Reishi quarts and Turkey Tail 1/2 pint jars!!!

[spacecowboy]

So here we go again, expanding on what has worked so far....and some Turkey Tail jar experimentation.

Goal is to antler fruit Reishi from quart sized jars and see how big I can grow them. The substrate is as follows:

4 parts white oak sawdust
1 part wheat bran
H2O added until it just barely drips from fist when squeezed

Jars were all loaded using a lite tapping down method. Did not want them too compact so that full colonization would happen quicker. An internal reservoir was add to the center using a standard sized Bic pen, hole pluged with balled piece of paper napkin, and then a dry un-supplemented white oak sawdust contamination barrier was added to the the top. Jars were sterilized at 15 p.s.i. for a little over an hour. Inoculation of the jars done with standard dowel plug spawn from www.MycoPorn.com

Inoculation done two different ways:

-5 plugs straight down the middle via the inner reservoir
-using 5 plugs with 4 equally spaced around the top edges and one in the middle

After full colonization the the lids were removed and the top contam barriers (all with heavy overlay) were removed and then microwave sterilized 50/50+ casing soil was added. One of each style inoculated jar was left undisturbed, just lid removed and left to sit out in the open. These un-cased jars started to contract the green mold. Therefore the green mold was removed via a knife and scissors and then a microwave sterilized vermiculite was used to case them...with contam barrier still intact (did not want to remove overlay like I did the others).

Turkey Tails done in much the same way with overlay of contam barrier left intact. Two style jars used half pint regular and wide mouth.

The following are time dated photos. Will update regularly until substrate is spent or growth stops. Just because its a Show Me kinda thing and seeing is believing.

(first 3 pics of Reishi jars-left side knocked up down the middle-right side around edge with one in the middle)
(last 2 pic are of Turkey Tail jars)

[spacecowboy]

One day later from those posted above, the black on the cakes is actually the mushroom, not a contam.

[spacecowboy]

Turkey Tails showing primordia and Reishi primordia from un-cased jar inoculated around the top turning into fruit body, also pic of uncased jar inoculated down the center, along with pics of cased jars showing primordia formation. Now is the time that the green mold was noticed and taken care of. The contam spots were cut off and then a wet vermiculite was placed on top. Ironic part is the contams were growing on dry old paper thin mycelium, guessing it came from the fact that the Reishi grew across the jar lid and then when the lid was removed the paper thin mycelium was allowed to die off creating a medium for the mold to grow on. Very easy to remove considering this mushroom mycelium is very leather like but where the contams were it only had the consistency of tissue paper.

[spacecowboy]

Turkey Tail primordia growth, plus more pics of Reishi primordia and fruit body development.

[spacecowboy]

More primordia development, but no fruit bodies yet.

[spacecowboy]

Reishi fruit and primordia developing nicely.

[spacecowboy]

...and here we go, all up to date. More to come...daily, and thats the way it should be, Show Me.

wow! nice work space
was wondering, how long does it take reishi to grow from pin to harvest? coz i saw some in our garden before and it took quite a long time to grow big enough..

[spacecowboy]

These Reishi will probably take about 90 days to mature and I am hopining to keep them in antler form Here are more updated pics, starting with the Turkey Tail.

[spacecowboy]

more pics

[Hippie3]

[spacecowboy]

again with more pics

[Beastmaster]

Why quart jars rather than pint or half pint jars? They all have the same amount of exposed surface area. Is a large volume of colonized substrate necessary? as in more moisture retention? have you tried with smaller jars?

[spacecowboy]

Originally Posted by Beastmaster

Why quart jars rather than pint or half pint jars? They all have the same amount of exposed surface area. Is a large volume of colonized substrate necessary? as in more moisture retention? have you tried with smaller jars?

Started with half pints and pints with great results, then moved on to the quarts to try and get bigger fruits.

[spacecowboy]

More pics

[spacecowboy]

Few days later...