Ganja Theories: Boosting CO2 using Mushrooms? Say WHAAT?!?
Cannabis growers are always looking for new Tek or tricks to increase yield and plant performance. Thus, this year I have decided to undertake the painstaking task of condensing as much cannabis-grow related information for all of you here at Cannabis.net.
The reason I’m doing this isn’t entirely selfless – this year I plan on taking my personal grows to a whole new level. For the past few years, I have been simply messing around with easy-to-follow soil techniques with decent results.
My setup wasn’t entirely “professional”. We can call it “DIY-enthusiast” at best. However, this year I have made a commitment with myself to invest some serious money into my grow room. Why? Because I smoke entirely too much weed.
Well – I don’t smoke it all, I also process it. Tinctures, hash, edibles, oils, topicals; all of these things I like to make. Combine this with my latest obsession with Microgreens and Mycology, I believe that by the end of this year I’ll be growing some killer bud that will knock the socks off any seasoned stoner.
Speaking of Mycology – it was actually very much the motivation for writing this piece.
The Back Story
I have always loved eating mushrooms, but growing it only started piquing my interest over the past year or so. Cannabis was definitely the plant that sent me on the journey to grow my own “mind-altering substances”, and mushrooms was a natural next step.
Fast forward a few months, after having joined plenty of mushroom cultivator groups and having learned “some” info behind the art of Shroom cultivation – I had an “aha” moment.
Essentially it goes like this.
Unlike Cannabis, fungi breathes in oxygen and exhales CO2. As any good cannabis grower knows – during the flowering time the cannabis plant requires more CO2, which means it would also be producing more O2.
My stoner-aha moment suddenly jumped into my mind’s eye; “I wonder if you could make a closed system where the mushrooms feed the weed CO2, while the weed feeds the mushrooms O2?”
Obviously, I’m still not too experienced within the field of mycology to know if this would even be worth a try. And so, I decided to go “under cover” to see if I can get the mycologists to help an inquisitive stoner grow some crazy Shroom-Weed. Maybe I stumbled on something big and didn’t even know it?
The Undercover Reefer
I didn’t quite know the rules of the Facebook group of mycologists – who all at some point had to have dabbled in psychedelics – and so decided to utilize a “masterful stealth technique” implemented by stoners throughout the ages.
At first, I had to establish my position as a newbie within their field. This immediately allowed them to feel more comfortable in answering – I’m a newb after all!
Secondly, I had to express my curiosity in attempting to utilize the CO2 production of mushrooms to feed the flowering stage of my cannabis grow – without technically using the word “cannabis”. I probably didn’t “have to do this”, but the paranoid parrot living inside my head inspired me to use a masterful cypher instead.
I managed to retrieve a “mildly-redacted” copy of the conversation from a CIA server named F.A SPOOK. I immediately realized that utilizing code was a wise choice.
As you can see; the first idea was to create sort of a “vent-feed system” where I would extract the CO2 and pump it into the weed grow room. However, “Mr. Mushroom-Man” who was kind enough to answer me suggested that it would probably be a far better arrangement to have the mushrooms growing “above” the weed. This is because CO2 is a ‘heavier gas’ and as a result would fall towards the weed plants. While the final conclusion of the conversation essentially was; “I don’t know if it’s actually going to do something– but it’s definitely worth a try”. Nonetheless, here’s the conversation in full.
Some Engineering to Consider
I am definitely going to be doing this attempt at home – however, I encourage any of you growers out there to perhaps give this a try. Experiment with me. There might be several different configurations that could be implemented and the idea of a “Fungal CO2 Generator” could be a very interesting concept.
Of course, it’s still going to take me some time to get my system ready for experimentation but I am most definitely going to attempt this. When I do, I’ll write about my findings of doing a “side by side comparison” as I stated in the conversation posted above.
Some challenges I’m thinking that might occur is balancing heat and humidity levels. The mycologist probably didn’t factor in the heat from grow lights [especially during flowering stage]. However, in a next blog I’m addressing some issues with lights and debunking some cannabis light myths.
Nonetheless – I’m excited for this experiment and I would love to hear other grower’s thoughts on it. Perhaps someone has already attempted it…if so, reach out to @reginaldreefer on twitter and let’s talk. I’d love to pick your brain.
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