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Mushrooms, Mycology and Psychedelics > Mushroom Cultivation
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Looking to construct a grow operation in my basement
    #21475240 -

I've been contemplating this for months now, but I only just finally got my dad on board. It's also been too cold anyways; providing a clean air exchange would have been impossible.

There's a couple reasons I want to do this. For the grace of agriculture; I really want to get involved with my town's market and help to rejuvenate local food production. I also need money. Now, I expect there to be numerous challenges along the way, but I'd like to have a steady production leading into the summer. I would be quite content with earning 150 dollars a week from this.

I have a 10x12 space to work with in my basement. It maintains a year round temp. of about 57-58 degrees. Where I live, in Maine, the average outdoor temp is 50ish right now, and that will steadily climb into summer where it will range anywhere from 60-80.

My plan was to buy a food grade metal drum and use a propane heater to pasteurize straw within it. I have good access to bale straw, which can be finely chopped with a weed whacker. Then I'd put the straw (along with gypsum and spawn) into 5-6 foot long tubular bags, which would hang from the ceiling of my basement. I'm thinking oyster mushrooms btw. I would line the 10x12 area with black plastic sheeting, also creating a sort of air lock entry to prevent the exchange of air with the rest of my basement. Within the 10x12 area is a basement window which I will have to use as a ventilation medium in order to relieve the grow area of high co2 and spore concentrations. I'm not really sure how this will work--perhaps a vent fan on a timer? How often should the volume of air be changed out? And how about humidity? Can 85-90% be achieved by leaving trays of water on the floor? I clearly need to do some more reading. Any suggestions for lighting? I'm still trying to figure out how critical the interaction of those three variables is (temp, humidity, light). And how hard is it to really control these things? I will only be at home morning and evenings. Some grow operations have it down to a science. I've also seen people grow out of laundry baskets with less than ideal circumstances. I think I will be somewhere in the middle.

And then onto the business side of it all. I will need some electricity, straw, and spawn. I can purchase straw for 4 dollars a bale, cheap enough. But I haven't seen any rough figures on how much spawn is needed to grow x amount of mushrooms. Is spawn going to be a huge cost for me? Or is it minimal in the face of what is produced?

And then of course selling the mushrooms. There are many restaurants I may approach. Will I be fruiting every week, every two weeks, or less often than that? How many pounds can I realistically sell at a farmers market every week in a small town? There are no other local mushroom growers.

Sorry for all the questions but they've been itching at me for a while. If they are answered elsewhere, feel free to direct me. Thanks so much guys.

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Re: Looking to construct a grow operation in my basement [Re: beastcoast]
    #21475339 -

The basic plan sounds good. I would look into a different method of humidification. Standing water is a no no. Some people use ultrasonic fogger or overhead misting systems. For lighting you want something in the high end of the colour spectrum. 6500k daylight CFLs or florescent shop lights work well. You can also use white LED rope lights to fill in the gaps in your lighting. Most gourmet species at least the ones I work with fruit well in the low to mid 60s.

This thread is really better suited for the gourmet and medicinal board. We deal with psychedelics hear. You should ask a mod to move the thread for you.


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AMU
Bottle Tek
Liquid Inoculant Tek                                   
                     

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Re: Looking to construct a grow operation in my basement [Re: MudaFuka]
    #21476479 -

Thanks dude! And appreciate your suggestion on the thread move

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Re: Looking to construct a grow operation in my basement [Re: beastcoast]
    #21476586 -

You'd need to grow a lot of oysters to make $150 a week. They go for around $5 a lb fresh here... You'd also need a nice customer base. If you live by any large cities, check out some farmers markets. It's a good way to find restaurants looking for fresh mushies.

Your idea for the growing area sounds good. I'd use panda film. You could build a wooden frame around the area that doesn't have walls and make a whole separated room. I'd suggest humidifying with cool mist humidifiers because they will also supply fresh air. But you will need to elevate your floor or find an alternative system to drain water because standing water is no bueno! Panda film is good for keeping moisture in and molds out your basement as well as being able to reflect more light than foil :thumbup:


As was said, no standing water. You will contaminate everything. Look into martha fruiting areas. I've done what you are thinking of and treating your growing area like it's one giant martha is the best plan. Use 2-3 cool mist humidifiers (however many it will take to keep proper humidity). But you need a way to drain any standing water. Either elevate your grow room or figure something else out. (pm me if you want some help with this)

Also if you have never grown mushrooms before, don't get your hopes too high on producing a big volume. You need to learn the ropes before you will have success and that can take a bit of time depending on how determined you are.

Good luck :thumbup::mushroom2:


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Re: Looking to construct a grow operation in my basement [Re: ganjfather]
    #21476682 -

If you put salt in the trays of water that should prevent unwanted molds from growing.  I don't know how effective they would be, I'd kind of like to know myself.

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Re: Looking to construct a grow operation in my basement [Re: ganjfather]
    #21476697 -

If you want to grow shitloads of oysters in your basement, like enough to make money, you'll need lots of spawn, like bags full. For that you'll need a flowhood. The drum and propane burner is great for pasteurizing straw, spawn the oysters to the straw inside columns of plastic ducting, and hang them from the ceiling joists. 

BTW blue oysters love the cold. You could do those in a basement year round.

Edit: the method I described is detailed in Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets. It's a great read for any aspiring large scale mushroom farmer.


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:gd_icon:  Let it grow! Let it grow! Greatly yield!  :gd_icon:
What shall we say, shall we call it by a name
As well to count the angels dancing on a pin
Water bright as the sky from which it came
And the name is on the earth that takes it in

DOG FOOD AGAR

MY ELECTRIC INOCULATION LOOP

Edited by NumeroEno (03/29/15 10:07 PM)

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Re: Looking to construct a grow operation in my basement [Re: ganjfather]
    #21476751 -

I encourage everyone who wants to get into this business, but to really succeed you need to treat it like a Full time Job. Even just to achieve your goal of $150.00 a week. Start up costs can be minimized if you play it right but the best piece of advice anyone can give you is to do your research.
First thing you will need to do is to research Gourmet Mushrooms and how to grow them. Gain experience by starting to build your stock and grow out your strains to learn the colonization and fruiting requirements for the species and your grow area. Select a colonization system such as a TIT then select and build your fruiting system. Build up on the substantial amount of supplies required - Start saving cardboard, paper and coffee grounds. Practice strain isolation and performing the sterile procedures. Work out the cost and profit margins and organize a colonization/fruiting schedule that will allow you to have a flush of mushrooms every week. Obtain labeling and packaging. Contact all of the restaurants and farmers markets within a two hour drive of you and provide them with free mushroom gift baskets with your business and products list. Beat all of the prices around and provide good quality service.
If you work hard and use all of the tools at your service you might be able to accomplish your goal.


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Re: Looking to construct a grow operation in my basement [Re: GemsOfTheForest]
    #21476785 -

If you can get your hands on an ultrasonic humidifier that would be your best bet. They sell these pond fogger units at mainlandmart.com that work really well and you have to change the water out often, everyday in the summer or keep an aquarium aerator in the bucket of water. That and an inline vortex fan would make a powerful humidification system for under $350.

If youre really strapped for cash, get a pump up sprayer and a towel for standing water and just water them every day a few times if you have the time. That option is a pain in the ass though imo


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Lookin for these cultures:

Pleurotus eryngii
Hericium erinaceous
Lentinula edodes
Lentinus sqarrosulus

Got some Oysters for Trade.
Blue
Brat
Elm

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