Hey everyone! I'm a brand new member and I'm excited to be apart of the Grasscity community. I've done a lot of researching on google and it seems like I was always sent back to Grasscity for answers ..so why not join? lol. I'm basically here for help with growing mushrooms. (Please forgive me if I posted this in the wrong place.) I'm using the all too simple PF-TEK method (found an AWESOME video tutorial on youtube) and my main question is, after all the flushing is done and the cakes are spent, is there anything I can do with the remaining cakes? I heard something about casing ..what is that exactly? Thanks in advance!
If the cakes are spent, they're spent. Casing is a non nutrient layer. The only way you would be able to get anything out of a multi-flushed cake. Is to mix it into a nutrient medium, manure or coco coir. Letting it colonize. And introducing that into fruiting conditions. You'll increase your chance of contamination this way. If you even bothered to do that. The PF-Tek would be pointless, when you can do grain jars. The best option, and what I do with spent(or contaminated)medium trays or jars. Mix it outside with manure. Give it a chance to grow naturally outside. It works.
Thanks for the reply! After doing more digging, I stumbled upon something called dunking cakes. meaning, if a cake is spent, I can rehydrate it by leaving it in water for awhile and then place it back in the fruiting chamber. What do you think of this? also, is there a way I can grow mushrooms again without spores, somehow using something from the mushrooms made in the PF Tek method?
Right. When you dunk(and roll for PFtek). That's starting another flush. There are nutrients left to be used, but no water. The same is done with trays. I don't use PK-Tek in particular, because grain with trays are the same difficulty in my opinion. There are multiple ways to continue growing without using spores. Shroomery Message Board <-- Go here to check out what methods would work best for you.
Is there a website called MushroomCity? I don't know, all I know is that this one here is called GrassCity...
Check out the forums on the shroomery.org website. They'll have all the info you need for casing, as well as any other questions you may have.
I followed the PF-Tek a few years ago, and it worked great. after the cake seemed spent, after a couple flushes (I can't remember exactly) I followed someones advice and soaked the cake in 2% milk over night and put it back in the chamber, and got another flush or 2 out of the cakes.