BAG-TEK MUSHROOM GROWING KIT INSTRUCTIONS *NOW WITH POPCORN!!*

 Using the Bag-Tek mushroom growing kit is one of the simplest and most cost effective methods of growing a relatively small amount of mushrooms in your home.

The Bag-Tek will teach you about the life-cycle and requirements of mushrooms, from germination to harvesting, with possible yields of over 400g over several flushes! The kit can be used to grow many different types of mushroom.

  Please note that since 2005 the cultivation of any mushroom (or truffle) containing psilocybin is illegal in the UK.

Included in the Bag-Tek kit are...

• 1 x 500g bag of sterilized popcorn, complete with filter patch for air exchange and a self-healing silicone injector port.
• 1 x bag of vermiculite casing
• 1 x filtered humidity tent bag with perlite
• 2 x alcohol sterilizing swabs
• 1 x syringe of Oyster mushroom liquid culture

We used to print out instruction sheets, but its possible to explain everything so much clearer here, so there will only be these instructions. A link to them will also be on the sampedros.com store.

Getting started...

First of all, it will pay you to have a clean, uncluttered work-space. Using the Bag-Tek kit is simple, but it can never hurt to keep your surroundings clean. 

Wash your hands well before starting!

In

Use one of the alcohol wipes to clean the self-healing injection port.

 

Use the other alcohol wipe to clean the syringe tip and needle.

 Inject around 2-4 ml of the spore solution into the bag, taking care not to push the needle right through it!

Now place your injected bag in a warm (20-24C) place, with ambient light, for about 2 weeks. 

I built an incubator for this purpose (you can find how I built it HERE), but if your room is reasonably warm you can just put it on a shelf or similar.

After this time you should see many white patches spreading out on the grain.

Break the grain up gently inside the bag. This will help to spread the growing mycelium throughout the bag and speed up the colonization. Then put it back into your chosen incubation place for a further 2 weeks, or until the entire bag is full of solid white mycelium on the grain like this...

Casing...

It's now time to add a casing layer to your colonized BagTek bag. This layer holds moisture on top of the grain and provides a perfect environment for primordea (baby mushrooms) to take hold.

Add 100ml of boiling water to the bag of casing layer, taking care not to burn yourself on the plastic bag! Seal the bag and allow to cool. 

                      

Drain off any excess water and gently squeeze, It needs to be moist not soaking.

Cut the top off the bag as shown.
 Pour the casing layer onto the top of the now exposed mycelium and level.

Fold the top of the bag over gently and wrap the whole thing in aluminium foil and place back into 24C temperature for 5 days, keeping it upright the whole time.

This will allow the mycelium to start to grow through the casing layer.

Fruiting...

After 5 days the mycelium has started to grow through the casing layer, this is an indication that your BagTek bag is now ready to put into fruiting!

Roll the sides of the bag down, making sure to keep the foil around the bag. This stops light getting into the grain and causing mushrooms to grow from the bottom of the bag instead of the top!

Pour about 300ml of clean water onto the perlite in the fruiting bag. This will provide the humidity needed to grow mushrooms.
Place the grain bag on top of the damp perlite, mist gently and fold the top of the fruiting bag over, using clothes pegs or paperclips to keep it folded down.
For fruiting, the temperature needs to be a couple of degrees cooler, about 20C is ideal.
The pinning triggers are lower temperatures, light and fresh air.
Fresh air exchange is very important otherwise you can end up with smaller mushrooms.
The fruiting bag should be opened and 'wafted' 2-3 times per day and lightly misted once. This introduces fresh air into the bag.
Mushrooms will start to form after 10 days.