I have been obsessed with mycology for a while now and I finally got to start on my second grow a few months ago. Along the way I’ve been teaching my boyfriend about what I’m doing, what phase I’m in, what’s next, the teks, the procedures, stages of growth, everything. I was kind of thinking that he just listened to be supportive and that was sweet, but then he started pointing things out in my grow and asking specifics like “are those hyphal knots, or primordia” or when I was away he send me a video of the tub and he was excited to show me that we had our first official pins! He walked out of the room one day and said “yeah you should have used a liner” and I about fell out with laughter. All this to say, share your joy with the people that you love. Even if they’re not completely interested they will join you in your efforts.

Should I have him make his own tub? I think it would be a fun date to S2B together.

Sometimes the cake is too dry. You can spray it with water, but the alternative is a little humidifier. There are very small and cheap models you can put inside a big tub. Powered by USD cord - from the wall or from a power bank - the humidifier is mobile and convenient.

Despite low price, those humidifiers are pretty reliable and work well. Some of them even have modern USB-C port!

What do you think?

Put your cake in a big tub together with the humidifier

2-4 USD on Temu

Went to check on my tubs as one does and this poor lil fella lost his head lol

I started this bag in like the beginning of August.

My GTs were all pretty much ready to harvest by the time I saw any significant growth with these.

My other APE bag never had ANY reaction, I'm probably going to try and reuse it for my next innoculation as it still looks pristine.

What has your guys experience been with these? Any real successes? Not sure if it's worth the time compared to the GT. It's not like I'm actively involved in the growing, just some water spritzing, but idk.

just wondering because I have a fully colonized cake I have been misting regularly now and wondering if I need to do anything else to get into fruiting conditions. The container is pretty sealed but twice a day I fan it and spray it

I had a fun experience with an oyster mushroom kit. After three flushes, it looks to be done.

A couple years ago, I had a very large hybrid poplar tree cut down and stump ground down. This tree was 20+ years old with a massive root system. I also have an option to some in an old wine barrel and dirt. Hopefully, it is obvious I have no idea what I am doing.

How do I take the kit outside and cultivate it such that the mushrooms come back next year?

I live in a 7a hardiness zone?

I left this to colonize for way too long before I moved to FC a couple weeks ago. I’ve had to soak up pooling moisture from the top (twice) due to accidental over humidification in my martha. Since then, I’ve moved the tub from the tent and put the lid on (still proper temp, hum and FAE) should I stay patient and just see what happens or has this gone too long and I should dump?

The pins are in!! Let’s gooooooo!!!!

After 4 months, this is my personal record wet weight. Bull Head, but really no idea what strain this is 🤩🤩🤩

Not sure if I need to let more air in or just let them ride now, sorry it’s impossible to get a picture inside the bag lol

It feels utterly ridiculous that I can’t accomplish a decent fruit from a fully populated substrate from two different companies. I spray the substrate, wait almost 2 weeks for pins, and the water runs down the plastic and pools in the bottom and eventually molds. It seems so stupid.

The fruit seems to take entirely too long, which ends up causing the mold at the bottom the bag. And if I try and remove the cake from the bag, I don’t understand how to make sure it fruits properly the way some of you put the column cake on foil.

I’ve read that some people say lions mane fruits when it’s cool (~65 F), but I don’t know anything about how much humidity keeps it healthy, and the expectation of FAE. I see so many pictures with explosive fruits from lions mane and all I get is a golf ball at most.

Also, I live surrounded by trees. Can I use the useless cake to inoculate logs? Do I need the wood plugs or can I just shove a decent shred of the cake into the logs? How long would I typically have to wait to see some LM fruits? The following summer or spring?

I decided to send an oyster grain bag that had clear signs of contamination (it wasn't sterilized for long enough) just to see what would happen... well I found out lol

Don't worry I disposed of it in my backyard as soon as I saw the trich bright white growth.

I've only ever grown P. cubensis in the past but I'm interested in trying to grow lion's mane.

Everything I've read so far says to inoculate a grain mix with a liquid culture and then once that's colonized, adding that to a hardwood substrate. It seems like this step would add an extra chance for contamination and I can't find any information as to why it's necessary to first inoculate grain and then add that grain to the hardwood mix. I'm guessing it's for extra nutrition but I'd think something like masters mix would be enough extra nutrition compared to straight hardwood to skip the grain step.

I haven't found anyone mention success or failure when skipping this step so I'm curious if anyone has tried to or if there's a more specific reason why it's necessary.

And in theory, would it be possible to have a bottom layer of grain, upper layer of master mix and inoculate the bag specifically in the grain layer, then mix it all after that layer is colonized? It seems like that would be a more simple solution but I'd imagine there has to be a reason why people don't do that.

The are so dense. I dont even know how to start. This is my first grow. I guess just pick a spot and gave at it.

I’ve heard PE was one of the strongest, but I’m having a hard time of finding a website that sells liquid cultures of it, I’d rather start with the cultures rather than the spores. Any other recommendations?