Mushroom Experiments: Wow, That Was Fast!

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

I'd like to start getting into mushrooming. I have a book about it.

Joseph, is this a good time of year to start going into the mountains looking for mushrooms? It's raining today, so i would think this would be great for mushrooms up in the mountains just a little ways.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

keen101: The only mushrooms I have harvested wild are morels. Around here they come up a few days after spring rains in April, May, and early June. After that the humidity plummets and I don't see them again until the next spring.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Today, I inoculated logs with Lion's Mane mushroom spawn.

[Deleted]

This is a neat thread. Your cardboard method is much simpler, and I'll try it your way, next time. What I will do then is look for very expensive mushrooms at the health food store, but only buy a small quantity for the spores.

I am more tinkerer than expert, and all of my stuff was traded or found.

Rather than abusing valuable canning jars, I have disinfected used water bottles with antibacterial soap and hot water. Repeatedly rinsed them out until they no longer smelled of perfume.

For a substrate, I used equal parts birdseed, sphagnum moss and cocoa shells, moist but not soggy.

My bottles were filled about half way with this mixture and zapped in the microwave, caps on, until they were swollen, but not bursting.

When they were warm, but not hot to the touch, I placed wedges of inoculated agar, or a piece of the mushroom inside, and shook the bottles vigorously. I used a sterile scratch awl to make holes at the top of the bottles for air. For the better part of the last few weeks, drying Santa Ana winds have blown over the top of these holes. You may need more air, if it's more soggy, where you live.

First threads of mycellium were visible within a week. Within a few weeks, the loose substrate had turned into firm corks of mushroom. I have placed this under 6+" of fresh mulch, before winter weather. These are long, raised beds, in front of tightly pruned hedges and drip irrigated.

The empty bottles were tumbled in my composter for good measure. This sits between a mulch pile and a pile of firewood.

[johno]

My b-i-l is talking about ordering some starter for mushrooms - probably liquid mycelium instead of spores or dowels. We are in the exploration phase. We have lots of wood scrap, large chips from hand-hewing, tops from logging, etc., and it seems to make sense to start a mushroom farm. Any advice, suppliers, etc.? This is something that's been on my radar for a long time, and it looks like now is the time.

[steev]

If I had a lot of wood slash, I think I'd build a hugelculture bed, adding some shaggymanes (Coprinus comatus) to it. They like buried wood, are very tasty, and can't be found in markets since they don't keep very long before starting to auto-digest. Bockwurst, shaggymanes, and green tomatoes make a fine stew.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

It's sure taken me long enough for a thread titled "Wow, That was Fast!!!"...


First fruits of my indoor mushroom spawn are looking like they will arrive soon....



These are oyster mushrooms. Primordium have formed and are emerging from the growth media. The best strategy that I have found is to grow on coffee grounds. I put damp grounds in a container and put it in the microwave to pasteurize... Then after cooling I add chopped up mushroom stems that have soaked for a while in 0.3% peroxide solution. Mix and incubate. Then for fruiting I transferred them to a plastic tub with damp perlite on the bottom. I mist with water every day.

Cardboard, wood chips, and straw were not good growth media... I think they need some type of nutrient. I suppose I'll try again with coffee grounds as the nutrient.

[oxbowfarm]

I've got a copy of the Mushroom Cultivator by Stamets, even though I've never yet attempted mushroom cultivation. The rec's for Oyster mushrooms are for pasteurized straw or woodchips and bran as substrates 75% moisture. But I bet you can get away with a lot . Fun experiment.

[steev]

There's a local company that gathers coffee grounds from area coffee-houses; compresses them into blocks; inoculates them with oyster mushrooms; sells them as mushroom kits. I've gotten the compression squeezings for mulch; sometimes they discard mushroom compost, but I've yet to be on time for that. Something to look forward to.

[12540dumont]

We used rye grain to start our mushroom cultures. And sterilized the canning jars.

We sterilized the rye in the oven, using the info from The Mushroom Cultivator.

I heated the rye in the jars again before adding the water and gypsum.

Even with washing my hands, and wiping them with 80% rubbing alcohol, I still had some jars that the bacteria killed the mushrooms.

There's a mushroom school in San Giorgia di Pano, Italy, I think I should go! There's also one in India, Thailand, PA, MN, WA and the Netherlands.

Fungi.net is a company in Oz

Fungi.com is Paul Stammets company. They have a special for $15 smackers for oyster mushrooms.

So much to learn, it's like another language.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Finally harvested mushrooms, and ate them for lunch a minute ago: Sauteed in butter near the flash point for about 30 seconds. Mmmm. Mmmm. Mmmm.

I thought that I was growing Oyster mushrooms. But the growth habit sure looks more like Lion's Mane. Oh well, they sure tasted good. If I don't ever make another post to this forum then it might be due to what I ate for lunch. Hehehe. It's been nice collaborating with you.

[homegrower]

That's beautiful...it almost looks like you took a piece off a coral reef or something

[logrus9]

Feb 24, 2013 17:27:10 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

If I don't ever make another post to this forum then it might be due to what I ate for lunch. Hehehe. It's been nice collaborating with you.

Joseph! Joseph!

[Deleted]

I keep coming back to this thread, because this order of life has always been so mysterious to me.

I am finding, in my initial experiments, that some heat is necessary, although not in the sense of a hot car. I am seeing no progress on the coldest days. Heat scares me, but they like it (from the shade.)

I also found it counterintuitive that you could have too little airflow and too much moisture. This is a kind of metabolism. So, there is an exchange of gases.

I'm seeing romanticized paintings of hedgerows, and still think these would be enticing in a vegetable garden. I read stories about vegetable gardening being forbidden, while more artful displays of the same plants were allowed. Mushrooms would certainly have ornamental value.

[synergy]

I have been cleaning up friends yard of prunings off his maple trees and putting branches in a hugelkulture style bed but I put the thicker branches aside. I am thinking of trying Josephs experiment to get a substrate and try to inoculate the branches by drilling holes and stuffing part of the cardboard with substrate in them . I really only have the foggiest notion of what to do . I will have to look up some other websites maybe ?
Joseph, you commented what you thought was oyster mushroom had a growth more like the lions mane mushroom, any more observations or suggestions which mushrooms to try that may be commonly available in the stores?