UPDATED Dank-Ass Long Grain Brown Rice Tek

[coastalite]

Dank-Ass Long Grain Brown Rice Tek
This tek is geared for the novice and will demonstrate how you can use an inexpensive 2 lb. grocery store brand bag of LGBR (long grain brown rice) to produce fast colonizing half pint jars using a glove box which was made out of a cardboard box, dish gloves, clear packaging tape, and a piece of thin plexiglass.

This tek is the result of a lot of trial and error to find what worked by looking at many other teks and borrowing information from them (such as the 9er tek) to share with you in (hopefully) an easy to follow process that will get you up and running completely through start to end of jar colonization then to casing, fruiting, harvesting, etc. Before attempting this I encourage you to read as much as you can to familiarize yourself with other teks and their commonalities. You should have a basic understanding of this fascinating hobby before diving in.

Step 1: If you haven't already done so, order your multi-spore syringe(s). I forgot who I ordered from but it was from a topia sponsor and I got 5 for $25 - what a great deal!

Step 2: Construct a simple glovebox (GB) if you don't already have one. Get a cardboard box big enough to fit your jars and materials in. Cut the four cardboard flaps off the top of the box and get a sheet of clear plastic (I used a sheet of plastic out of an old picture frame) and tape it on one side to create a hinge so you can easily open and close the lid. Cut two holes in the side of the box just big enough for your hands. Get some new dishwashing gloves and use clear packaging tape to tape them in place. You might want to lay a piece of cardboard down inside the box to give you a flat surface to work on. Now you have your GB ready to roll. Very easy to make.

Step 3: Get miscellaneous items together.
Get some lgbr rice (see step 5), a couple gallons of distilled water, some paper towels, some 91% isopropyl rubbing alcohol, a lighter, and some horticultural grade fine vermiculite (from Taylor’s – about $5).

Step 4: Get your PC and Jars ready.
If you haven’t done so already, you’ll need to get your jars and a PC (pressure cooker) capable of 15 PSI. The PC used in this tek is an aluminum $40 Presto 8-Quart model. It was verified by the company to be rated at 15 PSI and works fine. By all means, go with a bigger one if you can. It will save you a lot of time.

You can use regular or widemouth half pint jars for this tek. By the way, if you can’t find any jars in your area, you can find them at a Taylor’s (doitbest.com) or Ace (acehardware.com). Both places allow you to order them online (tax free) and have them shipped for FREE to your nearest ACE or Taylor’s store for you to pick up in a few days after you order them. Drill each lid with four 3/8th inch holes.

Step 5: Preparing the Long Grain Brown Rice.
The rice used is a 2 lb. bag of 'Food Lion' brand long grain natural brown rice (lgbr) at $1.39. Not too fancy. Doesn't have to be organic. Get a few bags of it since it's so inexpensive. Measure out 3 cups of rice and dump into a large pan that has a tight lid. Measure out 5 cups of bottled spring or distilled water and pour it in the pan with the rice. Cover and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a fast boil, reduce the heat to around 2.5 (low/med low) and time it for 40 minutes. Do not open the lid at all during the 40 minutes. Once the 40 minutes is up, turn off the burner and sit it on one of your other burners to cool down and open the lid and fluff it up. Cover it back up and time for another 10 minutes to let it cool a bit and evaporate any remaining water. Then fluff it up again. The rice should be nice and sticky and fluffy with no more water in the pan. High altitude results may vary.

While the rice is cooking, go ahead and get your jars ready. Wash the lids, bands and jars with antibacterial dish soap and thoroughly rinse them and turn them upside down to drain out on a clean paper towel. Then take a fork to your rice and fill one of the jars up to the first thread. As you are filling the jar, be careful not to compact the rice down too much. Give it a couple of side to side shakes if there are any large pockets of air. Once it’s filled to the first thread, take a clean damp paper towel and wipe all the way around the inside top of the jar. Now, take your vermiculite (about 1/4 to 1/3 cup) and fill the jar the rest of the way and level it off. Now place one of the lids rubber side down (holes already pre-drilled). Next, screw the band on a bit snug but not too tight. Cover tightly with one or two layers of foil. Place them into the PC and this time cook for 45 minutes. I usually crank up to high heat and let the steam blast though the vent for a couple of minutes then put the jiggler doohickey on and wait for it to start rocking. Also, don’t start the timer till the jiggler starts wobbling. Once it starts wobbling, turn the heat down to medium or until you get the heat so that the rocker just gently rocks. When it gently rocks, you know you are at 15 psi. After 45 minutes, turn off the heat and remove the PC from the burner and let it cool on its own till the pin drops which should take about 20 minutes or so (depending on your PC). Let the jars cool for several hours (or overnight) to room temp before inoculating them. Just screw the bands tight and leave off the foil. No need to cover the lids since the vermiculite layer will act as a barrier against contams. Anyway, three cups of rice and five cups of spring water will be enough to fill 10 of your ½ pint jars and still have enough left over for a healthy snack.

Step 6: inoculate your Long Grain Brown Rice Jars with your multispore syringe (or use a LC syringe if you prefer).
OK, the jars have now cooled for several hours or overnight and are now at room temperature. Place the jars of rice in the GB. For this tek, you can inoculate each jar with 1 cc of your spore or LC syringe. Place your 91% alcohol soaked paper towel and syringe(s) inside the GB along with your lighter. Secure the lid on the GB and stick your hands in the gloves which are now inside the box. Look down through the plexiglass so you can see what you are doing and then go ahead and flame, wipe and shake the needle. Hold one of the jars and tilt it at an angle and insert the needle tip as far in as it will go, keeping the tip against the side of the glass. Inject some spore solution in each hole. You might want to flame, wipe, and shake after each jar to reduce your chances of contamination. Once you’ve finished, remove your jars from the GB along with the used paper towel and used syringe(s). You might want to gently shake each jar (side to side) after inoculation to redistribute the vermiculite layer around a bit in case the needle left a hole in the barrier. Label the strain and date. Repeat the process till all your jars are done. Put them somewhere where the temp is mid to upper 70’s to low 80’s. A closet is fine. After 3-4 weeks or so, your jars should be fully colonized. If you are using an LC syringe it shouldn't take more than 3 weeks or so.

Step 7: Crumble and case them into small storage tubs.
Try to find some small plastic storage tubs w/snap-on lids from Home Depot. I found a bundled 5 pack of them for $10. I'd estimate the size of each tub would hold about 1.5-2 gallons of water. It's also the perfect size to fit two crumbled up half pint cakes. Wash the storage tubs out really well, lids too. Get a bag of 'miracle grow' peat moss and get your bag of vermiculite. Get a large bowl, wash it out well too. Mix a 50/50 ratio of peat/verm. For example, I measured out 3 level cups of peat into the bowl. Then I measured out 3 level cups of verm into the bowl. Mix the two well with a clean fork. Then slowly add distilled/spring water to the mixture. You want to mix it really well until there is enough water so that if you squeeze a clump of it in your hands, only a few drops of water will trickle out. You don't want it too wet or too dry. Here is an important next step IMO: Take your bowl of moistened 50/50 mixture and NUKE it in the microwave for 5 minutes. While it is nuking, take your fully colonized jars and unsrew the bands and remove the lids. Tilt the jars and dump out the excess verm into the trash or disposal unit in the sink. Then take a gallon size fresh ziplock and without touching the cakes with your hands, just let them fall out of the jars and into the bag. Do 2 cakes per ziplock. Close ziplock. Crumble the cakes inside the bag into about marble sized chunks. Take your bowl of 50/50 mixture and stir it well and let it cool down some. Spoon an even layer into your tub, oh about 2 inches deep. Next, dump out your crumbled cakes and spread them out evenly over the layer of 50/50 mixture. Next, spoon another thin layer over the top of the crumbled cakes. This layer should just be enough to cover all the clumps of colonized rice cakes. Put the lid on the tub and then do the same mixture and process for the next tub until you are finished with all the tubs. Put the tubs in a closet or somewhere where they will stay in the 70's. Don't mess with them for a few days. After a few days, you should see Mycelium poking through the top layer of the 50/50. Give it some lite mistings with a spray bottle of distilled water containing a small amount of H2O2. Fan it 2 or 3 times per day and while fanning expose to some light. Be patient. It might take a few weeks till you start getting pins. Once you start seeing the little knots/pins, stop misting the casing directly. instead, just mist the sides of the tub. This should be enough to keep the humidity levels good. Remember to fan them at least twice per day. When the caps start opening up and the veil tears, grab the stem near the bottom and twist and pull upwards trying not to remove a huge clump of casing with it. Dry them under a fan for 1-3 days or till cracker dry and then you can put them in an airtight container with some desiccant to get them extra dry and hard. Hope this info helps. I was amazed at how many pizza toppings came out of those 5 little tubs and only 10 half pint jars. This method averaged about 7 dried grams of pizza toppings per half pint jar used on the first flush or 14 g dry per tub. 5 of these little tubs produced 2.5 ounces of dried goodies. All incubation and fruiting was done at room temp (70's).

After the first flush, pour some water an inch or two deep and let the casing float on the water inside the tub for a day or so then dump any remaining water. 2nd flush will be on it's way.

Good luck and hopefully you will soon be enjoying the fruits of your labor!

[Hippie3]

what if you don't have a microwave ?

[coastalite]

sorry there aren't any pictures. each tub was fruiting like crazy. amazed me for such a simple set-up. if followed step by step, you will hopefully get good results. it might be worth mentioning that this worked great for me for stealth purposes. i used a cluttered closet that no one ever goes into. i let the jars colonize in an open box hidden away in the closet all at room temp (70's). that's right, no electricity used at all. no lights, no heaters, no humidifiers... just a box of jars colonizing inside a cluttered closet.

the little fruiting tubs with lids were each put into a small open box and each one hidden away in the closet and also kept at room temp. just simple fannings by hand and misting with a spray bottle. really simple. really stealth.

really the only part i was concerned with was WHERE to dry them under a fan. fans make noise. noise draws attention. but after a few days under a fan, they were cracker dry and ready for space exploration.

[livewire420]

nice might try this tomorrow

[aumbrellaforainydays]

dessicants are purty quiet.

[coastalite]

Originally Posted by livewire420

nice might try this tomorrow

cool! lettuce know how it works out.

[coastalite]

Originally Posted by aumbrellaforainydays

dessicants are purty quiet.

Yeah, but I never really get great results with just dessicant alone. I find that I need to dry them under a fan for 2-4 days and then xfer them to a vaccuum sealed jar w/dessicant packets. Im a fan of fanning.

[coastalite]

this works.