Make Your Own Inexpensive Mushroom Grow Bags From Vacuum Bags.

[@JohanStemmet-w5o]

You're a STAR, dude! I was becoming increasingly frustrated with the high cost of purchasing unicorn bags for grain spawn. The exciting aspect of this alternative is that you can still cultivate the same quantity of spawn, but in smaller bags. If contamination occurs, it will only impact a limited portion of the spawn. Thank you so much for sharing the idea.

[@gabrielraymond7857]

Thanks!

[@randomergy683]

@gabrielraymond7857 Hey thank you so much. You're my first super thanks (: I hope my video helped!

[@JustiNourse]

I always wondered if the FoodSaver bags would survive the pressure cooker 🤔 I'm so glad I found this, it opens up so many more doors for me! thank you for sharing!

[@williamstiltner531]

I would imagine so. I use regular double zipper Ziploc bags for my grain. If you put a liner, I use cut up wal mart bags in your instant or pressure cooker to keep the baggies from sticking together or to the pot. The foodsaver bags are a little sturdier, should be A - ok ! Best of luck.

[@chuckofalltrades202]

Great idea. I will be trying that. Thanks

[@KeithWAllan]

I thought that your vlog was very informative one of the best I think

[@vruychev]

I thought about them too, because they are food grade plastic AND high heat resistant since we seal them! Great tutorial, just what I was looking for.

[@jacoblos2559]

Once your grain is inoculated, do the mushrooms grow in these bags? Or what do you do with the finished grain spawn?

[@chriscaudill7326]

Good info

[@randomergy683]

Thank you (:

[@SketchybrainD]

Yo!, I didn’t fail completely with my lions mane bags. I lost a couple but with how careless I was and it being a species I never grew before, I just happy I get to finally taste the mushroom they say tastes seafood or crab like. My cubes are doing just fine but I have grown those quite a few times before and know the process

[@randomergy683]

Dude thats awesome. Like I said sometimes it's best to just dive in and try things. When they don't work just use it as a learning opportunity, and when they do it's just an awesome feeling

[@SketchybrainD]

@@randomergy683 you ever grow cubes of any sort. I started with those about 4 years ago cause I heard they had mental health benefits. But if I do ten grain jars I end up with more than I know what to do with. I did g2g transfers once and ended up with more jars and tubs than I had room or time for but it was fun.

[@randomergy683]

@@SketchybrainD I've never grown them surprisingly but I have bought spore syringes to look at them under my microscope. And I did culture some of the spores on agar to observe the growth of the mycelium. But I was always too chicken to actually grow them out and fruit them lol. Maybe someday haha

[@SketchybrainD]

@@randomergy683 I understand completely.. im trying to learn how to grow ones my family can eat now. Heard lions mane and oysters were a good start and I have wine caps and morels that grown in a few spots around my house. Plus a big ring of marasmius oreades in my yard. But microdosing does help me out from time to time. I just got really fascinated by mushrooms in general what I first started learning to grown

[@SketchybrainD]

@@randomergy683 I’ll quit bothering with all these long comments though. Thanks for the help

[@ho-cd4el]

i will try it tomorrow! thanks

[@brabbit7703]

It's good to put a some clear packing tape over your self healing injection port and just put the syringe thrue the tape and the port so they definitely won't fall off or leak. You can also do it with non-adhesive injection ports to save a little money. You can get big strips that you cut in squares and then tape on the bag with the packing tape.

[@equalizingforce2581]

You use a hole punch to make cleaner air holes.

[@MiguelRodriguez-wn8mc]

Hello, good video, I didn't think that the microns that the micropore tapes have would be enough as filters, I know that there is a paper format and a plastic one, but I see that they work well for you. I was watching other videos and they use the filters of the masks both in fabric and the breathing valves of masks. Thanks for sharing your experience

[@OfficialMixture]

How come the bag doesn't explode during the pressure cooking with the steam expanding?

[@randomergy683]

@OfficialMixture The slits you put in and cover with the micropore tape for oxygen exchange prevents any build up of pressure escape before it becomes an issue (:

[@OfficialMixture]

@@randomergy683 thanks for the reply 👍

[@southernengineering4394]

yes

[@miguelarvizu8037]

Were do you get those self healing membranes?

[@pacman3536]

Just google self-healing injection port adhesive”. Mushroom supplies has them

[@sirnopants2860]

red gasket silicone paste

[@greatwhitecoyote]

How long ( time ) are you instant potting the grains for ?

[@randomergy683]

If I'm doing a lot at once I'll cook them for an hour at full temperatures and pressures, then I'll let them sit in the closed pot overnight until they slowly cool down. If I'm only doing a few I'll just cook them for 25 or 30 minutes and take them out as soon as the pressure releases. They have a fairly high surface area so they heat through pretty quickly and evenly

[@da4647]

Have you tried growing lions mane with this experiment? Would be an interesting video!

[@randomergy683]

I've not tried lions mane with these bags yet but that's next on the list (: I do have some bears head tooth on agar and grain so I'll probably do something with that soon. I was kind of hoping I'd find some wild lions mane around where I hunt but no luck the past couple years. So I'll probably just have to break down and order some live culture for it

[@SilverPhoenix-PlazmaMoon]

They are vaccuum seald or just sealed without vacuum option on?

[@randomergy683]

I just use the seal only option, it won't hurt anything if you forget and try to pull a vacuum on them since they're vented, it'll just perpetually try to suck the air out and eventually seal (:

[@SilverPhoenix-PlazmaMoon]

My bags vacuum sealed all the way up to the grain during PC :( WATT did I do wrong?

[@aaronbishop3754]

Can I use fresh coffee grounds instead of used?

[@randomergy683]

@aaronbishop3754 Sure. I've done that too. I sometimes go to my local discount grocery store and get expired coffee for like 99 cents and use it to grow mushrooms. I do pour boiling water and hydrogen peroxide through the grounds though first to sanitize things, even before pressure cooking. But I'm not sure how necessary that step is lol

[@WPHWw-km1tk]

I reuse empty glass jars. that is free. The sterilzation is just like canning jars. I used to punch holes on the lid, but the lid will rusta. So I no longer punch holes but simply don't close the lid too tight. I use a 80L container as my still box I don't generate plastic waste at all. So far I can get high success rate. Really, for home growers, if you just grow fast growing types of mushrooms, such as shiitake and ouster mushrooms, you don't need to keep buying plastic bags. I also try growing maitake grains in the jars. It pushed out the lid and started fruiting with the maitake brain.!

[@ZCRAIZED1]

Do you really only pressure cook in the instamt pot for 20 minutes? I use the all American canner and I still do a minimum of 2 hours. That 120 minutes doesn't start until the steam purge is done and it's at or above 15 PSI. I see spawning happening and I dont see trich or any contamination. Does this typically work at 90% succuss rate or better? If so thats amazing.

[@randomergy683]

Yeah I only ever do 20 minutes for my agar solutions and 20 minutes for small bags like these and centrifuge tubes which have grain and stuff in them. I do pressure cook larger bags for at least 45 minutes just to be sure and I'll let them sit overnight in the closed pressure cooker to slowly cool down. But yeah I have pretty good success with bags this size by only doing 20 minutes (:

[@randomergy683]

As far as success rates go I only had 2 bags out of about 35 get contaminated and the one was due to me not properly sealing the one edge lol. The other one I think was due to a contaminated culture syringe but I could be wrong.

[@ZCRAIZED1]

@@randomergy683 That is amazing! I honestly never knew anything less than 2 hours could be done. I appreciate all the work you do making these videos. Thank you.

[@randomergy683]

@@ZCRAIZED1 Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed my video (: I've been doing mushroom growing and mycology as a hobby for over 10 years and decided to just start making videos to help others learn and to kind of help myself learn too lol.

[@VKASH223]

People go overboard on the pressure cooker times, i regulary do 30 min at max pressure never had a contam issue..

[@FacuFernandezBMX]

Hi! I just wanna know if thats vacuum sealed or just sealed really tight and compressed. I'm about to get a vacuum sealer for growing My mushroom after watching this vid, You make it look SO easy!

[@randomergy683]

@FacuFernandezBMX I just double seal them and then once you pressure cook them they absorb water from the steam and that makes them tighten up the way you see here (:

[@FacuFernandezBMX]

@@randomergy683 thank You so much for answering! Once the sealer arrives i'll start growing again!

[@Adrian-rl2zw]

​@@FacuFernandezBMX how did it Work?

[@FacuFernandezBMX]

@Adrian-rl2zw i think i'm using the wrong bag, because it keeps deforming when it gets sterilized, but i think this is by far the Best method i've ever used. Thank You so much for sharing this knowledge🙌🙌🙌

[@scorchx10]

BTW if you want to save even more cash 90 Sec Mycology did a DIY self healing injection port with micro tape on the bag followed by high temp RTV then cover with packing tape before tossing it in the pressure cooker / instant pot. Ive found that using a damp paper towel works awesome for shaping the RTV a little before tossing the packing tape over the top. I was using this with 2 gallon 24/7 storage bags from amzn for a poor mans spawn bag. I need to tinker more with the storage bags but I'm going to have to try the vac bags. I was curious if these would work, thanks for the vid man! :)

[@randomergy683]

What a great idea. I never thought of RTV silicone for a self-healing membrane. This is why I make videos. I love comments like this. Thank you. I'll have to give that a try!

[@scorchx10]

Welcome! I love how the community comes together to share and try new ideas. Growing has been the most fun and rewarding project I've tried to date :)

[@randomergy683]

@@scorchx10 It's my favorite hobby to do, and i have a lot of hobbies and interests lol, because it's so interesting to watch fungi grow. And there's so much to learn and observe. And like you said I enjoy the community of people who like to do amateur mycology just because there's so much to contribute.

[@Rippedmagician]

I just cover with tape. Never have had a problem

[@lordpotato9525]

i was afraid the bags might melt, was looking for someone that already had done this to clarify if its possible. thanks man

[@TenilleWilliamsTV]

I just tried this. Took me all day. The bags melted together in the empty part, and split open on the grain part :(

[@andresboniface5484]

For grain sterilization, I am using hessian bags particularly those that have shrunk fullest due to repetitive use. After 90minutes at 15psi pressure cooking after cooling - I just transfer the sterilized grains into 'sterile' plastic bag or mason jars with micropore taped breathing holes. Done this about 4 times now in SAB. No probs so far. Can do about 5kg corn grains using two hessian bags in a 23 liter PC. If the bag is taller, 10kg will be doable. Cotton pillow cases should do to, i think.

[@Jan6750]

You can buy bigger bags on one wide roll and cut to size. Very cheap!

[@BethMatthews-sn7ep]

So i tried this.. the bags just blew up, and got soggy. :/ idk if im missing something??

[@randomergy683]

I had a couple blow up on me because I filled them too much and they swelled up because they absorbed water from the high pressure steam. Try filling them slightly less than what you think they need and double seal each edge that you are sealing. I should have mentioned to fill them a little less than what you think they need because they do absorb water during the sterilizing process. That should help (:

[@AIOBMYCO]

Your not using the right tape that's sports tape not micropore tape

[@randomergy683]

I use both and haven't really noticed a difference between the two. I usually just grab whichever one is closest at the time. The only real difference is the material they're made from. Both are breathable and both do a pretty good job at keeping contaminations out.

[@CoreyDrums]

There's a HUGE difference. Sports tape is for holding tightly, microspore tape is meant to breath. I guarantee you've noticed a difference. You're lying...... Also you can get 100 bags for $36, vacuum bags are $20 a box .... Do the math. You're about a clown.

[@bL1Ndaniel]

@@randomergy683the micro pore tape doesn’t fall off ever? Is it that sticky and strong to steam?

[@TheQueenOfDreams]

I’m sure you already know this, but sports tape is not the same as micropore tape. Micropore is more like a paper tape, and sports tape is more of a woven fabric. Sports tape is not designed for contamination control. It is less breathable, may trap sweat and bacteria, and is not as effective at creating a clean seal. Micropore also doesn’t soften/melt in the pressure cooker, and remains easy to remove.

[@DerBeinmann]

😊😊👍🍄

[@picklepie781]

What is a fried chicken mushroom ...a different strains of chicken of the woods?

[@randomergy683]

The species is Lyophyllum decastes, which is a totally different genus and species. I guess they got their common name from the texture they have which supposedly resembles chicken meat. But I think they just taste like a generic gilled mushroom haha. Still fun to watch them grow at least.

[@picklepie781]

@@randomergy683 thank you , they looked pretty cool .. they don't exist or rather haven't been recorded where I am . I hope one day I get to taste it myself . 👍🏻

[@TechGorilla1987]

Do you have a link for the flat sealing membranes? Edit: I found something similar.

[@BeastModeNetWorkk]

Actually, they breath in oxygen and breath out co2

[@shawndogg69er]

That's actually exactly what he said. CO² is carbon dioxide

[@TechGorilla1987]

This isn't really relevant - as usual, but I am attempting to use recycle glass containers to inoculate popcorn spawn. Maybe I will update as the process progresses.

[@thorny3218]

Instead of all that effort and plastic waste, you could just use mason jars. Use them over and over again.

[@randomergy683]

I do use Mason jars too, especially for grain spawn. But you can't really fruit out of them too easily. So that's why I like mushroom bags for certain species.

[@nisar8009]

I agree with thorny 3218. It’s way too much plastic waste. If you’re having issues fruiting in Mason jars 🙄

[@randomergy683]

@@nisar8009 To each their own. Just do what ever works for you I guess 🤷

[@deezerduder]

​@@nisar8009You do realize there are a lot of species of mushrooms that will not produce mushrooms in Mason jar set ups right? Not everyone is looking to grow magic mushrooms to get high like you probably are.

[@frankmeyers7304]

What's wrong with magic mushrooms? @@deezerduder

[@droidnick]

Far

[@theodorelutjen3135]

Injection port. I can't see why you can't just inject and a piece of tape.

[@randomergy683]

@theodorelutjen3135 you can do that for sure. I've done it before, I just have like 1000 self healing injection ports knocking around so I use those

[@siba2893]

Once your grain is inoculated, do the mushrooms grow in these bags? Or what do you do with the finished grain spawn?