So I’ve been looking into my all in one grow bag that I started with and I’m starting to notice a difference when I see other peoples bags mine doesn't seem to have grains I believe it’s a manure type substrate. And I’m wondering if that’s why I’m not seeing any mycelium colonize? This is still my very first bag and I do have agar plates and more spores/liquid culture on the way to start my mini library. So I will defiantly have more questions along the way :)

It's been 5 weeks since I started the Lion's Mane Challenge, where my goal was to harvest Lion's Mane mushrooms in just 6 weeks. Will I succeed or will I be delayed for some time? From what I can tell, it looks like I'll just make it! 🎉 3 days ago, I just cut open 3 colonized grow blocks that only took about 11 days to fully colonize. It was likely this fast because I was very aggressive by mixing a full quart of Lion's Mane grain spawn into the grow blocks, which helps speed up the process tremendously, compared to my usual prescription of using just 1/3 of a jar. Along the way, I was delayed by a 2 week flu that took me out of clearly thinking at all, which slowed down my ability to mix in the grain spawn jars when they fully colonized. The grain spawn jars took just 2 weeks to colonize, but I delayed in mixing them until 3 weeks in because I just didn't want my illness to cause any complications in the sterile process. I believe this was one of the fastest turnaround times I've had—from syringe to fruiting—but we'll see as the bags are cut open and getting ready to fruit now, which can take up to 1-2 weeks, so I'll be cutting it close. I'll have more pictures and a better write-up in the near-future, but I'm really glad that my 6 week estimate seems to hold if I was super on top of each step of the process. Comment about how long it takes you to usually grow Lion's Mane, Oysters, or any other mushrooms you grow!

This will help us gauge where people are at, so we can target knowledge areas that help people get to the next level! Besides the poll, post below about what you might be looking for in the community to grow more mushrooms—and sometimes you don't have to be specific for someone to figure out what you could benefit from. There are a lot of unknown unknowns out there, the things we don't even know we don't know!

No, I don’t think you should purchase a light blocking tent for growing mushrooms. You should get a translucent tent because it allows indirect light to come in. There’s a common misconception that mushrooms should grow in a dark space. This is because of a relatively long history of growing mushrooms in dark areas, especially in France where farmers grow button and portable mushrooms in stone quarries. The benefit of these quarries was not because they were dark, but because they held in humidity and maintained consistent temperatures throughout the year, allowing farmers to grow the mushrooms year-round. Mycelium and mushroom fruiting bodies don’t need sunlight/UV light like plants, but they are guided by light for fruiting bodies to grow toward. I’ve read multiple studies on lights effect on mushrooms and mycelium, and the funny thing is that I can’t find definitive results for light versus dark, or even which color of lights is best. There is a great technical article that concludes green, red, and blue colors of light can have different benefits for certain mushrooms but in the end, what matters is that indirect exposure to light for 10-14 hours per day will result in larger fruiting bodies compared to keeping them in the dark.

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