Quick Foolproof Kinshi

Briareo

Briareo

L2
Here is what you will need:

-Sterilizing equipment (Pressure Cooker)

-Oak and Bran mix (85:15)

-Water

-Gypsum

-Tyvek Fikter

-Tire sealing silicone (red)

-mushroom culture (King oyster) 

-Mason Jars

-Hole puncher

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The idea for kinshi is to be able to have many and replace them with ease as the larvae eats the old ones, so lets go with small to medium jar size based on your needs. Wide preferably.

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-Take your oak pellets and bran, pour boiling water onto them and reach field capacity moisture. (Can ball up when squeezed but no leaking water)

-Fill your mason jars up 80% of the way (you'll want that last 20% to keep the moist substrate from sogging up the tyvek filter)

-(OPTIONAL) You may add Gypsum to your mix as a PH buffer and calcium boost

-Before putting the lid on. Mason jars have 2 portions to the lids, the portion that acts as the lid and the portion that screws onto the glass to secure the lid in place. Remove the lid portion, and make 2 holes in the top, preferably with a hold puncher for cleanliness.

-take a square of tyvek (I use free shipping papers from the post office as it is tyvek and can be acquired with ease), and place it over your nearly full mason jar and then place your lid with its holes on top, and then scren it on using the other portion of the lid as well.

-It will look like an inverted jam jar

-At this point you sterilize your substrate, and since I use a wet system (pressure cooker), I cut out a square of tinfoil a bit larger than the tyvek square I cut before and I crumple it over the lid, so that it perfectly coverse the lid and all the corners of the tyvek (if you havent snipped those off with scissors), as moisture wicking into the tyvek can cause molding. 

-Sterilize at +15psi for an hour and a half

-Remove jars and set them in a safe location, remove tinfoil and use a clean paper towel to wipe off any moisture that made its way under the tinfoil.

-Squirt a dollop of your red tire silicone over one of the holes (either work). This will act as your self healing injection port

-Allow the jars to cool off overnight and the silicone to solidify

-At this point you have completely sterile substrate jars with an injection port and one gas exchange hole (Mushrooms breath oxygen and expel carbon dioxide just like humans, but also, your larvae will need gas exchange as well)

-heat sterilize the syringe of mushroom culture with a lighter until it is red hot then allow it to cool before inject (do not set this down or it defeats the purpose)

-Inject your choice of wood loving mushroom culture through the red silicone, this will seal after you remove the stringe

-Allow the jars to colonize over 2 weeks to a month in a room temperature environment (optional to shake at 30-50% colonization just once to speed up colonization, be mindful not to moisten the tyvek filter)

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Sourcing: 

Silicone: Walmart in the car goods section

Tyvek: free at the post office

Oak pellets: Traeger oak, ace hardware locally

Mushroom culture: can be purchased online from many sources, but you will find the cheapest on reddit /r/sporetraders

Pressure cooker used is a Presto 23qt Pressure cooker as I can fit many of these in at once

 
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On a quick note, I believe there is good reason as to why kinshi only comes in plastic other than its costs.

Glass is much more conductive with temperature, and the larvae could get cooked inside if your storage location is in direct sunlight

However, glass is easily cleanable and reusable, as well as provides very good visibility

However, if you wanted to use plastic, I know of certain GLAD tupperware that are autoclave/pressure cooker friendly that could be used instead and due to how the lids snap on, you could replace the tyvek filter with micropore tape you stick on the top outside the holes you make

 
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Thanks for the tips. Do you have any advice for using spawn instead of spores or a liquid culture? Would you recommend using a glovebox in that case, since I would have to open it.

 
You can create a still air box taking a large plastic tub, and w large pvc pipes. 

The idea is when you stick your hands in, to have some lysol or isopropyl spray in there. Spray it around and dont move your arms, let everything fall down (foreign spores) 

Then gently remove the lid for your sawdust jar, knowing that the biggest contaminatiom vector is what just fell down, and if you stir your arms too much, can be pulled from said ground but also from the arm holes.

Also gently remove the grain spawn lid/open the grain spawn bag.

When you do remove lids, do not open them then turn at 45 degree angle. Lift them up keeping the lid horizontally flat, and slowly life it up, then out the spawn inside then lower it back down to close it off. 

 
Was just looking into that exact same thing. Seems impossible to source. They mention PET plastic, yet when you find PET plastic for sale, it mentions to not use them w incredibly high temps as they will melt. Is this not an issue for sterilization using hot steam? 

 
The gypsum is subjective. For normal mushroom growing you could use a decent amount. But it's hard to say if it would be more or less beneficial for beetles. I'd say a tablespoon or so per jar. 

Also I am not sure if the beetles would need live fungus for added enzymes, or if you could just freeze or resterilize to kill the kinshi jars off for making them into just nutrient bricks.

 
Briareo said:
Also I am not sure if the beetles would need live fungus for added enzymes, or if you could just freeze or resterilize to kill the kinshi jars off for making them into just nutrient bricks.
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This is interesting, from what I've read once the mushroom fruits it ruins the kinshi jar.  If it could be frozen to kill the jar first that might prevent fruiting from ever happening too!

 
You realize that you can blow your house with that method right? A pressure cooker can blow the mason jar and your ceiling would be in pieces and most importantly people can get hurt. 

 
@Briareo do you find that D.tityus and D.grantii consume the mycelium too?

My reason for asking is that I am a gourmet mushroom cultivator and have quite a bit of myceliated (and more thoroughly decayed) oak sawdust around at any given time.

 
ZZur said:
@Briareo do you find that D.tityus and D.grantii consume the mycelium too?

My reason for asking is that I am a gourmet mushroom cultivator and have quite a bit of myceliated (and more thoroughly decayed) oak sawdust around at any given time.
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You cant solely grow Dynastes on Kinshi. If you ferment the used up substrate from mushroom cultivation, it will turn into a really good flake soil for Dynastes. I heard from Nathan that he grows his Lucanus elaphus on used up oyster mushroom substrate so you can try growing those.

 
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