Here is what I use. After a few tries I settled on this. Not the best or the worst, but it works for me. Anyone that has only done jars so far and wants to try bulk can start here. This will also be supported in nexus chat when I'm around. Sources for this info are varied, most was learned at the shroomery. Tupperware is put on he oven, make sure you test this and use common sense. I've done this dozens of times without an issue, but please be smart and careful here. Understand the plastic in your tupperware, its temperature rating, and your oven hot spots.

Hardware:

- Polyfill (available directly or also in pillows and very cheap)
- 54qt tupperware container with a weather seal (like this). Measure your oven to make sure it fits inside for pasteurization.
- Oven meat thermometer
- Personal HEPA filter unit (optional)

Ingredients:

- 5 fresh fully colonized quart grain jars
- 400g coir
- 680g black cow (composted cow manure). The one I use is 30% moisture so if starting with dry pellets use 476g and top off with 204g of water.
- 130g vermiculite
- 130g straw
- 2L of water
- 60 g gypsum (optional) - this can help with moisture mistakes
- Half teaspoon of calcium carbonate (optional) - this increases the pH to try to slow down the contaminants during the post pasteurization race

Procedure:

- If this is your first run, turn the tupperware into a "monotub" by drilling 10 small holes (~5/16 inch in diameter) 3 inches from the bottom and 6 larger holes (~1 inch in diameter) 3 inches from the top. Be slow and patient while you drill to avoid cracks. Stuff the holes with polyfill so that there is some resistance, but don't overstuff so there is good airflow. During the grow, mushroom CO2 will exit through the bottom holes (since it is heavier than N2 and O2) and fresh air will come in through the top holes. There is no need to open the lid during the grow.
- Boil the water
- Preheat the oven to lowest setting (<200F)
- Optional: out a large black plastic bag in the monotub (large enough to touch all the monotub walls). This helps with mixing the ingredients later and also minimizes mushroom growth against the walls which is difficult to harvest.
- Add the coir to the monotub
- Add the hot water to the monotubamd close the lid
- After about 10 minutes add the rest of the dry ingredients and stir until uniform (see first picture). Leave your stirring utensils in the tub so they are pasteurized for subsequent steps. Correct moisture level will cause a couple drops to drip if the substrate is squeezed tightly (field capacity). Add more water if needed.
- Insert meat thermometer into the substrate and close the lid. Temperature will be around 120F
- Insert the monotub into the oven (second picture).
- Bake until meat thermometer reads 155F
- Remove from oven and place in a small room. Temperature reading may go up by a few degrees after leaving the oven, that is fine.
- (Optional) turn on the personal HEPA filter and close the door while the monotub cools. This will scrub the air in the small room. Avoid walking in and out of the room.
- Once the meat thermometer reads 95F or lower add the colonized jars to the tub and mix with the pasteurized utensils. Work quickly. Shaking the jars beforehand so you can pour the colonized grain easily, wearing a mask over the mouth so you don't breathe into the monotub, and clean plastic gloves are good ideas. Fresh clothes or post shower nudity make sense too.
- Close the monotub. No casing is used.
- Do not open the monotub until the mushrooms flush (up to 100 dry grams). This takes about two weeks or more. You should be able to see the airflow between the large and small holes as "tracks" where there are no moisture droplets.
- Collect the first flush and close the tub, expect at least two more flushes. Adding more water does not seem to be necessary unless things look dry. If all goes well you should get close to 200g total of dry fruits.

That's it. Cheers.

4/17/2021: Edit - slightly reduced water ammount (from 2.6L to 2.35L). Added liner option.
10/16/2022: Edit - reduced water from 2.35L to 2L and mentioned that more water can be added while checking for field capacity when squeezing.

Yes, I second that, thanks so much for this.

Made a sticky of this thread to advocate more interest in this topic.


Kind regards,

The Traveler

Thanks for the sticky

Below is the first flush picked 19 days after spawning colonized B+ jars into the pasteurized bulk pictured in the first post.

This time the flush was not as dense as usual, but the mushrooms that came out are above average size. Made it easy/fast to harvest. If the flush is denser they tend to be smaller. This variability can happen from batch to batch. In this case what can happen is that the second flush will be strong and dense (we'll see what happens here).

As mentioned earlier, there is no temp changes (house thermostat was set to 76F in this example - during colder months setting is 70F without any mushroom growing issues noted), no misting, no air exchange, no casing. Just let the mushrooms grow on their own and breathe through the stuffed monotub holes.

They are currently drying and I'll report on the dry weight of this and subsequent flushes.

Cheers and happy mushroom growing.

24h in a food dehydrator yielded 59g. Image below right before putting the mushrooms in the freezer (I use a freezer food storage Ziploc bag).

Not the best highest yielding first flush in this particular case, but when this happens on this TEK the subsequent flush tends to be stronger and the total yield will still be > 100g.

Will see what we get in subsequent flushes and report back.

Tub has kept on flushing over the past 10 days (no water addition needed). It was picked twice during this time giving 33g and 37g dry.

Total so far is 59+33+37 = 129g and still going. Based on experience this TEK will yield ~150g+ consistently. This example is a little different than the norm because the first flush was not as strong as usual, but it is catching up with stronger follow up flushes (which I've seen before sometimes, not sure what causes the variability).

I'll report back with final yield. Cheers.

Nice grow brother, good yield over all your flushes from such a small tub...

You got some nice big fruits there, enjoy

Peace inf <3

Thanks infinitylove. Over the past few weeks it's fruited again twice to give 17g and 25g dry grams (water was added after the 4th flush as things were getting a bjt dry).

To recap, 59+33+37+17+25 = 171g.

In other news, I got another tub going and that gave a very nice 103g on the first flush today (picture below). This is more in line with what usually happens. Everything was kept the same as in the original example, so not sure of the source of variability.

Either way, over time expect to get 170g to 200g with this technique. I've found that if the first flush is not strong, the yield eventually comes out after a few flushes.

Cheers and good luck.

More flushes. First run example gave 11g more on the 6th "flush". Second tub example gave 72g on its second flush..

1sr tub recap: 59+33+37+17+25+11 = 182g
2nd tub recap: 103+72 = 175g

First run is probably done.

Cheers.