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FrozenHappiness
Professional Cereal Box


Registered: 03/01/01
Posts: 5,330
Loc: Nagoon Lagoon
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Fishing for advice on ecology project using Pleurotus Ostreatus
#18815735 - 09/08/13 03:56 PM (10 years, 4 months ago) |
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So, for my ecology class I have to design and conduct an experiment on/with an organism or ecological system. I have experience growing actives and growing oysters and I even have oyster spawn on hand, but the treatments in this experiment must be replicated six times in order to yield data that can be statistically evaluated.
The idea for my project is to test the three species of tree in this area that i commonly find oyster mushrooms on to see which out of the three (if any) are the favored substrate. My experimental treatments will be the three different species of wood that I use. I plan on using fine shavings from the following trees: Sugar Maple, Red Oak, and Paper Birch. Thats three treatments times six replicants equals 18 trials. The problem is I only have so much time, so much spawn, and I only have so much space in my apartment to conduct this experiment. So, i need to conduct all 18 trials at once on a really small scale.
I was thinking something similar to the PF tek would be good for this, because I already have half pint jars, and the jars take up very little space. However, I have never attempted to grow oysters on a PF type system, because that is the least efficient way to grow them as far as food production is concerned.
So my loose idea is to basically hydrate the shavings, put into jars and PC them. Once cool I'll put spawn in them, cover spawn with, moistened sterilized vermiculite to prevent the spawn from drying out. All open air work will happen in a SAB. And this IS an experiment so I'll be way more meticulous with my measurements and handling of the materials than this paragraph makes it sound.
The goal here is to measure colonization rates of the different substrates, and hopefully get one flush out of them to compare the weight of mushrooms produced between different substrates. I know if they do fruit I'll only be dealing with grams of mushrooms this way; that is fine.
I guess my questions are: Does this sound feasible? Am I missing anything glaringly obvious? The wood taken freshly off of healthy trees and was oven dried @ 175F, and I will be reducing it to shavings that will be very fine, almost but not quite sawdust, should I mix them with vermiculite to keep them from sticking together too tightly? Anything else anybody can think of?
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nanncee



Registered: 12/01/12
Posts: 434
Loc: Utah
Last seen: 9 years, 1 month
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Re: Fishing for advice on ecology project using Pleurotus Ostreatus [Re: FrozenHappiness]
#18818162 - 09/09/13 08:33 AM (10 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
FrozenHappiness said: So, for my ecology class I have to design and conduct an experiment on/with an organism or ecological system. I have experience growing actives and growing oysters and I even have oyster spawn on hand, but the treatments in this experiment must be replicated six times in order to yield data that can be statistically evaluated.
The idea for my project is to test the three species of tree in this area that i commonly find oyster mushrooms on to see which out of the three (if any) are the favored substrate. My experimental treatments will be the three different species of wood that I use. I plan on using fine shavings from the following trees: Sugar Maple, Red Oak, and Paper Birch. Thats three treatments times six replicants equals 18 trials. The problem is I only have so much time, so much spawn, and I only have so much space in my apartment to conduct this experiment. So, i need to conduct all 18 trials at once on a really small scale.
I was thinking something similar to the PF tek would be good for this, because I already have half pint jars, and the jars take up very little space. However, I have never attempted to grow oysters on a PF type system, because that is the least efficient way to grow them as far as food production is concerned.
So my loose idea is to basically hydrate the shavings, put into jars and PC them. Once cool I'll put spawn in them, cover spawn with, moistened sterilized vermiculite to prevent the spawn from drying out. All open air work will happen in a SAB. And this IS an experiment so I'll be way more meticulous with my measurements and handling of the materials than this paragraph makes it sound.
The goal here is to measure colonization rates of the different substrates, and hopefully get one flush out of them to compare the weight of mushrooms produced between different substrates. I know if they do fruit I'll only be dealing with grams of mushrooms this way; that is fine.
I guess my questions are: Does this sound feasible? Am I missing anything glaringly obvious? The wood taken freshly off of healthy trees and was oven dried @ 175F, and I will be reducing it to shavings that will be very fine, almost but not quite sawdust, should I mix them with vermiculite to keep them from sticking together too tightly? Anything else anybody can think of?
Not sure that I would put vermiculite anywhere in the substrate or on top of it. Just use the jar lid like you would colonize a jar of grain. Use tyvec and the lid upside down for some gas exchange. That way your vermiculite isn't effecting the colonizing of the pure wood.
Other than that i think it's a great idea. The half pint jars would be a very easy way to get tight control over variables.
-------------------- I am a small scale farmer, come check out what we do. www.facebook.com/biocentricbros Check out our Youtube videos. www.youtube.com/biocentricbros
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FrozenHappiness
Professional Cereal Box


Registered: 03/01/01
Posts: 5,330
Loc: Nagoon Lagoon
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Re: Fishing for advice on ecology project using Pleurotus Ostreatus [Re: nanncee]
#18818593 - 09/09/13 11:32 AM (10 years, 4 months ago) |
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Excellent, thanks for the input!
I wasn't quite sure how to handle wood particles that were so small. I've only ever spawned to grain then to straw. I was definitely leery of adding vermiculite to the mix; I hate to add any more variables to the system than I have to.
Quote:
Use tyvec and the lid upside down for some gas exchange.
That's a simple idea I should've thought of, but didn't. Thank you.
My PF lids are obviously full of holes with no filters, and the lids I use on my quart grain jars have large holes with filter patches on them. I figured if I used them on half pints my sub might dry out pretty quick, plus I didn't really want to have to make a dozen or so more lids.
Thanks again, nanncee!
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forrest



Registered: 11/16/12
Posts: 1,011
Loc: The Netherlands
Last seen: 4 years, 6 months
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Re: Fishing for advice on ecology project using Pleurotus Ostreatus [Re: FrozenHappiness]
#18818636 - 09/09/13 11:50 AM (10 years, 4 months ago) |
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what about putting a dry vermiculite layer on top as contamination-barrier? like usual in pf-tek
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nanncee



Registered: 12/01/12
Posts: 434
Loc: Utah
Last seen: 9 years, 1 month
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Re: Fishing for advice on ecology project using Pleurotus Ostreatus [Re: forrest]
#18822396 - 09/10/13 08:18 AM (10 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
forrest said: what about putting a dry vermiculite layer on top as contamination-barrier? like usual in pf-tek
while that would probably work, I still think it just adds another variable to the equation that isn't really needed. especially with an oyster strain.
-------------------- I am a small scale farmer, come check out what we do. www.facebook.com/biocentricbros Check out our Youtube videos. www.youtube.com/biocentricbros
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