:BibleThump: I wish to thank @happybadger @ItalianMessiah and countless others for their words of wisdom. It took my dumbass 3 months to get this done, never mind my previous failed attempts.
Does this flush look sad and pathetic? I have no idea, but these shroomies are mine and I am filled with hope that their potency can help me reach communism.
Congrats comrade! That first flush is such an accomplishment. Once you have the basics of fungiculture down it becomes a lot easier to grow consistently.
With these I'm only seeing two issues. The discolouration on the caps means you might be misting too much. 80% relative humidity is the goal, wet enough for fungi but not bacteria. That can be eyeballed by just a few water droplets sticking to the container walls. They're also growing a little leggy with fuzzy feet, a symptom of high CO2/low O2. Having airholes stuffed with polyfill right below cap level will help with that. It will also make for a more consistent canopy.
it's interesting though because @chris was thinking too little misting.
And you could both have sound reasons, even though by definition you can't both be right.
But it just goes to show how tricky this stuff can be, even for experts.
Also, probably a point in favor of just buying or making a cheap gauge to check the actual humidity.
There's a fine line between the two. In this case it's the brown spotting and mottled grey on the overly-engorged caps which indicates over-misting. That's water sitting on the caps because there's too much in the tub for it to evaporate. The walls have a consistent film of moisture rather than a few stray beads which to me indicates 85-95% RH. When it's too dry the caps will be thin/leathery/split, the walls will be totally dry, the pins won't develop into full mushrooms, and the substrate will look leathery and devoid of pins.
edit: A gauge is also a good idea. Slight water beading on the walls is the rough approximation of being in the right range.