|
Some of these posts are very old and might contain outdated information. You may wish to search for newer posts instead.
|
Neo Mithrandil
Registered: 10/26/08
Posts: 70
Loc:
Last seen: 6 years, 11 months
|
First grow, blue oysters high on CO2
#9970799 - 03/14/09 02:40 PM (15 years, 18 days ago) |
|
|
After reading a lot on the Shroomery and in Stamets' books, I managed to grow my first mushrooms. So I figured now would be a good time to thank all contributors to this board for the great knowledge base you've built and start asking a few questions.
Here's a small photo report that shows where I'm at.
Bought a small cluster of blue oysters from Stockholm. They were already pretty dry at the shop, and in even worse shape after their ferry trip to Finland.
Cloned to PDYA agar, shown here after about 10 days. I built a small glovebox to do my lab work.
Inoculated rye grain with a piece of mycelium on agar and did a grain to grain transfer. Colonization time of one week for each generation.
Spawned a newspaper block with the grain and punched some holes in the bag.
Didn't manage to get the block to fruit from the openings in the bag. It colonized in two weeks, and then stayed idle in my shotgun FC for about a month. I tried to improve things by removing the bag completely and dunking for 12 hours.
5 days after dunking, I had my first primordia.
And here's where I picked the mushrooms, 4 days after seeing the primordia.
Nice for a first experiment, but those guys are all stems and many of the primordia aborted.
I think I sorted out my problem getting the colonized blocks to pin. I made new bags (with straw), and after two weeks of colonization I put one in the fridge and one stayed at room temperature. After a week, nothing to report on the bag at room temperature, but the cold shocked one was pinning.
Here's this new friend of mine today, forming two nice clusters.
Now, what sort of tips would you give me to grow a bit more caps and less stems?
I understood the problem is with CO2 buildup in the FC and too warm room temperature (about 73°F, I can't control it). I think there's enough light, a 20W fluorescent bulb 30cm away and a big window in the room. I have a small 150 L/h aquarium pump running from time to time, but that's not enough for the air exchange (I run it only when I'm away... too noisy).
I'd be very happy to put the blocks outside, but it's still wintry weather here with temps in the 20-35°F range. I'll have to rely on indoor growing for at least one more month.
I tried to put a pinning straw block out of the FC for a night, in an open box with wet perlite in the bottom. The idea was to find out what would happen if I just removed the lid of my FC. The primordia all dried out after just a night, and didn't recover... Humidity in the room stands between 30-40% RH.
Do you think I should redo the same experiment when mushrooms are a bit past the primordia stage? Or would you have better ideas?
|
CptnGarden
fuck this site
Registered: 05/13/04
Posts: 11,945
Last seen: 14 years, 10 months
|
Re: First grow, blue oysters high on CO2 [Re: Neo Mithrandil]
#9971213 - 03/14/09 03:55 PM (15 years, 18 days ago) |
|
|
yeah those are pretty leggy, luckily the stems of oysters arent that bad and actually still carry a good texture.
how did they taste?
|
Jef
Out-of-work Sex Slave
Registered: 12/02/08
Posts: 764
Loc: near Duncan, BC
|
Re: First grow, blue oysters high on CO2 [Re: CptnGarden]
#9972021 - 03/14/09 06:07 PM (15 years, 18 days ago) |
|
|
I would try to do away entirely with the FC and get my RH up in the room.
Roger Rabbit the resident wiz here says you usually don't need to provide special conditions to fruit these. Just mist them.
On a side note, if it is as dry at your place as it sounds like it must be, that's not good for you either. Keeping Rh up prevents colds and flus. Normal RH is 30%. With houseplants and cooking, mine's usually about 50%.
I'm trying my first grow. The spawn is on the phonebook, so it shouldn't be long now. I'll post results if there are some.
-------------------- I am my own lab rat. Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will learn.
|
CptnGarden
fuck this site
Registered: 05/13/04
Posts: 11,945
Last seen: 14 years, 10 months
|
Re: First grow, blue oysters high on CO2 [Re: Jef]
#9972314 - 03/14/09 06:48 PM (15 years, 17 days ago) |
|
|
just mist? well yeah you could probably grow just about any mushroom that way, but its not gonna be purdy unless you provide some Fresh Air Exchange
|
RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure
Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 1 year, 1 month
|
Re: First grow, blue oysters high on CO2 [Re: CptnGarden]
#9973057 - 03/14/09 09:01 PM (15 years, 17 days ago) |
|
|
Your biggest problem is temperature. For oysters to form meaty fruits with large caps, you need to be about 10 degrees cooler. Perhaps you can rig up your terrarium in a window, that you leave open to the cold on one side? That's how I grow in my house in winter. My mini-greenhouse has a window cut to match the window on the wall it sets against, and by opening the window, I get nice cool air and plenty of fresh air as well. The other advantage to an open window is the bright light, especially if it's a south window and you live north of the equator, or a north window if you live down under. 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
|
Jef
Out-of-work Sex Slave
Registered: 12/02/08
Posts: 764
Loc: near Duncan, BC
|
Re: First grow, blue oysters high on CO2 [Re: RogerRabbit]
#9973793 - 03/14/09 11:17 PM (15 years, 17 days ago) |
|
|
How about a pet door ?
-------------------- I am my own lab rat. Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will learn.
|
Neo Mithrandil
Registered: 10/26/08
Posts: 70
Loc:
Last seen: 6 years, 11 months
|
Re: First grow, blue oysters high on CO2 [Re: Jef]
#9975083 - 03/15/09 05:52 AM (15 years, 17 days ago) |
|
|
@CptnGarden: Yeah, the stuff was pretty good. I ate them fried with butter. But though the stems are ok, caps are far better.
@RogerRabbit: I see, it looks like this window trick will be my best bet. I have a huge south window that I can open a little. How does it go when you have sun shining for a whole day? Do you do anything special to avoid drying/cooking the mushrooms?
|
Neo Mithrandil
Registered: 10/26/08
Posts: 70
Loc:
Last seen: 6 years, 11 months
|
Re: First grow, blue oysters high on CO2 [Re: Neo Mithrandil]
#9981406 - 03/16/09 11:54 AM (15 years, 16 days ago) |
|
|
After 30 hours in front of the window, I can already see a nice difference. The mushrooms almost stopped growing in height and started developing their caps. Their color also deepened.
I'm keeping only a really tiny opening in the window and same thing for the FC in front of it. It's somewhat visible in the upper left-hand corner of the photo. The conditions I'm now measuring inside the FC are 58°F, 75% RH. Outdoors it's 35°F, cloudy weather.
Looks like it's going to work out. Thanks for the advice RR!
|
Neo Mithrandil
Registered: 10/26/08
Posts: 70
Loc:
Last seen: 6 years, 11 months
|
Re: First grow, blue oysters high on CO2. Problem solved, final pics [Re: Neo Mithrandil]
#10012604 - 03/21/09 08:46 AM (15 years, 11 days ago) |
|
|
Yesterday was harvest time. This batch was much better than the previous one.
And I still have a bigger block fruiting, and my first one pinning for its second flush. Cool .
|
|