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!?  

I start to grow golden enoki for the first time. I had exudate(metabolite) in the incubation process. I did top fruit in the fruiting room like king oyster. The bottom stem when I cut it was brown inside with a hole in the center. Some was twisted as well. It is a type of bacteria or is normal? I feel they don't have enough airflow with the plastic around when they are pack.
Thank'all

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?

Hey guys,
I started watching the deep dive on Di-mon. Super stoked y`all are tackling these more complex and fascinating topics and simplifying it just enough so more of us who haven't gone into the more advanced aspects can also get stoked about it.

I heard something in the beginning that I wasn't sure was correct, so I wanted to check, cause maybe my own understanding is off. 

Towards the beginning, Gregory said something along the lines of "If they like each other, they will become dikaryotic There will be plasmogamy, but won't be fusion of cytoplasm, just sharing of nucleus." Did he mean there won't be fusion of nucleus, just sharing of cytoplasm? My understanding was that with plasmogamy there is sharing of protoplast (cytoplasm and organelles) but not yet the fusion of nuclei, which happens during karyogamy. 

Hi Folks - first time post here and a big fan of the videos.  I'm trying to optimize my sterilization process.  I'm currently using 23 quart pressure cookers with 4 x 6 pound blocks in each.  I've seen lots of guesses about how long folks should cook their blocks, from 30 minutes to 3 hours,  but has anyone actually measured this or have a calculation to estimate how long you need to cook 6lb blocks at 15 bar to have the centers reach 212F for 30 min?  Btw, my substrate is masters mix.  Thank you in advance!

This broth has insect powder in it. I have no idea if it's better than anything else but I will say it somehow slowed down growth in general.

Does anyone have any guesses as to what is going on here and the cause? This is occurring on master's mix production blocks from the same cook/noc day with blue oyster spawn from two different dates. (the 3 other species noced aren't displaying this). So far, less than 10% of blocks are displaying this, but may find more.
This is our first run doing master's mix with fresh SD and soy hull pellets. 10-20% of the pellets did not break down completely, even after shaking. The blocks in the very back of the container are getting as hot (the front ones got to 203F inside the bag). My guess is that these blocks got an insufficient cooked and developed it sclerotia from stress from being exposed and battling off contaminants.

That mycelium feels EXTREMELY hard to the touch. And when I broke open the 5lb block, it seemed like it was quite hot, although that could be normal and I just might not have noticed the heat as much before. A lot of exudate coming out of those structures and strong sweet mycelial smell, maybe a little funky, but not too bad. 

Incubation temp ranged from 55-mid seventies.
Substrate ended up being too dry 58-60%
Here is a video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1eUdRJL5jbZyPGCt7