Grow Kit vs. Tek

I've been wanting to grow some mushies for a while now but I've never actually gotten around to doing it. I have the opportunity now to do so and I plan on it. The only problems I've come across is that I don't have a pressure cooker and I don't have a car to go to different stores/locations to pick up supplies and materials needed.

So I was wondering what the main differences would be in making my own grow setup for the mushies over ordering a simple kind of grow kit from somewhere like http://www.mushbox.co/myco101-mushroomkit.html for example. Any help is appreciated.

You don't need a PC to do a basic grow. Check out the let's grow mushrooms vids on YouTube. They show the pf tek with BRF. Easy. You can order everything you need online amazon eBay etc.

Beta420 said:

You don't need a PC to do a basic grow. Check out the let's grow mushrooms vids on YouTube. They show the pf tek with BRF. Easy. You can order everything you need online amazon eBay etc.

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Oh word. I always thought I needed a PC for sterilization.

So did I????? Anyone wanna clarify???

i always pressure cooked my substrates

but then again i dont do many personal grows of them

so idk about other substrates but for BRF and rye i always pressure cooked

This is what I did and was easy for me ordered spores in sryinges ordered sterle grow bags injected waited colonizes pens shrooms.
The reason I did this is I have so much going on in my life now even the time to enjoy them ! Hope this helps.

Yea the only reason I wasn't going to do the BRF Tek is because I can't get a pressure cooker or go out and buy things.

have you looked into popcorn tek?

i think thats a pressure cookerless tek but dont quote me

Unnk said:

have you looked into popcorn tek?

i think thats a pressure cookerless tek but dont quote me

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Nah, I hadn't. Thanks for the tip though.

2fast92 said:

Nah, I hadn't. Thanks for the tip though.

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no problem

my next fungi run is gonna be a WBS mono tub

or Hpoo if i time it right with the farms around here

Unnk said:

have you looked into popcorn tek?

i think thats a pressure cookerless tek but dont quote me

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Nope - it isn't.

You can order a pressure cooker online. You don't need a pressure cooker - you don't need a PH meter for growing hydro marijuana either. If you don't use a pressure cooker your odds of sucess go way down and you could eaily get frustrated enough to quit. Furthermore, unless you really know what you are doing, contamination tends to spiral. I.E. you get two jars that get early trich. Now you have an inordinant amount of trich spores in your room. The next time you grow you will see your sucess rate gow down further, and the next time even further. Finally you have ruined your room and or house for the purposes of growing anything requiring sterile methods. The people here know that I frown on the PF tec for a number of reasons, one of the main ones is that it gives you a false sense of security because it is perceived to be so easy. You do not need a large cooker if you use smaller jars but my advice is to spend the money on a cooker - beyond that, your stews, pot roast, beans, chicken and dumplings and the like cook well in it. It is the microwave of the 19th century. And AND, if you like artichokes there is NO OTHER WAY to cook them that does so well.

I could never figure out why people are so averse to getting this handy, cheap appliance that they would go to such extremes rather than simply buy the best tool for the job.
\

BRF tek (aka PF Tek) is the only tek that can be readily done without a pressure cooker.

I guess whether or not to go with a tek vs grow kits has to do with your goals. If you think you are going to make a hobby out of this I would suggest buying a pressure cooker now since you won't be able to go farther than simple BRF cakes without it. If you just want some mushrooms for you and your friends to take a few times and be done with it then by all means save yourself the trouble and just buy some pre-sterilized spawn bags.

canndo said:

Nope - it isn't.

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thanx canndo again i had no idea about it thats why i put dont quote me lol

Unnk said:

thanx canndo again i had no idea about it thats why i put dont quote me lol

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Popcorn is a cheap alternative to other grains. One can get popcorn for as little as 50 cents a pound. Myclium redily grows on it but depending on what you want to do it can be more or less usefull. If you want to use it as a substrate then you must realize that it will not absorb or hold as much water as it will take in order for the mushroom to consume all the available nutrients. Because the kernels are so large, the mycelium has trouble jumping from one kernel to the next, so if you don't plan on shaking the bag or jar or whathaveyou, then don't use corn. Corn MUST be properly dried, wet corn gives you all sorts of problems. If you are using it as spawning material then you have some thinking to do - the best spawn does provide some nutrient to the substrate - in short it is suplementation at spawn. (you can do this with all sorts of other methods - the best in my opinion is soy meal suplementation at spawn). Corn is not such a good choice for such suplementation. Rye is still the best bet but rye is expensive, sometimes difficult to work with and at times difficult to obtain.

Other opinions differ but I have absolutely no use for birdseed, nor have I ever found it to be as inexpensive as corn.

canndo said:

Popcorn is a cheap alternative to other grains. One can get popcorn for as little as 50 cents a pound. Myclium redily grows on it but depending on what you want to do it can be more or less usefull. If you want to use it as a substrate then you must realize that it will not absorb or hold as much water as it will take in order for the mushroom to consume all the available nutrients. Because the kernels are so large, the mycelium has trouble jumping from one kernel to the next, so if you don't plan on shaking the bag or jar or whathaveyou, then don't use corn. Corn MUST be properly dried, wet corn gives you all sorts of problems. If you are using it as spawning material then you have some thinking to do - the best spawn does provide some nutrient to the substrate - in short it is suplementation at spawn. (you can do this with all sorts of other methods - the best in my opinion is soy meal suplementation at spawn). Corn is not such a good choice for such suplementation. Rye is still the best bet but rye is expensive, sometimes difficult to work with and at times difficult to obtain.

Other opinions differ but I have absolutely no use for birdseed, nor have I ever found it to be as inexpensive as corn.

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you sir have a plethora of handy dandy info

question you think WBS is the best route for a monotub ifi cant get HPoo due to the farms around here not being freindly about it during certain times of the year

Unnk said:

you sir have a plethora of handy dandy info

question you think WBS is the best route for a monotub ifi cant get HPoo due to the farms around here not being freindly about it during certain times of the year

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Well, as I said, I don't think much of Wild bird seed at all. You can use corn, rye, straw, worm castings, dog food, cat food, leaf mulch, millet (admittedly close to bird seed), rice and a host of other substrates or spawn materials so why limit yourself to bird seed? Bird seed has a mixture of different grains in it and often gets slimy, it is difficult to cook twice (once to introduce water and once for sterilization) and tends to clump. PF tec stuff doesn't concern itself with clumping because the PF folks are content to wait eons for their little pucks to colonize but why do that when you can get almost any size granular substrate to colonize in exactly the same time? I can get a gallon jar to colonize as quickly as I can get a quart jar to, (well, almost). You can wait 3 weeks for that puck or you can wait 6 days for a quart jar, but only if you have discreet grains and can shake them.

to tell you the truth, I really don't know what a monotub is composed of. The nature of the mushroom we are working with is that it is both a primary and secondary decomposer. That is why it will grow on straw or grain and also on partialy decomposed straw that comes from a horses rear end - or the even more decomposed constitutants of compost. It really is your choice. If that is true, then by all means pick something that is as easy as possible to work with, or as cheap as possible, or as available as possible. If you are lookking for something quick, don't bother with spawning at all as each of the grains
I've mentioned usaully have far more nutrients than the mushroom can use up before all the available moisture is gone. Your fruit will be smaller but few care about that.

the reason i ask this would be my first mono tub

something that will flush nice for personal

and its a experiment

but i was just wondering what you use as substrate personaly

canndo said:

Popcorn is a cheap alternative to other grains. One can get popcorn for as little as 50 cents a pound. Myclium redily grows on it but depending on what you want to do it can be more or less usefull. If you want to use it as a substrate then you must realize that it will not absorb or hold as much water as it will take in order for the mushroom to consume all the available nutrients. Because the kernels are so large, the mycelium has trouble jumping from one kernel to the next, so if you don't plan on shaking the bag or jar or whathaveyou, then don't use corn. Corn MUST be properly dried, wet corn gives you all sorts of problems. If you are using it as spawning material then you have some thinking to do - the best spawn does provide some nutrient to the substrate - in short it is suplementation at spawn. (you can do this with all sorts of other methods - the best in my opinion is soy meal suplementation at spawn). Corn is not such a good choice for such suplementation. Rye is still the best bet but rye is expensive, sometimes difficult to work with and at times difficult to obtain.

Other opinions differ but I have absolutely no use for birdseed, nor have I ever found it to be as inexpensive as corn.

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Good stuff as usual man. I've worked with rye, wbs, and popcorn and prefer popcorn as well. It's very easy to get the water content wrong with wbs. I don't know where some guys over at the mushroom forums get off calling popcorn "inferior spawn" or whatever. Rye is definitely better but I wouldn't exactly say popcorn is "inferior." Then again, a lot of those guys condemn coir, so I am beginning to doubt the wisdoms of some of the guys over there. However I digress.

You've mentioned fruiting grains straight several times now and I'm curious how you do that. You just take the lid off the jar and place in a fruiting chamber of some kind or does it require a casing?

Unnk said:

the reason i ask this would be my first mono tub

something that will flush nice for personal

and its a experiment

but i was just wondering what you use as substrate personaly

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I am a stamets deciple and as such, when I am doing any sort of growing I will use straw and worm castings suplemented at bedding with soy meal.