Outdoor Psilocybe Cyanescens project, Northeastern US

[llamabox]

I got permission to post this grow by BobHumbolt @ the shroomery.
For those of us in the north east US.


"I got so excited when I got my first pin that I posted in cultivation. Figured maybe I'll put this in a grow log and let the cultivation post die. Hope that's not bad form...

1. Prints were made from psilocybe cyanescens gathered in November, 2004, in the dunes of Humboldt County California.
1.a. Loaded up the Van and moved the Family 3000 miles east, to the Great Lakes region... snow country. Big change from the Redwoods, Maynard. Glad I brought those spore prints with me.
2. In October, 2005 or so, a syringe was made. Actually re-used a syringe that had been previously used, with limited success, to study psilocybe cubensis.
3. Grain was inoculated. The 1/2 pint grain jars were purchased ready made.
4. After the grain was colonized, it was mixed with alder chips that had been pasturized. Initially 4 jars of grain were mixed with a gallon of chips. Gradually, additional chips, up to about three gallons total were added. The jars were kept in the dark in a 55 degree room.
5. During the spring of 2006, an experiment was made, with little success, to induce a spring flush. The chips were cased and put outside. (I know this isn't the way to do it, but it was an experiment). The first pic shows the project at that point:



In the pic, is a 1-gallon pickle jar full of chips, cased with dirt from outside. The area with the mycelium against the wall of the jar is in the middle of the jar. Kind of hard to see. What's really cool, though, is when the mycelium is colonizing nice, clean chips, it's a beautiful white -- unbelieveable. Unfortunately, in a paranoid mood, I deleted some of my best shots of that. Anywho ...the chips were 75-80 percent colonized before I tried the casing... I had 7-8 jars going, total, estimate 3 gallons volume in chips.

The casing didn't work, so the chips were put in a bed outdoors in in May, 2006:



The bed is about 5' long and 1.5' wide, and 3" deep of chips. It's around some bushes. Don't know what kind of bushes, but figured they'd provide some shade. The pic was taken in May, bushes don't get leaves until June, in these parts. Estimate 3 gallons of colonized chips in the bed, with a total of 17.5 lbs of 50% alder sawdust and 50% alder chips. The alder chips were obtained from a supplier in the northwest.

So the bushes grew and the mycelium spread, grass grew on the chips, the bed was watered every week or so during dry spells. It gets up to 85, maximum, in these parts.

Come October 4th, 2006 the first pin was spotted:



October 5th, I took this pic:



By estimation, there are about 10-12 pins visible at this point in a 1 square foot section of the bed. Hopefully, I'll get more, but it's an exciting thing to see them popping up. Since the whole bed is about 7.5 square feet, and it seems to be fairly well colonized, I'm hoping that these first dozen are the precursors to a larger flush.

The following weather data applies for the 10-days prior to the first pins:

Date High Low Precipitation
10/04/06 69 53 0.56
10/03/06 71 55 0.17
10/02/06 69 45 0
10/01/06 66 49 0.38
09/30/06 60 42 0.06
09/29/06 59 44 0
09/28/06 66 51 0.5
09/27/06 76 48 0
09/26/06 66 48 0
09/25/06 65 49 0.12
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10/07/2006

Just another pic. I will add from time to time. Weather was about 40 degrees last night. Been dry for a few days, so I gave the bed a misting with the hose last night.



In this pic, you can see the first shroom that popped up and a few pins here and there. I put slug bait around the bed, but even so, have had to pick off a few garden slugs.

I'll get tweezers and pick the slugs one at a time if I have to But, even the one that was hooked on one of the smaller pins didn't seem to be too much of a threat.

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10/12/2006

It is snowing in my neck of the woods. So I went out in the snow (probably won't stick) and took another pic



It looks like one is almost ready to pick... three or four more days? I will spore print it, for study. In fact, the spores from these babies are so beautiful, I think I'll spore print every one. Keep my fingers crossed, too.

the 6th pic, left to right, look at all those little babies in the top left corner..

i wanna do so many things in this hobby.

[fahtster]

nice, llama! keep us updated.

fahtster

[shroom_seeker]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing llama, please update if possible.

[Hippie3]

I got permission to post this grow by BobHumbolt @ the shroomery.

very cool of him.

[golly]

Those are pretty mild temps for fruiting -Thats what i need...In the past my Azure patch wouldn't fruit till temps are in the mid 40s on average...
Does anyone know if Cyans normally pin b4 Azures in their native environment..?

That's a great little plot...Thnx for the show Llama....

[waylitjim]

Yeah, Bobs a cool guy. We used to live near eachother. He turned me on to cyans which grow on the beach. In sand! He recently moved to the East Coast, and I'm happy he took his cyans with him. Rock on Bob!

Originally Posted by golly

Does anyone know if Cyans normally pin b4 Azures in their native environment..?

I think azures usually pin first. The cool weather on the North West coast of Oregon turns quicker than it does in Washington. Azures have been poppin for a couple weeks now, the cyans are just starting around Seattle.

[golly]

Thanx Jim...well this year they're in a tub so i can protect em from freezing..
It was early December in the Mid Atlantic region last year when fruits appeared...

[llamabox]

This is a quick update and a few pics: Notice the difference between this first pic and the last one in my first post. 9 days of cold weather growth with Cyans.

The patch as of 10/21. We have had a lot of rain lately!



My cousin's dog's hairdresser had to pick five, even though they would probably get a *little* bit bigger. These are going to be spore printed.

[shimmy]

those are looking awesome i guess its time to get my butt up to mendocino too buy some pot and pick some shrooms

[llamabox]

These are growing in a homemade patch in the great lakes area.

[BuckarooBanzai]

Beautiful caps, Llama. Totally cool pics.

Excellent work in the great outdoors, man!

[slackwaterfarmer]

I'm going to try and post a pic:



This is the "best part" of the sacred patch as of 10/22/06. This is my first post at Mycotopia. I appreciate all the kind comments on the pics. It is cool to see some people mention that they know *exactly* where the shrooms ultimately came from -- growing in dune grass in the sand dunes of Humboldt County, California. Right on. They are so incredibly beautiful in their new home. Last night a bioassay of 1.6 grams dry (5 caps and 5 stems) was intense and rewarding. I will be glad to return home soon and see how much they have grown in the several days since the picture was taken.

Llama, feel free to continue grabbing whatever you want from the thread at the shroomery. Lots of prints have been made (for microscopy purposes, of course!) for those who may live in states where it is legal to study this interesting life form.

Peace

[llamabox]

Thanks Slackwater and welcome to Topia.

[waylitjim]

Those are absolutely beautiful man, thanks for letting us drool over your pics!

Originally Posted by slackwaterfarmer

It is cool to see some people mention that they know *exactly* where the shrooms ultimately came from -- growing in dune grass in the sand dunes of Humboldt County, California. Right on.

Yup, remember this one!

174945.jpg

[BuckarooBanzai]

Wow.

Now THAT is a first post!!!!!

Can anybody say "pic of the month" nominee?

Those really are gorgeous, man. I love the carmel caps and those are just stunning. The light on them is really lovely.

And welcome to Mycotopia!

[bullfrog]

early this year!!

[slackwaterfarmer]

Hi. Thanks for the compliments. Here are a couple more pics. I was out of town for a couple days. I don't know exactly what the weather was like for the last few days, but some of the caps are dried out somewhat. I think it may have gone down to the mid 30's with some wind and drizzle. I might cover tomorrow. Pardon the pics are a bit hurried, I was out there with a flashlight, picking and snapping pics, and didn't want to get the neighbors too riled up. "What the hell is he doing out there anyway?"

I hope to have maybe two more harvests like this. I think 7 caps dried should be pretty good (five was good, but maybe a bit more is needed for the smaller caps.) I don't want to sound egotistical, this is actually pretty easy to do. I think indoor teks are much more difficult, with the right climate, woodlovers seem fairly straightforward.

[waylitjim]

It's true man, woodlovers are really easy. Especially compared to tropical exotics. It's great to see ya here, hopefully you'll stick around and grace us with some azures next season!

[slackwaterfarmer]

I remember those cyans growing in the sand (that pic above is very familiar). The weather here got cold and dry, which slowed growth down and dried some of the shrooms out, so I picked 35 the other night. I think it's a total of about 65, which is not bad for my first try with cyans.

Now it's wet again, but damn cold. (No snow, though). I put a translucent tub over part of the patch to protect it. It has been a very good experience so far, and I was real glad to see some success. I think there will be one more moderate flush. Some of the mushrooms are dark (not rotten, just dark) and some are the typical caramel color. Kind of wierd, but may be due to cold/wet conditions. (I mean almost to the point of frost).

I'll post some more pics in the next couple of days. I guess I should also get some more alder chips for next year. By the way, thank you, Waylitjim for those tecs. I'm going to try and use some of that for next year, for sure. And as far as azures... heck yeah. I wanna try those. I never had the chance to get up to Astoria (it wasn't far from Humboldt, for sure)... but I'd love to give them a try.

[llamabox]

Here is a summary of fruiting that Slackwater put up a couple days ago on another forum.

10/04/06 7-Day-Temp 57.2 7-Day-Rain 1.11 First pin spotted, 10-12 pins visible
10/05/06 7-Day-Temp 57.1 7-Day-Rain 1.67
10/06/06 7-Day-Temp 55.8 7-Day-Rain 1.17
10/07/06 7-Day-Temp 55.5 7-Day-Rain 1.17 Pins bigger, one mushroom 2” high
10/08/06 7-Day-Temp 55.4 7-Day-Rain 1.11
10/09/06 7-Day-Temp 55.4 7-Day-Rain 0.73
10/10/06 7-Day-Temp 56.4 7-Day-Rain 0.73 Pins 1” high one mushroom w/ 1.5” cap
10/11/06 7-Day-Temp 55.3 7-Day-Rain 0.56
10/12/06 7-Day-Temp 55.2 7-Day-Rain 0.16 Many pins, largest mushroom w/ 2” cap
10/13/06 7-Day-Temp 55.1 7-Day-Rain 0.63
10/14/06 7-Day-Temp 54.2 7-Day-Rain 0.63 First mushroom picked 2.25” cap
10/15/06 7-Day-Temp 53.4 7-Day-Rain 0.74
10/16/06 7-Day-Temp 51.4 7-Day-Rain 0.74
10/17/06 7-Day-Temp 49.4 7-Day-Rain 0.74
10/18/06 7-Day-Temp 49.4 7-Day-Rain 1.35 Approx 1 dozen large mushrooms, very large picked
10/19/06 7-Day-Temp 48.9 7-Day-Rain 1.19
10/20/06 7-Day-Temp 50.1 7-Day-Rain 1.07
10/21/06 7-Day-Temp 50.6 7-Day-Rain 1.86
10/22/06 7-Day-Temp 50.6 7-Day-Rain 1.76 Patch doing very well, many large mushrooms
10/23/06 7-Day-Temp 51.6 7-Day-Rain 1.8
10/24/06 7-Day-Temp 50.8 7-Day-Rain 1.88
10/25/06 7-Day-Temp 48.7 7-Day-Rain 1.33 25 medium mushrooms picked
10/26/06 7-Day-Temp 47.1 7-Day-Rain 1.37
10/27/06 7-Day-Temp 44.4 7-Day-Rain 1.02
10/28/06 7-Day-Temp 43.4 7-Day-Rain 0.76
10/29/06 7-Day-Temp 43.5 7-Day-Rain 1.34
10/30/06 7-Day-Temp 42.4 7-Day-Rain 1.31
10/31/06 7-Day-Temp 42.9 7-Day-Rain 1.23 A few mushrooms still growing but most dormant/dry


What was interesting to me is: 1) The pins started showing up when the temperatures were pretty high: 57 degrees for the preceeding week. (That's the high/low averaged out for the previous 7 days). The second interesting and important point is: supplemental watering is probably necessary in the Northeast. The mushrooms did well, but we've had a really wet Fall this year. The average rate of rain is about 55" a year, which is comparable to the PNW. But -- given that the PNW gets that much in six months -- areas like the Northeast should provide supplemental water. 2" of water a week would probably not be too much. Otherwise, the mushrooms will dry out.

[spacecake]

Very nice pictures/growlogs ..!

Thanks for sharing it with us !

[BuckarooBanzai]

Thanks for all those details. Excellent thread.

Archive Material - Exotics

[SquishFace]

wow

[dial8]

Wow! Very good thread.

Welcome, slack! I am very intrigued and very impressed! I suppose that thsese will do well anywhere that the temps and rain fall are appropriate. In the SE they may do well on into the hard winter months?

[dial8]

Ditto!

Originally Posted by BuckarooBanzai

Thanks for all those details. Excellent thread.

Archive Material - Exotics

[Hippie3]

stunning pix