I did add some new posts in this group over the last few weeks about my grain jars and an experiment with button mushrooms that failed. My spawn jars are completely full now, and look like white puffy cotton. I did a shake&break when they looked to be about 40% colonized and otherwise just left them alone to grow. The popcorn took a little longer to get started but then quickly caught up to the rye jars so I’m thinking both methods are working equally well so far.
For fruiting, I got some bags off ebay, and I have chopped straw and lime ready to do a cold water bath… oh and that reminds me, I guess I need to soak the straw overnight so I need to do the bath the day before I’m ready to set up the bags. And I still don’t know yet where I’m going to hang the bags that will be out of the way. Maybe I can find some room in the garage.
Funny, I thought I was doing it the easy way. 😄 The initial spawn from ebay was only 10g each, a much smaller amount that I thought I was getting, but it was strong so I pressure-cooked some grain jars, built a still-air box, and let them start growing out. Only one of those jars had a problem but the mycelium seems to be winning.
Same with the lime bath for the straw… that just seemed like the easiest method to get started, I don’t really have a way to boil that amount of straw, but I can do the bath in an old plastic barrel I have. I think I’m going to try starting with two bags of blue oysters and one bag of pink oysters, and see how that goes. I still need to read up on drying the harvest but I do have a food dehumidifier… unless I end up eating everything as fast as I grow it! I do love mushrooms.
Right, only one method is needed. I see people setting up burners outside to sterilize the straw, but the lime method also is supposed to work well and doesn’t require all that energy to boil the water.
I did add some new posts in this group over the last few weeks about my grain jars and an experiment with button mushrooms that failed. My spawn jars are completely full now, and look like white puffy cotton. I did a shake&break when they looked to be about 40% colonized and otherwise just left them alone to grow. The popcorn took a little longer to get started but then quickly caught up to the rye jars so I’m thinking both methods are working equally well so far.
For fruiting, I got some bags off ebay, and I have chopped straw and lime ready to do a cold water bath… oh and that reminds me, I guess I need to soak the straw overnight so I need to do the bath the day before I’m ready to set up the bags. And I still don’t know yet where I’m going to hang the bags that will be out of the way. Maybe I can find some room in the garage.
Damn that’s quite the operation!
Funny, I thought I was doing it the easy way. 😄 The initial spawn from ebay was only 10g each, a much smaller amount that I thought I was getting, but it was strong so I pressure-cooked some grain jars, built a still-air box, and let them start growing out. Only one of those jars had a problem but the mycelium seems to be winning.
Same with the lime bath for the straw… that just seemed like the easiest method to get started, I don’t really have a way to boil that amount of straw, but I can do the bath in an old plastic barrel I have. I think I’m going to try starting with two bags of blue oysters and one bag of pink oysters, and see how that goes. I still need to read up on drying the harvest but I do have a food dehumidifier… unless I end up eating everything as fast as I grow it! I do love mushrooms.
Wouldn’t you only need to do the cold water lime pasteurization, forgoing the need for boiling the straw?
Right, only one method is needed. I see people setting up burners outside to sterilize the straw, but the lime method also is supposed to work well and doesn’t require all that energy to boil the water.
Ya I recommend trying the least effort method first 😀