I usually don’t grow in the summer due to the heat and I’m struggling to get my ass in gear for this winter. I usually have about 4 varieties I grow, blue oysters, pinks, lion’s mane and pioppinos.
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From someone who has absolutely no interest in this sort of thing, but does love mushrooms, i think this is insanely cool. I have one question though:
What does it smell like in there?
Mostly smells like mushrooms/mycelium. I use a mix of soybean hulls and hardwood fuel pellets so no manure or anything stinky.
Are oyster mushrooms easy to cultivate?
They’re easier to cultivate than they are to shuck.
Yeah, they’re pretty easy. If I had to do it over again I would start with pink oysters. They aren’t as oxygen-hungry as blue oysters and they fruit just as reliably, if not more.
Ever think about trying to use less plastic in your setup? I had decent success with Mason jars and ceramics
I’m curious about the ceramics, what do you use? Like a big sauerkraut pot? I use the plastic because it’s easiest to work with and with jars I feel like the substrate weight to yield ratio isn’t as efficient.
I got into working with clay a bit ago, and I make a lot of mistakes as I am learning. Basically I uses some of my rejects that still function well as a veasel and aren’t too small mouthed. As long as they have food safe glaze or have been burnished.
The downside is they can only fruit from the top and holes can’t be cut unless you were to make some with slits to get some more fruiting out the side. I haven’t yet tried to propose made grow pots yet though.
Not sure if this would work but immediately thought of my wife’s strawberry grows from the summer
Obviously not great for substrate growth but may work for a grain growth as a fruiting chamber
Got one of those from the thrift for $1 last summer. Threw some distressed strawberries in there, pretty much ignored them, still hung in there!
Neat, I imagine one with slits in the side would be similar to fruiting in a 5gal bucket where you tape off the holes to keep moisture in. I recently read an article on growing mushrooms in large columns of substrate with egg carton material wrapped around the outside, it wasn’t very descriptive but I thought the idea was cool.
can you post some photos?
also, can you drill holes on clay and use cork plugs at first before taking them out for fruition?
I can’t post pics at the moment for fear of doxing myself. Just imagine poorly drawn flower pots.
You can drill holes or cut slits when they clay is leather hard before the initial fire. After that, it would be similar to trying to drill into glass.
Another issue is that clay shrinks during the firing process as it loses water so you might have to shape the corks.
Pretty sure those are just bought like that, and they’re compostable bags as well.
No, I make these up myself and they are not compostable.
Ah well that’s cool either way. I just know there’s kits online and in some stores you can buy.
Mean like the bags come as a kit with the grow media already inoculated?
I’ve not yet seen that compostable plastics are actually safe for the environment yet, although they might be slightly better since they can break down given the correct environment (not naturally, unless bio-degradable). I suspect anything with a co-polymer to be dangerous in various ways.
This article seems to indicate so atleast, but I would like to see more studies.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969725017565
And maybe used the wrong term, but yes, some breakdown as biodegradable as well.
What substrate and/or grain do you use?
I got a hunch I can’t use monotubs for these gormets lol
I use oats for spawn and hardwood/soybean hulls for substrate. I don’t think a monotub would have enough FAE but I don’t have much experience with them.
I want to try growing mushroom but don’t have a space to dedicate a closet for them. If I use a commercial kit in an underventillated kitchen or maybe in an overventillated cold garage, do you think they will be fine?
A ready-made block should be fine in the kitchen, garage too if it not too cold for the species you’re trying to grow and has a light you can keep on for at least 8hrs. Balancing the humidity and fresh air levels is the trickiest part for a counter-top grow but you sort of get a feel for it after some trial and error.
I’m sure you already know this, but I hear pink oysters are pretty heat tolerant. I want to grow some but my bucket just rots so far. Not gonna stop trying though
Yeah, they are but my spare bedroom gets extremely hot in the summer and I don’t want to be doing any work in there haha.
What kind of substrate/pasteurization are you using for the bucket?
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Super cool!
Thanks for reminding me, I gotta get my area cleaned and prepped for this winter’s grow.
How difficult is this? I’ve looked at starting a few of those grow boxes like that… but I’m not sure I’m ready to pull the trigger yet. I’m looking for something to supplement garden harvest crops over winter months.
I would definitely try a grow block and see how you like it, it can be a little tricky to get the fresh air and humidity right if you’re fruiting on a counter top but I wouldn’t let that discourage me.
I’ve got fairly high humidity due to my fishtank…what level do you have to keep them at to be successful?
I typically set mine for 95% RH to initiate pin formation, I bump that down to 80-85% while the fruit grows out. It gets tricky when you are trying to get juggle getting new pins on some blocks and growing out mushrooms on others, then I just play it by ear.
Sounds like a purpose built enclosure is the way to go…
You can get solid results with a 5-gal bucket, a trash bag, and an outdoor spot in the shade.
A tent is a great upgrade at scale but overkill when growing casually; don’t let it stop you.
100% - I gave my parents in law a 5 gal bucket to grow their own at home, and it flushed 5 or 6 times before they emptied it into the compost. Masters mix with boiled water poured over top, I thought it would contaminate because it wasn’t properly sterilized, but had no issues colonizing.
I was taking inventory of some stuff I purchased for other projects… this is something I’ve always wanted to try, and has given me a use case to give it a shot
There are cheaper options than a tent setup, you can find lots of little tutorials online. For a couple of years I used a ‘shotgun fruiting chamber’, it’s a tote with lots of tiny holes drilled in it, and some damp perlite in the bottom. You mist the inside and occasionally lift the lid to introduce fresh air.
I’ve got enough random stuff… I might be able to whack up a mini grow tent… I might have to give this a shot, thanks for the info!
Cool! That looks like a good harvest. Do you cull it all at once or pick and choose as you’re ready to eat them? Also, in terms of time and investment, how hard is it to grow your own?
We would pick all of this at once and either eat them, bag them up for family, or freeze/dehydrate. Especially important to pick the oysters and pioppinos because leaving them for too long can result in major spore dumping which it’s good for your lungs and we use a mask if that happens or if spending extended time in the tent.
We’ve invested a good bit of money into this, maybe a couple thousand or more? We’ve spent that over about 6 years, mostly outfitting the fruiting tent and HEPA flow hood. I would definitely suggest doing it on a budget at first, totally doable - I used to do lab work lab work in front of an air purifier and the fail rate was surprisingly low. I wouldn’t say it takes up a lot of time once you’re confident doing sterile work. I spend a lot of time cleaning as well as sterilizing substrate which takes about 3 hrs, but 2.5hrs of that is just babysitting the pressure cooker. I’m not sure if I would say it’s hard to get into but there is quite a learning curve and probably my ADHD-fueled love of mushrooms helped me get over that.
Which are your favorite? And what kinds of meals do you use them in?
Definitely the pioppino (sometimes they’re called black poplar mushrooms), they have a really nice meaty flavour and firm texture. I find them a little harder to grow than the others. I also enjoy the lions mane quite a bit. I’m really not a huge fan of oysters but my partner and family like them a lot. Oysters have too much gill for me and I just don’t like the texture. I do make a roasted oyster seasoning though and that’s really good.
I’m not into a really gilly mushroom, either. I’d like to try the pioppinos, though. Thanks for the description, because that really sounds like something I’d like.
