So true...

And the reward is so much greater when you know it's your own doing that brought them into being. I'm a firm believer that the experience is greatly enriched when you know exactly where and how it came to be!

I got cat litter with silica sand. It said no silica crystal included. Would it work?

They are dry but not cracker dry yet. Fanned on rack for 12 hours

have you been running a fan on them or are they just in open air with no air circulation?

You want silica gel... google it... i got some at wal mart. I'm sure pet stores have it.


Some come with the blue indicator grain, some don't - just don't let it touch your mushies... it won't matter.
It can be recharged/dried back out and reused by baking

Looks like this...

Ya it looks like that but isn't called silica gel. It's called silica sand. I think it'll be fine.

And yeah I ran a fan on them for 12 hours so they really aren't wet, jut not crackers yet.

you ran a fan on them and they still got rotten or w/e like that? Something does not add up here. Mine never do that. Did you run a fan on them in open air? I just stick mine on a table with a fan for about 1-2 days and then throw them into the dessicant chamber. Works perfect every time.

My friend asked me this and it sounded like a good idea. Can you cut off a peice of mycelium from your cake and place it in a new brf substrate to colonize? It seems much easier if that is possible

i would imagine you could.

sounds like a tissue culture, only with mycelium (so essentially a liquid culture inoculation without any liquid)

I've done this, but with grains. It's pretty sweet! Should work fine with just about any substrate, just do it in as sterile conditions as possible, such as in a glove box. Even in a glove box, there is a higher probability of contamination, so it's good to do a few at once, to increase your chances.

imo LC sounds easier and more convenient (both for sterility and for propagation).

but whatever way you find works best.

Is it possible? Yes.

Are there other ways to achieve similar results with better chances of success? Absolutely.


As soon as you pop that cake out of the jar competing organisms are provided more of a chance to establish themselves. As you handle it, cut it apart, open the new brf substrate to add the colonized chunks to it, all these things are (unless you have a VERY clean room with a flow hood and even then...) vectors for contamination.

With a liquid culture, at least you're going from a syringe (easier to keep as clean as possible with alcohol and fire) to a sealed, sterilized jar of nutrient liquid. And then you're drawing the culture out again with a syringe and injecting it into, sterilized grain or cakes. Even so, all this should be done in front of a hood or at very least in a still air box/glove box to minimize contamination.

What it comes down to is giving your cultivation the best possibly chances for success that you can.

Sounds good ill look into the LC

I'm planning on eating some fresh shrooms this weekend. One of them already has an opened cap but I still wanna eat it with the other ones once they open. Is it better to just let it over mature on the cake? Or can I pick it and place it in a paper bag in the fridge for a couple days? I don't want it to taste too nasty. I like em fresh. It's just the timing is messed up and these are my last fruiters. One shrooms is mature now and the rest will be mature in 3 days