I steam sterilized mine twice for 2 hours each time and allowed 24 hours in between each sterilization. I didn't use a still air box and I didn't get any contaminations haha.
I wouldn't do it that way ever again though but I did what I could with what I had like I'm sure you are doing. Good luck man and I hope it works out for you.

Yes, the lids need to be a tiny bit loose, enough for them to 'breathe'. Make sure that they cool down somewhere as clean as possible, in the pan and in a SAB if you can.

I normally steam sterilize for 90 minutes. Once the water reaches a boil turn the flame down a notch (still kept at a boil though) and set the timer for 90 min. This has been effective enough for me (1 jar contaminated out of about 30).

I assume from the fact that you are not using a pressure cooker that you will be inoculating MS with a syringe, for which the method most commonly used is to innoculate through several holes that were punched in the lids and covered with micropore tape.

This would mean you just keep the lids on tight because it will already have holes to allow pressure to escape. Once you innoculate you just put another layer of micropore tape. Also, keep the foil on tight because you don't want any water to enter through the holes as this might mess up the moisture content.

IMO, leaving the lids on loose just adds another unnecessary step and risk of contamination.

I sterilized these jars using a large pot with lid, as I had no pressure cooker available and wanted to get on with my grow. Steam sterilized for one hour, then once again 24 hours later. Inoculated June 1. I prepared a bucket of coir yesterday and am going to prepare shoeboxes today.

Nice! Let us know how it goes.

Sterilite shoeboxes. I used two colonized jars for each box, shredded into an equal amount of prepared coir. Mixed up. They have colonized nicely, the one with the tub on top was started several days prior to the one with lid, it is completely white all way through, the other not far behind. These are on a shelf in closet in spare storage room, I have windows all the way and closet door stays open, allowing indirect sunlight to boxes. Will this be sufficient light for fruiting, or do I need turn on a light in the room?

Looks good. Light is a minor fruiting trigger and it doesn't provide any energy. It does help the mushrooms know which way to grow though, so you might want some overhead light on a 12 hour on/off cycle.

See this post: Conditions to induce fruiting

Thanks shroombee. By the way, steam sterilization with regular pot and lid worked fine. All ten jars colonized completely, only one was tossed due to contamination (black spot which spread thru to middle of cake). Filling jars again tonight and am going to inoculate with B+. Cannot wait to harvest fruits, spore prints, make syringes, future grows self sustaining, materials very inexpensive, I am loving this idea more and more...

Cool. Looks like you have a fairly simple process going. Looking forward to seeing the yield!

i was about to suggest grating them to shoeboxes but i see you are already ahead of me
i can't wait to see your results. good luck

My first mushrooms. This feels very cool, mushrooms were my first psychedelic and still one of my favorite. Thankful for nexus for help and inspiration and shroomery for info.

These are growing from the contents of two boxes I thought to have died (they got thrown across room don't ask) thrown into one box has
been sitting on kitchen counter for weeks, opened it up a couple days ago to dump it out and viola, little baby mushrooms.

I am making syringe from the cap which has opened. Am going to use it to innoculate two Uncle Bens bags.

Have two healthy tubs pinning and one colonising. Made 10 more jars and inoculated with B+, several days and showing growth on all jars. More pics to come.

nice work tony6strings! that same thing happened to me recently. i let the tub sit there instead of composting it (busy + lazy) and a few odd ones appeared, one by one. they weighed in at over a gram dry total. every little counts!

sounds like nobody warned you about the addiction risks of growing mushrooms

have fun!

Had a productive day. Made spore sprints and syringe. Inoculated two bags Uncle Ben's. A smiley my girl made. <3

Congratulations! I bet you both are excited to try your homegrown medicine!


This is hilarious.

Fruiting shoebox. Any advice for better pinset? I've read that this is about what I can expect unless I want to work with agar. Anyways I'm having fun and staying busy. Ate 3.5 dried grams last night and had a great time. Beautiful sunset, walked and playground with youngest son and his momma.

The yield does seem a bit stingy. You're using BRF which isn't the most nutritious substrate, so keep that in mind. And you only used two colonized jars per shoebox, correct? It looks like you have some aborts too? Which I understand is more likely when there are too many pins and the substrate can't support all of the pins maturing.

The substrate pulling away from the sides of the container is also an indication of the mycelium pulling the substrate together to consolidate the available nutrition. Given the small flush and how much the substrate has pulled off the sides, that hints of the lack of nutrition. When I've had small flushes with grain, the substrate does not pull off the sides. However large flushes do create a bigger gap even with grain.

I know some schools of thought believe substrate shrinkage is due to lack of water (like a dry sponge). The counter argument is that dunking the block doesn't cause it to re-expand, thus implying water is not the primary factor.

Sometimes the second flush is better than the first. So be patient. After picking the mature fruits, remove the block from the shoebox (I place it on a cutting board). Clean off the aborts and fruits from the sides and bottom. Then put the block back into the shoebox and fill with water. The block will float so you can weigh it down if you want. Dunk for 2 hours up to overnight. Drain well. Put back into your closet and wait. Mist at whatever interval is necessary to ensure the surface doesn't dry out. Periodically drain any standing water that forms at the bottom of the shoebox.

Also try misting and fanning more often if you didn't do so for the first flush. That may facilitate more pins.

Yes, I always see substrate shrinkage and pulling away from the sides after a flush. The amount of matter inside your box is fixed, since mushrooms won't pull CO2 from the air to grow via photosynthesis. They use what is in the substrate. With a 90%+ water content, the mushrooms must get that water from the substrate in addition to the 10% non-water nutrition from the grain. So a one kilogram flush (wet) will pull almost a liter of water out of the substrate, causing it to shrink down. Of course, loss of water can also happen through evaporation if your box has a lot of airflow and it not misted on a regular basis.

So I think shrinkage is not due to "lack of water", but just the water getting consumed and ending up in the mushrooms. The entire thing is about converting substrate to mushrooms after all, so more mushrooms will equal less substrate.

Re-adding water to the substrate is tricky since it's not very absorbent when fully colonized. I just mist heavily after the first flush and pour some water between the substrate and the walls and let the mycelium slowly pull it in as needed. That seems to work well.

I hear you on the consolidation of nutrition, which could also be a factor. Maybe it's a bit of both.

Pic of the mature flush. 80 grams fresh.

First flush from comeback tub and one healthy tub (I had one tub turn blue on top and only pin/fruit on side, threw it away) paper weighs three grams. I did like shroombee suggested and soaked the cake a couple hours. I have second flush pinning now. Thanks buddy!!

BongQuixote: Do you pour the water in and leave the water sitting in the box? Or do you drain it after some period of time? I dunk once after a flush and then regularly drain water that forms at the bottom, under the impression that standing water facilitates the growth of contaminants.


Tony6Strings: Was the tub blue like definitely mold or bacteria? Or did it just look like the mycelium turned blue or blue/grey? I've had greyish mycelium that I thought might be contamination, but it was fine. Fruited as normal. I read the grey could be exhausted mycelium, like getting dry. And sometimes blue is bruising of psilocin.

You got nearly 10 grams dry per tub on the first flush, off 1 pint of BRF per tub. That's actually a decent yield. Good job!