After reading a lot on the internet I am trying to grow my own shrooms. I decided to use popcorn as a grain spawn and am planning to case the colonised popcorn with peat based soil mixed with crushed shells.
For my first batch I made holes in the jars and covered these with bandaid, then covered the lids with aluminium foil. I read that grain substrates need air exchange, but isn't the aluminum foil preventing this?
So far, colonisation has gone very fast (faster than I expected, 2 weeks) and I can see no sign of contamination.
Do I need to make holes in the 2nd batch (I am planning to make)? Or is this just a source of contamination, do they really need air exchange and can I still cover them with aluminium foil in that case or should I try to find coffee filters or something similar?
I hope somebody with experience growing on grains can give me some advise. It seems to be going alright so far... I am just uncertain about some things. Thanks a lot!
For my first batch I made holes in the jars and covered these with bandaid, then covered the lids with aluminium foil. I read that grain substrates need air exchange, but isn't the aluminum foil preventing this?
So far, colonisation has gone very fast (faster than I expected, 2 weeks) and I can see no sign of contamination.
Do I need to make holes in the 2nd batch (I am planning to make)? Or is this just a source of contamination, do they really need air exchange and can I still cover them with aluminium foil in that case or should I try to find coffee filters or something similar?
I hope somebody with experience growing on grains can give me some advise. It seems to be going alright so far... I am just uncertain about some things. Thanks a lot!