July Mycopal Q&A

Q: “ Hi do you mist the cake or just its side walls to fruit...i exsperment with a all in one grow bag..and another i have a water bin were the cake sits on brick abouve water...but do i ned to ever spray the cake its self ..or just side walls n lid.“ A: hello mycopal! sorry for the late reply! I don't seem to get notifications for comments on my own videos :(  I apologize for the length of this message, but I'm passionate about this topic, and I appreciate your genuine question! After reading it, fel free to let me know if you have any follow-up questions or thoughts. I'm also open to suggestions for content you would watch if I created said content related to mycology (with some cross over into microbiology). 

I suggest, if you haven't already, get yourself a hair-stylist's misting spray bottle for your mycojourney :) I recommend using a misting bottle because pressurized spraying, even with a fine nozzle salon misting bottle, can dislodge spores of contaminant fungi from their microscopic structures. Additionally, water splashing can spread bacteria, which usually requires transfer from the user's skin or falling off the nose, eyebrows, hands, etc., or through water transfer. Some bacteria have flagella and can wiggle around, but not very far on dry surfaces. 

I strongly advise against directly spraying the surface of the mycelial colony or any mycelium. Instead, only mist the sides and underside of the lid when they become dry. This should not happen often if you maintain proper field capacity. In general, direct spraying (and sometimes even just air flow) can cause mycelium to bruise. Bruising isn't necessarily "bad," but if an area of the colony is severely bruised for an extended period, it can hinder the mycelium's metabolism in that specific area and even stall the growth of the entire tub. When you're breaking up grainspawn and mixing it with substrate to "birth" it into a tub (often referred to as S2B), it's important to understand the concept of "field capacity" (FC) in substrates. If you're confident about your FC levels and have control over your spawn, substrate, and other variables, the substrate and colonized spawn/sub mix should maintain humidity within the tub itself without the need to remove any lids or introduce misting. This advice specifically applies if you're using shoeboxes or other plastic tote-tubs, and it requires some adjustments to the methods used when working with an AIO bag.  In the case of an all-in-one (AIO) bag, which will have reduced flush sizes/pin spread by the nature of available surface to do so), you have no way to confirm its sterility or exercise quality control (unless you made the bag yourself). You CAN control contamination at the injection site and in your local environment where you inoculate/inject the AIO bag through its injection port. However, you do not control the sterility of the syringe fluid you are injecting or the cleanliness and correctness of spores or mycelial tissue if using a liquid culture syringe. If you have the opportunity, using LC syringes is much better ( I have more reasons but will refrain cause this comment is already too wordy). Multi spore syringes I consider, very much, chaotic "luck of the draw". The single spores must meet a pair-mate, and their coupling results in the first initial mycelium hyphae that then spreads and colonizes. So, technically, the mycelium 'colony' is an individual organism and the mushrooms are just the final stage of the life cycle of the fungal organism :)  BUT -- Do not be dismayed: AIO bags do work; but I do not use them due to the reasons mentioned above. Worth noting that grain-bags can be useful for those with limited space or time/resource constraints, and some gourmet mushroom species require fruiting from blocks of colonized spawn (not so much with AIO bags). On r/contamfam (where I have the privilege and pleasure of being a member of the mod-team), we have mycopals who have entered our summer full canopy contest with impressive canopies grown on small 4x2 blocks pulled from an AIO bag or similar sizes. However, I strongly encourage all mycopals I advise to work towards doing as much of the hobby themselves as possible. There is a lot of variability in substrates, and you can often find materials at your local farmer's cooperative or grain/feed stores. Additionally, if you're interested in exploring woodlovers, you can often source woodchips from local mills or other available sources.  As I have mentioned before, if you can afford it, I highly recommend transitioning to using shoeboxes. They are 6qt Sterilite tubs designed for long-term sneaker storage. They have a passive FAE (fresh air exchange) at the lid-clasp/handle area, which is sufficient to allow for colonization without losing humidity in a birthed tub. If you use a larger tote, you need to consider passive air flow and potentially drill 2" holes slightly below where the handles are and cover them with a filter patch or lightly stuff them with polyfill to avoid restricting FAE. When your cake is fully colonized, you can "flip the lid" and introduce 12-hour light cycles from the sides of the tub. Alternatively, you can try what I call "shotgun tubs" where you clean another 6qt tub with isopropyl alcohol, let it dry, then spray it with preferably filtered or sterile water from the misting bottle and place it on top of the base tub with the lid removed. This allows light to come from above, which I've found helps with pinning formation, spread, and fruit growth direction; while aiding in moisture retention during the primordia formation and pinning initiation phases of the process (moisture is SO important in this hobby. Generally 90% humidity or above within the enclosure at all stages of the process. The more aspects of the process you can handle yourself, the cheaper the hobby becomes, and the easier it is to contain contamination and identify contaminants with greater reliability. I have never attempted a technique where you place a cake above water as it seems problematic and not feasible based on my personal techniques developed over the past few years. From what you mentioned, it seems like placing a colonized cake on moistened vermiculite within a plastic tote a few times larger than the cake itself might be a more appropriate approach for your project. However, don't let me deter you from experimentation! I have no judgments!

Psilocybe Cubensis(magic mushrooms) entangled in an embrace. Photo by u/saturnboiiii

Homeschooled

Watercolor On Black Cotton Paper

2023, 44"x 30"

Golden Teacher Mushroom, Psilocybe cubensis

Combining some of my interests, finishing off Funguary 2024 with some mushroom mafia folk

Psilocybe cubensis

“Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.” ― Terence McKenna

OOH YEAH

Coyote + Cubesis color sketch comm.

They’re so ready

Spore printing Psilocybe Natalensis caps - prints over 18 hours; will post pics of the tub next (waiting for the pics to transfer to my PC lol). 

Homeschooled

Watercolor On Black Cotton Paper

2023, 41"x 30"

Golden Teacher Mushroom, Psilocybe cubensis

Left this comment on a random instagram reel 6W ago, still getting queer and transphobic harassing comments from it. This is the most recent one. The missing comment not visible in the second picture) was one where the same person called me autistic as a slur and other harassing things that led to the comment being removed. But, im proud of my responses and hope this person does the work to become a better version of themselves than they portray in public IG comments 💯❤️🏳️‍⚧️⚧️🏳️‍🌈

www.linktr.ee/mycochaotix

This was his removed comment:

A visual scale of what 1g mushrooms might look like. Spoiler Alert: use a scale always. Potency can vary even between 1g of the same variety, or between 1g dosages of different varieties. This is why I recommend folks to grind up their mushrooms and take in a capsule, tea, or edible form. This will help make dosing more accurate. Trying a new variety? Start lower. Mush love, Be Safe At The Parties!

i watched the marbled floor turn into a field of clovers. i knew then, this is it, this is all there is, all there has ever been, all there will ever be. the man took my hand but it was no longer attached to me. i think that i am not my body. and that i am highly favored by God, and that God is real and so is everything else. every single particle of my being belongs to all of you. kiss me through the electric current flowing through glowing strands, extending from our brains like the strings of eight billion marionette puppets. the man took my hand- i kept mistakenly lying my hand on top of his as if he were courting me. if i listened close enough i could feel the electric current connecting every mind in the room. i smiled at my mother; i kept asking her what she was doing but she could not hear me through the screen of psilocybin—or perhaps i could not hear her. all of my thoughts were in the form of rhythmic poetry. i couldn’t stop smiling at those clovers dancing in the orange glow. oh, how i loved the shade of orange in the lightbulb. only the one that was the correct shade of orange. it made me feel warm. the man was angry, arguing with a woman. i think that they may have been speaking english. i was in another place. i could feel his thoughts. i could feel my soul caressing my tired vessel. i could feel everything that was. and as i fell into the depths of worldly poison, i could feel my limbs reattach themselves; once again caging me beneath their sinister embrace.

“Existence is only real when it is conscious to somebody. That is why the Creator needs conscious man even though, from sheer unconsciousness, he would like to prevent him from becoming conscious.”

C. G. Jung, Psychology and Religion, CW 11, par. 575.

“The process of becoming conscious, requires both seeing and being seen, knowing and being known.”

“The pursuit of consciousness, then, does not allow one to rest in the attitude of being known and contained in God: the ego has a responsibility to the Self to be it’s knowing subject as well as it’s known object.”

Edward F. Edinger, The Creation of Consciousness: Jung's Myth for Modern Man

“God makes us to know him, and his knowing is his being, and his making me know is the same as my knowing, so his knowing is mine: just as, in the master, what he teaches is the same as, in the pupil, the thing that he is taught. And because his knowing is mine, and his knowing is his substance, and his nature and his essence, it follows that his substance and his nature and his essence are mine. And his substance, his nature and his essence being mine, therefore I am the Son of God. Behold, brethern, what manner of love God hath bestowed upon us that we should be the Sons of God!”

Meister Eckhart, ed. Pfeiffer, vol. 1, p. 31.