this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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Someone tell me when this becomes prescribable
You can just pick em yourself in the autumn
Or ask Uncle Ben for help, takes almost zero effort and you reap heaps.
Uncle Ben??
Mushroom spores sprayed in an Uncle Ben package.
Works for all kinds of fungi.
Ohhhh interesting. Will have to look into this...
Yah! Basically you get spores, sanitize EVERYTHING SO HARD around you (including the spore syringes and bags and turning off the a/c). Inject the spores into the bag (standard unflavored brown rice) and use one-directional tape (sticks to things and will let air/gas out, but not in). Wait until they’re all super crunchy and stuck together. Massage to break apart.
Boil a big ol thing of dirt. Everything has to be very clean. Sterilize a plastic container (once the spores have taken hold and “infected” the rice, you don’t need to be anywhere near as careful with how clean everything is) and put the dirt into the plastic tub, planting the spore rice in the dirt. That dirt is soon to become a network of mycelium!
Then cover it with a lid. Wait a while, spritzing the dirt every day or two. Once one single lil guy comes up, flip the lid over to allow some ventilation. Spritz with water twice a day now. Soon you’ll have a fungus party!
There was a subreddit about uncleben brand rice, which is sold pre-cooked in pouches. The sub was not about eating the rice, but as a growth medium for various fungi. The rice is the perfect nutrient and moisture content, and it’s sterile. Mushroom spores are prone to contamination for a couple weeks while they get established, so it’s a fairly reliable way to get started, without owning a pressure cooker. Any pouch of shelf stable pre-cooked grain should be a suitable substrate for this type of mushroom, which in the wild actually grows on manure.
I'm not good with mushrooms... I'm not a mycologist...