This is my first time growing and I am trying to use “PF TEK.” I am having success with almost every step, however, after 8 weeks in the fruiting chamber I still have not had any mushroom growth. Below I have described my process from spore purchase until now. If you have any suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated because I am lost. Thank you for your help!
To begin I purchased a live liquid culture syringe of Lion’s Mane from MycoHaus. I assumed these are a reputable dealer considering they sponsor the Shroomery forum.
I am going to skip over the details regarding creating the cakes, inoculation, and sterilization because my cakes look healthy at full colonization approximately 2 – 3 weeks after I inoculated them. Following full colonization, I allowed them to sit for one week. The pic below is right before I birthed the cakes from the mason jars.
After birthing the cakes, I submerged them in water for 24 hours. I then covered them in vermiculite and placed them in the fruiting chamber. My fruiting chamber has 10 centimeters of wet perlite in it. My grow light has a color of 6000K and runs on a 12-hour cycle. Similarly, I mist the cakes whenever they look dry (1 or 2 times a day) and fan them 3 times a day. I have them set up in my closet with the door always open a foot or two because I figured my living room would not allow the humidity in the fruiting chamber to stay high enough due to my air conditioning. After 4 weeks of no growth I removed the cakes from the chamber, re-wet the perlite, and placed the cakes back in the fruiting chamber. It has now been 8 weeks and I have not been able to get a single mushroom to grow. Below I have inserted pictures of my set up and cakes as they are currently (8 weeks after being placed in the fruiting chamber).
I have scoured the internet trying to determine why my cakes are not fruiting. One person noted in another forum that you won’t be able to grow only a few cakes in a large fruiting. However, if this were true, then why can this guy manage to grow 6 cakes in such a large fruiting chamber (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jkZKbip3Po – skip to 9:25 in)? Similarly, my fruiting chamber seems to hold humidity decently as I can feel the moisture when I stick my hand inside of it.
Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your help : )
