MASS97
Active Member
First, I’d like to thank the following people for their inspiration, and advice: 
Research Kitty – https://www.rollitup.org/hallucinatory-substances/375578-lets-grow-mushrooms-beginners-gigantic.html
420God – https://www.rollitup.org/hallucinatory-substances/376106-where-pink-buffalo-roam.html
Heatless BBQ - https://www.rollitup.org/hallucinatory-substances/386647-pf-tek-shotgun-terrarium-gt.html
sonar – https://www.rollitup.org/hallucinatory-substances/393822-first-time-pf-tek-ecuador.html
If you are considering growing shrooms, these threads and their authors, were very informative and helpful as I was learning and preparing for this, I highly recomend reading all of them!!! Some are still going!!
So check them out!!kiss-ass
My methods are based upon the PF-Tek outlined here - http://www.shroomery.org/10256/PF-Tek-v2
The basic substrate recipe came from here – http://www.shroomery.org/8410/Simple-Cubensis-Growing-Technique
My spores came from here - http://www.micro-supply.com/
After reading and following these threads I decided, “This can’t be so hard.” I hope those aren’t famous last words. LOL
As it sates in the title, this is an experiment.
After reading multiple times, in multiple threads, how critical the moisture content of the PF-Tek brown rice flour cake was to the overall “health” of the cake during mycelial colonization, I wanted to look at the variables for intial moisture distribution within the standard PF-Tek brown rice flour cake. It seemed to me that the moisture content of the cake, or more accurately, HOW that moisture content was distributed, was the real limiting factor for the speed of mycelia colonization of the cake.
The basic substrate recipe for a dozen jars is:
6 cups of vermiculite
3 cups of brown rice flour
3 cups of water
From the above recipe I see two main variables that affect water distribution, the grain size of the vermiculite and the grain size of the brown rice flour.
Vermiculite is distributed in several grain sizes depending on location and availability, but typically a “coarse” grain and a “fine” grain product are available in most garden centers or hardware stores. Vermiculite is an expanded clay mineral product. The clay minerals are heated to the point of expansion in a process similar to popping popcorn. The water holding properties of vermiculite correlate to its total surface area. So by volume, the finer grain vermiculite will hold more water than its coarser grain counterpart. So, based on this fact, it seems likely that a finer grain product is better suited for our PF-Tek brown rice flour cakes. This is also stated in the original PF-Tek.
Brown Rice Flour (BRF) is the product that provides the nutrients for mycelia growth. It has been stated that if you can’t find brown rice FLOUR, then you can make your own using brown rice and a coffee grinder or blender. This inherently yields a MUCH coarser grain product. True BR FLOUR is easily wetted, it will quickly become “doughy”, were as, homemade brown rice flour still has pieces of un-ground rice in the mix. These bits of un-ground rice take some time to fully hydrate, and until they are hydrated their nutrients are unavailable for mycelia growth.
It is my hypothesis that the substitution of “homemade” BRF for store bought BRF is the main reason for the slower mycelia colonization times that many people have experienced in their threads.
Now I’m not trying to say that Homemade BRF is bad, not at all. It just has different water absorption properties than store bought BRF due to its coarseness.
In order to test for this I have prepared 12 standard PF-Tek 1/2 pint jars using the basic recipe as stated above:
The control group will follow this recipe:
6 cups of vermiculite, fine grain (1-3mm grain size approximately)
3 cups “homemade” BRF
3 cups of water
The experimental group will follow this recipe:
6 cups of vermiculite, fine grain (1-3mm grain size approximately)
1-1/2 cups “homemade” BRF
1-1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1-1/4 cups of water (the other 1-3/4 cups of water was used to cook the rice)
The jars and substrate were prepared Saturday night, 1/1/11 and inoculated with spores from micro-supply on Sunday morning, 1/2/11, after the sterilized jars had cooled.
I’m also using two strains of Psilocybe cubenis, Cambodian and Mazatapec. So my 12 jars consist of 3 control group substrates inoculated with Cambodian spores, 3 control group substrates inoculated with Mazatapec spores, 3 experimental group substrates inoculated with Cambodian spores and 3 experimental group substrates inoculated with Mazatapec spores.
I will update with pictures and descriptions every few days.
Questions, comments and discussion are open....
Research Kitty – https://www.rollitup.org/hallucinatory-substances/375578-lets-grow-mushrooms-beginners-gigantic.html
420God – https://www.rollitup.org/hallucinatory-substances/376106-where-pink-buffalo-roam.html
Heatless BBQ - https://www.rollitup.org/hallucinatory-substances/386647-pf-tek-shotgun-terrarium-gt.html
sonar – https://www.rollitup.org/hallucinatory-substances/393822-first-time-pf-tek-ecuador.html
If you are considering growing shrooms, these threads and their authors, were very informative and helpful as I was learning and preparing for this, I highly recomend reading all of them!!! Some are still going!!
So check them out!!kiss-ass
My methods are based upon the PF-Tek outlined here - http://www.shroomery.org/10256/PF-Tek-v2
The basic substrate recipe came from here – http://www.shroomery.org/8410/Simple-Cubensis-Growing-Technique
My spores came from here - http://www.micro-supply.com/
After reading and following these threads I decided, “This can’t be so hard.” I hope those aren’t famous last words. LOL
As it sates in the title, this is an experiment.
After reading multiple times, in multiple threads, how critical the moisture content of the PF-Tek brown rice flour cake was to the overall “health” of the cake during mycelial colonization, I wanted to look at the variables for intial moisture distribution within the standard PF-Tek brown rice flour cake. It seemed to me that the moisture content of the cake, or more accurately, HOW that moisture content was distributed, was the real limiting factor for the speed of mycelia colonization of the cake.
The basic substrate recipe for a dozen jars is:
6 cups of vermiculite
3 cups of brown rice flour
3 cups of water
From the above recipe I see two main variables that affect water distribution, the grain size of the vermiculite and the grain size of the brown rice flour.
Vermiculite is distributed in several grain sizes depending on location and availability, but typically a “coarse” grain and a “fine” grain product are available in most garden centers or hardware stores. Vermiculite is an expanded clay mineral product. The clay minerals are heated to the point of expansion in a process similar to popping popcorn. The water holding properties of vermiculite correlate to its total surface area. So by volume, the finer grain vermiculite will hold more water than its coarser grain counterpart. So, based on this fact, it seems likely that a finer grain product is better suited for our PF-Tek brown rice flour cakes. This is also stated in the original PF-Tek.
Brown Rice Flour (BRF) is the product that provides the nutrients for mycelia growth. It has been stated that if you can’t find brown rice FLOUR, then you can make your own using brown rice and a coffee grinder or blender. This inherently yields a MUCH coarser grain product. True BR FLOUR is easily wetted, it will quickly become “doughy”, were as, homemade brown rice flour still has pieces of un-ground rice in the mix. These bits of un-ground rice take some time to fully hydrate, and until they are hydrated their nutrients are unavailable for mycelia growth.
It is my hypothesis that the substitution of “homemade” BRF for store bought BRF is the main reason for the slower mycelia colonization times that many people have experienced in their threads.
Now I’m not trying to say that Homemade BRF is bad, not at all. It just has different water absorption properties than store bought BRF due to its coarseness.
In order to test for this I have prepared 12 standard PF-Tek 1/2 pint jars using the basic recipe as stated above:
The control group will follow this recipe:
6 cups of vermiculite, fine grain (1-3mm grain size approximately)
3 cups “homemade” BRF
3 cups of water
The experimental group will follow this recipe:
6 cups of vermiculite, fine grain (1-3mm grain size approximately)
1-1/2 cups “homemade” BRF
1-1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1-1/4 cups of water (the other 1-3/4 cups of water was used to cook the rice)
The jars and substrate were prepared Saturday night, 1/1/11 and inoculated with spores from micro-supply on Sunday morning, 1/2/11, after the sterilized jars had cooled.
I’m also using two strains of Psilocybe cubenis, Cambodian and Mazatapec. So my 12 jars consist of 3 control group substrates inoculated with Cambodian spores, 3 control group substrates inoculated with Mazatapec spores, 3 experimental group substrates inoculated with Cambodian spores and 3 experimental group substrates inoculated with Mazatapec spores.
I will update with pictures and descriptions every few days.
Questions, comments and discussion are open....
