I hope everyone has a good weekend coming up. I was able to make it through rt 16 to dover after work today without getting killed by the Massachusetts holiday migration. I've already won. Those birds are Reckless but an amazing sight to see. 

Hey,

I’ve been relooking at the blotch episodes and was looking for a little clarification. It’s mentioned that someone uses approx 1.5qts (48fl oz) to 10 gallons (1028fl oz) which would be a 4.6% (48/1028=.0466). It’s also mentioned multiple times that .1% (.001) is the optimal amount which would be closer to 1fl oz for the 10 gallon example (1028x.001=1.028). Maybe I’m mixing up my math here, but it’s a pretty wide swing in the numbers. 

If I had to guess 1fl oz isn’t enough to clean 10 gallons, but maybe if it was added multiple times per day?

Looking for a good Pleurotus pulmonarius strain...does MCS have a good commercial one? I have customers that really love them but the strain I have isn't real high yielding and is so fast to turn that cap...

Hey tyler

How do you store long term the pink oyster strain? Does is support cryogenic freezing?

thanks

No grain, no pain! The future is liquid!

I woke up to the Agar Slurry video after a late night of churning out a large percentage of our culture library into slurries. And I wish I would have watched the video first, because pint jars are a much better idea than the quarts I've been using..

We've pretty much moved to liquid spawn (liquid innoculant, pshh) for all our smaller bags (2 and 5#). I plan for an extra couple weeks of colonization on the shelf with the liquid and only use sterilized, not pasteurized sub. There seems to be a slight yield decrease with most varieties (not lions) vs. grain, but tossing in some grain or feed pellets with the combo pellets seems to make up for this. An enriched combo pellet may be ideal for a liquid future...

I started trials last night of liquid culture vs agar slurry inoculation to combo pellets, as I've pretty much only used the agar slurry to noc up liquid culture, then noc the bulk with the LC. This gets the LC going super quick.

Anyways, some notes from my experience:

Species:

-Lion's and chestnuts work great, as does Ganoderma, but the reishis will creep up on you. It seems to do nothing for ~3 weeks, then quickly colonizes the bag. I've hydrated combo pellets with pure liquid culture (lions and chestnuts), no pasteurization, open air pour and had success with 0 visible contams. That's a lotta liquid though!

-Pio's work well, just a little slow, and seem to take off way faster on straw.

-I don't have as much experience with shiitakes, but they have been inoculating bulk sub in China with shiitake liquid spawn for decades.

-Oysters don't take off as well from liquid, with the exception of eryngii. It seems to take 1.5 months on the shelf with no shaking for most oysters, and they get a little pissy. Some improvement seen with some straw and feed pellets in with the MM combo pellets.

Rates that seem to work well:

-1 90mm plate to 120ml H2O

-60ml agar slurry to 4L LC to 200L LC

-30ml LC to 2# master's mix, 60ml to 5# and 120-300ml to 10#.

Lions don't seem to mind the added moisture, but everything else seems to do better on a bit dryer sub. Even factoring in the added liquid to the final moisture.

Tips: 

-glue/silicone that gasket onto the blender base

- definitely use aerated culture if going direct to bulk

- horizon bags, or anything with a bit more air exchange helps

- pour thin plates for agar slurries, otherwise you'll make an LC syringe with all that extra agar and it will get real thick if not used right away

Does anyone have experience sending strains abroad (not through a company)? I feel like they are gonna get very suspicious at customs, since it is biological material, and they won't let it through. 
I want to send cultures to Portugal. My plan is to try both by mail and, if that fails, in my suitcase. The method I'm gonna try is 5 ml cryovials with agar plugs in distilled water, but if there is a better method to fly under the radar, I would like to know.
Anyone have specific tips or experience with this?
I appreciate it as always.

Hey CapnStem. Do you guys have any leads on possibly tincture people looking for Cordyceps within New England? I've got quite a bit. Also have a lot of space to grow a crazy amount if I really needed to. 

Hope everyone had an Amazing April 20th up there

🤘☮️🤘

Hello! Any news about sending your cultures in Europe?

I'm looking for more information on CNS's hericium strains. With summer coming up, I'm looking for something that's a little more heat tolerant, something that can handle 80F if necessary.  Which CNS  Hericium strain(s) would you recommend? HE 9514, HE CNS, or HELP!?  

Thanks Erik and C&S for the super clean and affordable culture!

I had the thought to make plug spawn for yuppies to grow out but I was wondering if anyone knows what type of wax (and where to get it) that people are using as room temp pliable plug spawn wax?

I was also wondering if people have experience growing it commercially?  I know about plugging logs and burying them colonized and seen F&F talk about sterilizing logs to inoculate.  Seems like a hobby thing to do tho. 

I'm guessing it would be a gold mine to figure out how to grow it in bags commercially like Maitake.  Does anyone know how that strain went from being foraged to block production and why that hasn't been done with COW?