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west coast hunt
west coast hunt



Registered: 04/06/13
Posts: 170
Last seen: 9 months, 19 days
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Starting a mushroom cultivating business!
#21729180 - 05/27/15 03:35 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Hello wonderful folks of the shroomery! About a week ago i was blessed with an opportunity when a friend of mine asked me to help him begin the start up phase of an edible and gourmet mushroom cultivating business.
We have space, some start up money, and at least a little gusto for this project. I've spend the past three years studying mycology and mushroom cultivation but of course there is so much i don't know. So i'd like to hear from all experienced cultivators who are willing with any tips, links on the shroomery, or advice you can offer to an aspiring bulk cultivator.
Some of my major questions include:
How long until we see profit?
How many hours will we be investing per week if we want to be successful?
What are the pros/cons of growing various edible species?
how many people should we get involved?
any advice at all is welcome and very much appriciated! Thanks again shroomery.
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FriedEgg



Registered: 09/22/14
Posts: 2,536
Loc: Taiwan
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! [Re: west coast hunt]
#21729191 - 05/27/15 03:40 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Try asking your question here: http://www.shroomery.org/forums/postlist.php/Board/13
Or call a few mushroom farms in some other state and ask for 5 minutes of their time. Make sure to tell them you are on the other side of the country and you won't be a direct competitor. I'm sure at least 20% of them will give you some advice if you're nice to them on the phone 
I doubt you're going to get any entrepreneurial advice here. Most people who read this forum are psychonauts, drug addicts, and 16 year old kids trying to grow shrooms out of their mom's closet.
-------------------- (Yes, the egg is real)
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Str8 Trippin
Novice


Registered: 11/16/14
Posts: 20
Last seen: 6 years, 10 months
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! [Re: west coast hunt]
#21729193 - 05/27/15 03:40 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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You really only need 1 person to do it, but your biggest enemy is going to be the law. You can grow all you want and sell and make profit, but be careful because if the government sees that you and a ton of customers are chatting about mushroom dealing, the cops will be hot on your ass real quick. My advice is to work out deals without phones or any media. It's the only way you can be safe. You don't want to reel in a fortune just to have it taken by the government.
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FriedEgg



Registered: 09/22/14
Posts: 2,536
Loc: Taiwan
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! [Re: Str8 Trippin]
#21729202 - 05/27/15 03:42 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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exactly my point...
Quote:
Str8 Trippin said: You really only need 1 person to do it, but your biggest enemy is going to be the law. You can grow all you want and sell and make profit, but be careful because if the government sees that you and a ton of customers are chatting about mushroom dealing, the cops will be hot on your ass real quick. My advice is to work out deals without phones or any media. It's the only way you can be safe. You don't want to reel in a fortune just to have it taken by the government.
he said gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. he wasn't talking about how to be a magic mushroom dealer
-------------------- (Yes, the egg is real)
How to post pics
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Achillita
Back to the basics



Registered: 05/26/14
Posts: 4,565
Last seen: 3 years, 10 days
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! [Re: FriedEgg]
#21729232 - 05/27/15 03:50 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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All I can say op, is that it's probably gonna be quite a while before any actual profit comes around. I'd probably start off with the faster growing oyster mushrooms. If you're doing straw logs, then you are gonna need a large fruiting room that can have constant air flow.
Not to mention get the largest PC you can afford(one of the AAs might work) And a flow hood. And learn how to pasteurize straw in one of those large oil drums.
1-2 people should be enough for a small-medium grow. I'd ask up on the gourmet forums for better or more in depth advice.
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bodhisatta 
Smurf real estate agent


Registered: 04/30/13
Posts: 61,889
Loc: Milky way
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! [Re: west coast hunt]
#21729266 - 05/27/15 04:04 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
west coast hunt said: Hello wonderful folks of the shroomery! About a week ago i was blessed with an opportunity when a friend of mine asked me to help him begin the start up phase of an edible and gourmet mushroom cultivating business.
We have space, some start up money, and at least a little gusto for this project. I've spend the past three years studying mycology and mushroom cultivation but of course there is so much i don't know. So i'd like to hear from all experienced cultivators who are willing with any tips, links on the shroomery, or advice you can offer to an aspiring bulk cultivator.
Some of my major questions include:
How long until we see profit? depends most real businesses take about 2-5 years, with 4-5 being more common.
How many hours will we be investing per week if we want to be successful? starting up with just two people, bare minimum 60+
What are the pros/cons of growing various edible species? uhh you're starting the business shouldn't you be telling us
how many people should we get involved? as many as you need based on your growth 
any advice at all is welcome and very much appriciated! Thanks again shroomery. try actually growing some mushrooms and then tell is if your still going to go with this silly plan
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kn33b
Stay golden, pony boy.



Registered: 03/16/15
Posts: 850
Last seen: 7 years, 10 months
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! [Re: west coast hunt] 1
#21729723 - 05/27/15 06:03 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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A mushroom cult business that doesn't sell magic mushrooms is like the Indian's firework stand in Joe Dirt that only sells snakes and sparklers.
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All written material by this individual is for entertainment purposes only. All events described or pictures displayed therein are ficticious and do not necessarily reflect the author's opinions or intentions.
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mushpunx
Fungus Punk



Registered: 04/20/14
Posts: 13,394
Last seen: 11 days, 10 hours
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! [Re: kn33b]
#21729819 - 05/27/15 06:32 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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How much mushroom growing do you actually do yourself right now as your hobby? What sort of mushrooms do you have experience growing and what sort of sucess rate do you have at home?
There are a few skills you NEED to be very proficent in and the #1 is going to be producing clean spawn. If you cant consistently produce clean spawn then you are going to fail miserably. If you are a hobby grower then you should absolutely know how difficult and frusterating this is.
If youre working with large volumes of spawn its really going to help to have a flow hood, they are expensive but if you build it yourself its not too bad. You are going to need to dedeicate a space as a spawn lab and you are going to need to keep it very clean.
I work in front of a flow hood, I wear fresh scrubs and tyvek, mask hairnet gloves... lysol my hood and run it for an hour before work, shower before work, wash everything down with ISO etc and I routinely lose tubs to green molds.
Right now I only grow actives and only maybe 20 monotubs a month.. its definitly enough to keep my hands pretty full every evening. I wouldnt even consider starting an actual edible business untill I can nail a pretty much 100% sucess rate at spawn production.
If I were you I would approach it as a hobby at first rather than a business.. maybe slowly start to see what you can sell and who you can sell it to, search out some really fantastic cultures to work with, etc.. Then slowly build up from there.
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 Amateur Mycologists United AMU Q&A
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west coast hunt
west coast hunt



Registered: 04/06/13
Posts: 170
Last seen: 9 months, 19 days
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! [Re: mushpunx]
#21730706 - 05/27/15 11:25 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Thanks that's a sound piece of advice. I have cultivated a few different types of edibles in the past and also some others with decent success. When i started it was difficult but I've gotten much better. My sterile technique is pretty good, although we will of course be building a laminar flow hood to improve our sterility.
I'm thinking we may just start small and establish a customer base with farmers markets and maybe a few small stores or restaurants and just let it slowly build rather than delving into full blown large scale cultivation right away.
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inski
Cortinariologist



Registered: 02/28/06
Posts: 5,720
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! [Re: west coast hunt]
#21730786 - 05/27/15 11:58 PM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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stevo

Registered: 04/11/05
Posts: 5,100
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! *DELETED* [Re: FriedEgg]
#21731091 - 05/28/15 02:25 AM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Post deleted by stevo
Reason for deletion: .
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FriedEgg



Registered: 09/22/14
Posts: 2,536
Loc: Taiwan
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! [Re: stevo]
#21731095 - 05/28/15 02:28 AM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Haha maybe you're right. I never thought that would apply to gourmet and medicinal mushrooms too
-------------------- (Yes, the egg is real)
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Buck513

Registered: 04/17/14
Posts: 5,682
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! [Re: Str8 Trippin]
#21731186 - 05/28/15 04:07 AM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
Str8 Trippin said: You really only need 1 person to do it, but your biggest enemy is going to be the law. You can grow all you want and sell and make profit, but be careful because if the government sees that you and a ton of customers are chatting about mushroom dealing, the cops will be hot on your ass real quick. My advice is to work out deals without phones or any media. It's the only way you can be safe. You don't want to reel in a fortune just to have it taken by the government.

-------------------- Fail to plan and you plan to fail. Enter the Ban Lottery
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Buck513

Registered: 04/17/14
Posts: 5,682
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! [Re: kn33b]
#21731191 - 05/28/15 04:13 AM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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Quote:
kn33b said: A mushroom cult business that doesn't sell magic mushrooms is like the Indian's firework stand in Joe Dirt that only sells snakes and sparklers. 
A mushroom cult business that doesn't sell magic mushrooms, is like a legal marijuana dispensary not selling heroin out the back door.
-------------------- Fail to plan and you plan to fail. Enter the Ban Lottery
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Prisoner#1
Even Dumber ThanAdvertized!


Registered: 01/22/03
Posts: 193,665
Loc: Pvt. Pubfag NutSuck
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Re: Starting a mushroom cultivating business! (moved) [Re: west coast hunt]
#21731602 - 05/28/15 08:14 AM (8 years, 8 months ago) |
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This thread was moved from Mushroom Cultivation.
Reason: wrong forum
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