: Overview of different growing conditions for various mushroom species [2] You can either use the shotgun fruiting chamber, or create something more sophisticatedwhich includes adding fans, timers, and humidifiers. Mushroom Substrate Colonization Requirements. This is the tek we decided to teach in our course on how to grow mushrooms as we find its the easiest for first timers. Spiderman Tek aka Uncle Bens Tek (which we chose to teach in our course): Glass Wide Mouth jars with metal lids for PF Tek, Glass Mason jars or recycled glass jars for bulk grows, Pressure Cooker, or large cooking pot with lid. Now, its just a waiting game. Keep an eye out for contamination. Manufacturers have profited from our laziness (especially here in North America) by creating instant foods that come pre-prepared and ready to go. You will be able to tell its partially colonized because of the viewing window on the bottom, or by feel. Note on pressure cookers: There is a huge range of pressure cookers available from homewares stores or catering suppliers. This is an easy, beginner-friendly Tek, that you can learn the basics of mycology and growing your own mushrooms with. Start To Finish UNCLE BENS TEK | Everything We Found Out from Inoculation To Harvest! This is the number one time in which its helpful to have support from live mycologists or mushroom experts. We want to be as sterile as possible, but we dont need to worry about sterilizing the inside of our bags because they are already sterile inside (the beauty of Uncle Bens Tek). As the mycelium runs out of nutrients, it becomes weaker and more prone to contaminants. 8) Add your casing layer. Side and bottom pins arent the end of the world. The idea behind the Spiderman Tek first surfaced on the Shroomery and Mycotopia around 2005. Alcohol/Isopropyl alcohol/methylated spirits (we like 70% like this one), Water Spray Bottle for 70% alcohol/methylated spirits, Still Air Box (SAB) & Shotgun Fruiting Container (SGFC), **Note a SAB is optional and there are also many kinds of fruiting chambers, but we choose to teach SGFC in this guide**, Drill and a 4-12 mm step Drill Bit or Soldering Iron, Heating mat for reptile closure / Horticulture. [ii] SettledNomad (2021). Mushroom growing forums serve as great incubators for developing new ideas. They need to be cracker dry, meaning they snap easily. Put on your cleanest clothes, and wear a hat or a hairnet. Heres an example of some good-looking bags. Then, theyre placed on foil to separate them from Perlite, a waterlogged high-surface-area material that allows for high humidity and evaporation, and given immediate FAE (Fresh Air Exchange). You dont want flavors, you just want the pure Uncle Bens brown rice. of course. The rice company hydrates and cooks the rice, sterilizing it in the process, and then seals it in sterile pouchesall you need to do is inoculate the bags. You need to give them some time to start eating their food. Once your bag is 20-30% colonized, you should break up the mycelium chunk and shake vigorously to redistribute your mycelium. Once again, we will not be using this method for Uncle Bens spawn grains (though you can experiment with it!). Theres a common phrase that a cube is a cube. If its contamd, throw that shit out and sanitize everything again. This is rice that someone cooked completely and could put on a plate with some vegetables and protein and serve to a person. You want 2-4 deep, depending on tub height. Innoculation (uncle ben's tek) S tep one of this process is simply the injection of microscopic mushroom spores into grains of microwavable rice such as Uncle Bens. The substrate is sterilized in wide-mouthed canning jars by steam sterilization, tyndallization, or pressure cooking, with a layer of dry vermiculite as a filter to keep out competing bacteria and fungus. Need Access to Shrooms? 10 bags of Uncle Bens Brown Rice or knockoff brands (Safeway knockoffs kick ass) per syringe. This one is a compromise between price and quality. SGFCs form the basis of a more advanced Tek, the Monotub, where the mycelium is grown on grains, and the whole tub becomes the fruiting environment. The Spiderman Tek, originally known as the Uncle Bens Tek is a quick, cheap, and low tek way to grow magic mushrooms. To be clear, whether you choose the PF Tek or Uncle Bens Tek will affect the first stage of the process: inoculation. About time to break and shake the PF, 13 days after injecting, but still several days away for the other two. You can also dry out your bags with extra heat, especially if you have massive gas exchange micropore holes. The tek can be applied to any brand of plastic satchel pre-cooked rice, and potentially any combination of rice and other grain satchels, this is the most popular brand/ kind, though, among growers.