Lions Mane, Reishi, and Shiitake Cultivation

spacecowboy · 11-03-05, 23:13

Overview:

I started this grow back in April 2005, the jars were inoculated on April 21.
On April 24 the reishi jars showed strong signs of mycelium growth, the shiitakes had some growth, and the Lions mane had no signs of growth.
About three weeks later the reishi jars were fully colonized and they were placed into the grow chamber.
On May 25 the Lions Mane jars were fully colonized, and they were moved to the grow chamber. Also, the reishi jars began to put out primordia at this time.
On June 3 the Lions Mane began putting out fruit.
From my previous experiments with shiitake, they took along time to put out fruit, so I left them alone until they started to show signs of barking over. Also, the cakes were tightly packed into the jars and resisted birthing. Eventually they showed signs of barking over and they shrunk enough to allow for birthing. On September 23 I gave them an overnight dunk fully submerged in ice water, then placed them on a wire rack and waited for them to fruit.
On September 29 shiitake primordia was observed.
I had done some ½ pint jars of reishi that colonized very quickly. I separated these from the pint reishis back in May and stored them in the fridge. These ½ pints were removed from the fridge at the same time I began working with the shiitakes. I allowed them to acclimate to room temperature for about a week, during that time one of the jars put out a small conch which had made its way through the threads of the jar. I let the conch jar be and cased the others in 50/50+ casing soil using plastic drinking cups as pots. I placed them on a window sill inside home made terrariums (ie. Clear 2 liter pop bottles, Coke not Pepsi ).
On October 27 the cased reishis began to show primordia.

Jar Preparation:
Substrate consisted of 2 parts fine oak sawdust mixed with 1 part wheat bran by volume. Water was added such that it barely dripped from between my fingers when squeezed hard. Jars were loaded snugly with substrate to just below the top threads, and an inner reservoir was made in each using a Sharpie marker (~1/2 inch dia). The inner exposed top of the jar was wiped clean, and a small piece of newspaper, or paper towel, was placed over the inner reservoir opening to keep the contamination barrier from falling in. The jars were then topped off with plain dry sawdust as the contamination barrier, and the lids were screwed on inverted (rubber seal facing up). Jars were sterilized in AA21 pressure cooker at 15psi for 1 hour.
In short, jars were done PF style with sawdust in place of vermiculite, and wheat bran instead of brown rice flour.

Jar Styles:
For Shiitake I used wide mouth pints and ½ pints, and regular mouth ½ pints. I chose these because it would allow for removal of the colonized cakes.

For reishi I used regular mouth pints, and both reg/wide ½ pints. I planned on fruiting directly from the pints, and using the reg/wide ½ pints for casing in pots. Previous experiments showed that reishi did not fruit that well when done as birthed cakes.

For Lions mane I used both reg/wide pints and ½ pints. I wanted to see if the lions mane would fruit better from the jar or birthed from the jar. This is my first attempt at growing lions mane.

Inoculation and Incubation:
Wooden dowel spawn was used to inoculate the jars, 5 dowels per jar. Lids were removed and 4 dowels were inserted through the contamination barrier equally spaced around the rim, with the 5th dowel inserted into the middle. Lids were replaced and screwed down loosely. Jars were incubated in the dark between 78-82 F. Reishi colonized the fastest, and the lions/shiitake colonized at about the same rate.

Grow Chamber:
Chamber was made with 31 gallon black plastic tote. A 33 watt GE Bright Stick (fluorescent light) was attached to the lid and put on a 24hr on/off timer set for 12hr light cycles. Wet perlite was used to maintain the humidity.

Results:
Shiitake fruited best on pints vs. ½ pints, as have my previous results indicated. I waited for the cakes to shrink a little and show signs of barking over before I birthed them. After I birthed them I gave them an overnight dunk fully submerged in ice water, then placed them on an oven rack and allowed them to fruit. The strain used was a Warm Weather strain, vs the Wide Range strain I had been using in the past. Over all results obtained from both were about the same. I liked the cap appearance of the WW strain better than WR strain.

Lions mane did best as pints not birthed from the jar. However, fruit bodies started forming inside one jar around the rim. Cakes that were birthed did not fruit but became contaminated.

Reishi did really good in reg mouth pint jars, conch formations vs. antlers formed. The pint jars that formed conchs also formed odd pod like fruits that where entirely covered in spore pores. They dropped allot of rust colored spores, visible on the jar and the tops of the pod like fruits. One cool feature I liked about the reishi is that it practically dissolves the substrate into nothing, and the mycelium in the jar takes on many odd physical characteristics.
The ½ pint reishi jars colonized very quickly and I ended up refrigerating them until I was ready to pot them. When the time came I let them acclimate to room temp for about a week. One of the wide mouth ½ pints fruited during this time by working its way through the threads on the jar lid and a small conch formed, I left this one alone.The other ½ pints I birthed, and then potted them with 50/50+ casing soiL in large drinking cups such that there was about ½ - ¾ inch of casing soil over the tops. I am hoping that this will simulate an inoculated log that has been buried, a method commonly used by reishi growers. These cased reishi cakes have just begun putting out fruit and and there will be follow up posts to this as they continue to grow.

Discussion:
That is basicly the overview and details of what I did, from here on I will post time dated photos. I will put in a brief description of each of the photos attached, and try to answer any questions to the best of my abilities. I am not a mycologist, this is just a hobby of mine.

I would like to thank Professor PF for his help, and sharing the PF Tek with the world, without which none of this could have been possible for me. I also want to thank Hippie3, for his creation of the “best interactive mushroom growing website” around, and keeping it a friendly place to visit.

-Spacecowboy

-edited per spacecowboys request-

spacecowboy · 11-03-05, 23:25

reg mouth pint reishi beginning primordia, 2nd jar, 3rd jar, 4th jar, 1st jar in hand, ½ pints lions birthing test, lions jars in chamber

spacecowboy · 11-03-05, 23:29

4 pint reishi jars beginning fruit, same jars diff lighting, same jars diff lighting, ½ pint lions fruiting unbirthed, lions jar, same ½ pint lions close up, beginning lions fruit, black chamber, close up of reishi pods/conch forming, 2nd reishi jar fruit blobs with red overlay

spacecowboy · 11-03-05, 23:37

4 reishi pints, lions fuiting, lion pint fuit, 2nd lion pint fruit, 3rd lion pint fruit, 4th lion pint fruit, conch and 3 pods, 3 conchs and 1 blob, blobs, other blobs jar, close up lion fruit, chamber, reishi jar conchs and blobs, chamber diff angle, conchs and lion jars, pod close up, pods spores on jar, close up of reishi spores, dissolved substrate, pods with spores on top

spacecowboy · 11-03-05, 23:40

reishi mycelium formations from reg mouth pint

spacecowboy · 11-03-05, 23:48

shiitakes and reishis in jars on table, reishi ½ pints, ½ pint reishi fruit from jar band, diff angle, shiitakes and reishis in jars

spacecowboy · 11-03-05, 23:55

pint cake shiitake primordia, 2nd pint cake shiitake primordia, reishi conch, diff angle

spacecowboy · 11-04-05, 00:11

shiitake pint fruit, other shiitake pint fruit and 2nd primordia formation, close up of fruit, diff angle of pint with fruit and primordia, diff angle of 1st shiitake pic, reishi conch from jar band

spacecowboy · 11-04-05, 00:19

shiitake pint cake with 2 fruits and new primordia, same cake diff angle, same cake close up of new primordia, shiitake 1/2 pint cake fruit, reishi conch from jar band

spacecowboy · 11-04-05, 00:33

follow up pics 2 days later and dime on cakes for size comparison of fruits, plus reishi conch from jar band

spacecowboy · 11-04-05, 00:37

cased reishis showing signs of primordia

spacecowboy · 11-04-05, 00:47

reishi fruit and terrarium follow up

spacecowboy · 11-04-05, 01:07

update reishi cased cakes

spacecowboy · 11-04-05, 01:09

update reishi cased cakes, and reishi conch from jar band (no growth)

fucgubarn · 11-04-05, 01:47

beautiful and amazeing

bullfrog · 11-04-05, 03:03

very good presentation. you explained everything clearly
and i loved the pics. very nice grow. keep them pics coming.

Invitro · 11-04-05, 07:22

Very good write up .

Archive material

spacecowboy · 11-05-05, 18:10

update cased reishi 1/2 pint cakes

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11-03-05, 23:13	#1 (permalink)
spacecowboy Jesse James / Sponsor Join Date: Jul 1971 Posts: 934	Lions Mane, Reishi, and Shiitake Cultivation Lions Mane, Reishi, and Shiitake Cultivation Overview: I started this grow back in April 2005, the jars were inoculated on April 21. On April 24 the reishi jars showed strong signs of mycelium growth, the shiitakes had some growth, and the Lions mane had no signs of growth. About three weeks later the reishi jars were fully colonized and they were placed into the grow chamber. On May 25 the Lions Mane jars were fully colonized, and they were moved to the grow chamber. Also, the reishi jars began to put out primordia at this time. On June 3 the Lions Mane began putting out fruit. From my previous experiments with shiitake, they took along time to put out fruit, so I left them alone until they started to show signs of barking over. Also, the cakes were tightly packed into the jars and resisted birthing. Eventually they showed signs of barking over and they shrunk enough to allow for birthing. On September 23 I gave them an overnight dunk fully submerged in ice water, then placed them on a wire rack and waited for them to fruit. On September 29 shiitake primordia was observed. I had done some ½ pint jars of reishi that colonized very quickly. I separated these from the pint reishis back in May and stored them in the fridge. These ½ pints were removed from the fridge at the same time I began working with the shiitakes. I allowed them to acclimate to room temperature for about a week, during that time one of the jars put out a small conch which had made its way through the threads of the jar. I let the conch jar be and cased the others in 50/50+ casing soil using plastic drinking cups as pots. I placed them on a window sill inside home made terrariums (ie. Clear 2 liter pop bottles, Coke not Pepsi ). On October 27 the cased reishis began to show primordia. Jar Preparation: Substrate consisted of 2 parts fine oak sawdust mixed with 1 part wheat bran by volume. Water was added such that it barely dripped from between my fingers when squeezed hard. Jars were loaded snugly with substrate to just below the top threads, and an inner reservoir was made in each using a Sharpie marker (~1/2 inch dia). The inner exposed top of the jar was wiped clean, and a small piece of newspaper, or paper towel, was placed over the inner reservoir opening to keep the contamination barrier from falling in. The jars were then topped off with plain dry sawdust as the contamination barrier, and the lids were screwed on inverted (rubber seal facing up). Jars were sterilized in AA21 pressure cooker at 15psi for 1 hour. In short, jars were done PF style with sawdust in place of vermiculite, and wheat bran instead of brown rice flour. Jar Styles: For Shiitake I used wide mouth pints and ½ pints, and regular mouth ½ pints. I chose these because it would allow for removal of the colonized cakes. For reishi I used regular mouth pints, and both reg/wide ½ pints. I planned on fruiting directly from the pints, and using the reg/wide ½ pints for casing in pots. Previous experiments showed that reishi did not fruit that well when done as birthed cakes. For Lions mane I used both reg/wide pints and ½ pints. I wanted to see if the lions mane would fruit better from the jar or birthed from the jar. This is my first attempt at growing lions mane. Inoculation and Incubation: Wooden dowel spawn was used to inoculate the jars, 5 dowels per jar. Lids were removed and 4 dowels were inserted through the contamination barrier equally spaced around the rim, with the 5th dowel inserted into the middle. Lids were replaced and screwed down loosely. Jars were incubated in the dark between 78-82 F. Reishi colonized the fastest, and the lions/shiitake colonized at about the same rate. Grow Chamber: Chamber was made with 31 gallon black plastic tote. A 33 watt GE Bright Stick (fluorescent light) was attached to the lid and put on a 24hr on/off timer set for 12hr light cycles. Wet perlite was used to maintain the humidity. Results: Shiitake fruited best on pints vs. ½ pints, as have my previous results indicated. I waited for the cakes to shrink a little and show signs of barking over before I birthed them. After I birthed them I gave them an overnight dunk fully submerged in ice water, then placed them on an oven rack and allowed them to fruit. The strain used was a Warm Weather strain, vs the Wide Range strain I had been using in the past. Over all results obtained from both were about the same. I liked the cap appearance of the WW strain better than WR strain. Lions mane did best as pints not birthed from the jar. However, fruit bodies started forming inside one jar around the rim. Cakes that were birthed did not fruit but became contaminated. Reishi did really good in reg mouth pint jars, conch formations vs. antlers formed. The pint jars that formed conchs also formed odd pod like fruits that where entirely covered in spore pores. They dropped allot of rust colored spores, visible on the jar and the tops of the pod like fruits. One cool feature I liked about the reishi is that it practically dissolves the substrate into nothing, and the mycelium in the jar takes on many odd physical characteristics. The ½ pint reishi jars colonized very quickly and I ended up refrigerating them until I was ready to pot them. When the time came I let them acclimate to room temp for about a week. One of the wide mouth ½ pints fruited during this time by working its way through the threads on the jar lid and a small conch formed, I left this one alone.The other ½ pints I birthed, and then potted them with 50/50+ casing soiL in large drinking cups such that there was about ½ - ¾ inch of casing soil over the tops. I am hoping that this will simulate an inoculated log that has been buried, a method commonly used by reishi growers. These cased reishi cakes have just begun putting out fruit and and there will be follow up posts to this as they continue to grow. Discussion: That is basicly the overview and details of what I did, from here on I will post time dated photos. I will put in a brief description of each of the photos attached, and try to answer any questions to the best of my abilities. I am not a mycologist, this is just a hobby of mine. I would like to thank Professor PF for his help, and sharing the PF Tek with the world, without which none of this could have been possible for me. I also want to thank Hippie3, for his creation of the “best interactive mushroom growing website” around, and keeping it a friendly place to visit. -Spacecowboy -edited per spacecowboys request- __________________ Medicinal Mushroom Growing in the Kitchen Oyster Handbook Lions Mane, Reishi, and Shiitake Cultivation Shiitake Handbook www.MycoPorn.com Last edited by Hippie3 : 12-31-05 at 08:15.

11-04-05, 01:47	#15 (permalink)
fucgubarn Mycotopiate Join Date: Jan 1971 Posts: 458	beautiful and amazeing

11-04-05, 03:03	#16 (permalink)
bullfrog Mycophage Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 166	very good presentation. you explained everything clearly and i loved the pics. very nice grow. keep them pics coming.

11-04-05, 07:22	#17 (permalink)
Invitro VIP Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 305	Very good write up . Archive material