I had a bit of grain left during my last run, so I mixed the bits I had left.
This is interesting, actually. Over the next few months, I’ll continue this experiment to see what grain mixes might work better for spawn.
While this wasn’t a “proper” test, I had still hypothesized that the higher starch content in the popcorn would do better. I guess not.
I’ll try and separate testing into different categories like starch content, moisture content, mycelium strain, etc. There is probably a ton more conditions to isolate as well.
Mixed cubensis genetics.
Popcorn is great when used alone without rice. I pre-cook it to ~60-80% hydration’ish, or when I can bite into it easily and the center has just started getting hydrated and isn’t crunchy. I’ll fill my spawn jars and load it in my pressure canner for about 90mins or so, depending on how many jars I have.
There are methods on YouTube for no pressure canner popcorn, so you can get away with a quick pasteurize it seems. Popcorn is obviously food-grade, so it’s going to be fairly clean out of the bag.
So far, popcorn is also working awesome for pink and golden oyster spawn. Once Shiitake and Lions Mane get started, which takes a bit anyway, they do fairly well. I do want to experiment with adding peptone to the water when I pre-cook it to see if I can give it a little more “kick”.
Price is variable and is only really cost effective with +50lb bags, if that is a concern. That is just about pinching pennies.