Hahahaha fucking awesome dude, I've got a number of patches most of which have been outside for a month but Ive seen very little fruits. I was wondering if you could help me compare conditions to see what I'm doing wrong.
I'm in Ontario by the way, what general geographic location are your patches and/or what have your rain, temps and humidity been like? Have you been watering yourself or leaving it up to nature? The first thing that jumps out at me is your substrate mix it sounds very high quality and you can tell in those awesome shots of the surface with the pins forming.
First patch was spawned about 2 months ago only about 20 quart jars worth of spawn (1 and 1/2 cups rye grain) to about 240 pounds of storebought cow manure with a couple bags of vermiculite mixed in. Patch about 4x4 feet with substrate depth of probably atleast a foot. Originally had a tarp covering but was removed soon after and eventually cased with vermiculite, peat and grass seed. Before casing one harvest occured but was only about a half oz dry off 7 fruits, there were one or 2 others left that were old and decaying. This fruiting was concentrated in one area suggesting the patch was not fully colonized (about a 5 6 weeks after spawning). Patch is shaded from light and from rain somewhat by tree cover above. As a guerilla patch it does not get visited to be waterd or harvested very often. Pests include forest animals probably birds and squirrels digging to get to grain as well as slugs and snails. Slug pellets were employed at one point but are gone by now to be sure. Before casing chicken wire was actually stretched out over the patch and secured to stop digging critters.
Reasons why I think the patch hasnt produced ideally: local conditions and climate (Ontario), infrequency of visiting and watering, low spawn ratio, high substrate amount and depth, spawn was concentrated inches below patch surface, pests, and possible sun/rain blocking from trees.
Nothing can be done about the weather, substrate or spawn at this point but I think watering it as much as possible seems like the best course of action at this point and employing countermeasures for pests (beer traps, slug pellets, DE, etc..) I feel like if I did water it everyday and check up for pests n so forth Id have more fruits by now as its been out there 2 months now
Second patch is very small maybe a foot by 2 feet, substrate depth only a couple inches at most. Substrate is a different kind of storebought cow manure mixed about 50/50 with bagged "organic compost" and some vermiculite. Spawn was 4-8 quart jars worth cant remember. Cased with a bit of soil and grass seed, with lots of small plants growing in the patch. Plants provide some shade and humidity retention but allow sun and rain to hit the patch. This patch is closer and checked and watered much more frequently. I cant remember how old it is maybe a month for the last week or so it has been fruiting harvesting a couple everyday, now the first "flush" has ended if you want to call it that and theres just some tiny pins coming up. These fruits are very small relative to the first patch and fruits grown indoors on monotubs, I suspect due to the substrate depth of only a couple inches. Insects are present primarily "rolly pollies" or pill bugs but they dont seem to be doing much damage. The real scourge here is digging critters I suspect squirrels that are seemingly returning every day and night to dig for grain and rip up mushrooms and chew them. The first cluster I harvested was one of th biggest and I watched it grow until I came back to harvest and it was gone with a hole where it used to be. I was furious but found it a few feet away. This story has repeated itself a lot, they find the biggest shrooms rip em out, take a couple bites and leave em.
Reasons I think this patch has been fruitng while others havent: Higher spawn ratio, lower amount of substrate, better sun/rain exposure while still retaining shade and humidity, organic compost mixed in substrate, daily watering. I spent some time trying to even the surface and make the surface flat and ended up pulling up a huge chunk of substrate by accident that had a monstrous cluster of about 40 pins I was going fucking nuts. I tried to just put the chunk of mycellium back in the hole it came from and water in the hope that it would reattach. The majority of the pins aborted but the biggest ones actually survived and matured which was pretty cool. Basically im just going to keep watering this till it stops fruiting, then if thers time left in the season mix in a bit more substrate and water again
Third patch is another guerilla patch like the first one and doesnt get visited for watering or care very often. My memorys a joke I can barely remember any details, no fruits seen from this one yet, atleast a month old, probably 20-30 jars and 200lbs of shit (more spawn and less substrate than first patch). Substrate was probably just another kind of storebought cow manure, not sure if verm was mixed in but was eventually cased with verm, peat, grass seed and leaves. Healthy colonization everywhere but no fruits. No evidence of any animals digging for the rye, but slugs and snails everywhere.
Reasons why no fruits have been seen: rarely gets visited for watering, pest prevention or harvest, snails, tree cover preventing rain fall perhaps, combined with not being watered enough. Plan is to just water the shit whenever I can and take care of the slug problem.
For these guerilla patches I cant visit often I want to find the best casing material in terms of moisture retention.
The next 5 patches vary somewhat but generally speaking they all have between about 24-48 jars of spawn and 200lbs of a couple kinds of storebought bagged cow manure. Some are a couple weeks old some are older than a month. Some have had grass seed sown on top, some have been cased with peat. One did show a few pins a couple weeks ago but they were lost as I ended up mixing up the patch to redistribute the mycellium after findign parts where squirrels had dug up all the grain. These patches have insects but they dont seem to be a real problem as I dont find many slugs if any but digging animals are a real problem. 3 patches are older than a month but were all mixed up after squirrel damage and seeing how grass seed seemed to be choking the mycellium at the surface instead of helping.
Reasons why these patches havent been fruiting: primary cause in my mind is a lack of watering as I havent been watering these patches very often until recently, patches are above ground and obviously 1000lbs of substrate outside needs a lot of water, which I should have been providing instead of being lazy and trying to leave it to nature, squirrels raids have been a problem too. Basically though Im probably just gonna case the uncased ones and water the hell out of em everyday and wait for the best. I may also remove some tree cover thats keeping them shady and out of the rain.
So basically looking at all my patches aside from the things out of my control like my area the temperature, humidity, rain, wildlife etc, I should have used a better substrate although all patches have been colonizing just fine, I should have done a better job of pest prevention (best way is to just keep pests out entirely, eg bury a kiddy pool full of sub and spawn flush to the ground and cover the top with wire screen mesh so only light air and water can get in), and I should be watering a lot more, and try to find a casing that really holds the moisture. Also maybe remove tree cover blocking rain and sunlight, or make holes so that the sun hits the patches in the morning with the dew
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Stay free
Glenners said:
Epic win P2K1 !
AfroDude said:
your work is not a waste!
Mataspore said:
P2K1 is the winn-ar.
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thought nature was supposed to fight that?
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