Wanted to share my attempt this week of collecting IMO with barley. I've been unsuccessful with my first two attempts with rice.
Put two boxes out in my neighbors forest that has been undisturbed for 40 years at least. But if this attempt doesn't work it might be time to go to a nearby state park. My boxes are decent size so 5 cups of barley filled them both 1/3 the ways up.
The forest has an amazing amount of white covered leaves and sticks when I dig down in certain areas. I have been thinking this was good but now I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't the right kind of mycelium to be looking for.
Put these in Monday afternoon. The forecast for the week is highs of 65-70 and lows of 55.