Next flush

Mushrooms are roughly 90% water, and most of that came out of the substrate (Bible, p. 104). Putting the water back is what lets a bed give a second, third and sometimes fourth flushFlushOne wave of mushrooms that come up together; a healthy bed gives several, each usually smaller than the last.. You cannot put back the food that was used, which is why each flush is usually smaller than the last.

PF Tek cakes

Rinse and soak 24 hours in cold water, then straight back in; do not re-roll (Bible, p. 119–120)

Bulk tubs

Soak around 12 hours or overnight, or mist the walls if the bed is still heavy (Bible, p. 212–213)

Common grower range

Anywhere from 2–4 hours to 24 hours; it depends how dry the bed is

Target weight

Gain back roughly what the last flush weighed

Next pins

About 4–10 days after the soak

Second flush size

Often about three quarters of the first (Bible, p. 120)

Typical total

3–4 flushes from a clean bulk tub; 2–3 from a PF cake or AIO bag

A freshly picked surface is the easiest moment to spot trouble. Look for raised, fluffy white patches that do not match the mycelium (green mould before it turns), grey wispy growth standing off the surface, any pink, orange or black, and slime at the bottom or corners. Smell it: earthy or mushroomy is fine, sour or rotten is bacteria. If anything is suspect, do not soak it. Water carries contamination through the whole bed.

Pick the bed or cake up, or press on it. Light, dull and pulled away from the walls means it needs a dunkDunkSoaking a picked cake or bulk bed in clean cool water for a few hours to replace the water the last flush took out.. Heavy, still beaded and stuck to the walls means a heavy wall mist is enough. Cased beds often take water poured slowly down the sides better than a full soak.

1. 1.Clean up: remove every stub, abort and loose bit of substrate.
2. 2.Use cool, clean water. A clean container, never water shared between tubs.
3. 3.Submerge the cake or bed and hold it down with a clean plate or a sealed bag of water, because it floats.
4. 4.Soak for the time you chose. Heavier flushes and lighter beds get longer soaks.
5. 5.Drain well. Tilt the tub and let it drip until no water streams out. Water pooled at the bottom of a tub or bag is a common cause of sour, bacterial tubs.
6. 6.Return it to fruiting conditions: same light, air and humidity as before.

• The last flush was under about a quarter of the first, or only a few fruits.
• Pins abort across the whole surface.
• The bed is grey, thin and shrunken and will not take water back.
• Anything green, pink, cobwebby or sour appears. Harvest what is there and retire it.

Bag a spent or contaminated bed closed before carrying it through the house. A clean spent cake can go in a garden bed or compost; a contaminated one goes in the trash.