Hey folks !! I was wondering if there was any real difference between LC and what I call Myceliated Water or Agar Water, bsically if you shot water into agar and sucked it back up to nocc' up grains. Is there any difference other than LC being more nutritionally fortified. Thanks

Has anyone ever tried acorns in place of grains for spawn??? I mean cause why not...

What are some viable substrates you are aware of that we can consume in the form it is used to grow the mushrooms on?

instead of using the traditional mushroom log inoculation techniques, drilling holes, filling with sawdust spawn and applying a wax cap, I wonder if just drilling smaller holes in the logs, 3-5mm diameter and soaking them in a 'spore bath', consisting of rainwater mixed with copious amounts of spores taken from commercially growing mushrooms (spore prints to acetate sheets, washed off into the bath), would also yield acceptable results from a homesteading perspective? Would be a hell of a lot cheaper to produce.

It wouldn't colonise as fast as a commercially inoculated one, with an isolated strain and strong culture, but the drilling of holes would open up 'inoculation points' on the wood, speeding up the colonisation process, mimicking what would naturally happen in nature. A cheap man's log inoculation process?

It's late, I dunno, has anyone done something like this in the past? Does anyone see anything wrong with my logic?

I didn’t have high hopes it was just kind of a dumb fun thing to do.

Pressure cooked a jar of watered down turkey gravy and a jar of watered down cranberry sauce for 20 minutes.

Inoculated with blue oyster mycelium from agar 7 days ago and absolutely no growth.

Told yall I’d give you an update so here it is: mission failed.

I bought a little generator and I don't have strips but I do have a PH meter. Im wondering what PH it should be and how you guys go about getting to it. Basically a recipe. Thanks all !!

This has happened enough now that I feel comfortable enough making a post on it and talking about it. Every once in a while we'll have somebody that's energetic post here and share their experiences, and they will be possessed of a certain kind of personality. You can always tell when an individual is a little bit on edge or perhaps a little bit nervous when posting. However, sometimes you get people that have a different kind of edge attached to the way that they carry themselves and talk. Recently we had an individual post here, and it was mostly okay. These sorts of posts usually start off seemingly innocuous; an individual will post something with less than sufficient details on what they are doing and why they are doing it, which causes individuals like myself to want to ask questions about what they are doing and why. Now when you start asking this specific demographic of individuals that I am targeting questions, they don't get defensive immediately, but the more you probe what they are doing and why, the more irritated they become, as if you are questioning their intelligence and not questioning why they are performing the experiment or the depths of information they are attempting to seek from their experiment. You will have individuals become highly defensive when you're simply attempting to ascertain information regarding their post. The more people who ask questions, the more people who crack jokes. The more people who offer advice or input, the more defensive, the more aggressive, and the more irritated the individual becomes until eventually the entire post is just filled with the original poster being hostile and toxic towards anyone who speaks for any reason. This type of individual believes that everything they do and everything they say is beyond question and repute. They want to be part of the grander joke and the jovial and accepting energy of the group, the loving part of the group, but they don't actually want to disengage from their toxicity because they are incapable of the necessary self-reflection to identify that they are being hostile and that they have gaps in what the know and believe.They do not need help, they just want to be sucked off (metaphorically). They aren't actually posting to ask questions, they just want to be glorified and to have their pp and ego stroked.

There is of course no need for this because nobody here really wants to be hostile to anybody. We want you to experiment; we want you to explore; we want you to post cool things you do. I do. I mean, it's sort of the point of making this community. However, when these individuals don't get their way or they feel slighted, attacked or disrespected from basic questioning, they often turn and make statements about how toxic and horrible all of the communities are and lump me in with everyone else that will almost certainly have treated them more poorly. Some people just, idle at this mindset and behavior, they don't even have to be disrespected to get there. I go through great and extensive efforts to ensure that this community is not a toxic cesspool of cunts (other than me). It's not a lot of effort, but it is an effort. It displeases me when these individuals, who are incapable of separating their egos from their Ids and the wider, broader, experienced reality of others, come into my space and then do this shit. I fail to understand why anyone would feel it is necessary to behave this way. You do not need to become defensive if you are questioned. You do not need to become hostile if individuals tell you that it is time for you to revisit the basics of something so that you better have an understanding of what's going on before you make an experiment. Further, when you have 30 or 40 people all giving you advice on things that you can do to improve your situation, then most of them, damn near every single one of them, telling you the exact same thing that is wrong with your experiment and the reason you are posting and the issue you are having and how to solve it, do not become defensive about it. You don't need to feel like you're being attacked; we're all saying the same thing because that's the fucking problem. Like I can understand how you might feel attacked if you have everybody telling you, Oh, you know, well, actually, you don't understand what's going on right now. Here's what's going on. This is why this is happening." here's some evidence Here's a paper, here's a book, and here's a YouTube video you can watch that better explains it. This is not an attack, though, it's help. The appropriate response to this is not to become hostile and defensive and be like, "Oh, this is so toxic; I hate all of you. You guys are just neckbeards with nothing better to do you're the worst; I hate you. Oh, I'm such a victim. Woe is me."

It's like, it's infuriating. I'm not even going to sit here and act like I'm going to take the high ground with this because, like, it's been eating my ass for 24 hours. If you cannot handle basic criticism, critiques, questions, or other things that accompany a decorum of skilled individuals discussing the topic they are passionate about, please, for the love of God, don't post here. Because you have in this community some of the brightest minds I have ever spoken to or ever had the pleasure of being in a room with. Nobody here wants to attack you; nobody here wants to victimize you; nobody here wants to lord their mastery of knowledge of mycology over you. I promise you that is not the objective. But if you post a slimy, wet ball of mycelium that is probably bacterial and you have 40 people tell you, Hey, that slimy, wet ball of mycelium is probably bacterial and definitely way too wet; you need to do something about that, the appropriate response is not to go on a fucking rampage and bitch at everybody and then delete your post. And it's certainly not to send a message to me calling me and my community toxic assholes because we all told you that you needed to go learn the very basics again before you attempted an experiment because you don't understand enough of the processes at play to even grow normally, let alone grow whatever the **** it is you're trying to do, and then come to us and put it in my fucking lap like a dog that stole somebody's sandal and expect me to treat it like fucking gold.

It's happening more and more frequently that you have individuals come into this space looking for a reason to act like a victim. They aren't victimized, so nobody is victimizing anybody, but they come in here, and they get told that they need to learn this, they need to learn that, they need to watch this, they need to understand this, and then they start losing their shit and acting like a victim at the smallest amount of fucking criticism, the smallest amount, not very much. If you have absolutely no ability to have somebody criticize you, you don't belong in a room with anything more dangerous than a plastic spoon; you definitely don't belong on the Internet, and you certainly don't belong in my community. To ask questions and propose ideas is to accept the fact that individuals are going to have critical thoughts. Critical thoughts are not personal attacks; they are a means for you to improve. If you cannot take critical statements, critical ideas, and adjust your understanding of the world with them and your perceptions with them, then they are of no use to you, and you should not be asking for them. However, to participate in something like my community, you understand that by posting, you are submitting yourself to this criticality. People are going to ask questions; people are going to make statements. I am probably going to crack a joke. That's just how it is. If you are incapable of accepting criticism, please do not post here; you are not welcome. We're not going to be mean about it, but, like, yeah, if you post some shit that's not right and people start telling you what's gone wrong and your immediate first thought is, "Oh fuck you, you're a hostile, toxic bitch, I hate you". I hate the Internet. I hate this place. All of you are victimizing me." Then just please don't, just don't even post here; just leave now and never return. I don't allow people to do that, but I also do not tolerate clowns with a victim fetish, a chip on their shoulder, and an inability to take non-toxic Constructive criticism. I will not allow you to be victimized, I will not allow you to play the victim, both things are equally disgusting to me.

Rant over.

Mush love, BLR.

When transferring a wild mushroom spore print to agar, there is a high risk of contamination. I have a 3 watt laser that is able to be focused to a single very small point, and burn surfaces. When contamination pops up in small amounts, does it make sense to just zap and burn the contamination on the agar before it has time to spread? Does anyone have experience trying this?

Only one way to find out, will update in a week😈

A few months ago I was prescribed doxycycline and after consulting my doctor I was told I didn't need them anymore but I still had quite a bit. I have heard that taking antibiotics can cause fungal infections because of the lack of beneficial bacteria.. so what if I were to add the powdered contents of the gel caps into my lc? Is there a risk of accidently breeding super bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics? Thoughts? Edit: i thought I might add that as far as I'm aware antibiotics are ineffective against fungus and thought this would be a great way to prevent bacterial growth in my lcs.

Anybody here managed to cultivate Psilocybe semilanceata? I want to try this, but curious to if anybody have managed to do this successfully, whats the trick?

Not sure if it is a thing, or if anyone has tried it yet, but I’m currently making agar from drippy corn water with a bit more corn syrup added in. Let me know if you’ve done something like this before. If agar turns out okay I will make some LC from it next.