HOW TO GUIDES

1. Keep substrates and cultures in the fridge until you are ready to use them.

2. Inoculate the bag of grain spawn following the instructions given on this page and allow it to fully colonise.

3. Put on the gloves and mask and sanitise your hands using 70% alcohol, 3% hydrogen peroxide or lysol.

4. Clean and sanitise your monotub, any tools such as scissors and working area thoroughly with 70% alcohol, 3% hydrogen peroxide or lysol using some kitchen paper soaked in either. Allow to air dry for several minutes.

5. Sanitise all 3 bags using more 70% alcohol, 3% hydrogen peroxide or lysol.

6. Break up the grain spawn inside the spawn bag. Pour the large 2.5kg bag of bulk substrate and the 500g bag of broken up grain spawn into the 50L mono tub you have made. (if using 2 smaller containers, share the spawn evenly between the two.

7. Now is a good time to re-sanitise your gloves again with more alcohol, peroxide or lysol. Mix the contents thoroughly by hand. Smooth out the substrate as flat as possible but do not to compact the substrate.

Incubation:

1. Leave to incubate for ~1.5 - 2 weeks (depending on the strain).

2. Holes in your monotub design should be temporarily sealed during incubation.

3. Incubating in total darkness is not required but can be advantageous for certain species so do your homework.

4. If large water droplets are collecting on the lid, shake them off away from the substrate to avoid water droplets landing directly on your substrate.

5. Incubation temperatures vary from species to species. 20-24°C is a good general incubation temperature.

Fruiting:

• lighting for 12 hours on, 12 off is typical for most mushrooms, again do your homework on the species that you are growing.

• Remove any tape covering the ventilation holes and fill with polyfill or similar according to your mono tub design.

• Avoid direct sunlight, reflected light is what you need. Strength of light must be enough to read a book by.

• When misting the container with water, make sure that you aim for the walls of the plastic tub. Avoid directly spraying the substrate. Use cooled previously boiled water.

• Only mist as needed (when the walls of the container don’t have water droplets on them). Over spraying can lead to contamination.

• Give the containers fresh air by removing the lid and using it to fan the substrate 2 times per day. Once in the morning and once at night.

• Fan for approximately 30 seconds each time.

Tips:

• Having a high standard of hygiene helps prevent you from contaminating your grows and the environment you are growing in. This means showering and wearing a clean clothes if you’re about to do some high-risk work such as working at a flow hood/still air box or working with sterilised or pasteurised substrates.

• Keep the room you are growing in as clean as possible. Vacuum and mop floors where applicable. Aerosol disinfectants can be useful as well.

• Immediately discard anything that has contamination as it will contaminate the entire growing area.

You should be doing the injection in simple home made glovebox, or at the very least, a still-air environment. If you are going to work in open air, we suggest turning any heaters or fans off an hour before to inoculating your bags (this reduces the amount of airborne contaminants in the area). It is also recommended to work in a clean, small room with the door closed to prevent airflow. Clean/sanitize everything with 70% isopropyl alcohol or diluted to 5% strength bleach.

These universal grain bags can be used for grain to grain transfers, wedges of agar or syringes containing legal to grow spores or liquid culture.

1. The first step of inoculating a grain bag is to prepare it for injection with spores or mycelial culture. Carefully pull the gussets on the bag apart all the way up to the top of the bag, where it is sealed. You want to make sure to "inflate" the bag enough so the filter has some room to "breathe." If the filter is pressed up against the plastic of the bag, it will limit gas exchange during the colonisation phase and could potentially stall the colonisation process.

2. Put gloves on if you have not already. Wipe down the target area you intend to inject with a sterile alcohol swab.

3. Flame the needle of your syringe for 15 seconds. After flaming the needle, press the plunger of the syringe down slightly and squirt a small amount of solution out of the needle to cool it down. This step is best performed with the assistance of an alcohol burner because it will not leave any soot on your needle. If a lighter is used instead, wipe off any lighter soot that is left behind on the needle with a sterile alcohol swab immediately after flame sterilisation.

4. Carefully inoculate the bag with 2-3 ml of spore or culture solution (per 1lb/500g grain bag) and then immediately cover the injection hole with several layers of 3m micropore tape. Have the strip of tape cut to size and ready over the position of the injection, ready to immediately cover the hole when you withdraw the needle. You can find micropore tape at the pharmacy very cheaply.

5. Place your bag in a place that is subject to minimum disturbances and will maintain a temperature between 23-27ºC depending on the target species. You should see signs of growth 3-10 days after inoculation. Try your best to disturb the bag as little as possible during this time period. You want the bag in an upright position (not rolled up) with ample space between the filter and the plastic of the bag so it can breathe during this critical colonisation time period.

6. After approximately 3-4 weeks, the mycelium will have colonised 70-75% of the bag, depending on the species you are growing

7. At this point of colonisation (70-75%), break the grain up with your hands through the outside of the bag. This will distribute the mycelium and speed up the last phase of colonisation. Do not perform this step until mycelial colonisation has reached a minimum of 70%, doing so can stall growth.

8. The mycelium will take several days to recover from getting broken up and should colonise 100% of the bag approximately three to seven days after the prior step (breaking up mycelium) was performed. Once you reach this point, it is now time to spawn the colonised grain to a bulk substrate.

Once your inoculated grain spawn has reached 100% colonization, it is time to spawn it to a bulk substrate such as our pasteurized 50/50 manure based mushroom compost, masters mix or your own recipe depending on the species you are growing. Once the bag is completely colonized with mycelium (you should not be able to see any uncolonized grain), break the grain up with your hands through the outside of the bag. Make sure the grain gets broken up completely and thoroughly. Clean your work area, hands, still air box or similar and all tools you intend on using with isopropanol alcohol. ~Cleanliness cannot be overlooked at this point as it is high risk part of the process. Cut open the bag containing either our 50/50 bulk substrate, masters mix or supplemented sawdust with a sanitised pair of scissors or sterile scalpel or knife. You should get good results by using 500g of colonized grain spawn per 1.5kg of pre-pasteurized mushroom compost or a higher ratio.

• Cut open the bag of broken-up colonized grain spawn.

• Pour the broken-up grain spawn into the bag of mushroom compost.

• Reseal the bag with an electric impulse sealer. You may seal the bag in some other way but there will be a higher risk of contamination with any other method.

• Mix the grain/compost mixture by massaging the outside of the bag. It is very important to make sure that the mixture is mixed up thoroughly and that the grain is distributed evenly throughout the bag.

Allow approximately 5-10 days for the substrate to completely colonize with mycelium (you will be able to tell if it has completed colonization when the substrate has turned completely white). Once you reach this point, it is now time to introduce the bag to fruiting conditions with the suitable humidity temperature and light level parameters for your species.

1. Super important step! - Gently ease some air in through the filter patch. to do this, stand the bag up and unroll the excess loose plastic. Carefully tease the sides of the gusseted bag apart to draw air through the white filter patch. 2. Wipe the grey injection port with the 70% alcohol wipe for 10 sec (wipe included).

3. Inject spores or liquid culture via the grey injection port. (we recommend using 3ml for medium bags and 5ml for large bags with spores. Use 5ml / 10ml respectively for live liquid culture.

4. Allow mycelium to colonise the the bottom section of grain at warm room temperature (22-26ºC) for approximately 2 weeks, sometimes longer depending on quality and species you are growing.

5. After full colonisation of the grain layer, mix the colonised grain and bulk substrate together. Don't open bag at this stage.

6. Allow the mycelium to grow throughout the mixed substrate. Approximately 2 weeks.

7. Fruit using your preferred method - We like fruiting directly from the bag: Cut the top off the bag and introduce to high humidity and fresh air conditions.

Summary: Make sure you and the room are clean and draft-free (no pun intended!). Fit your gloves and face mask – make sure your hands are clean and bone dry before fitting them or you won’t get the gloves on, Use the alcohol wipe to thoroughly clean the rubber ports built into the tub (allow a few seconds to become visibly dry) and then pierce into each rubber port to inject between 0.5ml and 1ml. Flame sterilize the needle between each other kit you may have purchased.

Place somewhere at room temperature to begin colonising, they will turn completely white in time, so be patient. Don’t put these tubs in any direct sunlight. When it looks complete, don’t rush it – let it have another week.

Detailed instructions as follows:

1. Get organised Choose a space to use as your ‘lab’ – An ideal room to use will be draft-free, such as a small cupboard. Kitchens and bathrooms are generally not suitable because of the increased risk of mould. Take everything you will need into your lab at this point, you want to keep air currents to an absolute minimum – close the door and keep it closed until you are finished! – to lower the odds of contaminant spores getting into the pftek.

2. Cleanliness Take the time to ensure you are completely clean – have a shower, brush your teeth and change into fresh clothes. Before you begin the inoculation process, take a face mask and secure it tightly to your face. Then, make sure your hands and forearms are clean and let them completely air dry first or you’ll struggle to put your sterile gloves on!

3. Inoculation Give the syringe a good rattle and shake to help break any clumping. Remove the cap from the end of the syringe, unwrap the sterile needle and screw it on to the syringe. Thoroughly wipe the rubber injection ports on the pftek and allow them to dry before swiftly piercing the needle through and injecting 0.5-1ml of liquid into each port, try to get close to where the substrate meets the plastic wall. When inoculating other grow kits with the same syringe, it’s advised to flame sterilise the needle until it glows red hot, giving 15 seconds or a tiny squirt of liquid to allow the needle to cool down before injecting. Or you could purchase some extra needles and switch them over if you prefer. Never wipe a needle with an alcohol wipe – this will only sanitise it. It’s best flame sterilising for proper sterilisation.

4. Colonisation Now it’s time to leave the pftek in a safe place to fully colonise with mycelium. We recommend that you place the pftek into a plastic zipper bag to keep it as clean as possible for the next stages. Remember not to seal the bag fully to allow the growing mycelium to breathe! It’s recommended to leave the pftek to colonise in a room with indirect sunlight or light from a fluorescent bulb.. although a dark cupboard won’t do any harm. Just keep it out of direct sunlight and it will be fine! Regarding heat, many species love very warm climates during colonisation but it can be a balancing act because so do bacteria!.. If your mycelium is going strong, it can outrun many types of bacteria and you will never know they were even present. Keeping the colonising pftek somewhere between 18C and 26C is ideal. 26C will be noticeably faster than 18C but with some patience it will get there regardless. If you are determined to have a warmer environment for faster colonisation times, we strongly advise against the use of heat mats as they can dry out the bottom of the substrate and stall colonisation. It’s a far better idea to store your substrates somewhere with more balanced heat like a warm cupboard above a fridge or near the water boiler.. Generally, you will start to see mycelium growth after 10 days depending on optimum conditions – if not, just hang in there a while longer as you may have injected too deep to see any growth yet.. Injecting gourmet spores or culture close to the walls of the container (tub in this case) is of course going to show quicker results than injecting deeper into the substrate – and that’s the most common reason we get emails saying ‘I can’t see any mycelium..’. Patience is key! It normally takes around 6-8 weeks for the pftek to fully colonise with white mycelium and become what we refer to as a ‘cake’, but again, this depends on a range of factors such as temperature, genetics, etc. When the pftek has reached full colonisation, it’s highly recommended that you leave it for an extra week to allow the mycelium to consolidate within the core of the cake.

There are a couple of different methods for you to choose from:

1. Removing the cake from the pftek for fruiting: Move straight to the stage 2 below.

2. Fruiting the cake within the pftek: Simply remove the lid and discard. Now mist the vermiculite ‘casing’ layer heavily to make sure it’s very damp and move to stage 3.

STAGE 2: DUNK N ROLL This stage is optional but provides extra moisture in your cake to help support bigger and better flushes. Many cultivators don’t bother with stage until after their first harvest.. For this stage, you will need:

• 1 x small bag of vermiculite

• A container big enough to submerge your cake in water

1. Carefully clean a work surface near a sink and take your fully colonised pftek to this area. Remove the plastic lid, turn upside down and hit it off the solid surface so it falls out.

2. Find a suitable container and fill it with cool tap water. Now, place your cake in and make sure that it is going to stay submerged (placing a dinner plate on top of it is a popular way of doing this) and of course cover the top of the container, to ensure nothing can fall into the water. Submerge for 24 hours.

3. Then it’s time for the ‘roll’.. Grab the bag of vermiculite we supplied in your kit and empty it either on to a clean work surface or something big enough to move your cake around in.

4. Take the cake out of the water and give a quick rinse under a cold tap.5. Place the wet cake into the vermiculite and work it until every side has a vermiculite coating. Don’t be scared to firmly press the vermiculite onto the cake to get it to stick.

STAGE 3: PREPARING THE HUMIDITY TENT We will now set up the chamber for growing your mushrooms. For this stage, you will need:

• 1 x Bag of perlite to provide humidity

• 1 x Humidity tent for fruiting your mushrooms in

1. The first step is to rinse the perlite to get rid of all the excess dust. Please wear a face mask or cover your mouth and nose in some way when working with perlite. Get yourself a sieve or strainer (of course with holes smaller than the size of the perlite) and empty the perlite into it. Rinse under a running tap until you can see all of the dust is gone and that the perlite is fully soaked, turn the tap off and shake off some of the excess water but make sure you don’t remove too much.

2. Pour the damp perlite into your humidity tent – this will create the humid environment mushrooms love.

STAGE 4: FRUITING STYLE

If you have opted to remove the cake from the pftek to fruit then you will need to cut a fitting piece of tin foil to place down on to the perlite first so the cake isn’t touching it. If you have chosen to grow directly from within the pftek, you can now simply place it onto the perlite. Now fold over the top of the humidity tent and either leave it as is (if the opening is pointing downwards, no dust/mould particles can fall in there) or if you prefer – you can put some paper clips or pegs on there to hold it shut.

STAGE 5: HUMIDITY CONTROL Whichever fruiting style you chose, the humidity techniques will be the same. For this stage, you will need:

• Spray bottle to mist your cake with water.

You will now need to mist the cake with water regularly to ensure constant hydration. If you have opted for the Dunk ‘n’ Roll method then it’s best to avoid misting your cake for the first 12 hours to help keep the vermiculite stuck good. Mist your cake / casing layers directly until they glisten with moisture and when you can no longer see the glisten on it, it’s time to mist it again. Misting 3-6 times a day is pretty common for ultimate results.The evaporation of moisture from the cake is the trigger for mushroom pins to form and grow – this is why the humidity tents we supply in our grow kit have lots of filters to provide clean air exchange. If you do not mist regularly to replace this evaporating moisture, you will break the cycle and you will have a poor harvest.. Simple as that. You must continue to mist throughout the full growing process – when you see pins forming and whilst your mushrooms are growing.. remember mushrooms are 90% water, they need all that extra moisture!! An extra tip on humidity: It may be best to pour the perlite into a strainer and hydrate it again at least once or twice a week.. moisture will evaporate out of the bag quickly. The more work you put in the greater your reward.

STAGE 6: HARVEST. When your mushrooms are ready for harvest, you can either cut them off the cake with a scalpel/knife or some people prefer to just twist and pull their mushrooms off – but be aware this can sometimes pull some of the cake off with the mushroom, so it’s not the best method. When you have harvested all of your mushrooms, you can dunk the cake in water again for 24 hours – but no need to roll in dry vermiculite this time – just place back within your humidity tent for more fruiting!

The mycelium of the Morel species is hard to see in the bag. It is dark and darkens with exposure to light and is never white like other types of spawn you may have seen.

1 kg of Black Morel Sawdust Spawn will suit a fire pit bed of about 1m sq. The fire should be made with un-treated hardwood logs of different lengths and widths to simulate a natural fire – no treated preserved wood, paper, or cardboard, or petroleum-based fire lighters should be used. Once the fire is out and has cooled completely (a couple of days or more) then the sawdust spawn is simply mixed into the ashes and burnt wood and watered in. The site should be protected from drying out in the summer and watered regularly to keep it moist during dry periods (a shade cloth can be used as protection).

With a little bit of luck, the first crop of Morels will appear in the following Spring after a period of pro-longed and heavy rainfall. The bed may produce for a couple of years or more, and if the surrounding soil conditions are right, the Morels may spread beyond the confines of the fire pit.

If a fire pit can’t be made, then the ashes from a wood burning stove and/or barbeque can be used instead. Again, no treated wood, paper or cardboard, or petroleum-based fire lighters should be used. 1-2 buckets of ash, 1 bucket of garden compost, 2.5 kg of gypsum will be enough for a 1m sq bed.

Black Morels can be started any time of the year; Spring, Summer and Autumn being considered the best times. They can be started in Winter also as Morel mycelium is tolerant to frosts and freezing, but in Winter there is less chance of the Morels spreading beyond the site that year.

As soon as your tree arrives: If you need more time to prepare your planting area you can pot your tree temporarily using a loam based soil such as John Innes No1. Water well until your permanent planting site is ready. Alternatively, prepare the site ahead of your delivery.

Preparing your planting site: Choose a known alkaline area if possible. Dig a planting hole by removing about one wheel barrow full of soil. Add 1kg of garden lime to aid alkalinity to the excavated soil and mix in 20 litres of John Innes No1 and then refill the hole with this mix. Garden lime and the compost are available in most garden centres.

Taking care not to damage the roots, carefully remove your tree from its temporary pot if using or the packaging. Plant the tree into the newly prepared soil and then gently firm in the tree using hands only to avoid compressing the soil. Finally, support the young tree with a sturdy stake.

Check your tree regularly and water when dry. Pay particular attention to watering in the first 2 years to help your tree to establishing a strong root system that will eventually support the symbiosis of the developing fungus mycelium.