Mushrooms!

[Faced1]

My other internet activity is teaching people to grow mushrooms. I am currently working on a youtube series showing every part of the process. So far I have the grain to grain video completed, next willl be the pasteurization process.



A good way for first timers is to construct an outdoor mushroom bed. A bag of sawdust spawn can be sourced for less than $30, then you break the sawdust up and mix it up with moistened mulch.

Here's a few shots of my beds. Blue oyster, shiitake, phoenix oyster, and lion's mane.

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[linzelu100]

Cool! I have been wanting to try and grow my own mushrooms, but have been too nervous that a poison one would grow in the same place and I would mistakenly eat it and get sick. Mushrooms are scary business! But I still want to try down the road.

Lindsey

[Crandrew]

Buy a starter kit with spores already loaded up and you will be fine. Search on here and people have listed plenty of safe and reputable resources. Once you feel more comfy you could do something open environment like this user.

[Faced1]

Edible mushrooms are sold in pre cultured bags or liquid nutrient broth syringes, only psychedelic mushrooms are sold in spore kits. If you are worried about picking a bad mushroom, you can always take a spore print. A little bit of research into lookalikes will also tell you a lot.

[GnomeGrown]

Your oysters should end up fruiting but I doubt you will get much of a yield from the shiitakes and lion's mane as they are both wood lovers. Oysters will 'eat' just about anything including phone books, old blue jeans and newspaper. The oysters grow well on pastuerized wheat straw. Btw, Lion's Mane are one of the best edibles! Good luck.

-Gnome

[linzelu100]

Originally Posted by Crandrew

Buy a starter kit with spores already loaded up and you will be fine. Search on here and people have listed plenty of safe and reputable resources. Once you feel more comfy you could do something open environment like this user.

Those kits are so expensive though!

[Faced1]

Originally Posted by GnomeGrown

Your oysters should end up fruiting but I doubt you will get much of a yield from the shiitakes and lion's mane as they are both wood lovers. Oysters will 'eat' just about anything including phone books, old blue jeans and newspaper. The oysters grow well on pastuerized wheat straw. Btw, Lion's Mane are one of the best edibles! Good luck.

-Gnome

Both the lion's mane and shiitake are spawned to wood mulch, spawned with either sawdust or corn. Definitely not my first time growing either of them, I am very familiar with the processes. I teach a class on fungal cultivation through the local county extension office.

Oysters will eat anything that is composed of cellulose and or lignin, which includes a LOT of different materials. Corn stalks and cardboard also make good substrates. I tend to stay away from straw because it has grain particulate in it which makes pasteurization less effective and leads to trichoderma contamination. Grain needs to be sterilized for effective monoculture.

I would recommend spore works for mushroom cultures. I have never gotten a contaminated culture from them.

Here's a shot of my ULPA laminar flowhood. 42"x21", and 100x more effective than a HEPA.

[GnomeGrown]

Excellent job to have, Faced.

Lion's Mane is one of the best mushrooms I've ever had.
Have quite a few shiitake logs out back too.

My tomatoes love the oyster mushroom straw after it has been composted for a few weeks.
Worms love it too!

[Faced1]

Mushroom compost is the best compost IMO.

I do mulch for mushrooms, then I add alfalfa straw when I break them up for composting.
It comes out a really amazing product! You don't have to compost it for a really long time
(like you said, a couple weeks is plenty), especially if you have worms.

I am definitely not regretting ordering 10,000 red wigglers earlier in the season, that's for sure!

[GnomeGrown]

Holy Shiitake!