Alright, next step is making BRF cakes and a jar of nutrient-rich water for your LC to grow in. See, I've only got the one syringe, which I'll need for extracting LC to go into the cakes, which means I'll need to empty it out. I'm going to go with a few small cakes for the initial run with spores, that way I'm not just squirting a crapload more into these jars than needed. Plus, it'll give me a chance to see if my cleaning techniques have improved: last time I did a run of 8, 3 of which were contaminated and the other 5 started to grow, but IRL mishaps resulted in me harvesting barely 3g dry out of the entire run (not for lack of growth on their part).
BRF? PF Tek?
Yeah, I don't know all the lingo either. "Tek" is just a shorthand for "technique", and it's used for any method to produce...well, anything in mycology. You'll see it a lot working with shrooms. BRF is short for "Brown Rice Flour", and the PF Tek is an old school reliable method for quickly and easily growing shrooms with minimal equipment and effort. It's usually called the BRF/PF Tek these days to clarify. Don't be fooled by veterans griping about how awful the PF Tek is and such; there are definitely better methods, but the PF Tek is a pretty foolproof newbie Tek. It's recommended for newbies not because of its massive yields or flawless contamination rates, but because if you've got a handful of mason jars, aluminum foil, a pot, some flour and vermiculite, and spores, you can get mushrooms reliably with this method, every time. It's not perfect but it IS idiot proof and requires minimal investment (odds are just by living life you've already got or can easily acquire everything you need for it cheaply).
I'm not going to bother holding your hand on it, because a much better grower already has. Here's the link to mushroom growing guru Roger Rabbit's video on the BRF/PF Tek. It's not HD, but it's free and incredibly thorough. Watch all four parts, start to finish, and follow his directions to the letter (he's VERY clear on what to do and how, and shows every step of the process), and you'll be fine.
www.mushroomvideos.com/BRF-Pf-Tek
I personally bought his entire video collection. It's 9 bucks for the files (or you can get it on DVD, but if you're web savvy enough to be here you should be able to handle downloading an mp4 collection and watching it on your computer) in HD quality and the entire series goes into insanely detailed depth on all manner of advanced methods for improving your work. Most of it is far beyond what you'll need now, which is why he generously offers the entire section on BRF/PF Tek for free, to get you started without a headache. Cool dude, really.
Okay, couple quick questions I had answered:
1.
Can you use anything besides Brown Rice Flour? Yes. Dark Rye flour is an alternative you'll find at most healthy places, like Wholly Foods (where you can USUALLY find brown rice flour, but they were out last time I went). You can also buy hulled millet or brown rice and grind it into a powder in a blender or coffee grinder. That's all it is. MOST whole, unbleached and minimally processed grains will work for this, but try to stick to Dark Rye or Brown Rice for your first runs. They've received the most positive remarks from people I've read working with them, and your first grow is no time for experiments.
2.
Micropore Tape? Where do I get this? This is really just there to provide an additional barrier against outside contaminants, so it's not critical you get PRECISELY the right brand or type. It's also called "paper tape", and you can usually find it in any drug store or even the pharmacy section at Ball-Mart. Look for packaging that calls it paper tape, or touts how it's formulated "for delicate/sensitive skin". I think he even says you can use masking tape, which you can get at any office supply store.
3.
What kind of jars are those? Those are, and please pay attention because this matters,
wide mouth half-pint canning jars. You may have a tricky time tracking these down, unfortunately. I found mine at a True Blue Values store near my home, but you can also order them online. They MUST be wide-mouth so you can get the cake out after it's done. If the jar narrows or tapers, it won't work, PERIOD. You'll tear it up trying to birth the cake, don't waste your spores. Buy some online from amazon (linky:
click here for the jars you want!), wait for them to arrive. Do it, dammit.
4.
I know you say that this stuff matters, but I was thinking of making some substitutions... Watch this video.
Congratulations! You're on your way to growing your first batch, and I will be tomorrow (didn't have time to make the cakes today after making the LC, so that will be a first-thing-tomorrow project). On to the LC!
Making LC, Step 2: Making the Liquid
Your mycelium will need a diluted sugar-water solution to feed and grow in, and that's what we'll be prepping next. You should have your lids prepped and ready from the last step, silicone dry and hard (well, not literally hard; after it's done drying it will have a rubbery feel to it, but it will spring back immediately after you stop pressing it).
Give your jars and lids a wash with dish soap and water, make sure they're clean. Don't scrub with anything scratchy like steel wool; a basic sponge or sponge with scrubbing side will do fine, and be gentle around the silicone so you don't start prying it up. You're just trying to wash away any dirt, debris, hair, or dust that's accumulated on the jars and lids so you have clean glass and metal. Next rinse them off and let air dry.
Now, gather your supplies. Here's what you'll need, ideally:
1. Jar and lid, cleaned and prepped (unlike with the rice flour cakes, these jars can be tapered).
2. Honey (you can also use light or extra light dry malt extract, but that might require finding a brewing store) DO NOT use granulated white sugar!
3. Measuring cup with metric ml lines, ideally a 2 cup/500ml pyrex cup
4. Measuring spoons with metric marks; these are a set of US standard spoons with their metric measures on them.
5. Small measuring cup with ml lines that measures more precisely (it should measure every 10 or 5ml MINIMUM). Precision is vital here, so if you find one that is done to 1ml lines spring for it. It doesn't need to be much bigger than 100ml total, and can probably be as small as 50ml and still be effective.
6. Some sort of steel wire, extra paper clips, bits of steel rod or ball bearings...really anything small and metallic that will be affected by a magnet will do. If you don't have any, you can get away with a few small rocks, glass beads, or pieces of broken glass or the like.
7. Aluminum foil (not pictured; don't play that game, you know what it is)
Does it matter what sugar I use? Do I -have- to get honey or malt extract?
It absolutely does matter. The mycelium needs more than sugar alone to thrive, so the options listed here provide other trace nutrients that fit the bill. Extra light malt extract is the choice of the pros, but it's not something you find at your local grocer. You can get it at most brewing hobby stores (light extract will work in a pinch if they don't have extra light), but if you're like me and don't have one reasonably close, honey will work just fine too. Honey is fine as long as it's organic or unfiltered (Farmer's markets are a GREAT source for honey if you're lucky enough to have someone there selling it from their own hives, it'll be superior even to organic store-bought honey AND taste better too!).
Organic honey is too expensive, you say? Buy a small jar. Reminder:
Okay, now we're ready to work! So, to feed your mycelium in the LC, you need a solution that's ~4% sugar by weight (it can be a tiny bit off, and less is better because too much sugar will act as a preservative and kill the mycelium). Water is the same volume as weight (1cc water = 1ml water = 1g water), but sugar sources are trickier. The weights for different sugars vary, so we'll go with the two easiest. Here's a simple recipe for quart jars; to use it in larger or smaller jars, just divide or multiply as needed (i.e., two pints in a quart, so divide in half if using pint jars).
1. Honey: 584ml water, 16ml honey
2. Malt Extract (light or extra light only): 600ml water, 38ml malt extract (about 2 1/2 Tablespoons)
Hey, that sounds kind of annoying to measure, right? Honey sticking to your spoons or glass, and those odd numbers? Well, that's why we have two measuring cups! Use the big one to get all but the last hundred ml of water measured out if you're doing honey (the malt recipe is way simpler to follow, even with US standard measures). Now, you need 84ml of water, 16 of honey to finish it up. Good thing I told you to get a glass measure that goes to 100! Squirt about 16ml of honey into the jar (if yours is like mine and goes from 10 or 15 to 20 you'll need to eyeball it, but just be cautious and err on the lower side if you must), then add water slowly to bring the water line to 100ml. The honey is heavier than the water, so it will stay on the bottom. Like this:
This picture is a shitty angle and has some serious refraction issues, so it looks like there's 40ml in there, but it's really JUST above the 30ml mark. I'm doing two jars so I doubled the recipe and did 32ml of honey instead. Now, take your jar and pop it in the microwave for like 20 seconds, just enough to make it a tiny bit warm (NOT hot, so go 5 seconds at a time if you must). Heating it up will make the honey dissolve into the water super easy: stir well and you'll have honey-water you can pour easily into your jar, no mess or fuss!
Groovy, right? We've got our jars filled with diluted honey solution (or malt extract for those of you high rollers who went all out), next let's toss in those little things we mentioned earlier: the bits of metal wire, paper clip, or rocks/broken glass/beads. These will be used to shred the mycelium as it grows, so it won't form a solid mass that you can't suck up into a syringe. By shredding it into smaller pieces it will fit inside the needle and not clog it. I used a length of metal wire and just snipped off some 1/2" long pieces, two or three per jar. Just chuck 'em on in to the solution (give them a wash first if they're dirty, especially if you're going with rocks or broken glass).
Just a fair warning: you'll need a magnetic stirrer if you go with the metal options, but I'll show you soon how to MacGuyver up a cheap rig for minimal cash in a post or two. If you're ABSOLUTELY too broke to buy ANYTHING else after this step of prep, go with the glass or rocks or whatever; you'll need to shake the jar yourself but with no outside air contact it should be safe. The stirrer is more thorough though, and works better. Don't bother searching online for one: even the cheapest lab ones are $75 US. We'll be assembling ours from some odd bits and pieces, including a magnet, PC fan, and whatever we can find to finish the job.
Now we need to seal and sterilize them so the spores will have a sterile environment to grow in. Put the lids on rubber side up (most canning lids have a white bottom where the rubber gasket is, and a metal top), so it won't be so hard to open when the time comes. It'll seal just fine. Next, screw on the metal ring LOOSELY. Just enough so if you try to pull it upwards it won't come off, but it still is wobbly and loose around the threads. If you screw it on tightly it'll form a vacuum inside the jar after it's sanitized and as soon as you push the needle through the silicone, the pressure difference will suck your spores completely or mostly out. You don't want that, so by leaving it loose the pressure will equalize before you tighten it. Here's what they should look like by now:
Next, tear off a square of aluminum foil and cover the lids, crimping it tightly under where the lid meets the jar. You're trying to prevent ANY water or steam from seeping into your not-quite-tightly-covered jars and ruining the water-sugar ratio we worked so hard to achieve earlier. Plus, this will make it easy to seal them tightly without contaminating them with dirty hands (don't be offended; unless your hands are in latex surgical gloves and you just wiped those gloves down with alcohol, they're not clean enough for mycology work). Here's how they'll look now:
Now, we'll boil them or pressure cook them to sterilize everything inside. If you have a pressure cooker, put the canning rack in the bottom and add some water (just enough to cover the rack), then slowly bring the pressure up to 14psi (some only go to 11 or 12, that will be fine too, but no lower) and cook for 20 minutes. If you have an electric one, just find a setting with the pressure you need and set it to cook for 20 minutes.
Of course, I'm assuming you either don't have one or it's too small for a big jar. That's fine, boiling these works just fine too. Put them in a pot with some kind of barrier between the jars and the bottom of the pot, like shown in the BRF/PF Tek video earlier. I personally have a pot with a perforated inset for steaming and cooking pasta, so I use that. Fill the pot with enough water to reach halfway up the jars, then cover with a lid. Put them on the stove and bring the water to a rolling boil, then reduce heat to maintain a steady boil and boil them for 20 minutes. Start the timer AFTER a rolling boil is achieved, no earlier, and keep the lid on for the entire 20 minutes, no peeking! You need to trap that steam to ensure that the entire jar and its solution is heated thoroughly so absolutely EVERYTHING inside is killed, leaving pure sugar water.
Do NOT cook longer than 20-25 minutes, especially if using honey!! Too much time will cause the sugar to caramelize, which will ruin the solution the more caramelized it is. If you cooked it in a pressure cooker, let the steam out after time is up and let them gradually cool for a few minutes until they're cool enough to handle with a towel (but still piping hot to the touch). If you boiled them, move the pot off the heat and leave the lid on and let them cool enough to be grabbed with a towel but still very very hot.
Once you can manage to pull them out with a towel, grip the lid and foil cover and twist until the lid is tightly on the jar. Now you can take off the foil cover and set the jar somewhere room temperature to cool gradually (do NOT chill, the carryover heat will continue to keep the solution sterile in case anything survived or got sucked in by the pressure equalizing before you tightened the lids). It should take a few hours minimum, but once the jars are no longer warm to the touch you're ready for injection! We'll cover that in the next post as mine are still a teeny bit warm. Remember, be patient: if the solution is too warm it will kill the spores, and your body temperature is nearly 100F. That means if it feels even a little bit warm it's over 100 degrees inside (glass is an insulator, which means it conducts heat poorly; the liquid is probably quite a bit hotter than the glass feels, and it cools slowly for the same reason). Most guides recommend you leave the jars at least 12 hours before inoculating to be safe, and I see no reason to hurry it up. With some things they say you can have it done fast or done right, but with mushrooms there is no "done fast", just done right.
As a prison guard once told me when I was locked up for possession, "Patience is the key to all things in life". It's very true and applicable here.
Special thanks to this FAQ from shroomery, which I adapted into this tutorial:
http://www.shroomery.org/9145/Liquid-Culture-Basics
