Hello all!
Today, I'm making some bulk substrate to mix with some inoculated rye berry grains that I have been preparing in my colonization chamber. Bulk substrate is great for vastly increasing the size of your mushroom yield. The idea is that you mix your inoculated grain with bulk substrate at a 2:1 ratio (2 units of bulk for every single unit of inoculated grain.)
There are a variety of bulk substrates you can use, to varying degrees of effectiveness. The most well known, of course, are manure-based substrates (since we all know that psilocybin likes to grow in manure out in the wild.) However, in a controlled environment, I've had excellent results with a bulk substrate made from coco coir and vermiculite (the materials for which are also less expensive... unless you live on a farm and have access to free manure.) Coco coir is dehydrated coconut husk, compressed into a brick. It usually comes in packs of 3, and can be purchased on Amazon, or in most pet stores (since its commonly used for reptile bedding.) Vermiculite is commonly used for soilless growing situation such as hydroponic growing setups, or seed germination, and can also be purchased online, or in stores that carry gardening supplies (I've found super cheap vermiculite at Home Depot.)
To make this bulk substrate you will need the following:
1 brick of coco coir
2 quarts of vermiculite
4 quarts of boiling water
a large bucket with a sealable lid
Start by putting the brick of coco coir and the vermiculite in the bucket. Bring your 4 quarts of water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, add the water to the bucket, and then seal the bucket. The coco coir brick will begin to expand immediately. You're going to want to give the bucket a healthy shake once its sealed, and then let it sit for an hour. After an hour, open the bucket, and carefully (because its still going to be very hot) sift through the mixture and break up any chunks of coco coir that may not have begun to absorb water. Then reseal the bucket, and let it sit and cool for 3-4 hours, or until it reaches 80F-85F degrees. At that time, open the bucket, reach in, pick up a handful, and give it a squeeze. You're testing the substrate for adequate moisture here. You want you substrate to be at what's called "field capacity saturation," which means you should be able to squeeze a few drops of water easily out of a handful. If you don't have field capacity, boil an additional quart of water, add it to the bucket, and wait for it to cool again.
Once you have adequate saturation, and your substrate has cooled, its ready to be used. Mix it with your inoculated grains at the proper ratio, and put them into your colonization chamber. Depending on the health of the mycelium in your inoculated grain, full colonization of the bulk substrate should take approximately a week to 10 days when kept in the dark, at a temperature between 82F-86F degrees,
Below is a video showing these steps in action. This isn't my video, but its a good example of how simple this process is.
Talk to you all soon! Happy Shrooming!
