Hi, I wanted to share my Joe's dead easy method for mushroom chocolate. It is easy and uses very low temperature:
Ingredients:
- Very dry magic mushrooms (6g for example)
- Dark Chocolate drops / callets / pallets (100g for example)
Equipment:
- Coffee grinder
(Warning: a coffee/espresso "CONE GRINDER" did not work for me, switched to blade based "herb grinder")
OR If you have no grinder you can also a mortar, but it gets pretty dusty soon...
- Thermostat to constantly get temperature of the molten chocolate (This is essential for this method)
- Pot / pot for water bath
- Form to fill chocolate in
Instructions:
1. Grind the shrooms as fine as possible.
2. Heat the chocolate in the water bath
3. Add shroom powder, stir well
4. Fill chocolate into form(s)
So sounds simple but here is the trick. You NEED to get into the topic of "Tempering chocolate" there are 1001 links to be found on the net. Tempering chocolate is not only important to get a nice "non sticky" chocolate with a nice surface but also to get the chocolate out of the form(s) in absolute mint condition (!).
So I used the the following "Tempering chocolate guide", Together with dark chocolate callets from the same manufacturer:
https://www.callebaut.com/en/chocolate-video/technique/tempering/callets
Instructions with tempering:
1. Grind the shrooms as fine as possible.
2(a) Important: Keep 10-15% of chocolate callets for later(!)
2(b) Heat the chocolate (pot) in the water bath to 41-45 C (ideal temp depends on your chocolate type)
2(c) Take the pot away from heat / water bath. Add the 10-15% chocolate pallets to "do/init the tempering" and stir until you reach about 35 C
3. Add shroom powder, stir well. stir and wait until the chocolate/shroom mix reaches 31-32C
4. Fill chocolate into form(s) (just clean forms, no fat or anything added to prevent sticking)
The results should be great. I think a nice advantage is the low cooking temperature.
sorry man. I missed your last post. Again awesome quality and detail. please forget about my last question you already answered it in detail with this post (https://shroomok.com/en/wiki/Mushrooms-side-and-bottom-pinning)
Hi, I am finally running on 1:3 mix on four 60x40x12cm boxes inside the described tent. All my sensors are currently out of order. So in general I only use a "WLAN based 4 x power socket" running on "Tasmota Home automation" software (Fan-out CO2, and Fogger to get back humidity - hourly). I will send you a nice article/details/fotos soon, steam bath 3000 :)
q: Did you rehydrate (soak) your mushroom cakes in water after the 1st flush?
So my last "caked based" box - I even forgot to soak them before putting them in coco-mix. To be honest I did not experience any bad results from that. I did not manually mist the boxes at all - except about about 100ml per box when I "waited if there would happen anything more after the first flush" (I had no experience about when or how this (2nd + flushes) should happen and if it would be worth to wait instead of using new box).
q: what strain(s) are you growing?
GT, B+, I just can't get the APE running
--
current observations:
- After 3 weeks of spawning my 1:3 mix in the boxes were ready to go (maybe they even would take 1 week longer) and they are currently growing like hell (I am so interested in the 2nd flush results also). I even needed to get a 2nd big dryer hehe...
- I had one bad thing happen :( 3 out of remaining 4 spawn bag (2 ape) got the contam :( So yeah I will try to make a 1:4 or 1:4.5 mix out of necessity...
quick question about the cultivation boxes:
I noticed that about after 2 Weeks alot of mycel was ready on the "outer sections near the box edges" and even 1,3 small aborts could be seen - very few mycel in the center of the box. Is this normal ? I am using about 3 "air holes" per side of the box (holes smaller than in traditional monotube) and I closed them with micropore tape (1 layer). Are the aborts normal or a sign of "to mutch fresh air", maybe even only 2 holes per side or more layers of micropore!
Hey Joe!
What a great news!
I’m glad you have a successful mushroom fruiting.
Did you rehydrate (soak) your mushroom cakes in water after the 1st flush?
Or maybe hard misting on the top layer after harvesting to initiate the next flush?
BTW, what strain(s) are you growing?
Grow tent is a great tech approach and new level in mushroom growing.
Thank you for sharing your journey with so many useful details. This is a complete report that others may find helpful.
And ofc thanks for sharing your fruiting conditions data, love it!
(Yes, CO2 changes are crazy at active stage of fruiting! But CO2 produced by oyster mushrooms will make you even more shocked)
P.S. If you’d like to share an “article by Joe” with more details, photos you can send it to me on e-mail shroomok [at] gmail.com and I’ll create a separate write up ;)
Hey @B! No, Roger Rabbit is not a hybrid. It is a Leucistic TAT (True Albino Teacher) isolation. You can find all species, strains and info about them in Mushroom Genetics Tree here: https://shroomok.com/articles:mushroom-strains
Hi. That problem you have with natalensis i have exact the same with ban hua thai. And i found out that if you let those withe blobs forrm that type of carpet in the cake and you take them all out with a little bit of the subtrate (the less the better but it has to take some) and then soaked all in cold water all night, and then, if needed , mist the cake hard it will promote the pinning (but you can only mist the part where there is no pinns already because you will abort them if you do). I had the same problem seeing 0 shrooms for like forever, but dping this i got up to 25 dried shrooms. doing this will make it span pinns but there will be some blobs still, what i do is after the procesos i take them out everyday, dont even let those mfs grow.
Pd: the blobs can be eaten. when you take them out or break them you can see they turn blue with bruises or cuts. i thought they could be used as a reglar shroom, so i tested it. Took 2g of dried blobs in a lemontek thinking it will be like half power compared to normal shrooms and i was wrong. Cant really say if they hit full force, but they really feel very close if not the same.
Pd: you need more than 2 FAE for those bloby shoorms 3-5 is more like it, with 2 produces a lot of blobs and the shrooms are not that big, with 3-5 still makes blobs but the shrooms are way more healthy. I got a lot of pictures and even videos of the whole process (i am even gonna do it to 4 tubs tomorrow lol , but i'll check de 1:3 ratio of cococoir and the peatmoss cassing layer)
Pd: thanks a lot for that long explanation it helped a lot.
After long searching I found a nice "low budget" (< 90 EUR for 0,01g) professional scale I would recommend:
Manufacturer: KERN
Model: EHA 500-2 (Max 500 g: d=0,01 g, also in oz/ct/dwt
https://www.kern-waagen.shop/Praezisionswaage-Max-500-g-d001-g_1
Big plus: 9v power supply included or battery powered
Shroomok more than good news. "Just" the cutting cakes to slices and putting them into coco with coco top layer increased the yield incredibly. I would love to tell you more about my "Spawn2Bulk + top layer" experiences but the current "cakes to slices" just had a huge 2nd flush and I think they ll still grow the next 7-10 days :) Huge healthy shrooms :)
Thanks for the recommendation about the fruiting chamber volume. I took a quite different very nerdy tech approach. So here are my growing details. I am currently collecting more data and I am trying to get more sensors but I would love to publish my results together with all the data. Maybe it would be possible to publish it here in a small post or article. I am not a fan of photos or social media but we ll find a way :)
Ingredients:
Liquid Culture: malt extract 4% (a bit peptone ex soja)
Grain Spawn: organic rye berries, 10% vermiculit, 2% gypsum
Bulk substrate: 65-75% coco coir, 35-45% vermiculit, 5% gypsum
Fruiting tent(!):
Tent: HOMEbox 60x60x160cm
Humidity: The House of Hydro - 3 Disc mist maker (op), about 18L water tank (aquarium heater optional)
Ventilation: PrimaClima, PK 125-2, Carbonactive activated carbon filter (the model that can handle humidity of 80%+)
Fruiting-Boxes inside tent: 60x40x12cm - 4 to 3 boxes
Sensors (high quality): CO2, Temp, Humidity
(note: the sensors a nice to have and I want to add more just for "scientific reasons" ;) - but in general I switched from a complex "PID Controller" setup to a simple time based activation of humidity and ventilation)
Climate and Stuff: So currently I found a nice setting. I activate the ventilation once an hour for about 5min, (wait 5 min) and then activate the mist maker for 4min. I have a constant humidity at about 82% (but no water at the bottom of the tent) at a room temp of 22-24C. CO2 is around 1300 ppm max and below 1000 ppm average. If the flush is starting the CO2 goes up like crazy without ventilation of the box (or with a closed window inside the growing room) a saw 4000-5000 ppm :)
ups didn't want to write that mutch... hmm who else to tell ^^
1) Yes, you're right! Moving from pf-tek cakes to Spawn2Bulk + top layer (casing or pseudo casing) is a game changer in increasing yield.
2) When picking clusters, small shrooms/pins come together with the whole cluster, it's fine.
3) Regarding the height of your mushroom cake (grain spawn + bulk substrate + top layer) it should be within 5-10 cm (2-4 inches). +/- 1 cm is not critical. You don't need a tower, at the same time cake should be thick enough.
There is also one more recommendation. Your cake should take up no more than 1/3 of the volume of the fruiting chamber (shoebox, bottle, monotub). For instance, if your plastic box = 24 cm in height, then your mushroom cake should be up to 8 cm (24/3=8).
So, all the options you've listed above are right.
Don't afraid to make different cakes (different S2B ratio, different height etc.) and compare results.
yeah you got me right It's like you suggested: I have 440ml (sorry metric here) cakes based on rye berries. At the beginning of my growing approaches I directly growed from the cakes, currently I switched to slicing the cakes and putting them into coco coir mix - my rye berry based bags (~2 KG) unicorns look great and should be ready soon. Bags seem to colonize very well and I am about to quit the cake business :)
So: I will try a 1:2.5 and 1:3 ratio and MIX the stuff. The top coco layer sounds great.
A little negative side effect I currently experience from using the "sliced-cake" method is that the shroom clusters are pretty tough sticking together and I "accidentally" supercarefull-harvest "small bystanders". I was a little bit more flexible and could be more selective when harvesting from the cakes directly.
I have one additional question:
Whats the ideal filling height of the 1:2, 1:3 mix + the coco topping ?
I wanted to try, please correct me if dead wrong:
4 cm MIX + 1cm coco topping
5 cm MIX + 1cm coco topping
6 cm MIX + 1cm coco topping
Hi @Joe! Could you please clarify? Do you mean you cut BRF (brown rice flour) cakes for slices and then cover with bulk substrate (coco coir mix). If so, yes it works great and much better for fruiting than PF-tek cakes.
After full colonization wait a few days more to make sure grain totally covered with mycelium from all the sides.
1:2 or 1:3 ratio is up to you.
You can use "substrate-layering", no problem. I prefer to break up grains to separate sticked grains and MIX with bulk substrate (coco coir mix). In this way we create more points of growth. Therefore, the speed of bulk substrate colonization is faster. Also I highly recommend to add 1/2-1/3 inch (~1-1.5cm) of bulk substrate (coco coir mix) on top of your cake after mixing.
Hi, I am just switching from cakes to bags. I had quite success with cutting the cakes (2-3 cm slices) and placing them on coco bulk and cover the slices also with coco (40 x 60 x 7 cm). Looks great and smells great so far, 0 contamination etc.
So my bags are ready in a couple of weeks and I was asking myself if I should "mix" the bags 1:2, 1:3 with substrate or if I should try to cut the bag-blocks similar to the way I proceed with the cakes.
Does anyone have experience or recommendations with "substrate-layer" instead of "substrate-mix" ?
Делаю Spawn to Bulk в монотуб. В период колонизации (когда все отверстия закрыты и нет воздуха) нужно монотуб држать в темноте? И какую температуру держать и влажность в этот момент?
or
or
@mtk Yes, you can use non-transparent plastic boxes. You can see an example with black boxes at the end of the current article ;)
DIY Monotub Tek. How to build monotub for mushroom cultivation
No way that's jack
Jack Frost or not?
Can i grow in un transperant. plastic box
DIY Monotub Tek. How to build monotub for mushroom cultivation
Hi, I wanted to share my Joe's dead easy method for mushroom chocolate. It is easy and uses very low temperature:
Ingredients:
- Very dry magic mushrooms (6g for example)
- Dark Chocolate drops / callets / pallets (100g for example)
Equipment:
- Coffee grinder
(Warning: a coffee/espresso "CONE GRINDER" did not work for me, switched to blade based "herb grinder")
OR If you have no grinder you can also a mortar, but it gets pretty dusty soon...
- Thermostat to constantly get temperature of the molten chocolate (This is essential for this method)
- Pot / pot for water bath
- Form to fill chocolate in
Instructions:
1. Grind the shrooms as fine as possible.
2. Heat the chocolate in the water bath
3. Add shroom powder, stir well
4. Fill chocolate into form(s)
So sounds simple but here is the trick. You NEED to get into the topic of "Tempering chocolate" there are 1001 links to be found on the net. Tempering chocolate is not only important to get a nice "non sticky" chocolate with a nice surface but also to get the chocolate out of the form(s) in absolute mint condition (!).
So I used the the following "Tempering chocolate guide", Together with dark chocolate callets from the same manufacturer:
https://www.callebaut.com/en/chocolate-video/technique/tempering/callets
Instructions with tempering:
1. Grind the shrooms as fine as possible.
2(a) Important: Keep 10-15% of chocolate callets for later(!)
2(b) Heat the chocolate (pot) in the water bath to 41-45 C (ideal temp depends on your chocolate type)
2(c) Take the pot away from heat / water bath. Add the 10-15% chocolate pallets to "do/init the tempering" and stir until you reach about 35 C
3. Add shroom powder, stir well. stir and wait until the chocolate/shroom mix reaches 31-32C
4. Fill chocolate into form(s) (just clean forms, no fat or anything added to prevent sticking)
The results should be great. I think a nice advantage is the low cooking temperature.
Have fun
Magic mushroom chocolate and psilocybin candy recipes
sorry man. I missed your last post. Again awesome quality and detail. please forget about my last question you already answered it in detail with this post (https://shroomok.com/en/wiki/Mushrooms-side-and-bottom-pinning)
What is the best ratio of spawn to bulk for mushroom growing
Hi, I am finally running on 1:3 mix on four 60x40x12cm boxes inside the described tent. All my sensors are currently out of order. So in general I only use a "WLAN based 4 x power socket" running on "Tasmota Home automation" software (Fan-out CO2, and Fogger to get back humidity - hourly). I will send you a nice article/details/fotos soon, steam bath 3000 :)
q: Did you rehydrate (soak) your mushroom cakes in water after the 1st flush?
So my last "caked based" box - I even forgot to soak them before putting them in coco-mix. To be honest I did not experience any bad results from that. I did not manually mist the boxes at all - except about about 100ml per box when I "waited if there would happen anything more after the first flush" (I had no experience about when or how this (2nd + flushes) should happen and if it would be worth to wait instead of using new box).
q: what strain(s) are you growing?
GT, B+, I just can't get the APE running
--
current observations:
- After 3 weeks of spawning my 1:3 mix in the boxes were ready to go (maybe they even would take 1 week longer) and they are currently growing like hell (I am so interested in the 2nd flush results also). I even needed to get a 2nd big dryer hehe...
- I had one bad thing happen :( 3 out of remaining 4 spawn bag (2 ape) got the contam :( So yeah I will try to make a 1:4 or 1:4.5 mix out of necessity...
quick question about the cultivation boxes:
I noticed that about after 2 Weeks alot of mycel was ready on the "outer sections near the box edges" and even 1,3 small aborts could be seen - very few mycel in the center of the box. Is this normal ? I am using about 3 "air holes" per side of the box (holes smaller than in traditional monotube) and I closed them with micropore tape (1 layer). Are the aborts normal or a sign of "to mutch fresh air", maybe even only 2 holes per side or more layers of micropore!
regards Joe
What is the best ratio of spawn to bulk for mushroom growing
That’s not a pan cyan
the biggest pan cyans panaeolus cyanescens I’ve ever seen in the wild #2
Hey Joe!
What a great news!
I’m glad you have a successful mushroom fruiting.
Did you rehydrate (soak) your mushroom cakes in water after the 1st flush?
Or maybe hard misting on the top layer after harvesting to initiate the next flush?
BTW, what strain(s) are you growing?
Grow tent is a great tech approach and new level in mushroom growing.
Thank you for sharing your journey with so many useful details. This is a complete report that others may find helpful.
And ofc thanks for sharing your fruiting conditions data, love it!
(Yes, CO2 changes are crazy at active stage of fruiting! But CO2 produced by oyster mushrooms will make you even more shocked)
P.S. If you’d like to share an “article by Joe” with more details, photos you can send it to me on e-mail shroomok [at] gmail.com and I’ll create a separate write up ;)
What is the best ratio of spawn to bulk for mushroom growing
Hey @B! No, Roger Rabbit is not a hybrid. It is a Leucistic TAT (True Albino Teacher) isolation. You can find all species, strains and info about them in Mushroom Genetics Tree here: https://shroomok.com/articles:mushroom-strains
Growing Roger Rabbit
Is Rodger Rabbit a hybrid?
Growing Roger Rabbit
Hi. That problem you have with natalensis i have exact the same with ban hua thai. And i found out that if you let those withe blobs forrm that type of carpet in the cake and you take them all out with a little bit of the subtrate (the less the better but it has to take some) and then soaked all in cold water all night, and then, if needed , mist the cake hard it will promote the pinning (but you can only mist the part where there is no pinns already because you will abort them if you do). I had the same problem seeing 0 shrooms for like forever, but dping this i got up to 25 dried shrooms. doing this will make it span pinns but there will be some blobs still, what i do is after the procesos i take them out everyday, dont even let those mfs grow.
Pd: the blobs can be eaten. when you take them out or break them you can see they turn blue with bruises or cuts. i thought they could be used as a reglar shroom, so i tested it. Took 2g of dried blobs in a lemontek thinking it will be like half power compared to normal shrooms and i was wrong. Cant really say if they hit full force, but they really feel very close if not the same.
Pd: you need more than 2 FAE for those bloby shoorms 3-5 is more like it, with 2 produces a lot of blobs and the shrooms are not that big, with 3-5 still makes blobs but the shrooms are way more healthy. I got a lot of pictures and even videos of the whole process (i am even gonna do it to 4 tubs tomorrow lol , but i'll check de 1:3 ratio of cococoir and the peatmoss cassing layer)
Pd: thanks a lot for that long explanation it helped a lot.
Natalensis grow bag fruiting and overlay problems
Thanks for all your great publications.
After long searching I found a nice "low budget" (< 90 EUR for 0,01g) professional scale I would recommend:
Manufacturer: KERN
Model: EHA 500-2 (Max 500 g: d=0,01 g, also in oz/ct/dwt
https://www.kern-waagen.shop/Praezisionswaage-Max-500-g-d001-g_1
Big plus: 9v power supply included or battery powered
Psilocybine magic mushroom capsules for microdosing
Shroomok more than good news. "Just" the cutting cakes to slices and putting them into coco with coco top layer increased the yield incredibly. I would love to tell you more about my "Spawn2Bulk + top layer" experiences but the current "cakes to slices" just had a huge 2nd flush and I think they ll still grow the next 7-10 days :) Huge healthy shrooms :)
Thanks for the recommendation about the fruiting chamber volume. I took a quite different very nerdy tech approach. So here are my growing details. I am currently collecting more data and I am trying to get more sensors but I would love to publish my results together with all the data. Maybe it would be possible to publish it here in a small post or article. I am not a fan of photos or social media but we ll find a way :)
Ingredients:
Liquid Culture: malt extract 4% (a bit peptone ex soja)
Grain Spawn: organic rye berries, 10% vermiculit, 2% gypsum
Bulk substrate: 65-75% coco coir, 35-45% vermiculit, 5% gypsum
Fruiting tent(!):
Tent: HOMEbox 60x60x160cm
Humidity: The House of Hydro - 3 Disc mist maker (op), about 18L water tank (aquarium heater optional)
Ventilation: PrimaClima, PK 125-2, Carbonactive activated carbon filter (the model that can handle humidity of 80%+)
Fruiting-Boxes inside tent: 60x40x12cm - 4 to 3 boxes
Sensors (high quality): CO2, Temp, Humidity
(note: the sensors a nice to have and I want to add more just for "scientific reasons" ;) - but in general I switched from a complex "PID Controller" setup to a simple time based activation of humidity and ventilation)
Climate and Stuff: So currently I found a nice setting. I activate the ventilation once an hour for about 5min, (wait 5 min) and then activate the mist maker for 4min. I have a constant humidity at about 82% (but no water at the bottom of the tent) at a room temp of 22-24C. CO2 is around 1300 ppm max and below 1000 ppm average. If the flush is starting the CO2 goes up like crazy without ventilation of the box (or with a closed window inside the growing room) a saw 4000-5000 ppm :)
ups didn't want to write that mutch... hmm who else to tell ^^
What is the best ratio of spawn to bulk for mushroom growing
What temperature did you use and hoe long in the dehydrator?
First Albino Penis Envy grow
Hey @Joe!
Glad to hear we are on the same page :)
1) Yes, you're right! Moving from pf-tek cakes to Spawn2Bulk + top layer (casing or pseudo casing) is a game changer in increasing yield.
2) When picking clusters, small shrooms/pins come together with the whole cluster, it's fine.
3) Regarding the height of your mushroom cake (grain spawn + bulk substrate + top layer) it should be within 5-10 cm (2-4 inches). +/- 1 cm is not critical. You don't need a tower, at the same time cake should be thick enough.
There is also one more recommendation. Your cake should take up no more than 1/3 of the volume of the fruiting chamber (shoebox, bottle, monotub). For instance, if your plastic box = 24 cm in height, then your mushroom cake should be up to 8 cm (24/3=8).
So, all the options you've listed above are right.
Don't afraid to make different cakes (different S2B ratio, different height etc.) and compare results.
Good luck! Waiting for good news from you 🤞
What is the best ratio of spawn to bulk for mushroom growing
Hi Shroomok!
yeah you got me right It's like you suggested: I have 440ml (sorry metric here) cakes based on rye berries. At the beginning of my growing approaches I directly growed from the cakes, currently I switched to slicing the cakes and putting them into coco coir mix - my rye berry based bags (~2 KG) unicorns look great and should be ready soon. Bags seem to colonize very well and I am about to quit the cake business :)
So: I will try a 1:2.5 and 1:3 ratio and MIX the stuff. The top coco layer sounds great.
A little negative side effect I currently experience from using the "sliced-cake" method is that the shroom clusters are pretty tough sticking together and I "accidentally" supercarefull-harvest "small bystanders". I was a little bit more flexible and could be more selective when harvesting from the cakes directly.
I have one additional question:
Whats the ideal filling height of the 1:2, 1:3 mix + the coco topping ?
I wanted to try, please correct me if dead wrong:
4 cm MIX + 1cm coco topping
5 cm MIX + 1cm coco topping
6 cm MIX + 1cm coco topping
have a nice day!
What is the best ratio of spawn to bulk for mushroom growing
Hi @Joe! Could you please clarify? Do you mean you cut BRF (brown rice flour) cakes for slices and then cover with bulk substrate (coco coir mix). If so, yes it works great and much better for fruiting than PF-tek cakes.
After full colonization wait a few days more to make sure grain totally covered with mycelium from all the sides.
1:2 or 1:3 ratio is up to you.
You can use "substrate-layering", no problem. I prefer to break up grains to separate sticked grains and MIX with bulk substrate (coco coir mix). In this way we create more points of growth. Therefore, the speed of bulk substrate colonization is faster. Also I highly recommend to add 1/2-1/3 inch (~1-1.5cm) of bulk substrate (coco coir mix) on top of your cake after mixing.
Let me know if you have any additional questions.
P.S. Hope I've got you right :)
What is the best ratio of spawn to bulk for mushroom growing
Hi, I am just switching from cakes to bags. I had quite success with cutting the cakes (2-3 cm slices) and placing them on coco bulk and cover the slices also with coco (40 x 60 x 7 cm). Looks great and smells great so far, 0 contamination etc.
So my bags are ready in a couple of weeks and I was asking myself if I should "mix" the bags 1:2, 1:3 with substrate or if I should try to cut the bag-blocks similar to the way I proceed with the cakes.
Does anyone have experience or recommendations with "substrate-layer" instead of "substrate-mix" ?
What is the best ratio of spawn to bulk for mushroom growing
Делаю Spawn to Bulk в монотуб. В период колонизации (когда все отверстия закрыты и нет воздуха) нужно монотуб држать в темноте? И какую температуру держать и влажность в этот момент?
Making mushroom cake, spawn to bulk, and casing
That brown definitely looks like contam or dead mycelium but you can check by putting g to agar
First liquid culture. I've left it for 2 weeks and these spots formed on top. Are they new mycelium growing or contamination? #2