Becca's B+, Blue Meanie, Purple Mystic From Spore Genetics & Blue Yeti LC Fun Run

[BeccaBuds]

I hope this goes better than my first attempt back in the last century, lol! Never got beyond contaminated petri dishes that time.

I was going to be ambitious and grow out all 4 phenotypes but space is limited and time is at a premium as per usual so here's the revised plan after a bit of backstory.
I have spore syringes, courtesy of @Spore Genetics, of B+, Blue Meanie Cubes, & Purple Mystic

, and from an outside source, a liquid culture syringe of Blue Yeti

. I've built myself a very nice SAB

, prepped jar lids

for liquid cultures or grain, obtained filter patches big and small, self-healing injection ports (SHIP), liquid culture pr-mix, micropore tape, rice bags, and from @Midwest Grow Kits, an All-In-One bag , casing substrate, horse manure and a pound of gypsum. Got 20 mesh stainless steel screens to make a grain prep/shroom drying trays, a magnetic stirrer and plastic coated stir bar magnets for the liquid cultures. Made 70% IPA from 99% IPA plus 29% distilled water. Dug out the pressure cooker and got a new bottom tray for it. Found micropore tape sux and must be layered 4 deep to filter, so by default Uncle Ben tek sux as well but now committed so put rtv silicone SHIPs on 5 bags

. Details ad infinitum...

This run, I'll be inoculating (4) 250mL jars of liquid culture pre-mix; 3 jars for the spores and one for the Blue Yeti culture. These will be for future grain inoculations & long term storage in the fridge. Each jar will get a 2mL shot.

I'm going to inoculate 2 rice bags with Purple Mystic spores, and the All-In-One (AIO) plus another rice bag with the Blue Yeti liquid culture. The liquid culture should populate the grain faster. The rice bags and AIO will each get 3mL shots by injecting 1mL, moving the needle in the grain injecting another milliliter, and then doing it a 3rd time. This way a larger area of grain gets inoculated. Once the mycelium has grown out onto the grain, I'll be mixing it up with manure substrate and running shoeboxes in a fruiting chamber. The Blue Yeti AIO will get 2 shoeboxes and the 3rd rice bag (also Blue Yeti) it's own shoebox. I have another Sterilite 1938 I'm making into a fruiting chamber, so I'll have room for 6 shoeboxes though this time only 5 will be run (knock on wood).

A couple days ago I wiped down the whole inside of the SAB with 70% IPA, closed the vents and plugged the arm holes. Within minutes the hygrometer read >99% RH so after an hour I opened the FAE ports. 24 hours later, RH had dropped to 80% but I could still smell some iso alcohol. Today the reading has dropped to 43% RH and I can detect only a trace of alcohol. Free air exchange (FAE) through the 0.3um filter patches

is working well.

Earlier today I mixed 44 grams liquid culture pre-mix powder with a liter of simmering distilled water to make stock and filled 250mL jars 1, 2, 3 & 4 and 200mL jar 7 (I had some extra, maybe another jar of B Yeti). Loaded the jars into the PC for sterilization at 15psi for 30 minutes. Put the top screen in over the jars and placed a foil covered packet of 5x5 paper towels and a foil covered packet of stainless steel tools (surgical scissors, #00 tweezers, forceps) to sterilize with the jars. Got the spores & culture out of the fridge, and as soon as the PC cools (tomorrow) and the syringes warm, into the SAB they go.

Tomorrow when the hole punch arrives I'll punch the FAE holes in the rice bags and apply the 4 layer micropore tapes and figure out how I'm going to get the micropore tape sterile. Next everything gets sprayed down and wiped with 70% alcohol and loaded into the SAB, and the (sterilized) arm hole plugs stuffed back in until the alcohol dissipates enough to use a lighter inside for needle sterilization. After that its inoculation time! Photo after.

@Bill284 @ExNavyInSTL @Freak Brothers @JohnnieJC3 @4me2kn0 @MotaMan420 @420 @Stoned Ape @Ramblinrose1965 @Nunyabiz @Tokin Roll @2Water @Slapalottapuss @Keffka @JoetheChro @Lady Cannafan @CaptainLucky @Mycelium Farmer @Spore Genetics @Midwest Grow Kits @seaofgreen18 @Treeibus @Pennywise @Pondwater @safeman @Melville Hobbes @Mitchell Florn @InTheShed @Krissi Carbone @Lerugged @con @Absorber @Porky82

If I missed anyone, please feel free to join in!

 

[Absorber]

I hope this goes better than my first attempt back in the last century, lol! Never got beyond contaminated petri dishes that time.

I was going to be ambitious and grow out all 4 phenotypes but space is limited and time is at a premium as per usual so here's the revised plan after a bit of backstory.
I have spore syringes, courtesy of @Spore Genetics, of B+, Blue Meanie Cubes, & Purple Mystic

, and from an outside source, a liquid culture syringe of Blue Yeti

. I've built myself a very nice SAB

, prepped jar lids

for liquid cultures or grain, obtained filter patches big and small, self-healing injection ports (SHIP), liquid culture pr-mix, micropore tape, rice bags, and from @Midwest Grow Kits, an All-In-One bag , casing substrate, horse manure and a pound of gypsum. Got 20 mesh stainless steel screens to make a grain prep/shroom drying trays, a magnetic stirrer and plastic coated stir bar magnets for the liquid cultures. Made 70% IPA from 99% IPA plus 29% distilled water. Dug out the pressure cooker and got a new bottom tray for it. Found micropore tape sux and must be layered 4 deep to filter, so by default Uncle Ben tek sux as well but now committed so put rtv silicone SHIPs on 5 bags

. Details ad infinitum...

This run, I'll be inoculating (4) 250mL jars of liquid culture pre-mix; 3 jars for the spores and one for the Blue Yeti culture. These will be for future grain inoculations & long term storage in the fridge. Each jar will get a 2mL shot.

I'm going to inoculate 2 rice bags with Purple Mystic spores, and the All-In-One (AIO) plus another rice bag with the Blue Yeti liquid culture. The liquid culture should populate the grain faster. The rice bags and AIO will each get 3mL shots by injecting 1mL, moving the needle in the grain injecting another milliliter, and then doing it a 3rd time. This way a larger area of grain gets inoculated. Once the mycelium has grown out onto the grain, I'll be mixing it up with manure substrate and running shoeboxes in a fruiting chamber. The Blue Yeti AIO will get 2 shoeboxes and the 3rd rice bag (also Blue Yeti) it's own shoebox. I have another Sterilite 1938 I'm making into a fruiting chamber, so I'll have room for 6 shoeboxes though this time only 5 will be run (knock on wood).

A couple days ago I wiped down the whole inside of the SAB with 70% IPA, closed the vents and plugged the arm holes. Within minutes the hygrometer read >99% RH so after an hour I opened the FAE ports. 24 hours later, RH had dropped to 80% but I could still smell some iso alcohol. Today the reading has dropped to 43% RH and I can detect only a trace of alcohol. Free air exchange (FAE) through the 0.3um filter patches

is working well.

Earlier today I mixed 44 grams liquid culture pre-mix powder with a liter of simmering distilled water to make stock and filled 250mL jars 1, 2, 3 & 4 and 200mL jar 7 (I had some extra, maybe another jar of B Yeti). Loaded the jars into the PC for sterilization at 15psi for 30 minutes. Put the top screen in over the jars and placed a foil covered packet of 5x5 paper towels and a foil covered packet of stainless steel tools (surgical scissors, #00 tweezers, forceps) to sterilize with the jars. Got the spores & culture out of the fridge, and as soon as the PC cools (tomorrow) and the syringes warm, into the SAB they go.

Tomorrow when the hole punch arrives I'll punch the FAE holes in the rice bags and apply the 4 layer micropore tapes and figure out how I'm going to get the micropore tape sterile. Next everything gets sprayed down and wiped with 70% alcohol and loaded into the SAB, and the (sterilized) arm hole plugs stuffed back in until the alcohol dissipates enough to use a lighter inside for needle sterilization. After that its inoculation time! Photo after.

@Bill284 @ExNavyInSTL @Freak Brothers @JohnnieJC3 @4me2kn0 @MotaMan420 @420 @Stoned Ape @Ramblinrose1965 @Nunyabiz @Tokin Roll @2Water @Slapalottapuss @Keffka @JoetheChro @Lady Cannafan @CaptainLucky @Mycelium Farmer @Spore Genetics @Midwest Grow Kits @seaofgreen18 @Treeibus @Pennywise @Pondwater @safeman @Melville Hobbes @Mitchell Florn @InTheShed @Krissi Carbone @Lerugged @con @Absorber @Porky82

If I missed anyone, please feel free to join in!

Good luck
Thanks for the tag

 

[Stoned Ape]

Hi becca. I am realy confident you will smash this. U have pepped up and obviously done your research. The thing about waiting for the alcohol to dissipate before using the lighter is good. I didn't once and made a bit of a bang and made the place smell like burnt hair. Was a good inoculation though and I had a run of fails before that.

 

[BeccaBuds]

Good luck
Thanks for the tag

Thanks Absorber! I done everything I could think of to make a good shroom home, now it's up to the fates!

Hi becca. I am realy confident you will smash this. U have pepped up and obviously done your research. The thing about waiting for the alcohol to dissipate before using the lighter is good. I didn't once and made a bit of a bang and made the place smell like burnt hair. Was a good inoculation though and I had a run of fails before that.

Hi Stoned Ape, yes, I've put some study time in, now for the hands-on part!
Yea, gotta be careful of those explosive vapors. I put a lot of thought, time and money into that SAB and don't want tp blow it (or me) up!!!

 

[CaptainLucky]

I hope this goes better than my first attempt back in the last century, lol! Never got beyond contaminated petri dishes that time.

I was going to be ambitious and grow out all 4 phenotypes but space is limited and time is at a premium as per usual so here's the revised plan after a bit of backstory.
I have spore syringes, courtesy of @Spore Genetics, of B+, Blue Meanie Cubes, & Purple Mystic

, and from an outside source, a liquid culture syringe of Blue Yeti

. I've built myself a very nice SAB

, prepped jar lids

for liquid cultures or grain, obtained filter patches big and small, self-healing injection ports (SHIP), liquid culture pr-mix, micropore tape, rice bags, and from @Midwest Grow Kits, an All-In-One bag , casing substrate, horse manure and a pound of gypsum. Got 20 mesh stainless steel screens to make a grain prep/shroom drying trays, a magnetic stirrer and plastic coated stir bar magnets for the liquid cultures. Made 70% IPA from 99% IPA plus 29% distilled water. Dug out the pressure cooker and got a new bottom tray for it. Found micropore tape sux and must be layered 4 deep to filter, so by default Uncle Ben tek sux as well but now committed so put rtv silicone SHIPs on 5 bags

. Details ad infinitum...

This run, I'll be inoculating (4) 250mL jars of liquid culture pre-mix; 3 jars for the spores and one for the Blue Yeti culture. These will be for future grain inoculations & long term storage in the fridge. Each jar will get a 2mL shot.

I'm going to inoculate 2 rice bags with Purple Mystic spores, and the All-In-One (AIO) plus another rice bag with the Blue Yeti liquid culture. The liquid culture should populate the grain faster. The rice bags and AIO will each get 3mL shots by injecting 1mL, moving the needle in the grain injecting another milliliter, and then doing it a 3rd time. This way a larger area of grain gets inoculated. Once the mycelium has grown out onto the grain, I'll be mixing it up with manure substrate and running shoeboxes in a fruiting chamber. The Blue Yeti AIO will get 2 shoeboxes and the 3rd rice bag (also Blue Yeti) it's own shoebox. I have another Sterilite 1938 I'm making into a fruiting chamber, so I'll have room for 6 shoeboxes though this time only 5 will be run (knock on wood).

A couple days ago I wiped down the whole inside of the SAB with 70% IPA, closed the vents and plugged the arm holes. Within minutes the hygrometer read >99% RH so after an hour I opened the FAE ports. 24 hours later, RH had dropped to 80% but I could still smell some iso alcohol. Today the reading has dropped to 43% RH and I can detect only a trace of alcohol. Free air exchange (FAE) through the 0.3um filter patches

is working well.

Earlier today I mixed 44 grams liquid culture pre-mix powder with a liter of simmering distilled water to make stock and filled 250mL jars 1, 2, 3 & 4 and 200mL jar 7 (I had some extra, maybe another jar of B Yeti). Loaded the jars into the PC for sterilization at 15psi for 30 minutes. Put the top screen in over the jars and placed a foil covered packet of 5x5 paper towels and a foil covered packet of stainless steel tools (surgical scissors, #00 tweezers, forceps) to sterilize with the jars. Got the spores & culture out of the fridge, and as soon as the PC cools (tomorrow) and the syringes warm, into the SAB they go.

Tomorrow when the hole punch arrives I'll punch the FAE holes in the rice bags and apply the 4 layer micropore tapes and figure out how I'm going to get the micropore tape sterile. Next everything gets sprayed down and wiped with 70% alcohol and loaded into the SAB, and the (sterilized) arm hole plugs stuffed back in until the alcohol dissipates enough to use a lighter inside for needle sterilization. After that its inoculation time! Photo after.

@Bill284 @ExNavyInSTL @Freak Brothers @JohnnieJC3 @4me2kn0 @MotaMan420 @420 @Stoned Ape @Ramblinrose1965 @Nunyabiz @Tokin Roll @2Water @Slapalottapuss @Keffka @JoetheChro @Lady Cannafan @CaptainLucky @Mycelium Farmer @Spore Genetics @Midwest Grow Kits @seaofgreen18 @Treeibus @Pennywise @Pondwater @safeman @Melville Hobbes @Mitchell Florn @InTheShed @Krissi Carbone @Lerugged @con @Absorber @Porky82

If I missed anyone, please feel free to join in!

Thanks for the tag , this is going to be super informative for us all that are new to growing mushrooms . CL.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Thanks for the invite. Looking forward to this!
I may have missed this in the post, after you inoculate the AIO bag, are you keeping it in the dark while it colonizes, or do you have a lighting schedule for them?

 

[Bill284]

Thank you my friend.
Good old Uncle Ben's.
Hope everything goes well.
Take care


Stay safe
Bill284

 

[Keffka]

Thoughtful and detailed. I can’t wait to see more, thanks for the tag!

 

[Tokin Roll]

Nice start @BeccaBuds

Mind if I tag along?

I will be start fruiting my bags today.

Be safe and grow well my friend,
Tok..

 

[Melville Hobbes]

Thanks for the tag!

 

[Ramblinrose1965]

Thanks for the tag! Looks Like you have done all your homework and are ready to rock and roll. Good luck and happy shrooming. Looking forward to this diary.

 

[BeccaBuds]

Thanks for the tag , this is going to be super informative for us all that are new to growing mushrooms . CL.

Well, I have the book learning ... now the rubber hits the road. I find out what really works!

Thanks for the invite. Looking forward to this!
I may have missed this in the post, after you inoculate the AIO bag, are you keeping it in the dark while it colonizes, or do you have a lighting schedule for them?

I haven't gotten that far yet, @Lady Cannafan. @Midwest Grow Kits says the mycelium should fully colonize the grain part in 25-45 days then mix but only mentions 12/12 light in fruiting stage. I've attached their instructions and another doc I found somewhere on the net.

Thank you my friend.
Good old Uncle Ben's.
Hope everything goes well.
Take care


Stay safe
Bill284

Me too, I've put a lot of pennies into getting it right this time around, lol! I have my doubts about the UB but we'll see!

Thoughtful and detailed. I can’t wait to see more, thanks for the tag!

You are most welcome, Keffka. I tried to include everyone I'd seen in the new shroom forums.

Nice start @BeccaBuds

Mind if I tag along?

I will be start fruiting my bags today.

Be safe and grow well my friend,
Tok..

Welcome, my friend! That's why I tagged you. You'll soon be swarmed by little baby mushrooms no doubt!

Thanks for the tag!

Welcome, M H! I hope this time I'm better this time at growing shrooms than contaminants.

Thanks for the tag! Looks Like you have done all your homework and are ready to rock and roll. Good luck and happy shrooming. Looking forward to this diary.

Welcome Ramblinrose1965! Time to put the books down. Next the syringes hit the SHIPs!

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Well, I have the book learning ... now the rubber hits the road. I find out what really works!

I haven't gotten that far yet, @Lady Cannafan. @Midwest Grow Kits says the mycelium should fully colonize the grain part in 25-45 days then mix but only mentions 12/12 light in fruiting stage. I've attached their instructions and another doc I found somewhere on the net.

Thanks. I have one just about ready for fruiting, same instructions as you have. I'll check out that other one though!
Enjoy.

 

[BeccaBuds]

I did some some more examination of the Micropore tape and found that even with 3 layers you can still see 1 or 2 holes when backlit and viewed with a good magnifier. 4 layers appears to be enough though, so now I am experimenting with how to sterilize these 4 layer Micropore tapes for the UB bags.
I've gone ahead and punched the hole in bag 5 and applied a filter tape stack to the hole . I then soaked it with 70% Iso and microwaved the bag for 90 seconds. I am reasoning that the combination of the steam from inside and the alcohol will give me a sterile, filtered bag, and reduce the excess moisture in the bag a bit to boot.
What I don't know is if the shrooms will dislike this awful tasting rice after cooking it (it tastes and smells like cardboard!), so instead of 2 rice bags inoculated with Purple Mystic, I'll do 3 bags so I can compare. The other two I'll punch and apply filters inside the SAB and they won't get nuked.
After nuking it, the bag swelled, steamed and the tape dried out, so I am reasonably confident this method will work if it hasn't altered the rice too much for the mycelium. Just for good measure all 3 will be sprayed and wiped with 70% iso before moving them into the SAB.

 

[Ramblinrose1965]

I did some some more examination of the Micropore tape and found that even with 3 layers you can still see 1 or 2 holes when backlit and viewed with a good magnifier. 4 layers appears to be enough though, so now I am experimenting with how to sterilize these 4 layer Micropore tapes for the UB bags.
I've gone ahead and punched the hole in bag 5 and applied a filter tape stack to the hole . I then soaked it with 70% Iso and microwaved the bag for 90 seconds. I am reasoning that the combination of the steam from inside and the alcohol will give me a sterile, filtered bag, and reduce the excess moisture in the bag a bit to boot.
What I don't know is if the shrooms will dislike this awful tasting rice after cooking it (it tastes and smells like cardboard!), so instead of 2 rice bags inoculated with Purple Mystic, I'll do 3 bags so I can compare. The other two I'll punch and apply filters inside the SAB and they won't get nuked.
After nuking it, the bag swelled, steamed and the tape dried out, so I am reasonably confident this method will work if it hasn't altered the rice too much for the mycelium. Just for good measure all 3 will be sprayed and wiped with 70% iso before moving them into the SAB.

BeccaBuds give these a go instead of the rice bags. Mason jars with modified lids. You could probably make an injection port with rtv. I just do either an agar or grain transfer so no injection port is required.

 

[BeccaBuds]

Everything is moved into the SAB. I sprayed the inside down again with 70% iso and sprayed the FAE filters with 3% Hydrogen Peroxide. I have to say, these UB rice bags are a PITA and practically an open invitation to contamination. Very difficult to make the holes and a pain to get the filter tape sterile. That said, I might as well use up the bags I bought.
Moved the autoclaved liquid culture jars in after hosing them with 3% peroxide so my permanent marker labels don't dissolve and run.
Speaking of dissolving and running, @Spore Genetics really needs to find a better way to label their syringes. First, the paper labels don't sterilize well with alcohol or H2O2, and alcohol has this "OH NO!" effect on them:

​

Fortunately, it wasn't a complete disaster- I could still make out 2 of the labels and so marked them with initials of the variety with a permanent ink marker. Bare paper labels are NOT a good idea. I thought I was going to be shooting blind!
So here's the loaded up SAB. I couldn't help but get a LITTLE ambitious, lol! Now I'm just waiting and watching the hygrometer and will inoculate as soon as the alcohol clears out.

​

 

[BeccaBuds]

BeccaBuds give these a go instead of the rice bags. Mason jars with modified lids. You could probably make an injection port with rtv. I just do either an agar or grain transfer so no injection port is required.

I've been prepping jars

. So far I've accumulated 8 of the 12 ounce jelly jars and 4 Pint Mason jars and (2) 6oz jars and modified the lids with stick-on PTFE 0.22um filter patches and butyl rubber SHIPs I got off amazon. I def don't like the rice bags. Next time I think I'll try dumping the rice into pint jars. Might as well use it up. Jars make 'em autoclavable, too.

 

[BeccaBuds]

Hygrometer in the SAB is at 86% at 4:15PM. It's dropping slower this time because I sprayed all the filters with hydrogen peroxide and likely used too much. Going to let the water & alcohol vapor dissipate for another day before inoculation.

 

[BeccaBuds]

Just got my @Midwest Grow Kits order of 7.5 pounds of casing mix and a pound of horse manure to blend into it. This will be my spawn-to-bulk substrate for the rice bags in shoeboxes. MGK recommends 10 to 1 casing mix to manure so I'll have a 1/4 Lb of wild horse poop left over. Now have (I think...) everything to grow out some mycelium to fruiting when the moment arrives.

​

Decided to wait until today to inoculate because of the holiday. In the meantime I had a great idea to further reduce the potential for contamination; a painter's 9' x 12' plastic drop cloth

. I live in a very small studio apartment but have a lot of stuff so clutter and dust are difficult to cope with. With the drop cloth, I can just completely cover myself and the SAB to create a clean, isolated area to work.
I'll shoot the spores and liquid culture as soon as I get back from buying the drop cloth.

 

[Stoned Ape]

Good luck becca.