FSRCanada

Mass Print Tek

Mass Spore Printing

By The Mushroom Growers Guild

 

Items needed

1. Glove box

2. Sharp knife

3. Lots of mushrooms

4. Card Stock Paper 8.5x11 (From office supply)

5. 3”x4” zip lock bags (Local hobby store)

6. Avery return address labels #8167 (80 labels per page)

7. scissors

8. zip lock sandwich bag

Last updated

November 13, 2004

The first step is to get your glove box good and clean. I like to wash mine out with 90% alcohol and then run the hepa filter for 30 to 45 minuets. Next you need to get a good sharp knife. I use a scalpel with a sterile blade. An Exacto knife or hobby knife will work just as well.

Next you need 4 sheets of card stock (8.5x11) I get this at the local office supply and it is the same thickness as business cards.
You will put 2 sheets on the bottom of the glove box.

Now we get all the casings that are ready to be picked and pick all the mushrooms from them

In the glove box we want to use the knife to remove the cap from the stem. You want to
cut it as close to the cap as you can. Then lay the cap down on the card stock. Line them up in rows
of anywhere between 4 and 5. Here is the first sheet full.

Before long both sheets are full!

Now take the second set of sheets and lay them on top of the mushroom caps

You are now ready to start the next layer of caps to be printed. I do not go beyond 4 pages in my glove box! You will see why shortly

Follow the same procedures. Cut the stem off and lay the caps down on the page in rows.

Now we have some time to kill. You need to wait 24 hours for the caps to drop their spores. So get out the Avery labels and your favorite word processor and make up some labels for your prints. You should put the species and strain on the label as well as any disclaimer you want based on the kind of mushroom you are printing. Then print yourself off a sheet or two of labels!

(Time warp 24 hours)

 

Now that the caps have dropped there spores it is time to remove the caps. I like to use a thumb tack and stick it in the cap, then lift it away

Soon you will have the first set of caps out of the way!

Now using the edges of the page to pick up the sheets, stand them on the back of the glove box. This will expose the next set of caps.

Continue to remove the caps as before. This will leave you with nothing but beautiful prints! Note: the crud on the top left that looks like it is on the print sheet is really on the Plexiglas top.

Next you want to use the scissors to cut the bottom two pages into strips

Now you want to separate the prints.

Simply cut the paper so that each print is on it's own square. I have found it easer to do one page, then bag the prints, then go back and do the next page. The first page is always the hardest due to the lack of space.

Once all the prints are cut, put in bags, and labeled I like to put the group of prints into a zip lock sandwich bag. It makes it easier to store and find them later.

Now that you have more prints than you know what to do with.

Why don't you donate a bunch of prints to your local free spore ring!