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svampnathan
Stranger

Registered: 01/31/15
Posts: 54
Loc: Sweden
Last seen: 7 years, 9 months
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Oyster on woodchip setup, input appreciated
#22208026 - 09/08/15 03:46 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Hi. I plan to start my first attempt growing oysters in a few weeks, and would really be helped if someone with experience took a few moments and looked at my planned setup.
I have around 7 acres of mixed wood on my property, both cedar and hard woods. I understand that straw is the recommended substrate for commercial production, but since I have small trees in abundance I plan to start with wood chips and perhaps even small logs. When it comes to suitable trees I think Aspen is what I will be my wood of choice (faster colonization but also shorter life-span than oak?). I have lost of aspen, and it grows fast. I also have oaks, but not as many, would like to save them.
I will start with the m2191 strain.
I have a couple of barns that I can use, with former horse boxes sizing around 3*3 meters, 2,2 m high (10 by 10 foot, 7 foot high). I will insulate the boxes a bit, save an opening to the rest of the barn of around 2*3 foot serving as an air intake, only covering it with a thin fabric to stop flies and hopefully unwanted spores to enter. The rest of the surfaces will be covered with plastic sheeting (except the concrete floor, it will not be covered). I plan to install a stable fan of 0,4 kW that will run on a timer to vent the room, the ventilation pipe will have the intake close to the floor where I believe the CO2-level will be highest. The moisture in the air is quite high to start with in the barn, but in the winter (when I may need to heat the room) I will have to figure out a simple way to increase the humidity. I will be using fluorescent lighting (one or two 74W armatures, 6500 K). This will be my growing room, also used for pinning. I can easily build three similar boxes, making it possible to have grows of different ages, but I plan to start with just one.
I plan to use barley as spawn, producing it myself since spawn is quite expensive in Sweden (not a lot of producers here). A local farmer produces organic barley so its easy to come by for me. I plan to soak the barley for 24 h, rinse thoroughly, then cook it, then (after shaking to get rid of excess water) PC it in plastic boxes with lids inspired by some nice tek I found here, with tyvek and silicone self-sealing injection holes. Those glass jars that seems easy to find in the US I have not seen here in Sweden. The plastic boxes I will try with (lunch boxes with sturdy rubber sealing) fits nicely in my PC.
Q: should the Barley be supplemented with something? Lime? I have access to used Coffey grind at work, not a lot but a few kg´s a month.
I plan to use liquid culture for inoculation since I´m familiar with that. Perhaps I will learn agar tek´s later on. I plan to use a small refrigerator with a 50W aquarium water heater in the vegetable tray in the bottom of the refrigerator, keeping the temp at around 82 degrees F and the moisture content high for colonization of the spawn.
Q: should I also equip the refrigerator with some kind of automated ventilation system or will it be enough to open the door every couple of days to change the air? CO2 could almost be beneficial in this stage, right?
After full colonization of the spawn I will use it to spawn the wood chips. I will produce the wood chips by using a roll based (not sure if it´s called that) type of wood chipper/garden shredder, not a knife-based one. This makes the chips more meshy and easier to colonize I believe. Q: should I use completely fresh branches or should I let them die for a week or two before using?
I will probably also have a little bit of sawdust to mix in, but not as much as usually suggested. Hopefully it will work anyway.
Q: how big is the impact of the season, it´s better to use wood cut in the wintertime when it have high moisture content and no leaves I have understood. But when producing in summertime, is it better/worth the effort to use wood that has been cut down during the winter and soak it before spawning?
I plan to spawn the substrate without sterilization or pasteurization, a bit brave perhaps but hopefully the oyster spawn will be the quickest organism colonizing it, since I add no bran or other “easy to mould” supplement? I don’t have access to any suitable past. equipment and would like to keep energy usage at a minimum. The substrate will be put in plastic buckets (around 2 gallons each) with lids. I will drill holes in the buckets (0,4 inch diameter, 5 inches apart might be suitable?). Some kind of drainage hole in the bottom also, to escape excess water in the buckets. The buckets will be placed in an isolated chamber, allowing the temperature to rise a bit. Perhaps I will also install some kind of heating equipment.
Q: what temperature should I aim at here? 82 degrees F for colonization suitable when colonizing substrate also? CO2 not an issue here, right? High moisture content of the essence, right? Light not needed but not harmful?
After a few weeks I believe the substrate will be fully colonized, and I will move them to the pinning/fruiting room. Place them in plastic shelves. Give them light and oxygen. The buckets are not see-through, so I will probably have to open the lids and check how the colonization is proceeding. I might loose a few batches this way, but when I learn how they act I don’t have to check it any more. Any guesses regarding colonization time here would be helpful though.
This might already be the longest post on this entire forum, so it might be wise to stop here. Hopefully someone managed to read the whole post. Any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated at this point.
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Re: Oyster on woodchip setup, input appreciated [Re: svampnathan]
#22209892 - 09/08/15 10:34 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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You should consider installing an actual filter that can be changed over time and will flow much better than a sheet on your intake. I'm an advocate of constant FAE for oysters unless your fan is massive. Oysters love FAE when fruiting. You may also want to consider some sort of humidification via ultrasonic foggers or misters.
Supplement your barely with 5% gypsum for minerals and to reduce caking. Same with your wood chips.
What are you using a refrigerator for besides storing harvested fruit and cultures? Incubate your jars at room temperature inside your home.
The best time to harvest wood is in the winter, and wait a few weeks before inoculating to let the log die. But just go ahead and hack some now so you can get the ball rolling, you will still see a harvest. If your outdoor conditions are right you should inoculate some logs and make an outdoor patch as well. Logs can be fruited indoors but the colonization is slow and yield is small and over a longer period of time. Chipping will expose more wood pulp for the myc to quickly digest and fruit.
I colonize my jars and 5 pails gal pails of chips at room temp 72-74F. Realize that pails or logs will be 8-10F higher core temp from the mushroom growths exothermic output. You do not want to colonize with the core temp over 90F or you will get green nasty in the cores of your buckets, i speak from experience on that one, lost 6 pails not to long ago. Stacking your pails with wood planks between for cooling is a good idea, otherwise the core temp will stack and your bottom pails core temp will be 100F+. You shouldn't need plastic shelves in your fruiting chamber, just stack them as mentioned.
You will have to mist for sure. So have a hose with a good nozzle or a pump sprayer.
Stick with 3-4 quart jars of spawn per pail to start out then dial down to what works for you. This reduces colonization time and increased initial yield per pail.
I'm about to build a similar sized grow chamber in my garage 7 wide ' x 10 ft long with about 50 pails at max capacity. I'm looking forwards to see how your grow progresses and keep us filled in!
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svampnathan
Stranger

Registered: 01/31/15
Posts: 54
Loc: Sweden
Last seen: 7 years, 9 months
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Re: Oyster on woodchip setup, input appreciated [Re: Gr0wer]
#22210678 - 09/09/15 03:52 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Perfect! useful information, thank you!
Quote:
You should consider installing an actual filter that can be changed over time and will flow much better than a sheet on your intake. I'm an advocate of constant FAE for oysters unless your fan is massive. Oysters love FAE when fruiting. You may also want to consider some sort of humidification via ultrasonic foggers or misters.
I will look in to suitable filters then, but I want to get started cheap and easy and improve over time. The sheeting i am considering are of the type you use for protecting vegetables outdoors, quite easy to vent through and cheap (replaceable when dirty). But I will consider better filtration. I will look for fans with significantly lower power to exhaust the air. They dont need to be expensive (just found one for around 20 USD, 15W stated flow 107m3/h. My suggested room is around 3*3*2,5= 22,5 m3 => should result in over 4 ACH. Flow probably reduced by pipes and filtration but hopefully enough if operated constantly). The one I suggested are overkill, just planned to use it since I have a few laying around.
I am contemplating passive humidification in combination with temperature control; in summertime I could perhaps use some dense fabric hanging from ceiling in front of air intake, with the lower part of the fabric in a bucket of water. This should keep the fabric wet, forcing the fresh air to condensate water, lowering the air temp as the humidity increases. The fabrics will probably need to be replaced and washed from time to time in order to avoid contaminators. In the winter, when I will have to raise the temp, a similar systems could be used but with heating of the water bucket. This would endorse evaporation while heating the growing room. I will run a few trials before investing in ultrasonic foggers.
Quote:
Supplement your barely with 5% gypsum for minerals and to reduce caking. Same with your wood chips.
Will do!
Quote:
What are you using a refrigerator for besides storing harvested fruit and cultures? Incubate your jars at room temperature inside your home.
I thought a higher temp would speed up colonization? Indoor temp is just around 66 F. I planned to use the refrigerator just as a climate chamber, where I easily can control temp and humidity since its closed and insulated. Again, I have a few refrigerators laying around, just they could come in handy here. Also have a few aquarium water heaters with internal temp.regulators that would be easy to use for climate control. I could get this up and running in a few hours, but it might not be worth the effort?
I will respond to the rest of your input later on. Again, thank you for valuable input!
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Re: Oyster on woodchip setup, input appreciated [Re: svampnathan]
#22211252 - 09/09/15 08:50 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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You will know if your not getting enough fae by the length of the stems. Count on the fans rated output to be cut in half between the filter and ducting. Especially if its a axial fan vs squirrel cage. Skip using some rigged up cloth for swamp humidity and buy some swamp cooler mesh. It's. Antimicrobial and cleans easily with a hose. I have a thread where I made a 5 gal swamp cooler you might want to check out. Also ditch tyvec and use ezfelt. I use plastic lids with a hole melted in the center using a torch heated socket then place a square of thick ez felt over the molten plastic hole fusing the filter to the lid. No need for injection ports as you can just as easily lift the lid and squirt any lc in the jar inside your sab or flowhood.
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Re: Oyster on woodchip setup, input appreciated [Re: Gr0wer]
#22211268 - 09/09/15 08:54 AM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/21775815/page/2
This 5 gal pail swamp cooler could easily be scaled up to a 30-50 gal pail for larger grow. This setup probably pushed about 100 cfm.
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svampnathan
Stranger

Registered: 01/31/15
Posts: 54
Loc: Sweden
Last seen: 7 years, 9 months
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Re: Oyster on woodchip setup, input appreciated [Re: Gr0wer]
#22212156 - 09/09/15 12:58 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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Thank you, will look for swamp cooling mesh. Not very common in Sweden I guess since RH often is high. As for now I will probably not have to worry about humidity, temp and RH will be perfect as it is for several months. I have missed Ez feld, will look for that too.
To get back to your first respond, you use 5 gallon pails with wood chips, no additive except gypsum? And this has worked for you? Seems like my setup will be similar, only smaller buckets (yours look taller though, perhaps the diameter is almost the same. How big holes have you drilled, and how have you spaced them? You dont pasteurize the chips?
Thanks again.
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Gr0wer
always improving


Registered: 09/16/03
Posts: 6,056
Loc: El Paso, TX
Last seen: 5 years, 10 months
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Re: Oyster on woodchip setup, input appreciated [Re: svampnathan]
#22212811 - 09/09/15 03:34 PM (8 years, 4 months ago) |
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I use wood chips that are hot water bath pasteurized. I've experimented with manure and organic fertilizer with poor results, it seems they stop my strain of phoenix oyster from pinning while my plain old mulch xl bags flush really well. The pails I use are standard 5 gal pails 1/4 holes seem to work best and 1/4 holes still support large clusters. I space them about 6 inches apart.
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