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Paresthesia
Stranger
Registered: 07/02/08
Posts: 1,090
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 5 years, 2 months
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Shaping Sawdust Blocks??
#9813012 - 02/17/09 08:13 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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You know, it's occurred to me recently that I may be packing my blocks too much. How loose should the mixture be, depending on the species?
I've been making up a few bags of pioppino sawdust spawn for an outdoor bed, and I've noticed that colonization is much faster with bags I knead and shake. I need to reduce the plenum in the top of the bag to accomplish this. Does anyone here do that with fruiting substrates?
Finally... I found more oysters in my neighborhood after a recent rain, but the fruits were too far gone to to take a print of. I did dig some mycelium covered splinters from the stump. Will I have fewer contamination issues trying to clone tissue from this? All of my previous attempts failed.
-------------------- "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." - T. S. Eliot
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artizen
JEFFERSONIAN
Registered: 12/16/08
Posts: 1,996
Loc: HOME SWEET HOME
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Re: Shaping Sawdust Blocks?? [Re: Paresthesia]
#9815360 - 02/17/09 04:32 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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i'm just looking into making blocks for shiitake for the first time. good question i didn't think of that but i guess i'm about to learn a lot i hadn't thought of.
i just took some mycelium from a block i'm drying out from a kit i grew 1 flush on so far. i'm growing it out on agar. only 1 day so far but it seems like a perfectly viable source. i hike and camp a bit and i am looking to take cultures from wild finds and figured on taking a bit of myc rather than disturb fruits especially for rare finds. i would think it would be better anyway since it's already growing myc instead of spores or fruit, ya know?
-------------------- HCA AMU IN LOVING MEMORY 1.6.1917 - 4.3.2010
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure
Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 1 year, 1 month
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Re: Shaping Sawdust Blocks?? [Re: artizen]
#9816248 - 02/17/09 07:18 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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I don't pack substrate blocks at all. They get nothing besides gravity.
To clone an oyster, I'd wait until spring and get tissue from a rapidly growing cluster. You want to clone as the mycelium is very rapidly dividing cells, not after the fruit is spent and rotting. By cloning from a cluster rather than an individual fruit, you'll get future flushes that tend to form large clusters. You should be able to return to that same tree. I pick oysters off the same trees, year after year, just like hericium. RR
-------------------- Download Let's Grow Mushrooms semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat "I've never had a failed experiment. I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work." Thomas Edison
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BIG_HEPA
Lost in a petri dish
Registered: 02/18/09
Posts: 19
Loc: uganda
Last seen: 15 years, 1 month
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Re: Shaping Sawdust Blocks?? [Re: Paresthesia]
#9818525 - 02/18/09 05:47 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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i always fluffy my blocks after they come out of the pc. the pc seems to really compact them.
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Paresthesia
Stranger
Registered: 07/02/08
Posts: 1,090
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 5 years, 2 months
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Re: Shaping Sawdust Blocks?? [Re: BIG_HEPA]
#9818624 - 02/18/09 07:15 AM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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I think many of my problems with blocks are related to packing the sawdust down. It should have occurred to me when I got questions about orange spots on my blocks. (From sawdust pressed against the bag.) Hey, maybe now the bottoms of my blocks will colonize before I start getting pins!
Regarding the oysters:
The oysters I found here were growing on a partially ground tree stump next to someone's driveway, with only enough of a vertical surface for two or three fruits to form. I don't think I'll get much of a cluster from it. I haven't been able to find oysters anywhere else and it's driving me nuts. The weather should be perfect for them now.
When I was out in California a few weeks back I saw a huge oyster tree, easily 30' tall (I think) and completely covered in oysters. I've never seen anything like that in Texas! I got a print from one of those oysters that I'm isolating strains from now. What are the odds that this one is genetically compatible with the oysters I've found here? I'd kind of like to try some of the strain hybridization experiments Denger's been getting into.
-------------------- "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." - T. S. Eliot
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MycoAu
5thKingdomCome
Registered: 07/18/07
Posts: 1,047
Last seen: 3 years, 3 months
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Re: Shaping Sawdust Blocks?? [Re: Paresthesia]
#9819675 - 02/18/09 12:16 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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I'm not usually one to discourage experimentation, but if you're having issues with cloning an oyster, I'd hold off on attempting hybridization techniques. Make sure you've got your agar skills perfected and that you're not having issues with a comprimised sterile area before working with trials of that sort.
If all you need is a culture of an oyster, PM me.
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houdinihar
Adventurous Learner
Registered: 09/12/08
Posts: 1,111
Last seen: 3 years, 11 months
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Re: Shaping Sawdust Blocks?? [Re: MycoAu]
#9820249 - 02/18/09 02:19 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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Paresthesia, what kind of oysters are you looking for? maybe i can help. please pm me if interested.
houdinihar
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Mephistophelian
Quasi Hob-Nobbery
Registered: 08/14/08
Posts: 2,527
Loc: Camp Crystal Lake
Last seen: 1 year, 27 days
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Re: Shaping Sawdust Blocks?? [Re: houdinihar]
#9820282 - 02/18/09 02:26 PM (15 years, 1 month ago) |
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I've got some Phoenix ready, sitting here as well
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Paresthesia
Stranger
Registered: 07/02/08
Posts: 1,090
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 5 years, 2 months
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No no no! I have tons of oyster cultures! I've been growing blue, phoenix and elm oysters for a while now using commercial cultures.
Most of the growing I do is outdoors, so I want to move towards growing species and strains that are indigenous to my area. I'm hoping this can be a good sales angle once I start producing enough to sell. Right now I'm just at the, 'oyster mushrooms again?' stage of growing.
-------------------- "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." - T. S. Eliot
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