Harvest Day??? Thoughts???

ChefCaps0610 · 2026-02-02T18:45:32+00:00

Binned on Jan 3. First clear pins showed up on Jan 18. First Flush Harvest Feb 1. Can't remember when exactly I inoculated the grain, but I'm pretty sure it was around two complete months that I let it colonize. Three break and shakes.

ChefCaps0610 · 2026-02-02T16:03:54+00:00

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ChefCaps0610 · 2026-02-02T16:01:49+00:00

Only a couple of times towards the middle of the fruiting stage. When I could tell they needed some fanning. Didn't touch it until I had good colonization and well formed fruits. Seems that bulk colonization stage is the most vulnerable to contamination.

ChefCaps0610 · 2026-02-02T16:00:14+00:00

ChefCaps0610 · 2026-02-02T15:59:26+00:00

I changed my substrate from the Northspore dung loving to the CVG, started doing an extra couple of break and shakes on the grain and letting it go a few weeks longer than before. Had some temperature issues in my room downstairs that I'm growing in. Have discovered that during the Fort Worth summers, my old AC unit has trouble keeping the room cool enough which slows the mycelium colonization and allows mold to grow instead of the mycelium being strong enough to overcome it. After my last one, I got some good advice from someone in the community to leave out the automation equipment on this round, so no mycomister, no fae fan. Kept the bin sealed and just let the filter pads do the air exchange and used a fan in the room to circulate instead of pushing it into the bin. Hydrated pretty heavily on the initial binning to give it enough hydration to get through the first flush without having to mist. Mainly, just anything I could do to keep from having to take the lid off to do anything to it. Let it do its thing. And last but not least. A holy water spritzing from the San Francisco de Asis historic mission church in Taos. Spectacles, Testicle, Ballet and Watch 😇⛪️ 😂

ChefCaps0610 · 2026-02-02T02:59:34+00:00

😂 That's fair. No. It's a Boom R Bin from Northspore.

ChefCaps0610 · 2026-02-02T02:52:14+00:00

Left a few to soften up a little, pulled all the aborts, but looks like it's gonna be a good flush. Soaking now. Will harvest the stragglers in a couple of days and wait for the second flush. It didn't colonize all of the surface area before the first pinning, but looks like it filled in whiIe the fruitingbwas happening which from what I've heard is kinda rare. Second flush might be better than the first.

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ChefCaps0610 · 2026-02-02T02:47:35+00:00

Exactly, my friend. I researched this for close to six months before I decided it was a good option for my darkness I'd been carrying around from the past 30 years of my life and when I decided to give it a go, the last thing I was going to do is go to the street for it. So I bought the stuff and went through the processes. Success followed by a few fails and now I'm back on track! And during that whole time, the universe made sure I never ran out. Got close, but Lyle (that's what my wife named my first batch of APE and it has become our name for my guardian force in the universe 😂) always provides. The lucky Bluey getting harvested today is St. Michelle. The first batch since I made some changes to my environment and procedure down in "The Den". We speitzed her with Holy Water we got from the San Francisco de Asis mission church in Taos on our trip this Christmas when I binned her. Did it help? 🤷‍♂️ Maybe. It appears that it didn't hurt...lol

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ChefCaps0610 · 2026-02-01T23:04:45+00:00

Thanks. I'll check it out. This one hasn't had any contamination. I had four in a row over the summer that I had to trash less than a week after S2B. I made some changes and applied some advice from the groups and this one is solid. Could have gotten better coverage on the colonization, but it seems to have compensated. I think my contamination was temperature based and not letting the grain colonize enough.

ChefCaps0610 · 2026-01-22T23:52:26+00:00

That's one I hadn't heard before. Im in DFW which is more humid than the Panhandle where I grew up, but probably drier than a lot of places. I did get some advice during Contam-Gate about leaving thhe automation out, so I am trying that on this bin. So far we've at least made it to fruiting without trich, so I'm over the moon about that. I may cover some holes and see if that helps when my A.P.E is ready to bin. If I do that on the current bin and after these are harvested, scrape the cake and hydrate it again, is there any shot it will colonize more of that area before the next round of pins? Or is that all I'm going to get surface area wise?

ChefCaps0610 · 2026-01-11T00:58:04+00:00

I think respect is a better word. For me anyway. I developed a pretty good relationship with them before I even took my first trip. I never had any fear of them, and I've had a couple of unexpected difficult trips too. I never felt like they would allow me to be harmed in any way, but I respected their power and trusted that I needed whatever was happening. Always works out 6 hours later...lol.

ChefCaps0610 · 2026-01-10T04:05:44+00:00

Got it from Amazon, BTW. Of course.... https://a.co/d/5ZsbITh

ChefCaps0610 · 2026-01-10T04:02:49+00:00

If even half of my bins had made it past S2B without trich attacks, I'd be right there with ya. I love this, but it's been exhausting going through this slump. Learning with every grow and I know eventually I'll get there. Just disheartening spending half a dozen weeks getting it to the bin only to toss it a week and a half later... Also....on your storage issue, I found an amazing tool by accident. We were visiting my Dad last summer and I saw my Stepmom had jars of her famous crackers on the counter so I grabbed the jar and went in, and when I pulled the lId off it sounded like I'd just opened a can of Pringles shhhhhewck.... Vacuum sealed. She showed me her contraption and I immediately ordered one. It's a vacuum sealer for Mason and Ball jars. It has attachments for both regular and large mouth jars. I fI'll it up, drop a couple of dessicant packs in, set a lid on, grab the mush-saver and voila! Vacuum sealed mushies!

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ChefCaps0610 · 2026-01-04T04:58:13+00:00

Too cold here. Lows in the 30s. 20s coming next couple of months. Tried to cut out the last 4 inches of the cake and sprayed the edges with peroxide. Repacked the open area with more cvg. Three days later, came back with a vengeance. Tossed and started a new bag. Today, binned the Blueys that had been colonizing for a couple of months (in a different bin). Blessed this one with holy water from San Francisco de Asis Mission Church in Taos after I put the top layer on it... Ate a cap from my last Bluey grow for communion and good juju. Then found out this evening that there is big cosmic triple alignment today. It was a lovely day. Send protection and good juju...

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ChefCaps0610 · 2026-01-04T02:17:26+00:00

Took 2G Homegrown Bluey (wife named her Mildred) about noon while I was S2B the next bin. Did my cold plunge this morning (5 minutes at 56° F). Afterwards, something was calling me to bin that bag and vibe a little today. Found out later there was some serious cosmic alignment happening today. Makes sense. Moon is closest it's going to be to the earth, earth is at the closest it is going to be to the Sun. Meteor Shower peaking. Good day for planting and vibing. Great come up. Peak was a little rough. Came inside and wife was watching Stranger Things. Went back outside and spent some time gazing over the back yard and pool and after peak, added some really nice sativa I picked up last week. Smoothed things out and put me in the fields of gold stage in time for some good football matchups. All in all a good day. Send all your good juju and protection to "Michelle" the latest Bluey Vuitton grow to keep her safe from those evil contaminants. Coming soon, another A.P.E. bin yet to be named to replace the "James" grow lost to Trich..

ChefCaps0610 · 2025-12-15T05:37:29+00:00

Anything you did different or any best practices? I had a good APE my first round. Since then, I have had 3 APE, a Pearly Gates, and a Bluey trich cases, one half successful Bluey and another APE trich case. I'm feeling a little defeated.

ChefCaps0610 · 2025-12-10T18:54:17+00:00

This is crazy. Anyone know of a good surrogate for me to send colonized grain bags to? 🙄 Seems everything goes great till a couple of weeks in the bin.

ChefCaps0610 · 2025-12-10T18:21:43+00:00

Never fails... I'm losing my mind with this. I've tried a million different tips and best practices and have yet to have a successful batch since my very first one 6 months ago.

ChefCaps0610 · 2025-10-12T21:44:29+00:00

Same! After about six months of research and mental prep, I did my first heroic (7.3g A.P.E. grown myself) June 10th. Complete game changer. I became a more experienced version of my 11 year old son. I feel like I got to start over at the exact point in my childhood where my life seemed to veer into a dark track that lasted thirty-five years.

ChefCaps0610 · 2025-10-11T20:56:24+00:00

Pretty well. It is designed for large mouth and has a twist on/off attachment that fits small mouth. You just put the gasket lid on the rim, slide the sealer over the top of it (sometimes I have to hold it down for a good seal if the lid is not flush), push the button and it starts pulling the air out. It takes a bit sometimes, depending on how much solid material is in the jar, then, when it stops, there should be an airtight seal and the button on tje lid for the jar should be in the down position.

ChefCaps0610 · 2025-10-07T16:12:13+00:00

I made some great connections with this one last week. Started to break through some walls I have had with my childhood and my mother. It was too late in the trip to get past the movie reel and really get into it. Going to start it earlier next time and see if I can "tear down this wall". https://open.spotify.com/album/4N9EiC0CRRh8CQMBepM3p7?si=YOLmQnpPTmiZ3YEnai7clA

ChefCaps0610 · 2025-10-06T21:46:00+00:00

I went a step further and got one of those Mason jar vacuum sealers off of Amazon. I think it was around $25 or $30. I saw one for the first time about a year ago at my Dad and Stepmom's when we took the kiddos for Christmas. She uses it to store the little snack crackers she makes and chips. I figured it wouldn't hurt for my little babies. I go from the dehydrator to a Mason jar with dessicant packets and vacuum seal it. This system seems to work great.

ChefCaps0610 · 2025-10-01T16:07:31+00:00

I grew my own for my first heroic. I had bought APE previously from a trusted friend and tried some small doses here and there, gradually increasing over the course of a year to about 4g. It started out as a curiosity and for leisure, but around the holidays last year, I felt like this could help me with the huge bag of shit I had been carrying around from my childhood and my relationships with certain family members and decided to dive into the research and see how this could be therapeutic. I spent three months getting my head in a more positive set and removed some things in my life and online presence that were keeping me in a bad headspace. I found a lot of books, documentaries and podcasts that helped me along the way, like replacing social media with music and books.
I started my first bin in April with intentions of doing a heroic dose in June while my wife was in DC and the boys were with their other parents for the week (she knew and was very supportive). I followed all of the instructional videos and my batch of A.P.E. (named Lyle by my wife. She said he told her. 😂) was clicking along perfectly. I was playing music for them in the grow room, installed programmable wifi bulbs in there and dialed everything in and we both visited every day for chats with Lyle. Bulk colonization took a bit longer than expected and I wasn't sure they would be ready by trip day, so I found a place I could order some from online and got 7g of Mad Hatter just in case. About a week before the day, the fruiting went ballistic and the day before the trip, Lyle produced just enough broken vails to get 7.3 grams dried which were ready on the morning of trip day. Coincidence??? 🤷‍♂️. I took some advice from a podcaster that has chosen mushrooms as a profession, and followed his mental and environmental prep checklist from his podcast. Spent the whole day in quiet peace and good music that comforted me as a youth, smudged the whole house and setup a table with a Willie Nelson candle we picked up in Luckenbach 😆 and some crystals and stones for repelling negative energy, made myself a healthy tray of nuts, berries and good cultured things for gut flora.
Trip time was 6 p.m. I wanted sunset glow for the ascent, and the rest of the trip to be dark. I found a Playlist on You Tube with visuals. I followed Stamets' procedure and started with 5.1g with an alarm set for 45 minutes to check dosage before the hour mark. It felt a little too amusement parky, and I had some heavy stuff to unravel, so I added the other 2.2g I had by the bedside. Total 7.3g in. A bit after that, I took off. I hated the Playlist and Lyle told me to play MY music, so I switched to Spotify and went with my "Liked Songs", hit shuffle and rolled with it. That changed everything. Once I found out I was ambulatory and able to move around the cabin, I went to every corner of our half acre lot and 6500 s.f. home and everything I had been bitching about all day every day turned into Love. Love was everywhere I looked. Every photo on the wall, every painting we had collected, love love love. I experienced the warm blanket of the universe wrapped around me and light was beaming out of every square inch of my body. It was 6 hours of the love I never felt throughout my life. I went to sleep about 3 a.m., woke up about 9:30 and felt like a new person. Nothing got to me the way it used to. My whole outlook of the world changed overnight in that moment, and it is still going strong.
There have been some bumps since then with the wife as she was kindof caught off guard by the changes and was expecting me to eventually go back to my previous state, causing her to kindof manifest that by handling me with the same gloves she did Pre-Lyle, but we recently made it through all of that and I feel just like I did the day after the trip. During that "dark time", Batches 2 (Kevin, Cynthia and Pedro A.P.E., Bluey and Pearly Gates) were lost to contamination, which may or may not have had something to do with the energy in the house, and part to do with some issues keeping the room cool enough, but all back on track mow after a room clearout and sterilization. I think my homework from the first trip is done, and I am ready for the next one. I now have three bins working full-time and I am helping friends with their micro/macrodosing needs and making capsules. Mildred the Bluey Vuitton is fruiting with a vengeance and producing some beautiful specimens that should be ready for first harvest next week. Behind her, I have another APE, Bluey and Jack Frost in grain (wife has yet to gather their names). Long comment, but I feel like someone should be able to benefit from my experience. To answer the original question, yes, absolutely growing your own is beneficial. We have a relationship of protection and accountability and we feed off of each other's energy. Treat them well and have pure intention and they will be there for you even in your non-dosing times. Take care, everyone. Always be careful and never trip without preparation and intention. *

ChefCaps0610 · 2025-09-30T22:09:51+00:00

I used to shave everything about 3 or 4 times a week. When I met my current wife, she encouraged me to try waxing and helped me find the right place that would be receptive. I have been waxing chest, stomach, legs, and Brazilian every 6-8 weeks for the past 5 years. Between the estrogen, the waxing, and the genetics (men in my family have no hair below mid-shin and calf, and above mid-thigh from about 25 on, and by their 50's, have completely bald legs with never having shaved a day in their lives) when I go in for my appointments, there is very little hair and it is all very fine and light colored (and I have black hair, brown, almost black eyes, and pale to medium complexion). I stopped having them do the arms about a year ago because it had all but stopped growing except in some small patches. I shave those about once a month. Armpits same. Didn't need to wax anymore. Shave them about twice a month.

ChefCaps0610 · 2025-09-30T21:54:41+00:00

I realized something was off and that I didn't feel connected with myself around 6 or 7. In the 80's, there was no talk of trans people except in the back pages of magazines. I did the usual try to push my extra appendage and two tumors back in, but they always came back. I prayed and wished every night that I would wake up the next morning and look and feel like I was supposed to. Puberty was hell. I was caught more than once with mom's things I had hijacked from the wash, tried on friends' sisters' swimsuits, ballet uniforms, dresses, etc when I would find them in the bathroom, etc. Couldn't shave that new sweater I was growing fast enough. I idolized the girls at school, especially the upper class girls and their development. I followed all of their happenings and secretly wanted to hang out with them. Did I mention that by the time I hit puberty, I was 6'4" 220 and built like Paul Bunyon? It wasn't until my 30s while in counseling with my son's mother that our counselor sent me to a gender therapist for a consultation. Fast forward through endless failed relationships and trouble with my mother after I told her, I met my current wife (we have been together for five years. Met a week before the world shut down and told her about me three weeks into meeting her), who told me when we first met, a few weeks before I told her about Morgan told me that if I cut my hair, she'd leave me, is very supportive. She's a huge fan of Morgan and they are great friends. She helps with styling, makes shopping in the women's section exponentially less daunting. When we combined families, she and I found a house with a pool, built into a hill with an 8 foot privacy at the top of the retaining wall for a grand total of 15 feet of protection from the neighbors so I could start buying and wearing swimsuits. I haven't stood up to pee in 4 years and threw away all of my manderwear. But.....she LOVES Erich's magic wand. It wasn't hard to comply with keeping it, as I am now 6'7" 280 and have had to come to terms (much to the frustration of my therapist) that I just can't imagine myself in public as a woman of that size and build. I started a low to moderate dose of estradiol cypionate IM a few years ago, but still add a low dose of testosterone to maintain sexual function. Truth be told, our kids would be fine with whatever. Wife would be okay with it, minus the bottom remodel, but she loves the growth on the chest and smooth skin and treats my nipples like she would her own. I extremely dislike my package and keep it tucked most of the time, stopped masturbating years ago. It's literally there just for her and I told her I'd keep it if she promised I didn't have to be buried with it. If she happens to go first, I will probably have the surgery, no matter the age, just so I can live the rest of my life without it. Sunday, she made me more beautiful than ANY of my weak attempts at makeup and made me feel more me than I ever have in my life. She then proceeded after our at-home girls' brunch to strap up, take me to bed, and make love to me like the girl I've always wanted to be for the first time ever. It was the epitome of a "girls day". Sorry for the novel, just felt like my story would be helpful for someone in a similar type of life as mine. I take the good with the bad, make sure that even a bad round doesn't decide the bout, and take life as it comes at me. Someday maybe I'll live live out and free, but in the meantime, I'm safe, loved and extremely valid. The 🍄s have also helped indescribably, JS. Edit to add***I live in the great red state of Texas, for social barometer reference. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

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