Dumb questons about kinshi

treespider

treespider

L2
I've never used kinshi before, but I have some larvae that are very close to the age they need to be in order to move them into the bottles. I've read everything I can on kinshi, but all the resources I've found are instructions on how to put a larva into the bottle. What do I do with the bottle after the larvae is inside? Do I put the lid back on to retain moisture? Should I leave it off so the larva can breathe? And what about when the adult is ready to emerge? Do I put the bottles in a prepared cage so the adults have somewhere to crawl out to?

I'd appreciate any advice regular kinshi users can give me regarding the later stages of kinshi rearing. Thank you!

 
The container should be closed to prevent the mycelium from drying out, but there should be some airflow since mushroom mycelium produces high levels of carbon dioxide. Containers should have small vents that are covered with either cotton or filter paper. Big vents will cause the mycelium to dry too rapidly. The adult should be able to dig its own way out once it's ready to emerge, but you will need to have a prepared enclosure for them to exit into. You may also manually remove them after they've hardened, but you need to be careful as they're still quite delicate before they start actively moving around.

I personally remove them from their pupal cocoons and put them into artificial cocoons because the mycelium is a living thing and can sometimes start to regrow, smother, and kill the pupa if it hasn't been eaten enough to greatly retard its regrowth.

 
Shade of Eclipse said:
The container should be closed to prevent the mycelium from drying out, but there should be some airflow since mushroom mycelium produces high levels of carbon dioxide. Containers should have small vents that are covered with either cotton or filter paper. Big vents will cause the mycelium to dry too rapidly. The adult should be able to dig its own way out once it's ready to emerge, but you will need to have a prepared enclosure for them to exit into. You may also manually remove them after they've hardened, but you need to be careful as they're still quite delicate before they start actively moving around.

I personally remove them from their pupal cocoons and put them into artificial cocoons because the mycelium is a living thing and can sometimes start to regrow, smother, and kill the pupa if it hasn't been eaten enough to greatly retard its regrowth.
Click to expand...

Thank you! How can I tell when the larvae have pupated?

 
The larvae I've kept have always made their pupal cells against the side of the container. If your container isn't opaque, you should be able to see that they've created a pupal cell and you may be able to see inside to tell whether or not it has pupated.

 
Kinda off topic, but I'm about to make a batch with traeger pellets and an oyster mushroom kit.

Anyone tried this at home?

Thanks,

Chuck

 
@Chuck4th I am, and so far it's successful. It's in another thread somewhere, but I'm essentially following Daniel Ambuhl's kinshi playlist. I don't have access to the beech shavings he uses, so I'm using Trager Oak with Pleurotus pulmonarius. Other than that, I followed his method. The mycelium is gorgeous!

 
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