Fruiting

Dunking Instructions

1. When cakes are ready, open mycelium cake jar and remove the top dry vermiculite from cake into trash. Tap cake from jar and brush off.

2. Rinse off cake with cold water and place in small, clear tote. Make a note of location on 3x5 index card.

3. Fill tote with filtered water to top of cakes.

4. Set second clear tote on top of cakes to keep them submerged for 1 day. 

Fruiting Placement Instructions

1. Pour two cups vermiculite and 1 cup of filtered water into large bowl and mix. PF Tek says the vermiculite should be able to only squeeze out a single drop of water out of a handful of wet vermiculite. This is called hydrating to field capacity.

2. Use the left over foil from the mycelium cake jar to make a small bowl as wide as the jar. Place a small amount of wet vermiculite on the foil, enough that it covers the foil.

3. Remove cake from small tote and rinse.

4. Drop cake, top first, into the wet vermiculite to get a thin layer on the top. Then roll the cake in the vermiculite to get a thin layer on the sides and set on top of the wet vermiculite on the foil. Repeat rinsing and layering next cake, including bottom of cake, with wet vermiculite and set on top of first cake. Only stack cakes two high and both cakes should be the same strain.

5. Move foil with cakes to fruiting chamber on top of perlite. Repeat for the rest of the ready cakes.

6. Fruiting can take anywhere from 3-4 weeks depending on the strain and conditions of fruiting chamber. Make sure there is good air circulation in fruiting chamber with automatic system.

If you're keeping track for experimentation, don't forget to label location of cakes in the fruiting chamber.  A 3x5 index card works well for this.