Is a pressure cooker necessary to sterilize the substrate before inoculation? If not what are other methods of sterilization, just seems almost silly to buy a pressure cooker as I'm just starting, will never use it for anything other than this, and dunno yet if growing where I live is sustainable or reasonable for more than once just as a new experience. Any tips for beginners? I've tried growing in the past without much sterilization and needless to say the jars got contaminated badly, I wasn't prepared when started now that I'm grown more I know the importance of following directions on certain things, but again a pressure cooker seems a little bit wasteful. Also I think I cannot ask where people get spores can I? As this would fall under the idea of asking for a vendor or are spores considered different here since they contain no active/illegal properties...?

For PF tek you don'T need a pressure cooker. Look into fractional sterilization (I think). I however highly recommend one.

There are also mushroom supply vendors who will sell you pre-sterilized substrate in jars, ready to innoculate, which if you just want to give it a test-run could also be a good way to start.

Have fun This video has everything you need to know is right here :0 also here the second video uses a boiling steam method instead of a pressure cooker but I suggest the first video for more details. If the mushrooms turn out to be illegal ones be sure to get rid of them as fast as possible

A pressure cooker is a shroomer's best friend. Go ahead and buy one! Look at goodwill, and other thrift stores. You can probably find one for 10 bucks.

All these are great ideas, also I was watching the first video, lol! I think I saw it posted earlier on here. Thank you everyone.

And lmao lets just leave it at legal or illegal I'd be growing edible ones.

No, a pressure cooker is not needed. According to the ol' famed RR (Roger Rabbit) 90 minutes steam sterilization via huge pot is sufficient.

Got a pressure at goodwill for 6 bucks years ago
Real workhorse device .

A different route to consider are pre- sterilized
Spawn bags . You can get them from Outgrow online
They are cheap and simple . Inject spore solution in
Seal hole and your good . I've had great success with these.
Now it's not a PF method .

Once fully colonized the bags can be transferred
To some kind of pasteurized spawn medium . There are many options .
Mycotopia has endless amounts of specific teks in they're
Archives .

Sterilizing with a big pot works, though apparently it's not as effective, though I think the difference is not so big that it's worth spending any real money on it, especially if you're just trying it out.

What I did was cover the bottom of the pot with a clean washcloth, poured in enough water that maybe about an inch of the jars were covered, put the jars in and put the lid on the pot. I put it on low heat, enough that it would simmer, and left it for about one and a half hour.

I got no contaminated jars, out of the six I did.

I have never required a pressure cooker and I dont get contam at all. Just do fractional sterilizations and start a liquid culture so that you can innoculate jars with that for rapid colonization. If you dont make a liquic culture first than I would use a pressure cooker as spores in a jar seem to take a long time to germinate sometimes giving contams more time to take over the substrate.

Thanks everyone for the input, I'm def gonna be checking my local goodwill but if nothing turns up I'll prolly just settle for the regular pot if you guys are saying it works pretty well!

I have had a Mirro pressure cooker/canner similar to this for about 10 years and I would not trade it for anything.
(except a digital autoclave...)
With it I can do 20-30 Jars in an afternoon, no problem, (I lose 1 out of 40 jars to contamination on average)
(it makes a mean pot roast as well)

https://www.google.com/s...G4Bw&ved=0CGUQ5Q0wAA

fractional sterilizations are sort of a pain from my experience, although it might be alright for growing pretty small amounts with.

I think its the growing method that dictates whether you can use fractional sterilization or a pressure cooker.

I would advise that if you want to do pf cake's fractional sterilization will do. Especially with a clean liquid culture the time to fruiting is short so contams may not have yet taken over. Also a 30 percent fallout isn't that much of a problem just make more jars.

If you want to go bulk you need a pressure cooker for consistent results. 30 percent fallout is just to much work to loose.

So just try a normal cooker until you run into a cheap PC. Then scale up to bulk on horse poo for your lifetime supply and start growing edibles for fun .