I had a bit of grain left during my last run, so I mixed the bits I had left.
This is interesting, actually. Over the next few months, I’ll continue this experiment to see what grain mixes might work better for spawn.
While this wasn’t a “proper” test, I had still hypothesized that the higher starch content in the popcorn would do better. I guess not.
I’ll try and separate testing into different categories like starch content, moisture content, mycelium strain, etc. There is probably a ton more conditions to isolate as well.
Interesting. What spawn was it ?
I have quite a bit of popcorn kicking about. Did you pressure cook it first ?
Mixed cubensis genetics.
Popcorn is great when used alone without rice. I pre-cook it to ~60-80% hydration’ish, or when I can bite into it easily and the center has just started getting hydrated and isn’t crunchy. I’ll fill my spawn jars and load it in my pressure canner for about 90mins or so, depending on how many jars I have.
There are methods on YouTube for no pressure canner popcorn, so you can get away with a quick pasteurize it seems. Popcorn is obviously food-grade, so it’s going to be fairly clean out of the bag.
So far, popcorn is also working awesome for pink and golden oyster spawn. Once Shiitake and Lions Mane get started, which takes a bit anyway, they do fairly well. I do want to experiment with adding peptone to the water when I pre-cook it to see if I can give it a little more “kick”.
Price is variable and is only really cost effective with +50lb bags, if that is a concern. That is just about pinching pennies.
That’s class. So I’ll need to boil them to give plenty hydration. I’ll need to give this a shot. I’m looking at oysters if I can get an easy enough substrate
The goal is to hydrate them “just enough” but not so much that the kernels split. Honestly, about 20% of the kernels split in my last run and the mycelium loves the easy access to the starches.
I am doing a masters mix (50/50 hardwood saw dust, soy hulls) as well as some straight-up Aspen shavings as a test. Animal bedding is dirt cheap, so if my yield is similar to the masters mix, I’ll save some more cash that way.
Also, I’ll keep this community updated then. I have already purchased several types of substrates and additives to experiment with. Learning how to chase total yields when I was growing cannabis was fun, and it seems easy enough to continue doing that.
Next stop for the near future is spore collecting and strain isolation. I really want to start a business from this and develop some productive strains.
