Lion's Mane is an amazing mushroom with many reported health benefits from nerve damage
recovery, reduced
anxiety, and other
benefits.
After struggling to grow it, I have a way that works for me. If you are already using monotubs, then growing Lions Mane turns out to be simple.
Procedure:
1) Purchase polypropylene bags. Don't need to be anything fancy (thick bag with premade filters), a simple thin bag works fine (gusseted so it stands up nicely), just handle with care. I use 8 X 4 X 18 1.5MIL CLEAR GST POLYPROPYLENE BAGs that go for about $.10
each. This is the most expensive step, but I could not get this mushroom to fruit without using bags and I failed several times.
2) Get a Lions Mane liquid culture syringe (should come with a nice big gauge needle to be able to handle mycelium).
3) Soak grains overnight. Drain them well (important, you don't want a pool at the bottom of your bag later). Fill the bags about 2/3 full or less with
the drained grains, keep in mind there will be some expansion. Get a ball of polyfill and a rubber band and make a neck that can be used as an injection site for inoculation.
4) For future inoculations also prepare a couple of new liquid cultures (5% honey or Caro) in for example Mason jars with a polyfill stuffed injection port.
5) Pressure cook the grains (1h) and the liquid culture jars (15 min). Make sure the bag does not touch the pressure cooker walls and is not resting directly on the bottom (use crumpled Al foil or mason jar lids to elevate it)
6) After cooling, inoculate the bag(s) and new LC(s) through the polyfill. Grab on to the bag polyfill to help the rubber band keep it in place during inoculation.
7) Let the bag colonize. This can take awhile and is variable (temp, mycelium initial health and aptitude, etc).
8 ) Once colonized place the bag in a monotub. The kind that is set and forget with two rows of holes loosely stuffed with polyfill for good FAE.
9) Place a clean water source in the monotub such as a Tupperware containers with water that has just been microwaved.
10) Using a clean knife (e.g. blade wiped in IPA), cut a few X shaped holes on the side of the plastic about 1/3 from the top of the grains.
11) Close the lid. The Lions Mane will fruit at the holes. I think it likes the similarity of its situation to that of being in an upright log. This is the only way I have gotten nice compact solid fruits. There may be some attempts of fruiting inside the bag, no need to worry about that just ignore it, but it is a sign that you should move to the monotub if not there already.
12) Harvest when fruits are about grapefruit size. Keep an eye on them, if they blemish pick them immediately and cut out that part. A simple twist and they come off very easily.
13) After several fruitings the bag will slow down. Time to put it in your garden as compost.
14) Optional: older fruits can drop spores and you should be able to start the life cycle anew with them (but I have not done so). If going this way you can put Al foil under the bag to help collect the spores.
Bellow is a picture of a fruiting bag. If there are any questions I'll be happy to answer them. This procedure should be improvable and feedback is welcome.
Loveall attached the following image(s):
IMG_20180210_135313414.jpg
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