Did either of you know that in cool tropical climates that the mushroom in question does not even grow? Thats right, in places like Hawaii panaleous species grows but psilocybe cubensis does not grow in the wild. Yes there is a strain of cubies called "Hawaiians" that was introduced into the market by Pacific exotic spore company but there are no wild cubies in Hawaii unless during the summer there is an extended heatwave.
This is because cubensis mycelium grows best when "soil" temps are at a study 86F. If the soil is cooler, micro-organisms whose ideal temps are within that cool range choke out any chance for a cubensis to grow, however when a heatwave hits and temps are closer to 86F in the soil then cubies have a chance and in some rare cases a cubie can be found growing with panaleous in a Hawaiian cow pasture. In South America, Aisia, and the American south west where the summers are hot and soil temps are around 86F for extended periods of time, cubensis thrive.
What you guys are not comprehending is that with pf/brf cakes you are introducing clean spores into a previouslly STERILIZED medium that is in a sealed sterile container. You use a syringe to inject the spores so that you might not introduce any competitor organisms and you do so under sterile conditions. You have to keep the jar closed and sealed until the whole thing is colonized because the medium has to remain sterile until its colonized. Because it is sterile besides the mycelium that you want in there you don't necessiraly need a perfect growing environment because the mycelium in the jar has no competition. Do you understand that?
When a medium is pasteurized the organisms that live in it are not all killed as with sterilization. Pasteurization is a more selective process then sterilizing. The whole idea of pasteurizing in this case is to keep certain organisms alive so that in the end you have a biological communityu that helps your mycelium and even acts like a digestive aid and "immune system" type relationship.
When straw is pasteurized there are still alot of microorganisms on the straw and they are still alive, unlike with sterile culture as in brf cakes; these microorganisms arre benificial so you want them, however as soon as the straw has cooled it is vulnerable to contamination because it is not under sterile conditions (straw substrates needs alot of fresh air exchange).
When you innoculate pasterized straw you do so with live mycelium that was grown in a jar usually under sterile conditions, you break it up and mix it into the straw. When you break up the spawn it has to recover and this normally will take 48hrs maybe less maybe more. If it takes too long to recover other micro-organisms will take over the sub before your mycelium does.
When the spawn is broken up it cools down and is no longer generating its own heat. Once it recovers the mycelium that recovers is diluted in volume by the straw and WONT generate heat until it is thriving and spreading out onto the straw and until a significant ammount of straw is colonized by the mycelium it wont generate enough heat to keep itself at 86F (fungi is not warm blooded). Once thermalgenesis is significantlly warming the sub now added heat is necessary and might become a danger.
The chances of your mycelium recovering and taking hold of the straw sub before something else does is greatly streangthened if the environmental conditions are ideal for cubensis whis is 86F(SOURCE
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4TSNA_en___US367&q=ideal+temps+psilocybe+cubensis). Just like if it gets too hot or if co2 levels rise too high, something else will take hold.
Also, understand that in a room that has highs of 77F, a kitty litter tray full of thouroghly wetted straw in a dark closet covered loosely with saran wrap has a tendency to stay even cooler then the ambient room temp and unless the temps rise within the substrate, those conditions alone will not facilitate the growth of cubensis but something else will grow instead. All you have to do is stick a light bulb (keep the light off the sub til its time to fruit)or a reptile stone in there and it is officially an incubator. After the sides of your tray are warm to the touch (from within the tray) reduce the ambient temps. Once the sub is colonized you can expose it to open air and fruit at whatever temps you want, ideally in the upper 70's. With fruiting too your shrooms will be bigger your canopy fuller and your flushes more apleanty the more you adapt the environment to their liking.
Peace-
