The Mushroom Growing Thread

[Miraculix]

Good day everyone,

after the topic popped up somewhere else and we went far too off topic with that, I thought it is better to give this topic it's own thread. We're talking about culinary mushrooms here, not the crazy ones.....


I grow pom pom, oyster and shiitake. Everything only with stuff that is already in a normal kitchen, except for the hard wood pellets, preferably oak or beech wood. These are already almost sterile, soak them in the right amount of boiling water (the ratio is 1/1.5 wood pellets to water by weight) and you got a good start. Use enough of the inocculated grains than one can buy, or just make it yourself, also works without any autoclave.

You can go much further with sterile process, autoclave, air filter, etc. but that is not my type of game, I like it easy with a good outcome. YOu can also grow on coffe grounds, spent grains might also be an option as @bracconiere mentioned somewhere else, who I would like to gladly invite to this thread. I think this topic deserves it's own thread, doesn't it?

I need to find an oyster strain that does not need too much fresh air, my current strain grows a bit too weired when not placed in a perfectly vented environment. Luckily, my shiitakes and my pompoms do not care about this .

Cheers and happy growing!

 

[toadie]

You are speaking my language. I enjoy eating meat but I really enjoy eating mushrooms. I've done a few oyster kits and a lions mane kit over the last 2 years. I liked them all. I personally found them a little pricey but would recommend them as an entry point. I have garden giants (king stropharia) in a shaded wood chip bed this year and a few logs with shitake plugs going as well. I also put some shitake plugs in a tree stump I just cut down but I'm not sure that will work.

One thing I noticed with the oyster kit was the incredible amount of spores everywhere in the aquarium I was growing them in. I will find a little greenhouse for in doors soon and already have the humidifier and inkbird humidity controller.

Ironically i worked in a button mushroom farm a little in my youth though I try to stay away from that variety now (as well as cremini which are apparently the same thing!).

Cheers!

 

[Miraculix]

You are speaking my language. I enjoy eating meat but I really enjoy eating mushrooms. I've done a few oyster kits and a lions mane kit over the last 2 years. I liked them all. I personally found them a little pricey but would recommend them as an entry point. I have garden giants (king stropharia) in a shaded wood chip bed this year and a few logs with shitake plugs going as well. I also put some shitake plugs in a tree stump I just cut down but I'm not sure that will work.

One thing I noticed with the oyster kit was the incredible amount of spores everywhere in the aquarium I was growing them in. I will find a little greenhouse for in doors soon and already have the humidifier and inkbird humidity controller.

Ironically i worked in a button mushroom farm a little in my youth though I try to stay away from that variety now (as well as cremini which are apparently the same thing!).

Cheers!

I also started with a kit. And yes, great fun but also pricey. It is actually so easy to generate these blocks of inoculated substrate yourself! You can cook some cheap wheat, inoculate it with pieces of the old substrate blocks, mix it with the new substrate 70/30 wood pellets/wheat or more wheat, keep it in a freezer bag with tiny holes in it and play the waiting game.

Oysters are really quick, 4 weeks or less, shiitake can take some months till they are ready to fruit. All you got to do is wait and once they are ready, you make them fruit.

I'd love to inoculate some logs too, but I can't find any wood nearby .

I got some shiitake plugs which have been sent to me by happy accident.

 

[bracconiere]

my pressure cooker...found in many, many kitchens...and some people use them for storing yeast starter wort...

and here's my glove box....

i actually picked two of those filters up off ebay for $20 bucks back in 2003-4....it needs a good blower to push air through it though...(i just use a cardboard box with a couple squares cut out of it to hook it up to the filter.....)

and this is a serious clean air box, not a computer fan and vacuum HEPA that i think would be worse then a still air box...

and here's my pretty little fruiting chamber, that sadly hasn't really gotten much use in WAY too long....

but that's the basic equipment i use....


and @Miraculix You Beat Me To It! i was coming to general chit chat to start this thread! looking forward to maybe whipping all this stuff back into action!


i'm afrain i'll be force to just grow gamey pinks though with the temps around here!

 

[Miraculix]

View attachment 771053

my pressure cooker...found in many, many kitchens...and some people use them for storing yeast starter wort...

and here's my glove box....

View attachment 771054

i actually picked two of those filters up off ebay for $20 bucks back in 2003-4....it needs a good blower to push air through it though...(i just use a cardboard box with a couple squares cut out of it to hook it up to the filter.....)

and this is a serious clean air box, not a computer fan and vacuum HEPA that i think would be worse then a still air box...

and here's my pretty little fruiting chamber, that sadly hasn't really gotten much use in WAY too long....

View attachment 771055


but that's the basic equipment i use....


and @Miraculix You Beat Me To It! i was coming to general chit chat to start this thread! looking forward to maybe whipping all this stuff back into action!


i'm afrain i'll be force to just grow gamey pinks though with the temps around here!

Nice!

Actually, I also got a similar fruiting chamber, that one is probably not in the standard kitchen reportoire

I just inocculated 2 kg of boiled grains with oyster plugs that I received a second time by mistake. The first round was for some logs in someone elses garden, they've send me the same parcel twice. Same bill number and everything. I will order there surely again!

I was thinking about the pressure cooker, but than I would need to go all the way, with glove box etc... maybe later this year. For now, this seems to work as I do it atm. I cann even harvest the coffee grounds from the office I am working at, thats about 100 engineers plus 50 other people, so there is probably half a ton of coffe grounds each day to get.

It seems like you just need to use loads of these innoculated grains, than the mushroom will take over much quicker than anything else and you are safe. And these grains can be multiplied easily without a pressure cooker. Boiling it, letting it cool down and boiling it again 24 hours later seems to do the job just fine. First boiling takes care of everything except spores, the 24 h wait in humid environment makes all the remaining spores go into eating and multiply mode, ie. not spores anymore and then everything get's killed with the second boil. At least that is the therory. I have read that a third boil should be as good as autoclaved, but for me 2 times seems to work.

 

[bracconiere]

Nice!

Actually, I also got a similar fruiting chamber, that one is probably not in the standard kitchen reportoire

I just inocculated 2 kg of boiled grains with oyster plugs that I received a second time by mistake. The first round was for some logs in someone elses garden, they've send me the same parcel twice. Same bill number and everything. I will order there surely again!

I was thinking about the pressure cooker, but than I would need to go all the way, with glove box etc... maybe later this year. For now, this seems to work as I do it atm. I cann even harvest the coffee grounds from the office I am working at, thats about 100 engineers plus 50 other people, so there is probably half a ton of coffe grounds each day to get.

It seems like you just need to use loads of these innoculated grains, than the mushroom will take over much quicker than anything else and you are safe. And these grains can be multiplied easily without a pressure cooker. Boiling it, letting it cool down and boiling it again 24 hours later seems to do the job just fine. First boiling takes care of everything except spores, the 24 h wait in humid environment makes all the remaining spores go into eating and multiply mode, ie. not spores anymore and then everything get's killed with the second boil. At least that is the therory. I have read that a third boil should be as good as autoclaved, but for me 2 times seems to work.

if you're doing it that way...i'd probably just use store bought oyster mushrooms to inoculate? just give em a bleach water soak for 5-10 minutes then rip em up?

i've cloned many a store bought shroom that way, way cheaper then over the internet...(i've even cloned a wild shaggy mane to plant out in the yard, unfortantly i moved right afterward )

 

[bracconiere]

well you've inspired me. went to my old haunt to order pink oyster mycelium syringe...realized, no that was NorCal, here it's going to be Golden oyster which fruits at a range of 70-85f....


and not one single place sells hard wood pellets for fuel...but i can get smoking pellets, just going to cost a bit more for them....

 

[NickTheGreat]

I don't really like mushrooms that much but I tried growing some oysters last year. I tried the bucket/sawdust method. They started out well, but probably got too hot and fizzled out.

I still have the bucket and have been soaking it again this year. But I'm going to have to start from scratch again, I think.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Interesting, thanks for getting this one going. I am using a second kit and not getting much produce from the second fruiting. Additionally I now have fungus nats. Ugh. Perhaps it’s not humid enough here, and I should employ a moisture barrier to keep my mycelium block from dryness. Any thoughts?

 

[bracconiere]

Interesting, thanks for getting this one going. I am using a second kit and not getting much produce from the second fruiting. Additionally I now have fungus nats. Ugh. Perhaps it’s not humid enough here, and I should employ a moisture barrier to keep my mycelium block from dryness. Any thoughts?

https://www.amazon.com/Home-Complet...ocphy=9030241&hvtargid=pla-352988079824&psc=1
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3818570658...tqaFr0WCFHm4Cg6FlZmcuz2JpKbj9EakaAvJaEALw_wcB
and a coolmist humidifier, and plastic storage tote big enough to fit the greenhouse in.....

 

[bracconiere]

that's a pic of mine in action...only a 2 tier...and i think the fake flowers make it nice!

 

[Miraculix]

View attachment 784714

that's a pic of mine in action...only a 2 tier...and i think the fake flowers make it nice!

I've built a similar one. I just have to install the lighting. And some air exchange wholes on top. I want to try use a small hearing plate at the bottom to create a small air current from the bottom to the top, like a chimney, to get rid of the co2. Some expanded clay is in there, kept wet constantly to take care of the moisture level, let's see if this works. My lions mane just started fruiting. I'm currently trying to clone some shiitake in liquid culture and already propagated the oyster and lions mane liquid culture that I bought recently to a ridiculously big volume in three jars each in malt extract solution.

I got some piopino, giant stropharia, maitake and king oyster liquid culture on the post way and some other mushrooms ready to fruit.

Maybe I'm overdoing it a bit but it surely is fun .

 

[Miraculix]

Lions mane aka rebel without a cause.

Me:
"Sir mushroom, I have integrated some slits into your bag for your convenience to use it to easily produce fruiting bodies."

Lions mane:
"No. I grow some balls instead. You're not my mom."

 

[bracconiere]

hey @Miraculix , i forget the ratio of pellets to water for a bag? in cups? i was at the hardware store, eyeing a bag of pecan smoking pellets, and still want to do a mushroom grow. iniside temps would probably be decent for shitake or something right now.....not sure if i will, but got me thinking..it's been like 9 years since...and i don't remember how many cups of water to pellets?

TIA

 

[Miraculix]

hey @Miraculix , i forget the ratio of pellets to water for a bag? in cups? i was at the hardware store, eyeing a bag of pecan smoking pellets, and still want to do a mushroom grow. iniside temps would probably be decent for shitake or something right now.....not sure if i will, but got me thinking..it's been like 9 years since...and i don't remember how many cups of water to pellets?

TIA

Never ever mention measuring masses in volume again when I'm around.

In weight, the ratio which works best for me is 1 pellet to 1.4 water. Extra tip: buy yourself some h2o2 and use it as 0.5 to 0.8% of your water for extra contamination protection!

 

[bracconiere]

In weight, the ratio which works best for me is 1 pellet to 1.4 water

back at ya, never tell me to count pellets and weigh each one again! and my sanitation is good without peroxide...


but i will onsider that as so by "weight" 1:1.5

 

[Miraculix]

back at ya, never tell me to count pellets and weigh each one again! and my sanitation is good without peroxide...


but i will onsider that as so by "weight" 1:1.5

Do you autoclave your substrates and inoculate it under a filtered laminar flow hood? If so, you are correct, you probably won't benefit from h2o2.

And don't you point at my pellet OCD! It is important that there are exactly 158423 pellets per bag AND THAT NONE IS BROKEN!!!!

1:1.4 gives mold a little lower chance to develop than 1:1.5 imo.

 

[bracconiere]

Do you autoclave your substrates and inoculate it under a filtered laminar flow hood? If so, you are correct, you probably won't benefit from h2o2.

And don't you point at my pellet OCD! It is important that there are exactly 158423 pellets per bag AND THAT NONE IS BROKEN!!!!

1:1.4 gives mold a little lower chance to develop than 1:1.5 imo.

i appreciate the 1:1.5 reminder my sanitation is fine......

 

[wildtower]

Is anyone here growing on brewer's spent grain? I heard it was possible and would like to have more ways to use the grain aside from composting it.

 

[Miraculix]

Is anyone here growing on brewer's spent grain? I heard it was possible and would like to have more ways to use the grain aside from composting it.

I was considering it. Next biab session will be an experiment. You need to autoclave the entire amount of grain and you have to make sure that there is not too much moisture in the grain left. I'll probably just add a little bit of oak pellets to take care of the excess liquid.

I'll use it as grain spawn afterwards.

 

[rhys333]

Awesome, there's a mushroom thread!

I've been getting interested in learning to grow culinary mushrooms using a low tech method. I'm planning to use hardwood fuel pellets as my substrate as they're low cost in my area. The top concern I have right now is how to set up a small fruiting chamber in my finished basement without getting humidity related mold issues. Can anyone advise?

 

[bracconiere]

Awesome, there's a mushroom thread!

I've been getting interested in learning to grow culinary mushrooms using a low tech method. I'm planning to use hardwood fuel pellets as my substrate as they're low cost in my area. The top concern I have right now is how to set up a small fruiting chamber in my finished basement without getting humidity related mold issues. Can anyone advise?

if you use one of these, and a humidity controler...i'm not sure, but don't think you'll have a problem?

https://www.amazon.com/Palm-Springs-Greenhouse-Roll-up-Zipper/dp/B07F86GCW1?th=1

what i use, and never had a problem with mold as i recall....with a humidity controller, you'll find a RHof 90-95% isn't a condensentingly amount....

 

[rhys333]

if you use one of these, and a humidity controler...i'm not sure, but don't think you'll have a problem?

https://www.amazon.com/Palm-Springs-Greenhouse-Roll-up-Zipper/dp/B07F86GCW1?th=1

what i use, and never had a problem with mold as i recall....with a humidity controller, you'll find a RHof 90-95% isn't a condensentingly amount....

Thanks. Do you have a humidifier or fogger set up as well, or are you just spraying the blocks periodically?

 

[bracconiere]

Thanks. Do you have a humidifier or fogger set up as well, or are you just spraying the blocks periodically?

cool mist humidifier and a storage tote that the green house fits into... to keep a green house like that at 95%RH the humidifier really doesn't have to run to much....


mistake i made when i was first getting into this, i thought there should be water droplets every where. (then i did have mold problems)

 

[Miraculix]

Never ever Spray the Blocks directly. Co2 levels matter big time, except for black pearl oyster, king oyster and shiitake.

Humidity around 90% is advisable, it still works kind of ok at 80%, depending on the type of mushroom.

These are the rules I've learned the hard way.

 

[rhys333]

So guys, what's the deal with oysters? I was planning to grow these as I've heard they're easier for noobs. But after reading up on a mushroom forum, I understand that they produce an insane amount of spores. Bad idea for indoor growing? Or can this be avoided by harvesting before the edges of the caps flatten out?

 

[rhys333]

I have found a few really good mushroom growing channels on YouTube. All focus on culinary varieties as far as I know.

Boomer Shroomer
This one uses the monotub method. The videos are really concise and to the point. Here she grows oysters in monotubs:


Renegade Mushrooms
This guy uses the Martha-style tent method with traditional fruiting blocks. I like that he explains everything in detail. Here he's explaining his fruiting chamber build:


GroCycle
These guys are commercial growers in the UK. They share a wealth of info on how to grow commercially using low tek pasteurization. I have spent many hours learning about their business model. This video is just a quick one showing a super low tek method for propagating more mushrooms from stem butts:


Edit: GroCycle name correction.

 

[Miraculix]

So guys, what's the deal with oysters? I was planning to grow these as I've heard they're easier for noobs. But after reading up on a mushroom forum, I understand that they produce an insane amount of spores. Bad idea for indoor growing? Or can this be avoided by harvesting before the edges of the caps flatten out?

The real bummer is with oysters, that they really really REALLY need good air circulation while also maintaining humidity above 80%, better around 90%. If you can keep the CO2 really low and the humidity up, then oysters are really easy to grow. But these two big IFS are problematic.

I have two better options and a third one which takes way more time. Lions mane is not that picky regarding co2, and also humidity is no that important. You can grow it in an unsterile way by pasteurising the wood pellets with hot water. Black Pearl King Oysters actually grow better with co2 overdose and can therefore be grown in a monotub. It is a see ghrough container with little holes inside which allow for controlled air exchange. You fill it up with the spawn and substrate mix and if it is working well, you would not need to open it till harvest time. That would be my first advice. Spores would also be kept in the box. The third option is shiitake, which takes actually 2-3 months from inocculation till fruiting, but these are hardy little fellows. They take over the substrate quickly and when fruiting, they can take higher co2 levels, so constant air exchange is not that important. These are my three favourites.

And one thing i have learned the hard way:

SPAWN MATTERS MOST

If you have already a little contamination in the spawn, forget it. The blocks will be moldy, the mushrooms will be crippled and small. Only one that could take it for one flush was one shiitake block which I made with spawn that had a little mold colony inside, which I manually removed. But the spores obviously remained.

In other words: NO LOW TEK SPAWN. You will make it, it will work in a few cases, but you will loose a lot of blocks. And then you will stop it, nvest in a pressure cooker and think "man... Miraculix was right...". I was right, because I already went down that path....... As I said, I leardned the hard way .

 

[bracconiere]

problematic.

i've cloned enoki's if i remember correctly....and found out with TOO MUCH air exchange they're actually oysters.....

 

[bracconiere]

nvest in a pressure cooker and think "man... Miraculix was right...".

wait, a pressure cooker is a must? unless you're growing portabellas/white button mushrooms? which it'd be a bad thing?