Basement Greenhouse Grow - Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms

Home | Community | Message Board

You are not signed in.
New Account

Forum Index Search Posts Best Posts Active Topics Galleries FAQ User List Calendar Chat Store Random Growery

Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics >> Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms

Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop for:

Agar, Autoclave, Gypsum, Petri Dish, Portable Greenhouse, Wild Bird Seed

½ Pint Jars, HEPA Filter, Hygrometer, Scales, Ultrasonic Humidifier

Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 [ show all ]

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Basement Greenhouse Grow
#15086154 - 09/16/11 06:03 AM (8 months, 9 days ago)

Hi All,

I'm currently starting a smallish basement greenhouse growing operation. My goal is to sell the mushrooms at the local farmer's market, to restaurants, and the Co-Op. I chose to start out with Oysters (Golden and Pearl), Shiitakes, Lion's Manes, and Reishis. I'm focusing primarily on the Oysters and Shiitakes at the moment as (1) they're more market-friendly, but also (2) because those are the best performing spawn I have going so far. I've grown mushrooms at home before in the past, but not on this scale and just for hobby. But I developed a knack for it and found it really rewarding, so I thought it might be a perfect niche to try and start a home business from. I'm currently employed in grad-school, so this is something I can do on the side and grow while I'm working on my degree.

For my setup I ordered a Shelter Logic 6 x 8 x 6.5 ft. greenhouse and set it up in my basement after a thorough cleaning (mopping, HEPA vacuuming, vinegar sprays, anion generators installed). Once the area was cleansed, I put up a plastic buffer-zone around the greenhouse for extra concealment.

To get fresh air into the tent, I built a filter-box and used four filtrete filters of increasing efficiency to approximate HEPA filtration. The air duct then runs along the peak of the greenhouse with holes poked on both sides of the duct running the length of the growspace. Before the air is pumped out of the holes, the duct runs into a 5 gallon bucket with a pond-fogger inside, letting humidified air flow through the out-take of the bucket and into the grow-space. For additional humidification there is an ultrasonic humidifier, and two more 5 gallon buckets with fish-tank heaters and air-stones for evaporative humidification.

I made two racks out of PVC pipe that run the length of the grow space on the left and right side. Each one has space to hold 8 hanging grow bags. This is where I plan on growing my Oysters and Lion's Manes. There's also a shelving unit in the back of the tent where blocks of reishi and shiitakes will be fruited.

The FAE-system is set up with Utilitech light timers modified to run on a 30 minute cycle instead of 24 hours. This lets me set the fan to run for 5 minutes four times an hour. The ultrasonic bucket humidifier is also plugged into the same timer. But the ultrasonic humidifier inside the tent is on a separate timer synched with fan-timer so that it switches on at the same time, but runs for one minute longer. It also switches on for about two minutes half-way through the fan's off-cycle. This keeps the humidity in the tent at >85%. I don't know the exact measurement because my hygrometer shorted out at 85%.

Currently, I'm building up my spawn culture so I can spawn several grow-tubes soon. For the grow-tubes, I ordered a roll of 16" poly-tubing from Uline.

My goal for this is to be successful, so I welcome any criticisms or recommendations anyone might have. Videos of the grow setup are included below.

Thanks for reading!

Starting the Mushroom Farm, pt. 1
Starting the Mushroom Farm, pt. 2
Starting the Mushroom Farm, pt. 3
Starting the Mushroom Farm, pt. 4
Shredding Straw for Substrate
DIY Ultrasonic Inline Duct Humidifier
Mixing Spawn Bags
Modifying a Utilitech Light Timer

--------------------
Cultures I have:
Pearl Oyster, King Oyster, Golden Oyster, Black Poplar, Lion's Mane, Reishi, Turkey Tail, Shaggy Mane, and King Stropharia

Cultures I'd Like:
Pink Oyster, Elm Oyster, Morels (any except Black), Chick-of-the-Woods, and Cauliflower, Bear's Head.

"Prohibition didn't work in the Garden of Eden. Adam ate the apple."
- Vicente Fox, Former President of Mexico

Post Extras:

EvilMushroom666
Heretic

Registered: 11/18/09
Posts: 9,507
Loc: Canada

Re: Basement Greenhouse Grow [Re: BigPharma]
#15086329 - 09/16/11 07:24 AM (8 months, 9 days ago)

Looks like you are well on your way, great job, good luck and please do
keep us updated with pictures of your progress brother!

I myself am running a small scale shiitake operation and your videos have
given me some ideas and thoughts for when I go to the next level and increase
my fruiting area from 2 smaller 6 foot green houses to a larger area. I
also like the video you did for modifying 24 hours timers. I am going to
have to see if I cannot do something similar.

:cheers:

and

--------------------
Click Below To EnjoyEvilMushroom666's Take on BRF CakesHow EvilMushroom666 Prepares Grain Spawn (Jars & Bags) Proper Pasteurization of SubstratesEvilMushroom's GoodiesTrade List
June 1st 2010

Post Extras:

john-hai
oyster lover

Registered: 05/11/11
Posts: 168
Loc: san jose ca
Last seen: 18 hours, 43 minutes

Re: Basement Greenhouse Grow [Re: EvilMushroom666]
#15087635 - 09/16/11 01:08 PM (8 months, 8 days ago)

thank you for taking the time to post your work. the videos was great. i am too new to be advising you but i will be listening to all comment. i mainly grow oyster and recently bought some shiitake and also got a trade from Evil so i will be starting shiitake soon. please post your grow i am all ear.

--------------------
3 rules i use to grow mushroom

#1 local material

#2 recycle when possible

#3 make it simple

Post Extras:

GroboClone
Anthropomorphic Elephant

Registered: 01/07/11
Posts: 332
Loc: Canada

Re: Basement Greenhouse Grow [Re: john-hai]
#15089248 - 09/16/11 07:21 PM (8 months, 8 days ago)

I've been growing in a room just a little bit bigger than yours for
around a year now. Mines 6'x9' with a 6' ceiling. I'm currently selling
to restaurants and groceries.

The biggest challenge I had was getting enough fresh air, or more
precisely, a low enough CO2 concentration for the Oysters to develop
properly. Along with that comes the problem of supplying enough water
to keep the RH in the proper range with the added airflow. That's the
easy part, just add more ultrasonic misters, but now you have to deal
with the 5 gallons+ of water that is dumped into the air every day.

I didn't see an exhaust system in the videos, I would highly recommend
exhausting all the air from the greenhouse outside. You don't want the
humidity, mushroom spores, mold spores, mixing with your household air.

Welcome and Happy Growing

Post Extras:

Javadog
Continuing along

Registered: 05/03/10
Posts: 6,055
Loc: USA

Re: Basement Greenhouse Grow [Re: GroboClone]
#15090051 - 09/16/11 10:42 PM (8 months, 8 days ago)

An excellent write-up. Thank you for taking the time.

I will have to ponder your many schedules. You clearly put a lot of
thought into it.

Good luck!

JD

--------------------
Boyd Rice told my brother that life is a corny pack of freesakes

Myco-tek.org

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Basement Greenhouse Grow [Re: GroboClone]
#15090957 - 09/17/11 07:21 AM (8 months, 8 days ago)

Quote:

GroboClone said:
I didn't see an exhaust system in the videos, I would highly recommend
exhausting all the air from the greenhouse outside. You don't want the
humidity, mushroom spores, mold spores, mixing with your household air.

I had wondered about that. How would you recommend designing one? Just a simple out-take with a second blower fan that switches on at the same time as the in-take?

And thanks for the comments, it was fun to put together. :-)

Post Extras:

GroboClone
Anthropomorphic Elephant

Registered: 01/07/11
Posts: 332
Loc: Canada

Re: Basement Greenhouse Grow [Re: BigPharma]
#15091750 - 09/17/11 11:51 AM (8 months, 7 days ago)

That's how I ran my first setup, except my fans were on speed controllers not timers.

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Basement Greenhouse Grow [Re: BigPharma]
#15261718 - 10/22/11 12:03 PM (7 months, 3 days ago)

Okay, had a few minor setbacks, but now I'm back on track.

I had to re-create my pasteurizing tank after a fatal flaw was discovered, but the one I have now is faaaar better than my previous one. I have a video of its creation that I'll be uploading later today.

But I also finally have actual fungus in my grow-room!

Just yesterday I put two cold-shocked shiitake blocks in there along with about an 8 lb bag of (yellow?) oyster mushrooms. The oyster mushroom bag was a bit of a fluke. Originally it was about a 15lb bag that didn't colonize. So I cut open the bag, re-used some of the substrate, and the let the rest of the bag sit. Around 2-3 weeks later I realized the bag had fully colonized, and when I went to put it in the grow-room about 2 weeks after that I realized there were TONS of pins covering the surface! I was amazed at the aggressive colonization in a very poor environment.

So those are fruiting right now; when I looked today, the oysters were notably larger. I'll put pics up in short order. But this afternoon I mixed up several more culture bags.

I ended up with (2) 15 lb pearl oyster bags, (1) 15 lb golden oyster bag, and (5) 7 lb Lion's Mane bags.

For the Oysters, I used a mix of straw, cottonseed hulls, and small amount of horse-poo compost; and for the LM's I used hardwood mulch that was pasteurized in the same water (at the same time) as the oyster mushroom substrate.

I guess one question I have is, how influential is light-exposure during the colonization for oyster mushrooms? I ask because the wonder-bag I mentioned earlier was sitting about 7 ft. away from a 400 W metal halide lamp the whole time, and didn't seem to affect colonization. And if I don't have to worry about light during colonization of the bags, then that'll help out quite a bit.

Below is a short video of my grow-room as of last night. I'll post some more pics of the growing oysters and my culture bags later today or tomorrow.

[url]

/url]

Post Extras:

woodland_jewel
In den Gärten Pharaos

Registered: 09/07/11
Posts: 156
Loc: Pennsylvania
Last seen: 14 hours, 17 minutes

Re: Basement Greenhouse Grow [Re: BigPharma]
#15267536 - 10/23/11 04:02 PM (7 months, 2 days ago)

As far as I understand, light has little to no effect during colonization. However, it will affect cap pigmentation during fruiting.

My logs are kept mostly in the dark while colonizing. The only time they get light is when I walk through the incubation room to get to the grow room.

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Oyster Mushrooms Growing! [Re: BigPharma]
#15270395 - 10/24/11 09:23 AM (7 months, 2 days ago)

These suckers grow fast! Only Fruiting Day 3 and they're already over 2 inches tall.

Post Extras:

flameclown
totality is amust

Registered: 04/04/04
Posts: 837
Last seen: 12 days, 18 hours

Re: Oyster Mushrooms Growing! [Re: BigPharma]
#15271293 - 10/24/11 12:52 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

sweet!!!!! :costanza:

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

55 Gallon Pasteurizing Tank [Re: flameclown]
#15271551 - 10/24/11 01:50 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

Thanks.

I've got a video up now of my pasteurizing tank. Its made from a 55 gallon food-grade HDPE drum I obtained from a bottling company and equipped with a 1440W hot water heater element. Then I have a second 35 gal garbage can I drilled holes in to make into a strainer that I fill up with the substrate. When the substrate's done pasteurizing, I hand-fill my culture tubes straight out of it then mix the spawn in a separate plastic tub before re-filling the culture tubes with the inoculated substrate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBuR2fyEKTQ]

Seems to be working well so far, I just need to rig up a better draining method. All I have in it right now is a bung-stopper. But I didn't figure it would drain faster than my sump-pump can handle, so I ended up keeping about 20 gallons of hot-water at bay with a floor-squeegie for about 6 minutes while the sump-pump caught up. :crazy:

Right now I'm rigging up a water-filtration system to use for filling my humidifiers so I can stop putting nasty tap-water into my ultrasonics (only been doing that for about 2 days). Video to come shortly.

Post Extras:

ife
Stranger Danger

Registered: 04/10/11
Posts: 116

Re: 55 Gallon Pasteurizing Tank [Re: BigPharma]
#15273728 - 10/24/11 08:28 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

Hey pretty cool pasteurizer thingy. Watching the video now.. slow connection so only halfway thru. If you ever have to remake it you don't need to go thru all the extra steps you did with the scoring and whatnot, unless you want to cause it is a good idea n all that. The failure you had with the trash barrel was because the plastic wasn't rigid enough. And you might have needed to get the silicone better in between everything such as the threads n stuff. I've done a few just like it with the hard plastic food grade barrels. I had to replace the heating element and was very happy I was able to "easily" pry/chip away the silicone. Although it was water tight and I have used the thing for a year or so with no water leaks. Well my first attempt at the seal which was a trial run that did a side barrel setup leaked but I learned from that what I needed to do for the seal and haven't had a problem in one I built since.

Also your power wire looks a little small and most likely gets very hot. And I believe you risk fire. I forget the wire grade number but its basically the big thick flat stuff they put in the walls that can handle large amounts of amperage and wattage. I forget what it is. Someone posted it on one of my threads talking about this exact thing. I did try an extension cord of that size you have hooked up to the thick flat "wall" cable I am referring to and the heat difference was very very noticeable. I would hate to see you accidentally get hurt.. but I obviously don't know what wire you got.. just a guess of a observation. And after seeing you super easily flicked the ground wire I am almost certain your wire is not thick enough. I would double check on that. The wire I am talking about you would basically need pliers to bend it with in the distance you flicked yours.

Also you thermostat should be attached to your barrel right above the heating element. It won't do anything where you have it in the video. I have the same thermostat. And almost the exact same setup except I got a barrel that had a removable top with a metal ring for sealing it and I screwed my element into the hole I drilled. And the differences I mentioned you might want to look into for your safety. But I am no electrician, just passing along the same caution I received. I could be wrong on all of this.

But hey yea wicked cool setup.

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: 55 Gallon Pasteurizing Tank [Re: ife]
#15274378 - 10/24/11 11:31 PM (7 months, 1 day ago)

Thanks for the tip on the wire, Ife; I'm pretty sure its a heavy enough gauge to handle the wattage. Its only pulling 1500 W. I have some extension cables that are listed to 1500W and are notably thinner than this one, its pretty beefy. But definitely worth double-checking.

So the thermostat actually takes temp readings? I assumed it operated on a regostat-type principal where the element has a determined max heating capability for a given amount of wattage, which would be regulated by the thermostat.

And yes, the 55 gal. drum is far more rigid than that crappy garbage-can.

Post Extras:

ife
Stranger Danger

Registered: 04/10/11
Posts: 116

Re: 55 Gallon Pasteurizing Tank [Re: BigPharma]
#15275028 - 10/25/11 06:29 AM (7 months, 1 day ago)

BigPharma - np. just passing along the same type of warnings I got. Here is the link to the thread where we all were talking about it with pics of my equipment I bought. 10 guage is what they recommended and what I went with. And like I said I noticed a huge heat difference. You might want to feel the wire. Maybe even put it in a small loop, which would attenuate the situation to see clearer. I have my 10 guage in a few loops to keep it out of the way but have no heat whatsoever.

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/14300604/page/1

The thermostat. I forget if it was the instruction sheet or talking in the text chat but yea they say to put it above the element. Its also where it gets placed on a water heater. You don't want to over heat your straw.

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: 55 Gallon Pasteurizing Tank [Re: ife]
#15278237 - 10/25/11 07:06 PM (7 months, 14 hours ago)

I checked the cable earlier, and its a 14 AWG. It's plugged into a 15A, 110V breaker and pulls ~1440W. Does someone who knows more about electricity than I do know if that is sufficient? It will be at least several days before I'll be firing it up again, so I won't be able to feel the wire and see if its getting warm, plus it would be nice to know if the wire itself is a hazard.

Post Extras:

ife
Stranger Danger

Registered: 04/10/11
Posts: 116

Re: 55 Gallon Pasteurizing Tank [Re: BigPharma]
#15280079 - 10/26/11 06:53 AM (7 months, 3 hours ago)

Here is thread from the guy I copied my first pasteurizer from, which discusses the wiring a little more. Although I went single element and 120V and didn't need the top thermostat. Hope this helps you some more. Stay safe.

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/13768133

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: 55 Gallon Pasteurizing Tank [Re: ife]
#15282076 - 10/26/11 04:18 PM (6 months, 30 days ago)

Just harvested my first Pearl Oysters tonight! They're looking pretty good, and weighed out to just under a pound after I trimmed off the stem-bottoms. Not many large ones, but I thought this bag was a goner anyway.

At the bottom is a picture of some Pearl and Golden Oyster that are currently about 4 days into colonizing.

Post Extras:

Not Quite Social
Back to work

Registered: 07/15/10
Posts: 895
Loc: Midwest

Re: 55 Gallon Pasteurizing Tank [Re: BigPharma]
#15282392 - 10/26/11 05:25 PM (6 months, 30 days ago)

Nice grow, BigPharma! Pretty fruit ... :thumbup:

--------------------

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: 55 Gallon Pasteurizing Tank [Re: Not Quite Social]
#15283095 - 10/26/11 07:52 PM (6 months, 30 days ago)

Thank You. :smile:

Here's a couple short videos. One of the mushrooms being harvested, the next is a pseudo time-lapse of them growing.

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

New Videos, and a Colinization Cabinet :-) [Re: BigPharma]
#15304963 - 10/31/11 05:04 PM (6 months, 25 days ago)

Another few videos. The first one shows the water-filtration setup I put in to allow fresh, filtered water access inside the grow-tent. Each humidifier was a tube running to it, to allow remote filling.

The second video shows a couple small changes I made after making the first video.

The third video is a Colonization Cabinet I made today. Its 48x36x70, and can has two layers that can hold 12 tubes each. The maximum sized tube it can hold is a 10" x 24" tube. The outside of the cabinet is Panda film, and it has a small cooling fan at the top to force CO2 out the bottom, which is left open.

The one tube that's in there right now is a Pearl Oyster tube that was spawned on the 22nd. I used 2 quarts WBS spawn to straw and cottonseed hulls at a 3:1 ratio. Its coming along, but its looking a little moist; I'm considering poking a few holes towards the bottom of the bag to balance things out. Any opinions?

Post Extras:

MacroMyco
Stranger

Registered: 09/28/11
Posts: 3
Last seen: 6 months, 19 days

Re: New Videos, and a Colinization Cabinet :-) [Re: BigPharma]
#15310584 - 11/01/11 07:16 PM (6 months, 24 days ago)

i dunno, but here's some info on the wiring that may interest you:

Wire Capacity Chart

Post Extras:

GroboClone
Anthropomorphic Elephant

Registered: 01/07/11
Posts: 332
Loc: Canada

Re: New Videos, and a Colinization Cabinet :-) [Re: MacroMyco]
#15310665 - 11/01/11 07:29 PM (6 months, 24 days ago)

The extension cord should be enough. Don't follow the chart in the last link, it's not up to code.

A 14 AWG conductor has a capacity of 15 Amps but you are only going to be wanting to load it up 80%, 12 Amps. That lets you use 1440 Watts of power.

Even though your wire has enough capacity you may want to upgrade to a 12 AWG cord depending on how long it is, this will help with the resistance of the wire and voltage drop.

You should also think about installing a GFCI receptacle to protect yourself from electrocution.

Post Extras:

dwpineal
Psychedelic Artist

Registered: 07/20/06
Posts: 3,703

Re: 55 Gallon Pasteurizing Tank [Re: GroboClone]
#15312425 - 11/02/11 07:18 AM (6 months, 24 days ago)

Posting so I remember to come check out your videos later, thanks!~

--------------------
My Psychedelic Wedding Thread 11-11-11
****Tips for Your First Psychedelic Experience**** * My 8 Month LSD Trip
Check out my handmade psychedelic artwork - psychedelic gifts for psychedelic people - For Sale or Trade

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: [Re: dwpineal]
#15312689 - 11/02/11 09:01 AM (6 months, 24 days ago)

Thanks for the input, folks.

And I went ahead and poked about 2-3 dozen holes around the Pearl Oyster bag in questions with a small nail. I'll trying out a different bag-style next time; I plan to use a 3/4" inner-diam. tube stuffed with poly-fill about 4" in length to put in the top and bottom collar of the bags. This will allow air-exchange through both the top and bottom without necessitating the creation of holes prior to fruiting.

Also, today I'm constructing a glove-box; I figure its about high-time I learn the art of G2G, plus I'd like to do some cloning work with agar.

On the agenda as well, I'm making some new LC jars. The last batch of LC's I made didn't do as well as I need them to. I used the standard jar lid with two holes: one with a filter, the other filled with silicone. But I find that these are too prone to contamination and are too difficult to keep the injection-port sterile. So for the new jars, I'm using a length of silicone air-tubing that will insert about 3/4 the way down into the jar, then seal it in place with silicone, and also create a silicone plug inside the tubing about 1 cm down. This way when I need to draw up culture, I can fill the top of the tube with alcohol, then insert the needle through that and suck up LC like a straw.

And of course, I'll post video of the process. :smile:

Post Extras:

SOUTHERN
NAIL DRIVER

Registered: 03/29/09
Posts: 810
Loc: south
Last seen: 20 hours, 41 minutes

Re: [Re: BigPharma]
#15313999 - 11/02/11 04:15 PM (6 months, 23 days ago)

INTERESTING IDEA.. so where does your air come into the lc when u suck it up?? u got a filter also... i used to always make lids with 2 ports filled with the rv silicone..i used plastic small mason jar lids.. when i went to suck outta one of the ports i would take a bleach wipe and wipe the top off real good and cover the top (lid) with the wipe.. then i would poke the needle through the wipe and silicone port into the jar.. then i would suck lc up i was assuming the air was going through the bleech wipes through the lids of the jar lid into the lc.. i would use quart jars of lc up with excellent results..
i just cooked my firs lc and agar in 2 years so i hope to be back with some mushies soon..

Post Extras:

showup
Stranger

Registered: 04/24/11
Posts: 42
Last seen: 1 month, 25 days

Re: Basement Greenhouse Grow [Re: BigPharma]
#15334577 - 11/07/11 05:23 AM (6 months, 19 days ago)

Very nice work. Especially i like your timer modification.

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New Pics [Re: showup]
#15336299 - 11/07/11 12:52 PM (6 months, 18 days ago)

My second batch of Pearl Oysters, first-ever vertical culture tube. ;D

The substrate is 75% chopped straw, 25% cottonseed hulls and weighs about 17 lbs.

As you can see I had some trouble with the holes and getting the mushrooms to come out of them cleanly; as a result there's a little bit of loose plastic clinging around the edges of the clusters. I poked holes up and down the bag with a small nail about a day after spawning for air-circulation and to prevent water pooling. Is there some way to poke aeration holes in the bag for colonization and still have the mushrooms form only in the spots you actually want them?

But enough jabber, time for pics!

This is a picture of that bag I mentioned before that was slow to colonize. I ended punching several holes in the bag, again with a small nail; that seemed to increase the colonization rate significantly. The bag had been looking pretty stalled for a few days, but took off again after the holes were poked. But still, though, you can see that the bottom 3 inches of the bag never colonized. The grain in that part of the bag is myc-free, so I'm guessing moisture build-up?

Edited by BigPharma (11/07/11 12:57 PM)

Post Extras:

Weller
Loveable rogue

Registered: 05/16/11
Posts: 313
Loc: Spain

Re: New Pics [Re: BigPharma]
#15336575 - 11/07/11 02:00 PM (6 months, 18 days ago)

Excellent work. The videos are a nice touch too.
The best of luck with this project :thumbup:

Post Extras:

SOUTHERN
NAIL DRIVER

Registered: 03/29/09
Posts: 810
Loc: south
Last seen: 20 hours, 41 minutes

Re: New Pics [Re: Weller]
#15337557 - 11/07/11 05:43 PM (6 months, 18 days ago)

The mushrooms will form all over the place in those bags.. i don't know how to control it.. maybe black bags.. i use to just take a knife and either but throug the bag and kill some cluster of pins of make a new hole for them to grow. i would always have alot of pins on top of the bag ..

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New Pics [Re: Weller]
#15338391 - 11/07/11 08:47 PM (6 months, 18 days ago)

I guess I'll have to plan my holes differently. I'm actually wanting to try a bag design that may make holes unnecessary for colonization, let me know if its been done before. I plan on using two 4" long pieces of vinyl tubing, 3/4" inner-diameter and stuffing it full of poly-fill. Then using these as a collar at the top and bottom of the culture tube. Anyone think that will work, or will it not provide enough air-exchange?

Anyhow, just harvested the tube I was showing earlier! I picked about 75% of the clusters earlier, and the rest look like they'll benefit from being picked in the morning. But so far I've gotten 2.5 lbs from this flush. Looks like I'll hit my target of 3 lbs per flush. :grin:

My first block of pearl oysters that I harvest about ten days ago is sprouting another crop as well:

And lastly, here are some additions I've made in the past week:

First off, built myself a glove-box. I just poured a batch of petri-dishes a couple days ago. The sleeves are Tyvek, and I just cut them off a painting suit and glued them onto the tub that I cut two holes in with a hole-cutting tool on a drill.

Scored this kick-ass All American 25x Electric Autoclave on Ebay for a SONG! Its second-hand, but I only paid $250 for it. :cool:

And I made a small adjustment to my Inline-Duct Ultrasonic Humidifier. I added a 45-degree coupler to the output from the bucket because I kept having water condense in the tubing then drip out onto the shelving, then onto the floor. This lets it flow back into the bucket and not into the grow-tent.

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New Pics [Re: BigPharma]
#15338673 - 11/07/11 09:56 PM (6 months, 18 days ago)

Video Update:

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Made my first sale! [Re: BigPharma]
#15350964 - 11/10/11 03:21 PM (6 months, 15 days ago)

Sold my first Pearl Oysters today! :smile:

Took them to a local co-op who happily agreed to pay $10/pound for them. They said they would easily sell 10 lbs/week, but maybe as much 20.

Right now I'm one happy farmer! :grin:

Post Extras:

Javadog
Continuing along

Registered: 05/03/10
Posts: 6,055
Loc: USA

Re: Made my first sale! [Re: BigPharma]
#15351353 - 11/10/11 04:28 PM (6 months, 15 days ago)

Winning!

Congrats,

JD

--------------------
Boyd Rice told my brother that life is a corny pack of freesakes

Myco-tek.org

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Siphon-Style LC Jars [Re: Javadog]
#15354725 - 11/11/11 08:32 AM (6 months, 15 days ago)

Check out a new type of LC jar I'm trying out. I'm not claiming credit for creating this idea, but it did occur to me of my own inspiration even though I'm sure someone else has already tried this.

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15606270 - 01/02/12 03:15 PM (4 months, 24 days ago)

Just harvested my first Lion's Mane, and I'm super-excited! I pulled it earlier today, its been growing for about 12 days now and I couldn't wait any longer. It was about 5-6" diameter, weighed 5.7 oz. (160g), and is nicely dense on the inside. It reminded me a sagittal section of cerebellum. After picking and weighing, I immediately took three tissue samples and placed on agar so I can grow out whole cultures of this nice, round, dense fruit.

My cultures were grown from a LC-inoculation of WBS spawned to 20% supplemented sawdust with gypsum at a rate of about 1 qt. to a 5 lb pound filter bag. It colonized in about three-weeks, and fruited readily in the same environment as my oysters. Can't wait to fry it up later. ;D

I added a new piece of equipment to my growing process. A couple weeks ago I built a spawning bench to facilitate mixing pasteurized substrate, inoculating, and stuffing it into bags in a reasonably standardized process. Here's what I came up with:

Neither are very good pictures, but I'm uploading a video to youtube later I'll add to this thread that should be a bit clearer.

What you can see in the pictures is a bench with two holes cut out: one for a large tote and a second circular hole for a flower pot that's had its bottom cut off. The whole thing sits immediately adjacent to my pasteurizer, and I pasteurize all my substrate in mesh laundry bags. This way I can take the drip-dried bags of substrate out of the pasteurizer and drop them directly into the large tote that sits down into the bench. I then stir up the substrate by hand to make sure all the ingredients are evenly mixed.

Next, I pull a length of poly-tubing from a roll that sits at the end of the bench like paper-towels and cut it, then tie off the end with a plastic zip-tie and stuff it down into the circular hole and use the flower pot as a collar to lock it in place. Then I add about 4-6 inches of substrate to the bag, and then place a 3" wide PVC pipe with a coupler on top down into the bag and fill the rest of the bag around this pipe, packing it down as I go. When the bag is full, I pour 2 mason jars of spawn down into the pipe and remove the pipe. This lets me to impregnate the culture tube with a central column of spawn. Finally, I top off the spawn column with some extra substrate, zip-tie the top, weigh it, label it, and aerate the bag.

Below is a picture of the inside of the bag after I pulled out the pipe, you can see the hole it left and some of the spawn sitting down in it.

It seems to be working well so far. I spawned 8 bags on the 22nd (pic below), and all of them are showing significant colonization at this point. They should be 100% colonized within another week, then another week for consolidation, and then fruiting!

Post Extras:

solarity
mm... my favourite food

Registered: 03/31/09
Posts: 345
Loc: UK

Last seen: 19 hours, 52 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15608806 - 01/03/12 02:35 AM (4 months, 24 days ago)

Nice! I rigged a similar system, but mix the spawn in before packing the log rather than use your tube idea. Posted about it here http://www.fungiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=1350
I find that a couple of holes in the bottom of the bag to vent air when you are filling helps a lot.

--------------------
Thinking about Growing Gourmet for a living? See if you can afford it!

Mmmm! Goddamn, Jimmie! This is some serious gourmet shit! Usually, me and Vince would be happy with some plain ole Agaricus right, but he springs this serious GOURMET shit on us!

TRADE Looking for a Volvariella Volvacea culture and a commercial pink culture of known origin. Have strong edible strains to trade.

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: solarity]
#15610626 - 01/03/12 01:52 PM (4 months, 23 days ago)

Here is a video outlining how I use the Spawning Bench, and a couple other changes I've made.

Post Extras:

Shu
Noobcubed

Registered: 11/20/11
Posts: 98
Loc: PA, USA
Last seen: 18 hours, 7 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15611008 - 01/03/12 03:04 PM (4 months, 23 days ago)

Congratulations on your Lion's Mane and good luck with the farm.

Post Extras:

scifipirate
Jug Fuckler

Registered: 01/17/09
Posts: 753
Loc: FL

Last seen: 1 day, 17 hours

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: Shu]
#15612566 - 01/03/12 08:15 PM (4 months, 23 days ago)

--------------------

Oak Ridge Pictures

I Got a Kick Out of This Post
Detailed Pink Buffalo Grow

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: scifipirate]
#15692249 - 01/20/12 09:42 AM (4 months, 6 days ago)

Alright, got some more pics! :-)

I've had some King Oyster culture going for a while now. I took a clone from a store-bought fruit and transferred to WBS, then used that to centrally inoculate jars of supplemented sawdust, a la GroboClone's method. These jars were inoculated on 1/2/12:

This jar was inoculated back in December, and has been in the grow-tent for a couple weeks now. It started showing its first pins yesterday.

Lion's Manes are also coming along quite nicely. I've got 7 bags going, 4 of them are new, 3 are on their second flush. I took a clone from that first fruit I posted about earlier. It was the size of my hand and weighed a little over 5 oz fresh. Can't wait to see what it does when I grow it out!

This guy here is actually growing through the filter patch on the bag! But this is also the second LM I've had that grew in this odd misshapen form. Any ideas what causes that, anybody?

And lastly, the Reishis are coming along quite nicely as well! I've got them fruiting in a dub-tub style fruiting chamber that's kept at 80F. These jars are just fruiting directly off the WBS, they were spare culture jars that I didn't want to just throw out. But the actual grow will be on medium-sized spawn bags containing supplemented sawdust at a rate of about 10%, each weighing 3 lbs. I just inoculated 8 of those last night. To fruit, I'm going to cut the tops off the bags and grow antlers by inducing a high CO2 environment in the tubs.

Reishi fruit clone:

Reishi grow bag:

Post Extras:

Javadog
Continuing along

Registered: 05/03/10
Posts: 6,055
Loc: USA

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15692280 - 01/20/12 09:49 AM (4 months, 6 days ago)

Nice work!

:congrats:

--------------------
Boyd Rice told my brother that life is a corny pack of freesakes

Myco-tek.org

Post Extras:

Aleon
666

Registered: 05/26/11
Posts: 364
Loc: WI, USA

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15692472 - 01/20/12 10:47 AM (4 months, 6 days ago)

Quote:

BigPharma said:
This guy here is actually growing through the filter patch on the bag! But this is also the second LM I've had that grew in this odd misshapen form. Any ideas what causes that, anybody?

This happens often if the bags are over-incubated. Put them into the FC sooner. Seriously, mine only need 5-7 days of colonization before going to fruit. I used to do 2 weeks incubation, and pins formed in the bag, some grew through the filter, and yields were low. Each 4.5-5.5lb bag of sawdust should yield at least 1lb per block, normally 1.25-1.5lb/block on the first flush.

Nice job, keep on keepin' on! :headbanger:

--------------------
Everything we have ever been told is a lie.
Anybody who tells you something is lying, even me.
Seek the truth.

The highest goodness is like water.
Water benefits the ten-thousand things and does not contend.
It dwells in places that most people disdain.
Therefore it approaches Tao.
Passages from a translation of the ancient Tao Te Ching

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15692612 - 01/20/12 11:19 AM (4 months, 6 days ago)

Wow, 5-7 days only! Before I started growing them, I was under the impression LM's were slow-going, but obviously not! These bags you can see were inoculated on 12/31, and they incubated for only 14 days before fruiting. And people call oysters voracious.

Post Extras:

Aleon
666

Registered: 05/26/11
Posts: 364
Loc: WI, USA

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15693795 - 01/20/12 03:21 PM (4 months, 6 days ago)

ON sawdust Lions Mane are really aggressive and prolific fruiters. On grain, they are slower and are "wispy" for the first 10 days, and sometimes it doesnt even looked colonized from far away when it is.

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: Aleon]
#15703132 - 01/22/12 04:27 PM (4 months, 4 days ago)

King Oysters, looking good!

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15715603 - 01/25/12 09:36 AM (4 months, 1 day ago)

From today:

Also, all the pint jars I inoculated on the 2nd are fully colonized as of today. I'll give them another few days to consolidate before initiating fruiting. Those jars were hardwood sawdust supplemented with ~20% wheat bran and centrally-inoculated with WBS using a variation of GroboClone's method.

Post Extras:

scifipirate
Jug Fuckler

Registered: 01/17/09
Posts: 753
Loc: FL

Last seen: 1 day, 17 hours

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15718144 - 01/25/12 07:19 PM (4 months, 1 day ago)

Nice, how long do you expect to be snaggin fruits off that jar?

--------------------

Oak Ridge Pictures

I Got a Kick Out of This Post
Detailed Pink Buffalo Grow

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: scifipirate]
#15718858 - 01/25/12 09:34 PM (4 months, 1 day ago)

This jar's had such a rough time from me mis-handling it, I'm surprised it fruited at all, lol. But I'll keep it around until it starts to go bad. I'm expecting two, but hoping for three.

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15781824 - 02/08/12 10:23 PM (3 months, 18 days ago)

I did some major renovations. In short, its no longer a basement greenhouse grow, just a basement grow. I was getting perturbed with the greenhouse because it was difficult to move around in and impossible to thoroughly clean. I kept bumping into bags despite my best efforts, and would knock pins off them. That's no good!

Additionally, I had a contamination problem pop up.

I first started noticing little speckles of mold in discrete locations, so I thought okay, I'll give everything a good cleaning and it will go away. Wrong. It came back in no time. After further investigation I found that a part of my air-tubing had a tear in it between the filter and humidifier. So the fan was pumping nasty gross air from the basement straight into an ultrasonic bucket then into the grow-room. At that point I decided to ditch the greenhouse altogether because it was more trouble than it was worth.

Additionally, I was having problems with spore-load, they were coating the basement, and that's no good either. Here are picture of an ionic breeze I had in the ante-chamber to try and take it down a notch before and after cleaning:

One complication was that the greenhouse was currently full of bags and I had in mind to save them if possible. So I started to disassemble the greenhouse around them. I thought if I was careful they could be salvaged. Wrong again. While taking the tarp off the frame, the racks got disturbed and the whole thing came crashing down. :-(

It definitely sucked. But at least I had the foresight to pull off all the mostly-mature fruits before starting. I was also growing increasingly skeptical of putting possibly contaminated bags into a clean grow space. So this just sealed it that I would toss these bags.

But I'm happy to say that I think I now have a substantially better grow space!

I thoroughly cleaned the whole space, floor and all, put up a fresh layer of plastic sheeting to create a two-layer plastic wall and ceiling. The space is now 10x11 feet with 6.5 foot ceilings. I got a wire shelf unit to hold bags and jars, and suspended pvc from the ceiling to hang bags from. Note, the ends of the pvc are capped. If moisture gets into the pipe-interior, its an easy place for contamination to grow.

You can see the air-ducting coming in through the wall. This is just filtered air that pushes out into two open buckets on opposite walls that contain pond foggers. I opted for the open design to facilitate cleaning and inspections.

I also added an exhaust fan that pumps air out the window; here's the out-take near the floor:

There's another bucket-fogger in the center of the room that's not pictured.

And I've already got some happy inhabitants in the new space. :-)

6 pint jars of Lion's Mane in sawdust centrally-inoculated (as are all the jars):

6 quarts of more Lion's Mane, same substrate. I'm testing out fruiting behaviors in jars with either a single small hole in the lid, or fully open jars:

And 8 quarts of King Oysters that are pinning:

The King Oysters are on 20% supplemented sawdust with wheat bran. I initiated pinning on them 8 days ago by scratching the surface, replacing the lids, and setting on a shelf at about 65F with light exposure. All jars are pinning. Here's a couple close-ups:

I'm pretty excited about this new grow-space. That shelf-unit has room for tons of culture, and I've got room for at least 24 Pearl Oyster hanging culture tubes. There's water access in the grow-space to refill the humidifiers, and now that I have an exhaust fan, spores should be much of a problem anymore.

In the near-future, I'll be fruiting several bags of turkey tails. I've got the spawn running right now, probably in a week I'll inoculate the bags.

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15783143 - 02/09/12 09:36 AM (3 months, 17 days ago)

What do you have your plastic anchored to besides the ceiling? Or is it all just hanging free? When i remodeled my greenhouse i noticed some mold in a few pieces of the PVC so i took it all apart and cleaned it out really well with bleach, but fear that will be an ongoing issue unless i seal all of the joints. Is your wire rack in your fruiting area? I had a similar one that rusted in no time and went to plastic.

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: chefinainteasy]
#15783464 - 02/09/12 11:03 AM (3 months, 17 days ago)

The plastic is stapled to the floor joists above and laid onto the floor. I glued up a number of the seams with flexible vinyl glue. In a couple spots around the door, I wrapped up a couple 2x4's and stapled the plastic to them as a weight. I plan to keep a strict eye on them for moisture.

I would definitely recommend sealing up all joints for the pipes. The interior of those pipes is a perfect sanctuary for mold and mildew. Very little air-flow through there and lots of dead moisture equals a contamination symphony. I put plugs on the ends of all mine and I plan to add a silicone seal.

I hope the wire rack doesn't rust. It says its chrome, which I didn't think was supposed to rust. Maybe I'll have to spray some sort of sealer onto it? I opted for the wire shelf over plastic for a couple reasons. One, its an open design that lets air move freely through the shelf layers, and also almost every single plastic shelf sold in my area is not a smooth surface, but rough-texture. That rough texture is IMPOSSIBLE to clean and harbors mucho contamination. Water likes to condensate on it, and in all those little tiny pits, it just sits and festers and is impossible to effectively dry.

So far the room seems to be doing well. Its holding humidity, there's not much water condensing on the floor. So now I'll cross my fingers and hope for no more unexpected surprises.

I'm also initiating a new sterility regimen. I went to a medical supply shop and bought some sterile shoe-covers, and I'm thinking of getting a tyvek suit to wear into the grow room as well.

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15784409 - 02/09/12 02:47 PM (3 months, 17 days ago)

Ya mine was one of those cheap chrome plates racks also that turned out to rust at every collar joins. At work we use wire racks in our walk in coolers but they have a vinyl coating. You could probably get a can or two of the rustolium plastic or vinyl spray paint and coat it real good. I was lucky that mine was given to me. I looked into buying another one to spray the other day and it was about $100 and not in my budget at the moment. Plus i'm getting rid of shelves all together and just doing buckets and hanging bags from eye hooks in the flood joists run through weather stripped slits in the roof. Is it necessary to be that clean in the fruiting area since everything is 100% colonized?

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: chefinainteasy]
#15785245 - 02/09/12 05:58 PM (3 months, 17 days ago)

You're right, chef, I started to see small rust spots right at where you mentioned. I'll be coating it tomorrow to seal it.

And yeah, a tyvek suit may be a bit of overkill, but I think the shoe-covers are a pretty good idea. I'm mostly just concerned about it because I work in a basement of a very old house, so its not the cleanest area outside my grow tent. So I want to do everything within decent reason to prevent spores and mold from being introduced to the high humidity environment of the grow-tent. Its not so much the culture itself I'm concerned about getting contammed, its the environment itself.

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15785426 - 02/09/12 06:43 PM (3 months, 17 days ago)

Ah got ya. I was just wondering if i should be more cautious. My basement is fairly new and stays clean. Im more worried about me creating contamination that travel to the rest of the house as my 1 year old daughter and my wife and I's room are directly above the grow room. Im a little of a clean freak thanks to clean work practices at work, but when you hear horror stories of spores getting everywhere and mold infestations it makes me a bit paranoid.

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

jenia1
K.I.S.S

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 170
Loc: Israel.
Last seen: 1 day, 2 hours

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: chefinainteasy]
#15787099 - 02/10/12 02:40 AM (3 months, 17 days ago)

ive been wondering why are u fruiting those kings off the jars and not something else like bags/plates

--------------------

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: jenia1]
#15787704 - 02/10/12 07:56 AM (3 months, 17 days ago)

I'm not using bags because I'm able to sterilize a larger number of jars than bags at a time, more jars than bags can fit on a shelf, you can re-use the jars and not the bags, it takes less spawn to inoculate a jar, and they're easier to store for incubation. It also seems like jars also have a greater fruiting area:substrate volume ratio.

How would you fruit them on plates (with sterilized sawdust and all)? And is there a reason you would not want to use jars?

Post Extras:

Javadog
Continuing along

Registered: 05/03/10
Posts: 6,055
Loc: USA

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: jenia1]
#15787723 - 02/10/12 08:00 AM (3 months, 17 days ago)

"Bottle" Culture is one of the ways that these can be grown.

...some species commercially too. I am not certain if LMs are one of these.

JD

[whoops, wrong species]

--------------------
Boyd Rice told my brother that life is a corny pack of freesakes

Myco-tek.org

Edited by Javadog (02/10/12 08:11 AM)

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: Javadog]
#15787734 - 02/10/12 08:02 AM (3 months, 17 days ago)

They should grow in jars. GroboClone had a lengthy thread on here where he experimented with different supplementing rates and scratch vs. no scratch. He averaged 8 oz. of fruits per jar when supplemented with 20% wheat bran and the surface was scratched.

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: BigPharma]
#15787834 - 02/10/12 08:35 AM (3 months, 17 days ago)

Bigpharma, are you using oak sawdust pellets? Can you tell me or show a link as to how you centrally inoculate? Does this require refilling jars with sterile dust/bran mix?

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

urbanfarmer
l'estranger

Registered: 12/22/08
Posts: 602
Last seen: 13 hours, 29 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: jenia1]
#15788028 - 02/10/12 09:34 AM (3 months, 16 days ago)

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/12030259

I recommend a steel drum when using immersion heat elements. Note the importance of the stand-off pipe. You should be able to find an appropriate drum for $30 or so.

Want to trade cultures?

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: Lion's Mane Harvest! [Re: urbanfarmer]
#15788190 - 02/10/12 10:15 AM (3 months, 16 days ago)

Quote:

chefinainteasy said:
Bigpharma, are you using oak sawdust pellets? Can you tell me or show a link as to how you centrally inoculate? Does this require refilling jars with sterile dust/bran mix?

Chef: I have some fuel pellets, but I've been using hardwood sawdust from a local mill. I'll make a video later either today or tomorrow to show you my technique; I've been meaning to, so this will serve as good motivation to finally get it posted.

Urban: Thanks for link, I'll have to check it out later. And yes, if you'd like to do a culture swap, PM me. :smile:

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New Pics [Re: BigPharma]
#15810331 - 02/14/12 07:26 PM (3 months, 12 days ago)

Got some new pics! :smile:

Overall, I'm really pleased with the new room. Everything seems to be fruiting out well. Two of my pond-foggers died on me the other night, though, so humidity has been hard to keep up. Everything looks nice, so its only slightly problematic, fortunately. I called the company (Sunterra) and they readily agreed to send me two new ones for free, so I was happy.

These are my King Oyster jars. So far much better than that janky-looking one I grew earlier in the pint jar. Both were grown from the same clone, this shows the importance of proper handling I suppose.

Lion's Mane jars are starting to show some fruits as well. The quart jars I have with the plastic lids have tiny clusters forming, I'm guessing the lids maybe keep a higher CO2 environment near the surface of the substrate? I'm eager to see how much yield a small little pint jar will provide, clusters looking good so far. The bags further down are each around 4 lbs. I over-incubated them again; its really hard to tell when they're ready, the myc. is so wispy. That's why I exposed the whole bag surface, a bunch of primordia started forming on me.

And finally more Pearl Oysters. I have 4 bags. The other two I didn't show are just now developing some primordia. They all came from the same master spawn jar, so I was a little surprised to see the variation in fruiting times. I probably should have spread the bags out a little more to test environment conditions across the room.

Edited by BigPharma (02/14/12 07:29 PM)

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: New Pics [Re: BigPharma]
#15812451 - 02/15/12 07:12 AM (3 months, 12 days ago)

Looks great pharma! Have any new videos in the works? Im very interested in switching over to this style of grow space once it gets a bit warmer out and i move some of the plants out. Do you still keep the fogers outside the grow area and pipe in the mist? Have any water pooling problems? Are you exhausting air outside?

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: chefinainteasy]
#15819312 - 02/16/12 02:23 PM (3 months, 10 days ago)

Yep, got a new video up this afternoon! Posted below. :smile:

I promise, I'm working on getting that video together of how I make my King Oyster jars. We found some water damage in one of our upstairs bedrooms that produced mold, so there's been a bit of landlord drama resulting from that. I've had far less to play with my mushrooms this week than I'd like. Fortunately the mold is very well far away from my grow area, so there's that at least.

To answer your questions about the foggers, I have them inside the grow-room now in open buckets. There are two 4" ducts that bring filtered (non-humidified) air in and are aimed down into the buckets with the pond foggers. This way, they're much easier to clean and maintenance and there's always filtered-fogged air blowing into the grow space. I do get a small amount of water that pools, but it doesn't seem to build up, so I'm thinking its evaporating fast enough not to grow. Because the area is larger now, too, I'm able to have a mop in there for cleaning and drying the floor. I figure I'll probably make a regular ritual out of disinfecting the floor every couple weeks or so.

And YES I have an exhaust fan now! I was getting ridiculous spore buildup in the basement from those damn oysters. I have several anion generators throughout my basement and several square feet around each one would have a thick white buildup form that was straight oyster spores. So it was obvious I needed some sort of exhaust to get that shit out of the house before I started getting serious allergies. I think it may have actually desensitized me to the mold spores; my wife has much worse allergies than I in general, but I was reacting to the mold and she wasn't. I set the exhaust duct near the floor opposite the in-take duct to draw air across the grow-space in a downward fashion. The duct then just gets pumped out the window. I set the out-take fan at a slightly lower speed than the intake.

Everything growing in there seems to be beautifully despite the humidity issues. I actually just got my new foggers in the mail today, which is cool.

The King Oysters are looking nicely plump and getting to be a few inches long. I'm not sure exactly when to pick them, at least based off cap-shape. So if anyone has any input, it'd be appreciated.

One thing I thought was odd is the speckly/mottled shape of some of the caps. Is this a normal stage of development, or is the result of some environmental deficit? I've seen a few fungus flies and need to get some tape hung up, could they be causing this?

The Lion's Manes are starting to make an appearance, too. So far it looks like the lids may slow fruit development a small amount, but I think performance will more than make up for the extra 2-3 days.

And of course, as always, the Pearl Oysters are troopers. These guys have had their Rh range from %90+ all the way down to %40. I'm thinking that's why the smaller fruit bodies, but I bet they're super-dense!

All those pictures were taken from the video, but the video shows my air/humidity setup, which I'm pleased with so far. I'm still tweaking the timing and ratio of intake:outtake fan speeds. But I had it dialed in pretty well before my foggers died.

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: BigPharma]
#15825338 - 02/17/12 08:03 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

Okay Chef, this one's for you. :tongue2:

I finally got my long-promised video up for how I make my King Oyster jars, which is the same tek I use for Lion's Manes now too. I've got some Black Poplar LC going now, I'll probably try this for them also.

Post Extras:

lipa

Registered: 07/24/07
Posts: 1,688
Loc: USA

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: BigPharma]
#15825455 - 02/17/12 08:26 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

Those kings look like the MYCELIA's M2600 strain.

Lipa

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: lipa]
#15825488 - 02/17/12 08:35 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

Interesting, so what makes you ID them as such? I looked up that strain, and it said it frequently has knobbly caps, was that it? I have no idea what strain it actually is, its a pirated culture from a store-bought mushroom, so I assumed it was a good one.

Post Extras:

lipa

Registered: 07/24/07
Posts: 1,688
Loc: USA

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: BigPharma]
#15825507 - 02/17/12 08:39 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

Yes knobbily caps!

Your pics are fuzzy but I think I see rough caps.

Lipa

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: lipa]
#15825567 - 02/17/12 08:53 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

Well you answered one question I had, thanks!

Those pics were snatched from the video first video I posted earlier. In the video I drew attention to the knobby caps and asked if anyone knew if that was normal or some environmental thing. Good to know they're supposed to be that way. Certainly looks strange; one even looked almost spiky. So the knobbiness is unusual and unique to that strain, eh? I'd better get an LC made!

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: lipa]
#15825688 - 02/17/12 09:19 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

Looks good pharma! Thanks for the vid. I have 10 qts of king spawn close to colonized and am going the sawdust route as i read in GGMM its usually the better way to go. I have these 2 qt plastic jars we get our shallots in at work and am going to try these out with pasteurized sawdust and bran. Im also going to sterilize qt jars with the central inoculation method you showed. I think my pc can hold 14 qt jars at a time. Still looking for a lions main culture to trade for, but kings will work for now. I also have a qt of maitake sawdust almost colonized that i may try this with. Also white beach mushrooms.

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: BigPharma]
#15825698 - 02/17/12 09:23 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

I just ran downstairs to snap a couple clearer pics with a proper camera. You can see the knobbiness much better.

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: BigPharma]
#15825923 - 02/17/12 10:17 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

From a chefs point of view, i wouldn't let these mature any more. All i see sold in market and that we buy from a commercial vendor, have concave caps, not convex like some of the pictures i see on this forum. There is no point in letting oysters reaching maturity to a point of spore drop, they really dont gain anymore weight. Plus the shelf life and storage is much better. IMO. Look great, can you give a harvested weight per jar when your done. Did you ever get an average weight of sub in each jar before inoculating? Sometimes weight is a better gauge than volume. Cant wait until my grains are colonized to try my trials. :grin:

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

Javadog
Continuing along

Registered: 05/03/10
Posts: 6,055
Loc: USA

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: chefinainteasy]
#15825943 - 02/17/12 10:22 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

You will like sawdust spawn Chef. When it comes to the number of inoculation
points, there is nothing like it. Your blocks will explode.

Good luck, and thanks for the great photo Pharma. (Lipa knows ;0)

JD

--------------------
Boyd Rice told my brother that life is a corny pack of freesakes

Myco-tek.org

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: Javadog]
#15825995 - 02/17/12 10:33 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

hmm, I'll plan on picking these in the morning then. I wasn't really sure when Kings reached their peak, they're a little funkier looking than Pearls.

And no, I didn't get an average weight of the jars. When I was mixing up those jars earlier today I was thinking I ought to, so that's something I think I'll do from now on. And yes, I'll post up the weights I harvest with some pics.

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: BigPharma]
#15826063 - 02/17/12 10:47 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

Thanks. I only ask for the weight because i am going to be using oak fuel pellets which are going to be much finer than the sawdust you get from the mill. Just want to do a comparison of yield to see if the larger "chips" have any effect. Those are ready by what we use in the culinary business. I would be interested for you to let one or two grow out to fruition to see the weight difference. I guess ones that are relatively the same size as of now. Just curious. These things are about 2 to 3 times as dense as elm or greys as far a volume goes. But they are also sooooooo good. I posted a recipe for them in the recipe post.

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: chefinainteasy]
#15826077 - 02/17/12 10:50 PM (3 months, 9 days ago)

How are you going to handel the smaller/aborts? I, after letting another bag go with them intact and contaminating, just pick/cut them off ant eat them also. Are you going to go for a second flush?

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

jenia1
K.I.S.S

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 170
Loc: Israel.
Last seen: 1 day, 2 hours

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: chefinainteasy]
#15826321 - 02/18/12 12:13 AM (3 months, 9 days ago)

one of the best thread around atm, been visiting here around fr the past few weeks!
inspired by you and your great work im planning to build myself
a greenhouse as well. but theres some things im not sure about
-what kind of filter are you using for your fresh air intake?
-assuming all this foggy moisture eventually ends up on the ground are you using any kind of drainage system?
-could you be more specific about the plastic sheets and how you attach them to the wall/ceiling and floor and to themselves since its not a huge 1 plastic unit

Tnx. :thumbup:

--------------------

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: jenia1]
#15827064 - 02/18/12 08:21 AM (3 months, 9 days ago)

Okay, picked all the fruits, small pins included and it came out to about 625g (1.4 lbs) - this was from 8 jars. GroboClone had a link in his King Oyster thread about pin-pruning. This should increase yield as it allows only 2-3 fruits to grow per jar, letting them grow much larger.
I just picked off all the aborts to the best of my ability, there's still a few stragglers remaining. And yeah, I'm planning a second flush.

Hi Jenia, thanks for the comments, and I love questions! :smile:

-what kind of filter are you using for your fresh air intake?
I'm just using a standard filtrete furnace filter. But I use three; one pre-filter, then two high efficiency allergen filters taped together. I made a filter box out of plywood, and sealed all the seams with silicone.

-assuming all this foggy moisture eventually ends up on the ground are you using any kind of drainage system?
Some of it ends up on the ground, but not a huge amount. The trick is to balance fog-generation with air-flow to maximize humidity while minimizing condensation. Its tricky, but it does the job well enough. My drainage system is a mop and bucket, lol. I go in every couple days and mop up what little water starts to collect.

-could you be more specific about the plastic sheets and how you attach them to the wall/ceiling and floor and to themselves since its not a huge 1 plastic unit
Sure. I used 4 mil plastic, there's two layers, and I used a staple-gun to attach them to the floor joists (lots and lots of staples to distribute the weight). I started out stapling plastic up as a ceiling, then the walls to the joists with a few inches of overhang or lip. And the plastic is long enough that it folds down onto the floor as well. I put up each individual wall, each one over-lapping the other by at least a foot. Once the first layer is up, I put another layer of sheeting inside that starting with the walls first this time, then the ceiling. This way there's no place where two seams are right on top of each, making a more contained environment. Finally I folded the corners like gift-wrap to keep them in shape, and used loctite flexible vinyl & plastic adhesive to seal of some of the looser seams - this was mostly on the ceiling and corners.

I've got a video I'll be uploading shortly where I do kind of a review of where all I've been and where I'm at now. I go through the different things I've tried and talk about what worked, what didn't work, and why. For anyone who is using my videos as a tutorial, I recommend watching this one, because there's been a lot of changes and failures throughout the process.

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: BigPharma]
#15827105 - 02/18/12 08:39 AM (3 months, 9 days ago)

Good stuff and always helpful as usual.

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

jenia1
K.I.S.S

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 170
Loc: Israel.
Last seen: 1 day, 2 hours

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: BigPharma]
#15862016 - 02/25/12 01:08 PM (3 months, 1 day ago)

Quote:

BigPharma said:

-could you be more specific about the plastic sheets and how you attach them to the wall/ceiling and floor and to themselves since its not a huge 1 plastic unit
Sure. I used 4 mil plastic, there's two layers, and I used a staple-gun to attach them to the floor joists (lots and lots of staples to distribute the weight). I started out stapling plastic up as a ceiling, then the walls to the joists with a few inches of overhang or lip. And the plastic is long enough that it folds down onto the floor as well. I put up each individual wall, each one over-lapping the other by at least a foot. Once the first layer is up, I put another layer of sheeting inside that starting with the walls first this time, then the ceiling. This way there's no place where two seams are right on top of each, making a more contained environment. Finally I folded the corners like gift-wrap to keep them in shape, and used loctite flexible vinyl & plastic adhesive to seal of some of the looser seams - this was mostly on the ceiling and corners.

I've got a video I'll be uploading shortly where I do kind of a review of where all I've been and where I'm at now. I go through the different things I've tried and talk about what worked, what didn't work, and why. For anyone who is using my videos as a tutorial, I recommend watching this one, because there's been a lot of changes and failures throughout the process.

looking forward for this video.
meanwhile me and my dad trying to think about a way to build our own greenhouse like you did but hes too afraid that the staples will rust and eventually moisture will come out from where they are attached to the plastic sheets and the the roof top will get covered with myc since its made out of gypsum plates....

any idea would be helpfull here.

--------------------

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: New Video (with pics) [Re: jenia1]
#15862353 - 02/25/12 02:43 PM (3 months, 1 day ago)

Use roofing nails, the ones with the plastic tabs around the head of the nail.

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: chefinainteasy]
#15955177 - 03/16/12 11:31 AM (2 months, 12 days ago)

Hi All,

Been gone for a while due to some life-drama. The house we were in was a janky nightmare. The landlord let the chimney fall into disrepair that directly resulted in a horrible black-mold infestation in the upstairs bedrooms, attic, etc. They completely botched the repairs, our house got contaminated, my (pregnant) wife and I both got sick, we were living in a 10x8 foot office room sealed off with plastic with a massive HEPA filter running non-stop sleeping on the floor.

BUT....now we have a FAR better place. More space, out in the country, private lake, friendly non-crotchety landlord whose cool with mushroom growing, 6 acres. So all's well that ends well. This also means I'll have a whole slew of new videos to put up from the reconstruction of my once-again-further-improving setup. Besides my own setup, my cousin is getting into the game too with a King Oyster grow-op that I'll be posting as well.

My new grow-space is done structure-wise, I just need to install the fixtures and air-filtration. Its a wooden frame structure that is 16 feet long, 7 high, and 8 wide. My cousin's KO setup is a structure that holds two 4 ft wide wire racks, so its 8 feet long, 7 high, and 2 feet deep.

So far I only have one video of the process ready to post up, but we'll be finishing the fruiting chambers today, so more will be coming imminently. This video shows how we built his filter-box. Its a WAY better improvement over the one I made months ago, I'm jealous of it. We'll definitely be building a second one for myself.

Here's a few quick-pics.

This is the new view out my back-door from the mushroom lab:

A couple shots of the new grow-room frame:

And some shots of the filter box:

Post Extras:

Javadog
Continuing along

Registered: 05/03/10
Posts: 6,055
Loc: USA

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: BigPharma]
#15955337 - 03/16/12 12:19 PM (2 months, 12 days ago)

Well, congrats on the fortunate conclusion of what started
out as a nasty situation.

I envy all that space!

I look forward to further developments.

Good luck,

JD

--------------------
Boyd Rice told my brother that life is a corny pack of freesakes

Myco-tek.org

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: Javadog]
#15955448 - 03/16/12 12:46 PM (2 months, 12 days ago)

Pharma, im actually in the process of re-arranging my basement, getting rid of the aquaponics and devoting the whole area to mushrooms. I am going to build a similar stud frame, but have been going back and forth between plastic sheeting or foam board. My only concern with the plastic is moisture getting to the wood through the staple/nail holes. Did you do anything regarding this, silicone over the punctures? Also are your lights outside the chamber still? Im sure you will go over the construction in your videos just wanting to get a head start.

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: chefinainteasy]
#15957269 - 03/16/12 07:54 PM (2 months, 12 days ago)

Hey Chef, no problem. I have the lights outside my grow-space now; that's what I always wanted to do, but couldn't due to my space. I like the idea of using something more substantial than the plastic sheeting; tell me about this foam-board, is it water-resistant? The reason I keep opting for plastic is because its economical, easy to work with, and its clear. I've also been pondering over more and more sealing up the staple-holes with something, like you mentioned. If I don't use silicone, I'll use squares of clear packing-tape.

But yes, all these questions and more to be addressed in soon-forthcoming videos. My cousin's KO-FC is about 85% done, and we plan to finish it on Monday and switch it on. I'll be finalizing my FC over the weekend, and will post up videos right away.

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: BigPharma]
#15957531 - 03/16/12 09:05 PM (2 months, 12 days ago)

Ya i was just talking about the 8'x4' sheets of foam insulation they sell at hardware stores. They have the stuff that is foil coated for better usage of light reflection or the pink or blue. I cant remember how much it is a sheet, but think it was about $20ish. So it would cost more but just seems like a more stable structure. Unless your dependent on outside light, i dont think being opaque would matter. Plus the insulating properties would benefit a basement piping in outside air to retain cooler temperatures. Have you looked into ways to cool your room or is that not an issue. Here in St. Louis it can get around 100 F in the summer and me piping in air from outside for FAE calls for some kind of solution to this issue. Look forward to the videos.

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: chefinainteasy]
#15958672 - 03/17/12 06:32 AM (2 months, 12 days ago)

I just like it clear so I can interact with people outside the grow space while I'm inside it (like my wife). Also, this allows me to have the lights outside, but no its not necessary I think.

I don't think I'll need to worry about cooling. Right now the basement's hanging out around the high 60's low 70's. My last basement floated around between 70-75 and didn't seem to cause problems. I suspect that mushrooms are more temperature-tolerant than the parameters listed in GGMM. And because I pull my air from inside the basement, I don't think I'll need to worry about cooling in the summer. I'm in the Bloomington, IN area, and it gets upwards of a 100F here in the summer too. My basement now has an A/C vent in the ceiling above the grow tent, so that should definitely help; there's also a window I could put an A/C unit it if necessary as well. But I do vent the air outdoors to get it out of the house.

Getting my fruiting room functional is my main project for the day, so hopefully I'll have the video up by tomorrow evening.

Post Extras:

SOUTHERN
NAIL DRIVER

Registered: 03/29/09
Posts: 810
Loc: south
Last seen: 20 hours, 41 minutes

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: BigPharma]
#15958779 - 03/17/12 07:28 AM (2 months, 12 days ago)

IN REGARDS TO THE NAIL HOLES U R WORRIED ABOUT... I have a very similar structure.. i glued all my poly to the wood using a 3m spray adhesive.no nails here .. if u r worried about the wood getting moisture through the holes u should us a screw like is used to put tin on roofs , the screw has a rubber gasket that tightens down and seals plus they r galvanized..

Looking good pharma. i know ur liken that new place is gotta be more peaceful... post those videos when ya getem up...

southern

Post Extras:

chefinainteasy
Chef

Registered: 12/12/10
Posts: 376
Last seen: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: SOUTHERN]
#15959261 - 03/17/12 10:34 AM (2 months, 11 days ago)

I was thinking of just gluing the plastic/foam(whatever i decide on) also southern. Sounds like you are happy with the results.

Pharma, i know this is a new house so your still in discovery mode, but do you think drawing in air from the basement will be fresh enough even with your filter? The only reason i ask, and my set up was by far not up to the standard yours was, was my basement air wasn't fresh enough when i was drawing it into the FC. At least thats what i, and others here thought. Then i set up an intake from the basement window into the FC and things improved drastically. I assumed with all the plants i had growing in the basement the air should of been O2 rich, but wasn't the case i guess. Like i said, im still getting my conditions here figured out, but the FAE intake from outside has made a world of difference. My next project is to exhaust air out the other window.

Anyway, living vicariously through this post until i can save up money to go on to bigger and better things. Good luck and have fun.

--------------------
Check out my youtube videos. the basement garden series by chefinainteasy

My new business is now on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/MushroomsNaturally

MY Garden

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: chefinainteasy]
#15962531 - 03/18/12 06:05 AM (2 months, 11 days ago)

This basement is pretty huge and very clean, I don't think fresh air will be an issue. The house was built only 10 years ago, and the basement has 10-foot high ceilings; its also a walk-out basement. The last house I was in had a much smaller basement (6.5 ft. ceilings) with less air-flow and it wasn't an issue then, so I doubt it will be now. I suppose one thing I could do if it does become an issue is put a window fan in the other basement window to bring fresh air in.

Post Extras:

IslandFungi
Stranger

Registered: 10/02/11
Posts: 43
Last seen: 29 days, 7 hours

Re: 55 Gallon Pasteurizing Tank [Re: BigPharma]
#15989959 - 03/24/12 12:15 PM (2 months, 4 days ago)

Very cool guys, i just got 2 growth chambers at about 8x4 each so iʻm gonna make some plans this weekend and post what i got!

Post Extras:

evolve_h2o
Stranger

Registered: 03/24/12
Posts: 19
Last seen: 16 hours, 41 minutes

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: BigPharma]
#16054390 - 04/06/12 07:36 PM (1 month, 22 days ago)

This is a GREAT thread. Any updates coming down the tubes soon?

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: evolve_h2o]
#16062700 - 04/08/12 07:31 PM (1 month, 20 days ago)

Yes! Sorry to be away so long, but I'm super-happy to announce that my wife and I now have a beautiful healthy little daughter named Evvie! So I've been a little occupied lately.

But the new grow-room has been working very well so far. The only issue I've come up against is that I need to paint or seal the wood near the entry because it started to get some mold spots forming that I made quick work of with an IPA/Peroxide spray and scrubbing. Its been slow going getting the room filled, for obvious reasons. But I've got six bags in there now, three that fruited last week, three that are in the process of fruiting now. I got 3.66 lbs off the three bags last week, which I was pretty impressed with because the spawn I used was really old and dried out.

I've managed to make some pretty good progress getting my spawn supply back up. I've got several jars of pearl oysters going, two jars of shaggy manes that I'm about to spawn to sawdust bags for use in an outdoor patch. I'm also starting some reishi jars from a fruit clone I took that I'm planning on fruiting in tubes outdoors in a greenhouse over the summer. Plus there's some blue oyster jars coming along nicely, and some maitake, black poplar, and golden oyster in the works.

That's for me. We also managed to get my cousin's King Oyster fruiting chamber constructed and running. He's got around 20 quart jars in it by now, with another 10 being added each week. We ended up making it twice as large as we originally planned. Its got two of the 4 ft x 1.5 ft x 5 ft high wire wracks in it side; side-by-side, so its long and narrow. So far its working pretty well, here's a picture below of the first fruits he picked out of it earlier this week.

I've got two videos currently uploading; one for the construction of each fruiting chamber, I'll get links up as soon as they're done.

Post Extras:

Javadog
Continuing along

Registered: 05/03/10
Posts: 6,055
Loc: USA

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: BigPharma]
#16062742 - 04/08/12 07:39 PM (1 month, 20 days ago)

Congrats on the new family member!

JD

--------------------
Boyd Rice told my brother that life is a corny pack of freesakes

Myco-tek.org

Post Extras:

jenia1
K.I.S.S

Registered: 11/21/10
Posts: 170
Loc: Israel.
Last seen: 1 day, 2 hours

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: Javadog]
#16064075 - 04/09/12 04:09 AM (1 month, 20 days ago)

Glad to see youre back!
Congrats on your daughter :laugh:

--------------------

Post Extras:

Aleon
666

Registered: 05/26/11
Posts: 364
Loc: WI, USA

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: jenia1]
#16064228 - 04/09/12 06:11 AM (1 month, 20 days ago)

Nice picture of the kings; are those grown in quart jars? If so any details, on yield, substrate, colonization time, etc?

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: Aleon]
#16064287 - 04/09/12 06:50 AM (1 month, 20 days ago)

Yes, those were grown in jars. They were grown in quart jars of hardwood sawdust supplemented ~16% with wheat bran, centrally column-inoculated with WBS spawn, incubated for almost 6 weeks (about 3 weeks longer than they should have been)at about 76F. To trigger pinning, the jars were scratched on the surface, then placed on an open shelf around 70-72F for 7-10 days. They fruited within 2-3 days of going into the chamber, and were harvested around 7 days later. The yield was a little disappointing even though the mushrooms themselves are quite large. All 6 pictured there weigh only 8 oz combined, which we're thinking is because the substrate dried out a bit during the wait to fruiting.

I've also FINALLY gotten my videos uploaded of the two new chambers. In "Reconstructing the Mushroom Farm" sorry about the random video of the mouse, it accidentally made its way into the story-line.

Post Extras:

Aleon
666

Registered: 05/26/11
Posts: 364
Loc: WI, USA

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: BigPharma]
#16064839 - 04/09/12 10:12 AM (1 month, 19 days ago)

Thanks for the info. I actually am having the best success with low spawn rate and 5-6 week colonization times with my kings. Though i only have 2 strains now; ive got 3 more on the way. I know many bottle growers do 5-6 week incubation for kings.

Keep on keepin' on.
:hairmetal:

Post Extras:

evolve_h2o
Stranger

Registered: 03/24/12
Posts: 19
Last seen: 16 hours, 41 minutes

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: BigPharma]
#16072022 - 04/10/12 06:23 PM (1 month, 18 days ago)

This is BADASS. Thanks for the update and congrats on the new addition to the family! I've recently started an oyster grow and your videos have been INCREDIBLY helpful.

Random question, Have you considered attempting morels at all?

Post Extras:

Mush 4 Brains

Registered: 12/19/07
Posts: 3,908
Loc: lesbians

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: evolve_h2o]
#16072080 - 04/10/12 06:34 PM (1 month, 18 days ago)

just wanted to be a part of this thread

Post Extras:

BigPharma
Myco-Rising

Registered: 07/22/11
Posts: 111
Last seen: 11 hours, 57 minutes

Re: New House, New Mushroom Farm [Re: evolve_h2o]
#16074506 - 04/11/12 08:21 AM (1 month, 18 days ago)

Quote:

evolve_h2o said:
This is BADASS. Thanks for the update and congrats on the new addition to the family! I've recently started an oyster grow and your videos have been INCREDIBLY helpful.

Random question, Have you considered attempting morels at all?

Glad you've gotten some use out of them. :-)

And yes, I've definitely thought about morels, but really only in a hypothetical sense so far. I've got a number of easily cultivatable cultures that I want to get into a production schedule. After that when I'm looking for something new to try out, that's when I plan on getting my morel culture out and playing around with it. I may try to set up an outdoor bed this fall.

Post Extras:

Jump to top.

Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 [ show all ]

Shop for:

Agar, Autoclave, Gypsum, Petri Dish, Portable Greenhouse, Wild Bird Seed

½ Pint Jars, HEPA Filter, Hygrometer, Scales, Ultrasonic Humidifier

Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics >> Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms

Similar Threads	Poster	Views	Replies	Last post
Starting indoor/outdoor Mushroom Farm. Need Advice. ( 1 2 all )	VancouverNoob	597	25	05/03/12 01:03 AM by VancouverNoob
finding mushroom farms in michigan	fetalscab	3,302	4	03/24/07 07:54 AM by fetalscab
Mushroom farm tour ( 1 2 3 all )	Grzyby	1,642	48	06/03/09 07:46 PM by Grzyby
mushroom farm ( 1 2 all )	socialnorm77	2,754	39	04/06/11 05:19 PM by RogerRabbit
Fungiculture/Mushroom Farm Apprenticeships/Internships ( 1 2 all )	FreedomOfTheMind	3,213	21	07/27/09 12:39 PM by RogerRabbit
who want to start a mushroom farm?? by seattle. for free!!	Mike711	547	7	09/08/10 09:13 AM by Not Quite Social
Exploring an abandoned mushroom farm ( 1 2 all )	Jeremy_Davis	2,748	21	08/26/10 08:49 AM by Santina
Small Scale Mushroom Farm as Extra Income or More... Possible?	FalseMaria	1,163	12	05/13/11 08:48 AM by SwampTromper

Extra information

You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: RogerRabbit, EvilMushroom666
3,052 topic views. 3 members, 8 guests and 0 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Toggle Favorite | Print Topic ]

del.icio.us digg Furl MyWeb reddit StumbleUpon