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randy420rhoads


Registered: 02/24/07
Posts: 535
Last seen: 11 years, 5 months
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Apartment oyster grow.
#14489876 - 05/21/11 02:35 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Finally have a decent amount of colonized quart rye berry jars. I was amazed at how fast one colonized jar can be turned into many others.
I live in an apartment and space is limited. It stays between 72 and 78 degrees inside. What's the most practical way to fruit now? Straw logs laid on a perlite plate and misted daily? A stuffed trashbag hung from the ceiling and misted daily? Can I do either without building a FC? Will I need to adjust the temp, if so to what?
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Admiral Ackbar
Admiral of the Rebel Alliance



Registered: 02/15/11
Posts: 1,213
Loc: forest moon of Endor
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I have used bread bags. Clean them out with water, then alcohol. Let the alcohol evap and then you have a decent size bag for straw. They can be hung. Poke a few holes for air.
I would not change any conditions until it is time to fruit. If you have 70+% humidity, the bags should fruit on their own.
I have also used plastic grocery bags for pasteurizing and growing. I wet the straw with hot tap water for a few minutes/hour, drain, place in a plastic grocery bad sealed as airtight as possible, cook in oven at 170F until the center of the bag is at 140+F for 2 hours. Cool. Then use that with spawn and pack another grocery gag. A few holes are OK but try to keep them to a minimum. Within a month they fruit on their own without misting in 70+% humidity between 50 and 80F. They will grow out of any hole - I have had 2 pound oyster clusters from a hole smaller than the diameter of a pencil.
-------------------- I'll tell your ass when it is a mother fucking trap!
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randy420rhoads


Registered: 02/24/07
Posts: 535
Last seen: 11 years, 5 months
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OK thanks for the help. Any plain straw will work right? And the stove wont melt the plastic? Does the straw have to spawned in a glove box?
I don't have a thermometer to take an internal temp.
Edited by randy420rhoads (05/21/11 03:04 PM)
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Admiral Ackbar
Admiral of the Rebel Alliance



Registered: 02/15/11
Posts: 1,213
Loc: forest moon of Endor
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Grocery stores have candy thermometers in the cooking isle for a few bucks. I tried it without a thermometer for 6+ hours at 170, and had some bags that were not fully pasteurized. It is best to get a thermometer.
I put the plastic bags on a metal sheet/aluminum serving tray/cake pan/ aluminum turkey pan. If it is gas, keep them from the edges of the pan where hot air comes up, and away from the side of the oven. I can do 2 grocery bags at once. Larger or more dense bags take longer to get up to 140F.
Any Straw will work. Farm stores have it for about $5 per bail. Hay also works. I use grass hay. Even mowed yard grass works (dry it in the sun like hay first). I even use leaf mulch that is free from the city.
In an apartment, you can keep the straw in the trunk of your car. It makes for a nice conversation piece when the police search your car.
-------------------- I'll tell your ass when it is a mother fucking trap!
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Buckeye Oysters
From Zero to Hero



Registered: 08/09/08
Posts: 1,849
Last seen: 9 years, 2 months
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There are easier straw log teks out there like RR's that dont use ovenbags which aren't as reliable and will not hydrate your straw properly. Instead you need to make a pasteurization bath that the straw gets dunked in and heated to 160-180f for 90min. 140f is not high enough for complete pasteurization of straw.
-------------------- Evolution is Lamarckism in disguise. Adaptation never creates a new species or trait, but rather the new species/trait always existed within the parent DNA until circumstances allowed it to be activated. For instance, every wolf has the DNA for poodles, but that DNA would never be revealed without man selectively breeding for it.
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure



Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 11 months, 4 days
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Quote:
randy420rhoads said:
I live in an apartment and space is limited. It stays between 72 and 78 degrees inside.
That's a bit warm. Do you have a balcony or shady place outdoors to put it? If so a laundry basket might be a better choice. If you locate it in with a lot of vegetation, the temperature will be cooler and the air more humid.
Oysters grown at normal room temperature tend to be thin and light. Drop the temp to the 50s and they'll be much meatier and higher quality. 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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randy420rhoads


Registered: 02/24/07
Posts: 535
Last seen: 11 years, 5 months
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Unfortunately it's much hotter outside even in the shade. RR in your tek do you have to use specifically made straw log bags or can I use something else like a grocery bag/trash bag?
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Buckeye Oysters
From Zero to Hero



Registered: 08/09/08
Posts: 1,849
Last seen: 9 years, 2 months
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Oysters at room temp are still fine if you have no other option. As long as strong light they will not thin too much. They will produce lighter but more frequent flushes.
-------------------- Evolution is Lamarckism in disguise. Adaptation never creates a new species or trait, but rather the new species/trait always existed within the parent DNA until circumstances allowed it to be activated. For instance, every wolf has the DNA for poodles, but that DNA would never be revealed without man selectively breeding for it.
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NSF
Eager to learn


Registered: 01/27/11
Posts: 548
Last seen: 7 years, 8 months
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You could also consider growing phoenix oysters which enjoy higher temperatures.
You just need to contain your straw in something. But it needs to be something that will later have holes in it to let O2 get to the straw.
So yes a plastic bag would work, you can cut slits in it later. A laundry basket works too, you just take it out the garbage bag once it's colonised.
The change in O2 is one thing we as growers can alter to tell the block it's time to fruit.
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curry
Stranger


Registered: 01/09/11
Posts: 276
Last seen: 2 years, 11 days
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Re: Apartment oyster grow. [Re: NSF]
#14496708 - 05/22/11 10:46 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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I know you can put blue oysters into ANY bag... the attached photo is a bag I found blowing through my yard from a neighbors house. I didn't wash it or anything, I just added my normal recipe of sterile wood shavings/straw/gypsum/rice bran/water/2 quarts rye inoculate and tied up the bag. After it started colonizing, I cut slits thoughout the bag, and am working on my second flush. Oysters will eat any contams by the way, you don't have to worry about contams.
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Buckeye Oysters
From Zero to Hero



Registered: 08/09/08
Posts: 1,849
Last seen: 9 years, 2 months
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Re: Apartment oyster grow. [Re: curry]
#14498993 - 05/23/11 01:04 PM (12 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
curry said: I know you can put blue oysters into ANY bag... the attached photo is a bag I found blowing through my yard from a neighbors house. I didn't wash it or anything, I just added my normal recipe of sterile wood shavings/straw/gypsum/rice bran/water/2 quarts rye inoculate and tied up the bag. After it started colonizing, I cut slits thoughout the bag, and am working on my second flush. Oysters will eat any contams by the way, you don't have to worry about contams.

Oysters can still contam believe me. You have no contam because you are using sterile mix, which unless you have high spawn rate like you are using it will go bad after day 6-7 if not colonized.
-------------------- Evolution is Lamarckism in disguise. Adaptation never creates a new species or trait, but rather the new species/trait always existed within the parent DNA until circumstances allowed it to be activated. For instance, every wolf has the DNA for poodles, but that DNA would never be revealed without man selectively breeding for it.
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