Growing Mushrooms on Popcorn: A Beginner's Guide to popcorn Tek

Hello everyone, and welcome back to our channel, where we explore mushroom cultivation. Today, we will be discussing a topic that many of you have asked about: growing mushrooms on popcorn. This method is perfect for beginners and requires very little investment. So, let's get started.

The first step is to prepare the popcorn. Any popcorn can be used, including redinbaucher “mushroom popcorn,” white, yellow, blue, or whatever is available to you. We need to rehydrate it, and it's going to take hours. But before we do that, it's helpful to do one thing first.
Weigh ten kernels in grams, then divide that number by ten. That’s the average weight of each kernel. Write that down because we’re going to use it later.

Next, pour your dry grain into an Instant Pot or stock pot and pour water so that the waterline is three inches above the grain.
Pasteurize the grain by heating the water to 170°F. If you're using an Instant Pot, select sauté and high, and wait a few minutes. Once the temperature is reached, remove from heat and let the temperature slowly fall to 100°F or body temperature, then increase the heat to 120-140°F and repeat. Remember, we are not cooking the grain; we're just rehydrating it.
If you're using an Instant Pot, select the "yogurt" setting and low and set the timer to 12-16 hours.

Check on your kernels every twelve hours. We are looking for the right moisture content. Can you split one in half with your thumbnail? If no, skip to the next step. If you can, calculate the average weight of each kernel. We are looking for an 80-100% increase in weight. Some kernels, and I mean very few kernels, may have split on their own; that is normal but is not our goal. We don't want them to split. That’s too wet.

If they are not ready, re-pasteurize and repeat the warm water bath for an additional eight hours. It's best to check every few hours at this point. Bacteria can build up very quickly at this temperature, so don't skip the pasteurization step. If bacteria does build up on you, you'll smell it. They will also start to form a biofilm at the top of your water. This isn't ideal, but you'll be fine. Pasteurize again.

Drain the water. We are looking for wet on the inside and dry on the outside. Increasing the temperature so that the kernels are hot will help a bit here, but you don't have to. Let the water drain for a few minutes.
Increase surface area. Lay the kernels out on trays so that they form a single layer and wait. A fan helps, or if you are really impatient, you can ball them up in a bath towel, mix it around a bit, then lay them out to finish.
Next, we are going to add magnesium carbonate and lime. Lime is going to increase the pH, and chalk is going to keep the kernels from sticking together. Add them at these ratios.

Next, we need to sterilize the jars and bags using a pressure cooker. We want to ensure that there is no life in these walls. These contaminants will compete with your mycelium and may even be dangerous to your health.