Hey folks, I have seen a lot of posts on here about laminar flow hoods, and just buying pre-made grainspawn. I decided as soon as I started messing with
mushrooms that if I could not do it on my own, or without breaking the bank, I would not do it. I have had an amazing
experience with just a pressure cooker and an upsidedown storage tote. I already owned a pressure cooker for canning veggies, and the tote was just laying around. I did have to spend 15$ on wheat seed, but one large bag has lasted me a year. I always get mason jars when I can, so i also count those as free. All I use is some wheat seed soaked in normal
water overnight, and then i set it in a colander for an hour and put it directly in the jars. From there I add no supplements, and I take normal old mason jars and turn the lids upside-down to prevent the jar from making a hermetic seal. This allows air exchange but not
enough for mold to get in. I do not screw around with tape, or pillow cushions and drilling holes. From there I place the jars in the pressure cooker, cook it for 90 minutes on 15 PSI. After they are done I give them several hours to cool. I then put them on a table and put a tote over them upside-down. I take a sprayer bottle of 70% isopropyl alcohol and I absolutely drench the inside of the tote, until it is all foggy and wet with alcohol. I pull the tote a quarter over the table so that i can get my arms under it. I wear a paint mask and I put on plastic gloves, not for the sake of being sterile, but instead because all that alcohol gives me a headache and drys out my fingers... Make sure no one is in the room, because honestly the more alcohol you use the better its going to be. Make sure there is not some dirty moldy dog running around, but
common sense will almost always prevail. From here I take jars of fully colonized strains and sew them into new jars, I use about 3 spoonfulls of grainspawn per jar to make sure it really gets in there. This works great with shiitake, lionsmane, white oyster, and pink oyster. I have not tried others. The only problem that is apparent is that oysters colonize it fairly fast and after colonizing it fully they start to rot and allow for bacteria and mold.
Here is a
video that helped me out a lot, and this fellow does not even use a pressure cooker. Great channel by the way.
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