Mushroom cultivation video with Cesar Marin on Instagram. | Matthew Monroe posted on the topic | LinkedIn (2024)

MONDAY MORNING MUSHROOM PHOTOSo, it's the start of a new work week, and time once again for another Monday Morning Mushroom Photo.Though it might be more accurate to call the image below a "Monday Morning MEGA Mushrooms Photo."Because there are a LOT of mushrooms in the picture.Well, anyways, what you're seeing here is a bountiful flush of fungi.To create the image, I pulled the mushrooms – along with their intact block of mycelium – out of the tub setup they were growing in (a CULTIV8R KIT, by the way), and set that block atop four drinking glasses.A large sheet of black construction paper was set behind and below the mushroom block (again, it's elevated by four clear glasses), and then a small piece of white foamcore was positioned about a foot in front of the block. The white foamcore acted as "bounce card," reflecting a bit of light back up into the undersides of the mushroom caps.And the lighting? I used a small LED panel suspended above and slightly behind the mushrooms. Heavy diffusion material was place just in front of the panel to soften the light, and then I used black wrap (i.e.: black tin foil) to narrow down the beam.Simple. Efficient. And I'm very please with the results.Both the photo AND the flush of mushrooms.

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THE NATALENSIS COLD EXPERIMENT – Day # 42We are now exactly six weeks ago into my Psilocybe Natalensis Cold Treatment Experiment, and I couldn't be more pleased.But before I go into details, I should probably give a bit of the backstory, for you folks who haven't been following along with my prior posts about this personal research project...42 days ago I inoculated a sterilized grain bag with spores from the mushroom species, Psilocybe natalensis, and for this entire period I've kept the bag in a temperature controlled warehouse, at 60 degrees F.Psilocybe natalensis is a species from South Africa – from the Natal Province of South Africa – and given its native habitat, one might expect this mushroom to requires warm (or even hot) temperatures in order to properly myceliate, pin, and then produce fully-formed fruiting bodies.But we are now at a point – six weeks into this experiment – where the grain bag I'd inoculated is almost completely myceliated. There are still a few minor patches of uncolonized grain scattered throughout the bag, though I expect these to become infiltrated with the growing mycelium during the course of the next day or two.At which point, I will transfer the grain over to pasturized substrate (i.e.: soil for mushrooms), and then continue the cultivation experiment at 60 degrees.This cold temperature experiment is coming along quite nicely, and meeting – and beating – my expectations.Okay... So, why is this important?Well, I believe it's important for people to have a successful cultivation, the first time they attempt to grow mushrooms at home, and Psilocybe natalensis is the species I've been recommending to people for that first cultivation. Natalensis is resistant to contamination, grows incredibly fast when given warm (i.e.: 65 to 70 degrees F) conditions, and – as is becoming more and more clear – tolerant of conditions that most people would find to be a bit chilly."Chilly" conditions that are common to poorly insulated homes in the wintertime (especially in the Pacific Northwest portion of the U.S., where I live).I consider everything about this experiment to be a success – a raging success, actually – and will have more to report next week.

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MONDAY MORNING MUSHROOM PHOTOWith another Monday morning upon us it's time for another mushroom picture.And I'm pretty happy with the way this one turned out.Weirdly enough (but it's really not all that weird), the set up for this particular image was incredibly straightforward.Lighting was provided, frame left, by a small LED lighting panel.Towards the lower right side of frame, a piece of white foamcore was set in place as a bounce card – bringing reflected ("bounced") light back into the shadow side of the mushroom.The mushroom itself? A wooden barbecue skewer was run through its stem, and then a lighting stand with a boom arm held the skewer/mushroom combo just above an antique tile.Shot with an iPhone 12 Pro Max.Exported to Photoshop, where I applied a fairly steep contrast curve, a bit of sharpening, and then a heavy vignette.Not. Too. Shabby. #mushrooms #photography #photoshop

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THE NATALENSIS COLD EXPERIMENT – Day 35If you've been following me and my posts on LinkedIn, then you're well aware of my fandom for Psilocybe natalensis. This is a mushroom species that's fun to grow, fast to grow, and shockingly easy to grow – to the point where I now recommend it as the mushroom that all first-time cultivators should start off with.Whether you have an interest in active*mushrooms or not (and natalensis is quite "active."), this is the mushroom you should be using as your "training wheels species," all so that you have a successful first grow – which will build up a foundation (and your confidence level) towards more difficult species – active or not.Well, my fandom for natalensis continues, as we now have reached Day # 35 of the "Natalensis Cold Treatment Experiment."And what exactly is this cold treatment experiment?Well, exactly five weeks ago, I inoculated a grain bag with Psilocybe natalensis spores, and I've kept the bag in a climate-controlled warehouse, where temperatures have remained at 60 degrees F (or just slightly below).And as you can see in the photo below, the bag is a bit more than halfway myceliated.I suspect that the bag will be fully myceliated – with the grain ready to transfer over to substrate – by next weekend.Honestly, this is pretty damn incredible.With most of the mushroom species that are cultivated at home, grain bag colonization will only take place – in a decent and timely manner – at temperatures above 68 degrees F. And while natalensis itself will certainly grow much faster at 68 degrees, the fact that this grain bag is just a week away from full colonization – at 60 degrees F. – reaffirms and reinforces the idea that this is the ideal mushroom for those first time cultivators.I will – of course – be posting again next weekend.* Again, this is an active mushroom species – containing psychedelic alkaloids – so do be aware of your local and state laws, and their enforcement.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••Cultivation Community Update: I'm at a bit of a standstill with Only Fans right now, which is the platform I would prefer to use for building out a mushroom education network, geared specifically towards cultivators and the cultivation curious. I'm part of an LLC ("Cultiv8r Club"), and Only Fans is having an issue bringing me onboard as a business, rather than as a individual. If this issue can't be resolved, I'll look for another platform.

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NATALENSIS EN NOIR ET BLANCI just can’t imagine the sort of day where I would get tired of taking pictures of mushroom.Truth is – when the light is right – I just can’t help myself… I’ve got to pull out my camera.Or a phone.Which, nowadays, is the same thing as a camera.Well, anyways… this is a Psilocybin natalensis mushroom, illuminated with partially cloudy daylight, and photographed with an iPhone 12 Pro Max.A piece of black construction paper is about a foot behind the mushroom.Black and white conversion done on the phone.

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HEY, I'M ON ANOTHER PODCAST!Tessa Tovar and I caught up a short while back, and we spent more than an hour – talking on her "Outside The Studio" podcast – about brain health, cultivating mushrooms, foraging for fungi, psychedelics, microdosing, being sober-curious, and making delicious homemade nut butter.This was an incredibly fun conversation to take part in, and I'm so glad Tessa reached out and invited me to be on her show.Here are some of the outlets where you can see and/or hear our wide ranging discussion:YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gdtJJiXfSpotify: https://bit.ly/3UrAerpiTunes: https://bit.ly/3OyjWt3Quick sidenote: the interview portion of the podcast starts up just a bit past the 19 minute mark.As another quick sidenote, our conversation really did cover everything from microdosing psychedelics to making homemade nut butter. Below is a short clip where I share my recipe and process for making the Best. Damn. Nut. Butter. On. This. Planet.:

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MONDAY MORNING MUSHROOM PHOTOSo, another week – and another Monday – is upon us, and it's time for another Monday Morning Mushroom Photo.But I've posted this photo before.And it's possible that I might end up posting it here again.Why?Well, to illustrate a point.The point being: Your Camera Doesn't MatterI took this picture about four years ago using an iPhone 5s.All of the "Photoshop" work done to the image took place on the phone itself, using Google Snapseed.Myself, I have closets and shelves that are overflowing with camera bodies, lenses, flash units, lighting stands, wireless triggers, all sorts of stuff.But sometimes – many times, in fact – a person can find themself in a situation where there's really no need for all that gear.And if you have some sort of picture taking device in hand (*cough* iPhone *cough*) AND you have the proper lighting...Let me repeat myself: IF YOU HAVE THE PROPER LIGHTINGWell then the camera doesn't really matter.By the way, when people do ask me what sort of camera I would recommend for taking pictures of mushrooms – or just simply taking product photos – I always tell them to hold off and the camera (for now, at least), and to invest in a few LED panel lights, some stands, and a sheet of white foamcore.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••Quick update on my private mushroom cultivation community:I'm currently waiting for approval from Only Fans to be registered as a "creator" on their platform. I submitted my application over the weekend, and received an autoresponder message, telling me that it can take several days for the actual approval to come through. I'm totally cool with this. Only Fans has an incredible number of security and anti-stalking measures in place, which is super important to me, and even more important to my customer base – the majority of whom are women.

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THE NATALENSIS COLD EXPERIMENT – Day # 28It was exactly one month ago that I inoculated a bag of sterilized grain with spores from the mushroom species, Psilocybe natalensis, and for this entire time period I've kept the bag in a temperature controlled warehouse, at (or even below) 60 degrees F.And though this mushroom comes from the warm weather grasslands of South Africa, in Natal Provence, mycelium is slowly but steadily spreading throughout the bag, despite the cold-ish temperatures.Earlier this week, the bag had reached the point where it had become about 20% myceliated, and so I gave it a good shake to distribute more of the fungal threads throughout the grain. Though this initially set the cultivation back by about a day or two, growth has resumed, and the bag is becoming more evenly colonized.This cold temperature experiment is coming along quite nicely, and meeting – and beating – my expectations. And I suspect that I'll be transferring the myceliated grain over to substrate (i.e.: "soil for mushrooms") within the next week or two.I will – of course – be posting pictures of the transfer.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••P.S.: If you've been following some of my other posts these past few weeks, then you know that I'll soon be setting up a private mushroom cultivation community. I've been polling people about this – hell, I've even asked people here on LinkedIn – and the overwhelming feedback that's come back to me has been to go with Only Fans as the platform.Yes... Only Fans.And what's genuinely interesting to me is that it's been women – in fact, 100% of the women I've asked – who've told me to go with Only Fans. There are a good number of protective measures (i.e.: anti-stalking/creeping) built into the site, and several people have said to me: "It's really the safe choice." So, I'll also be keeping you posted as I set up my OF page and get the community started.#communitybuilding #mushrooms

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1000 TRUE (ONLY) FANS?Fellow citizens of LinkedInlandia, I need your feedback.If you've been following my most recent series of posts, then you know that I would like to get a private mushroom cultivation community up and running.This has turned out to be a bit more difficult than I'd originally imagined, primarily due to issues with payment processing companies: most want absolutely nothing to do with anything involving mushrooms, no matter what sort of mushrooms are being discussed.But I've found three platforms that are usable, have good-to-great user interfaces, and have told me outright that they are... Errrrhhhh... "Mushroom friendly." Two slight caveats: one of the platforms presents possible payment processing issues, and another platform isn't really designed specifically for community building, though it has phenomenal streaming and media hosting capabilities.The three platforms are:1) Kajabi2) Heartbeat3) Only FansThere are advantages and disadvantages to all three platforms.Let's start with Kajabi... It is robust, well known, designed for community building, has a TON of features, and allows for paid courses. And by the way, I will be filming a complete mushroom cultivation course in the months to come. On the other hand, Kajabi has so many features that there's definitely a learning curve involved. Lastly, Kajabi is expensive.Heartbeat is kinda' the new kid on the block. It has a very clean layout, is very community-centric, allows for paid courses, and is relatively inexpensive. On the other, they use Stripe as their payment processor. And though the customer service folks at Heartbeat told me that they themselves are totally fine with a mushroom cultivation-oriented community, I have huge concerns about Stripe pulling the plug.Lastly, there is Only Fans.Only Fans is interesting, because – though it did get its start with p*rn and erotica – it is really putting a lot of effort into "becoming legitimate," and there are now cooking shows on the platform, pilate instructors, coaches, etc... As far as I can tell it's not community oriented (i.e.: subscribers can't build out forums or chat with each other), thought subscribers can chat with the host. And it's super easy to start live streaming, or to post pictures, written content, or prerecorded video. In terms of pricing, Only Fans does take a somewhat hefty cut (20%).So, what's been surprising to me is that when I've mentioned these three options to people I know in real life (and not folks I know via social media), women always – and I do mean always – tell me to go with Only Fans.Men, on the other hand, are kinda' split evenly between Kajabi, Heartbeat, and Only Fans.So, what say you?#community #communitybuilding #mushrooms

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