Mushrooms anyone?
 

Anyone grow mushrooms? What were your sources?

Was thinking about this from Park's just for giggles:

[URL]http://parkseed.com/cardboard-and-coffee-cultivator-starter-culture-1-lb/p/31014/[/URL]

I have a never ending supply of shredded paper and coffee grounds at work!

i love growing mushrooms it was my hobby for quite a while. the mushroom patches are fine but if you want to get more involved it can be a very addicting endeavor. :lol: as soon as i can get a new seal for my pressure canner i plan to post a how to on oyster mushroom cultivation for anyone interested

I have always wanted to grow mushrooms! I am a terrible waterer though, and was always afraid that they would fail by gardener error :)

I did do the cardboard coffee cultivator and had OK results. Love to see new ideas!


[QUOTE=RootLoops;395695]i love growing mushrooms it was my hobby for quite a while. the mushroom patches are fine but if you want to get more involved it can be a very addicting endeavor. :lol: as soon as i can get a new seal for my pressure canner i plan to post a how to on oyster mushroom cultivation for anyone interested[/QUOTE]

Hey there Chris I have grown via patches and if you take a little look there is a place that sells them 4 @ 25$ a pop at least until you get a home op going , my favorites to grow are ★★★★takes and oysters. neither are hard but i think the previous requires some kind of cold treatment to initiate fruiting

shiitakes require a few things including a temp drop and a physical smack with the hand or other implement. they are a bit more finnicky than oysters but not super difficult. oysters are by far my favorite they will grow on almost anything, a couple years ago i grew some on a set of my old clothes they fruited several times before i composted the colony.

i went to dig thru the high fibre compost pile that i threw some oyster logs into last season and i found some mycelium growing in bundles of old newspapers. i figure i'll get some nice fruits from them when they start to grow and i should be able to post some pics

would love tips on shiitakes! Esp. ways to grow w/o logs.

I've not had much success trying to grow mushrooms indoors. My most successful crops have been grown outdoors:

[IMG]http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w406/JosephsGarden/Mushrooms/mushroom-2013-oyster.jpg[/IMG]


[IMG]http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w406/JosephsGarden/Mushrooms/mushroom-logs.jpg[/IMG]

Are you using that gross tamarack bush? I guess it is useful afterall.

[QUOTE=ChrisK;367119]Anyone grow mushrooms? What were your sources?

Was thinking about this from Park's just for giggles:

[URL]http://parkseed.com/cardboard-and-coffee-cultivator-starter-culture-1-lb/p/31014/[/URL]

I have a never ending supply of shredded paper and coffee grounds at work![/QUOTE]

Wow, at long last I could become a member of Blue Oyster Cult!

[IMG]http://i.parkseed.com/images/l/31014.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks Chris, just the nudge I needed to add mushrooms to my garden.

We grow winecap and oysters with sawdust spawn and plugs from:

[url]http://www.fieldforest.net/[/url]

Really nice people who were very helpful. I scattered the spawn on woodchips in our landscape. The winecaps looked beautiful mixed in a wooded setting. Looking forward to see what comes up this year. We innoculated logs with oyster plugs late in the season so we will see what happens.

I find this very interesting. Anyone in the northern zones doing it successfully?
Karen

Park's is re-selling/distributing Mushroom Mountain Blue Oyster packages. Might be cheaper direct from the source, I haven't looked. I'll probably just buy some oyster 'shrooms and use the ends to restart my colony. Also going to use mosquito dunks in the water as the fungus gnats got out of control.



[QUOTE=Hermitian;395749]Wow, at long last I could become a member of Blue Oyster Cult!

[IMG]http://i.parkseed.com/images/l/31014.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks Chris, just the nudge I needed to add mushrooms to my garden.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=KarenO;395760]I find this very interesting. Anyone in the northern zones doing it successfully?
Karen[/QUOTE]

Check with the people at Field And Forest; they will steer you to the variety and method for your area. They are a Wisconsin company that grows its own mushrooms. I live in the Milwaukee area and my friends and I grow mushrooms successfully.

that's it i'm ordering a seal and pressure kit for my pc and maybe some agar supplies before long. :lol: once i get some cultures i'd be glad to expand them and send some out to folks for cost of shipping if anyone wants to give it a shot. there is a lot of complicated science behind mushroom cultivation but it really all boils down to very simple actions.

those oysters look awesome! the ones i have in logs are about three years old this season and pretty much depleted but it seems they will live on in the high fibre pile where they will be very helpful.

i got mine from [url]www.southeastmushroom.com[/url], they are beech oyster but i'm not sure if he has that one anymore. it was a beast that produced massive clusters, i lost my master culture of that one when our fridge went out. the owner is a great guy if you want special orders or want to know about something just give them a call. he'll probably be out on the farm but his wife will have him get right back to you

winecaps have been one i wanted to grow for a while maybe i can put together a bed for some this year. where i live has a great climate for mushrooms it won't be long until me and the family are out hunting down black and orange chanterelles!:D

I have tried growing some, but so far had no luck, only contams. I need to get some more culture to try again. I really wanted some fresh oysters, too :(
but my rental is really drafty and dusty, and I have kids and cats, etc. and don't have a proper SAB (let alone flow hood) so I potentially may not have any luck until I have money to buy more and better things.

There are plans abound on the internet on constructing a home made flow hood and sterile work area. most plans run about 200$ although you can get away with a clean work area for less than 50$ I think all you need is a large storage tub long rubber gloves and silicone sealer. plus a spray bottle with 4:1 bleach solution.

i had a lot of success just using a clear sterilite tote with holes cut out for arms to go in. i just wiped the inside with alcohol liberally and usually used a shot of ozium or neutra air before spawning and grain inoculation and my environment is coated with spores of all kinds. the thing to keep in mind is that the air in the box should be still and not moving at all. like epsilon said plans abound from simple to super complicated.

self healing injector ports are a big help for folks with no hood(wish i had one). oysters are a lot more aggressive than most mushrooms i've seen them eat right through patches of green mold and go on to spawn clean colonies. those are the exception though most of the time green mold spells death for mushrooms.

i ordered some agar and a pressure cooker seal a little while ago when that all comes in i'll start a thread on the method i use, which is just one of many many many ways to grow them.

Blue oyster fruiting from a straw bag that was inoculated with spawned wild bird seed.

Paul R
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nice bag! i love birdseed, it's my spawn grain of choice

I've grown Reishi from a kit - indoors though - and got some nice mushrooms and a big bag of spores from it. Friends of mine also dropped off an inoculated log here two years ago after helping another friend to set up a bunch of them - don't know whether it was oyster or ★★★★ake but got nothing so far, not sure how the other guy did.

Any tips on ★★★★ake would be interesting, it's a favourite but doesn't grow in these parts.

We do have a good variety of wild edibles here, and I enjoy the hunt as much as the food... ;)

i'm not too familiar with shiitake i've only grown them from pre spawned and browned blocks. i would reason that if you only want enough to eat and share the easiest route would be plugs in logs. have you kept them watered? they need regular watering to keep growing. also the more plugs you put in the faster the log will fruit, less plugs takes longer to colonize. if you can find out where he got the spawn plugs the company might have some strain specific info

Fun thread to watch I have never grown mushrooms but I might get hooked on growing them.

Can you provide detail on this method?


[QUOTE=Paul R;396063]Blue oyster fruiting from a straw bag that was inoculated with spawned wild bird seed.

Paul R
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culture starts out as mycelium on agar plates. you use that tissue to inoculate sterilized, hydrated bird seed in mason jars. once the mycelium has colonized the seed you break it up into individual grains again and add that in layers with hydrated sterilized or pasteurized(most common) wheat straw or hay or whatever you are growing the mushrooms on.

once the oyster finishes the hay it will start to form little white knots here and there. you cut out a hole or an "X" over the knots with a razor and spray the holes a couple times a day with water to keep them moist. most of the oysters i've grown indoors will fruit in the open air with no humidity chamber, though they will fruit best if you optimize an environment for them.

one thing i love about mushrooms is that you can clone them fairly easily, so if you happen to get a really nice cluster you can transfer it's tissue onto agar and essentially grow only the mushrooms that are in the cluster over and over again until the culture loses steam. however even if you've ran a clone until it's no longer productive you can start right back from square one by growing out the original, or "master", culture again. you can also clone store bought mushrooms and get pretty decent results for home use

ChrisK, RootLoops gave a good run down on the process it takes to produce mushrooms. Anyone interested in growing mushrooms for the first time I suggest buying a block or bag that is already inoculated and ready to produce.

bower, shiitake logs benefit from a good soaking (submerged) for about 24 hours to shock them into fruiting. Keep the logs damp and shaded.

Paul R

[QUOTE=Paul R;396346]ChrisK, RootLoops gave a good run down on the process it takes to produce mushrooms. Anyone interested in growing mushrooms for the first time I suggest buying a block or bag that is already inoculated and ready to produce.

bower, shiitake logs benefit from a good soaking (submerged) for about 24 hours to shock them into fruiting. Keep the logs damp and shaded.

Paul R[/QUOTE]

i agree with the advice on the blocks, once you see them grow the wonder of how will take over. and besides that you can clone some nice fruits off the blocks you buy, and grow them out all you want on your own if you choose to get that far into the hobby

I've grown a species of oyster with the cardboard and coffee grounds method above. What other species can you grow this way or like you show below? I don't really have the inclination to do the log inoculation right now.

Whats a good method of pasteurizing the straw? Approx. how much straw do you use and what size bag is that shown below?

[QUOTE=Paul R;396063]Blue oyster fruiting from a straw bag that was inoculated with spawned wild bird seed.

Paul R
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i have ordered the things i need and i have some cultures on the way, once they get here i will post a thread about how i do it, which is just one of many ways to go about it. maybe others will post their ways of doing things and we can get a few more folks into the hobby.

there are several species that will grow using basically the same methods, at least the grain part anyway. the process for growing reishi is about the same, only with wood chips or sawdust instead of straw. pretty much once you learn how to grow one most of that knowledge can be transferred to other varieties. Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets is a good read that has lots of info on a wide range of mushrooms and their specific needs and fruiting parameters, you might be able to find it at a local library or used online pretty cheap

Here is an easy to grow mushroom. Wine Cap or Garden Giant (Stropharia rugosa annulata). Grab some wood chips according to the recommended cubic feet the spawn bag is capable of inoculating, water chips, add spawn, mix and level. You can find wood chips at compost sites and utilities. Inoculate the bed in the spring and harvest fruit late summer early fall. The following year you can pick all summer. The pic below is one I let go just to see how big it would get. I bought the spawn bag from Field and Forest.

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Paul R