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Offlinerectifer
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Registered: 01/19/15
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Shiitake for first grow?
    #21147292 - 01/19/15 10:59 PM (9 years, 3 months ago)

Hi,
Looking to get into growing some mushrooms as where we live we cannot get anything but button mushrooms these days.

Are shiitakes a reasonable goal for a new mycologist? Not talking about some soak/shock ready to go log but the full process of inoculating a substrate and growing it out.

I'm a farmer and ex-chemist with some basic training in microbiology. I have a pressure canner and know how to use it. I brew a pretty solid beer, from water we haul from the deep well down the road. Our water from the tap is quite poor, being contaminated with algae and having high nitrate levels, though we do have a distiller that I use when I need pure water. Water is our greatest weakness out here.

Around the farm we have lots of these materials, any use? Or should I make up my first substrates by buying pure materials and following one of the Teks on this site?

- sheep manure, fresh/mixed with straw
- cattle manure, well rotted and mouldy in a big ol' pile, mixed with straw
- oat and wheat straw, varying degrees of quality
- alfalfa/grass hay
- "screenings" a mix of grains, weed seeds and pulses
- deadfall wood from the forest, sticks only, no chipper available

If some particular grain is the best, I can buy many a grain by the bushel. This grain won't be hulled, though I don't know if that matters.

Where should I buy shiitake spawn in Canada, and will it freeze to death in the truck coming out here? Anything on the truck in the winter will freeze, so it's more of a question of surviving freezing than anything else.

Might get into cubes some day but it's really the edibles that excite me. Most of my neighbours have never seen or tasted anything but a button mushroom and it would be tons of fun to introduce them to the flavours of the mushroom world...

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Invisibleblindingleaf
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Re: Shiitake for first grow? [Re: rectifer]
    #21147950 - 01/20/15 04:33 AM (9 years, 3 months ago)

ths is a link to Lipa's shiitaki on straw.  u could try that.  most people will use sawdust though traditionally, but this is a great demonstration of shiitaki on straw, especially the yield.

i would say the cheapest grain is the best grain.  u do NOT want it hulled if possible, so ur good to go there.  as far as spawn freezing...no idea.  i'd avoid it if possible, but i dunno, maybe others can chime in.  logs freeze outdoors in winter, so i suppose its ok, especially if its brief?

it would be more rewarding, and same price, to get a culture of shiitaki, in liquid culture form (easy to use for starters) than to buy sawdust.  since u have an autoclave, u can create ur own spawn.

This is a link to Marc Kieth's mushroom growing videos.  these are short sample clips, but enough to get u started on anything u'd want to do.  check out grain prep section.


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A few thoughts on cultivation
MICROBIAL HUSBANDRY!!!!

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

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Offlinerectifer
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Re: Shiitake for first grow? [Re: blindingleaf]
    #21165449 - 01/22/15 10:58 PM (9 years, 3 months ago)

Loving that thread of shiitake on straw. 6 weeks seems short, I always heard shiitake were slow. And the yields are great for somethin!g we have lying around by the ton! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Sawdust is rare here as trees are too precious to cut down... no sawmill for hundreds of miles.

As far as the grain being cheap, how about free? That screenings mix is... but contains a wide variety of seeds including beans and weeds. Do mushrooms like a monoculture or could I use that stuff?
I usually feed it to my sheep but would happily divert a few bushels if that's easier than straw.

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Invisibleblindingleaf
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Re: Shiitake for first grow? [Re: rectifer]
    #21166162 - 01/23/15 06:20 AM (9 years, 3 months ago)

im not sure.  a lot of people use wild bird seed, which is a mix of grains.  as far as beans and weeds, if they can be screened out, it would be better.  the beans i'd think would burst and get mushy during the PC cycle.
maybe take a picture of the mix and post it if possible.
ur grains are going to be ur "spawn", and the straw is going to be ur "substrate"
u will need both to grow shiitaki
i saw shiitaki fruit on grains once, but the bag was literally 3 years old, and kept in a walk in fridge.  and there was only one mutant fruit.

can u get "hardwood fuel pellets" for use in a pellet stove?  those break down very easily into sawdust by just adding water.

in that straw TEK link, Lipa suggests using Rye grass seed. is that available in ur location?


--------------------
A few thoughts on cultivation
MICROBIAL HUSBANDRY!!!!

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

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Offlinerectifer
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Registered: 01/19/15
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Re: Shiitake for first grow? [Re: blindingleaf]
    #21168660 - 01/23/15 07:50 PM (9 years, 3 months ago)

Here's a pic of the screenings currently at hand. Quickly spotted are lentils, wheat, barley, oats, wild oats and flax. There should be rye too but it's harder to spot.
Wild oats are pretty small like rye and should act pretty similar.



I didn't know there was that intermediate stage where you inoculate the grain to create the spawn. I was looking at a lot of the PF tek grows where it looks like you only inoculate one substrate - I guess I will have to do some more research specific to shiitake.

Fuel pellets out here are softwood, mostly pine. I assume softwood is no good?
I sometimes see the pressed no-binder firelogs that are sort of a giant pellet. I'll check what they are made of.

Long term I would like to use the straw as we like to use on-farm products as much as possible (we are pretty remote and self-sufficient) But if sawdust is easier to learn on, I'll try to find some.

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