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[scriver]

pomme du terr

[Dunamisdeos]

Excuse me I prefer to be ignorant of the actual plant-run apocalypse until it actually happens thank you very much.

I want to see pics of the Leek-That-Is.

[Loud Whispers]

Excuse me I prefer to be ignorant of the actual plant-run apocalypse until it actually happens thank you very much.

I want to see pics of the Leek-That-Is.

Saucy leek: evolved

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: full view (click to show/hide)

Why is my leek so smug

[Dunamisdeos]

It's either going to flower or release some sort of murderous bio-drone, obviously.

[scriver]

The Leek That Seeks

[Loud Whispers]

leeki leeki, it rhymes with cheeki breeki

[wierd]

Well, since my sister was so kind as to give me a sample of her blue oyster mushroom spawn (and because I happen to have a surplus of old cardboard boxes), I spent some time today mixing up some enriched shredded cardboard, sterilizing it with the pressure cooker, bagging it all up in some crockpot bags, and then innoculating it with the spawn today.

It will probably be about a month before I have any real results to report back.

I did not use all my spawn (nor anywhere near all the cardboard I have on hand), but mushrooms are sufficiently off the normal track that should they get going, pics should be entertaining.


As for the actual garden, I have lots of flowers on my cherry tomatoes, but very few, if any, on my peppers.  Very sad.  The potatoes I planted are up, and so are the fall peas.

[Bumber]

Well, since my sister was so kind as to give me a sample of her blue oyster mushroom spawn (and because I happen to have a surplus of old cardboard boxes), I spent some time today mixing up some enriched shredded cardboard, sterilizing it with the pressure cooker, bagging it all up in some crockpot bags, and then innoculating it with the spawn today.

It will probably be about a month before I have any real results to report back.

Fun Guys of Color II: The Blue Oyster Culture

[wierd]

The Fun Guys of Color are apparently doing quite well.

A day or so earlier, I had prepped an old aquarium with non-enriched cardboard shreds, and sanitized it with straight up hydrogen peroxide. (It kills competitor fungus, like mold, without severely impacting mushrooms, because mushrooms typically have enzymes to help it break down peroxide safely, and mold does not.)  The aquarium walls are covered in condensation droplets, so it is hard to tell without getting right up on the stuff, but the surface of the shreds is showing signs of mushroom colonization. (Little hairy fuzz all over)  The aquarium was sitting idle (I had intended to use it to make a mineral oil cooled PC at one point, but never got around to it), and had never been used. It makes a very nice grow chamber, I think.  Air-tight, has fitted lid with light, and is just the right size to seal off from the outside air with cling film.  These mushrooms are light-initiated, so where I have the tank (hidden away in a corner curio, where there is very little light) seems to be doing just fine. When the time comes, I will turn on the light in the lid, and it should make mushrooms.  I left room inside for mushrooms to grow without hitting the top. 

If the bags do half as well, I should have plenty of Fun Guys in my kitchen in just a few more weeks.

[Loud Whispers]

What do you feed the fun guys to make em grow

[scriver]

Children's laughter

[Loud Whispers]

Children's laughter

A vital part of the ecosystem

[wierd]

What do you feed the fun guys to make em grow

That particular mushroom can grow on "waste paper  products", eg, it can be grown on shredded cardboard, shredded office paper, toiletpaper, et al.

The substrate you need will be specific to the kind of mushroom you intend to grow, more or less. Some do best on sterilized straw (Button mushroom, several asian straw mushrooms), others do best on sterilized hardwood sawdust. (Shiitake, bunapi, etc..)

Again, this one does well on waste paper.  I have lots of old cardboard boxes, and a paper shredder.  I made shredded cardboard, then sterilized it inside a pressure cooker. To enrich it, I added about a cup of ordinary white flour, shook it up with the paper, then added the water and cooked in the pressure cooker.  This made the cardboard sticky, as I basically added wallpaper paste to it. The added starch and protein from the flour will (in theory) assist the mycelium to colonize the substrate rapidly.

However, I have noted "Very good growth" on the aquarium, which is just straight up shredded cardboard wetted with 3% hydrogen peroxide (to discourage/kill mold.)

Time will tell which set of substrate works out better.  I have 3 bags of enriched cardboard, and one aquarium of unenriched cardboard.  Again, the aquarium is looking fine.

Spoiler: Aquarium full of fuzzy fun guys (click to show/hide)

For the cheapskates among us that want to try and grow mushrooms:

Often, very fresh mushroom from the store will have bits of active "Feeder" mycelium still attached to the growth point at the base of the mushroom. If you collect these "ends", and then macerate them in a sterilized food processor along with some hydrogen peroxide, you can then pour the "Liquid culture" into some sterilized spawn medium (such as milo, birdseed, whole wheat berry, etc...), then seal it up in a jar for a few weeks to get actual "seed spawn" going for that variety of mushroom. After that, you need to process your actual growing substrate, sterilize your work area and your grow bags/chambers, and then mix everything up and seal it up against outside contaminants.

Some varieties of mushroom are more difficult to grow than others. Blue oyster is "Super duper easy" on the difficulty scale.

I first learned of this technique (liquid spawn recovery) from shroomery.net (which is not linked here, because it is a psychedelic mushroom website), but it works just fine for many varieties of table mushroom.

[Loud Whispers]

Praise nurgle for your bountiful rot

[Dunamisdeos]

I have two questions.

One: My Dill has grown a giant stalk with flowers on top, but little actual dill. Should I cut the large stack to force it to grow outward and produce more usable herb?

Two: How does un-sterilized material affect mushroom growth? Aren't mushrooms basically there to break down anything forever? What contaminants are removed that don't exist in the wild? I am interested.