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OfflineAuban
Algae Grower

Registered: 12/12/16
Posts: 9
Last seen: 7 years, 17 days
Just starting out.
    #23928240 - 12/15/16 02:17 AM (7 years, 1 month ago)

I didnt see an introduction section, and the "just starting out" section doesn't seem the best place for me since I am not really interested in growing active shrooms at the moment.  I may eventually, but not while I am in my current job.


I am in the Army and have wanted to get out for a long time.  My wife and I owned a Snapon franchise until recently.  The hours were too long and the BS of dealing with corporate was getting to be too much.  It was profitable, but not what we would like to do for the rest of our lives.  So, now she has free time to devote to the next business venture while I deploy every year.

So, in coming up with various things we can do to start a business from home, on our three acres, we looked into growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms.  While I have never grown shrooms before, I figure it cant be too hard.  I have grown all kinds of exotic aquatic plants, and bred all kinds of rare and difficult to breed fish, so Im sure I can figure it out.  Everything I am reading about it indicates that there is a lot of money to be made here.  I dont intend to make mushrooms the sole venture, but a component, if that makes any sense.  If it makes us a few hundred dollars a month at a farmers market by the end of the second year, Ill be happy.  We will also be selling aquatic plants and fish and such.  A bunch of little things that we used to sell back when we had time to do it. 

So, here is my introduction.  My wife and I will be posting up our progress and our questions here.  Regardless of whether we actually break into the gourmet mushroom market, we WILL be attempting to grow them.  The whole process seems fascinating to me, so nothing else, it will be a great hobby. 

We are in a decent position to start.  Our property has two barns on it that, with a little modification, would make decent grow rooms.  Plus, all of our next door neighbors are farmers, and have no problem giving us their agricultural waste. Eventually, I would like to be able to produce and sell enough randomness to transition out of the Army.  Back when we were selling the production of our hobbies, we were making about a thousand dollars a month. Not enough to live off of, but we never treated it like a job or a business.  It was a hobby that paid for itself.

Anyway, I look forward to learning from ya'll and sharing with ya'll.


--------------------
"The ecologist is continually having to look at the aspects of nature with which he is unfamiliar and perforce must be an amateur for much of his working time.... professionals may carp at omissions, misconstructions, or even downright errors in these pages. perhaps ultimately they may forgive them for the sake of the overall vision that only the amateur, or the ecologist, blithely sets out to experience." G. Evelyn Hutchinson


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OfflineSnagman17
Stranger

Registered: 03/21/16
Posts: 168
Last seen: 5 years, 4 months
Re: Just starting out. [Re: Auban]
    #23928457 - 12/15/16 06:40 AM (7 years, 1 month ago)

Get your feet wet with oyster mushrooms, white oyster are particularly easy.I started this hobby last spring, and am just now starting to add King oyster, lions mane and shitake. Still notbwherebi want to be before i start selling, but will get there. Invest in a pressure cooker. Read the teks word for word and follow everybdiredtion in them. Don't cut corners when you are just starting out. Good luck. If you are ready to start send me a PM and I can send you a culture.


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OfflineAuban
Algae Grower

Registered: 12/12/16
Posts: 9
Last seen: 7 years, 17 days
Re: Just starting out. [Re: Snagman17]
    #23928658 - 12/15/16 08:59 AM (7 years, 1 month ago)

Quote:

Snagman17 said:
Get your feet wet with oyster mushrooms, white oyster are particularly easy.I started this hobby last spring, and am just now starting to add King oyster, lions mane and shitake. Still notbwherebi want to be before i start selling, but will get there. Invest in a pressure cooker. Read the teks word for word and follow everybdiredtion in them. Don't cut corners when you are just starting out. Good luck. If you are ready to start send me a PM and I can send you a culture.





Right now my sister(who lives with us) and my wife are doing just that, experimenting with oyster mushrooms.  They are going to find out how much they can grow, as fast as possible.  The idea is to find out at which point they start hitting the wall, so that we know where we need to focus our attentions.  Cuz right now, we really have no idea what is going to give us the biggest hassle.  contamination?  space?  physically moving things around?

Thank you for the generous offer for a starter culture, but right now we are just going to fiddle around with the oysters and see what we get.  it will probably be a year or so before we get around to really trying to sell any of them.

one thing i would like to eventually try is growing some mushrooms on hair algae.  or at least see if i can use it as an additive.  I produce insane amounts of hair algae when i breed fish. I use fast growing cladophora algae to keep the water quality pristine during intensive grows, but im always left with pounds and pounds of excess.


--------------------
"The ecologist is continually having to look at the aspects of nature with which he is unfamiliar and perforce must be an amateur for much of his working time.... professionals may carp at omissions, misconstructions, or even downright errors in these pages. perhaps ultimately they may forgive them for the sake of the overall vision that only the amateur, or the ecologist, blithely sets out to experience." G. Evelyn Hutchinson


Edited by Auban (12/15/16 09:00 AM)


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OfflineSpeckles
Sober AF
 User Gallery


Registered: 09/19/13
Posts: 236
Last seen: 1 year, 4 months
Re: Just starting out. [Re: Auban]
    #23929108 - 12/15/16 11:56 AM (7 years, 1 month ago)

Welcome Auban,

Sounds like you're on the right track with the oysters. If you want to mess around with other cultures you can clone mushrooms you buy at grocery stores on agar. It's probably the cheapest way to obtain different cultures, and a good way to practice agar work.

Depending on the density of mushroom farms in your area, there may be farmers giving away spent substrate on craigslist that you could talk to. I've used spent oyster sub from a local farmer for composting and talked to him about his business. That could be a way to find out what species aren't available locally, species you could potentially corner the market on.

Your idea to use cladophora algae is interesting, it would be a pretty easy to test in bulk substrates by using different amounts mixed with straw or wood pellets. I'd love to see the results of those experiments! What aspects of water quality does hair algae clean? If it absorbs heavy metals or the like those would then be absorbed by the mushrooms which wouldn't be good.


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OfflineAuban
Algae Grower

Registered: 12/12/16
Posts: 9
Last seen: 7 years, 17 days
Re: Just starting out. [Re: Speckles]
    #23929367 - 12/15/16 01:17 PM (7 years, 1 month ago)

Quote:

Speckles said:
Welcome Auban,

Sounds like you're on the right track with the oysters. If you want to mess around with other cultures you can clone mushrooms you buy at grocery stores on agar. It's probably the cheapest way to obtain different cultures, and a good way to practice agar work.

Depending on the density of mushroom farms in your area, there may be farmers giving away spent substrate on craigslist that you could talk to. I've used spent oyster sub from a local farmer for composting and talked to him about his business. That could be a way to find out what species aren't available locally, species you could potentially corner the market on.

Your idea to use cladophora algae is interesting, it would be a pretty easy to test in bulk substrates by using different amounts mixed with straw or wood pellets. I'd love to see the results of those experiments! What aspects of water quality does hair algae clean? If it absorbs heavy metals or the like those would then be absorbed by the mushrooms which wouldn't be good.




So far as water quality, algae really filters everything out.  It filters heavy metals out as well, and can be used to remove heavy metals from water.  But, I don't raise my fish in water that is laden with heavy metals.  I use algae because it is like a plant in the sense that it uses nitrogen the byproducts of fish waste and decomposing food to grow, but unlike a plant, algae is all leaf.  As soon as there is any ammonia present in the water, the algae sucks it up.  Since every cell is constantly growing, it will grow as fast as the fish produce waste. 

I also grow it because a clump of hair algae has an insane amount of surface area.  This allows for a lot of little critters to grow.  So many, in fact, that I never have to actually feed young fry until they are large enough to eat grindal worms. 

It basically allowed me to raise huge amounts of fish in a very small amount of water while feeding them far more than normal, while never using a conventional filter or doing a single water change. 

A friend of mine put it on his website if you or anyone else wants to read about it.

http://www.lotsoffish.net/Auban-Tricks-.html

  With how much oxygen it produces and CO2 it uses, there is probably a way to pair it up with a mushroom grow operation.

In order for it to be useful for growing fish, the algae has to be growing.  So, the more fish I produce, the more algae byproduct I produce.  I have filled five gallon buckets at the end of a week before.  It would be nice to have a use for it besides feeding a tiny amount to aquatic shrimp...


--------------------
"The ecologist is continually having to look at the aspects of nature with which he is unfamiliar and perforce must be an amateur for much of his working time.... professionals may carp at omissions, misconstructions, or even downright errors in these pages. perhaps ultimately they may forgive them for the sake of the overall vision that only the amateur, or the ecologist, blithely sets out to experience." G. Evelyn Hutchinson


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Offlinefungus_tao
Hah Zah!
Male User Gallery


Registered: 05/10/06
Posts: 1,856
Loc: Flag
Last seen: 6 years, 3 months
Re: Just starting out. [Re: Auban]
    #23929429 - 12/15/16 01:36 PM (7 years, 1 month ago)

Hi and welcome to the shroomery :super:

It sounds like you are well positioned to branch into mycology.
I remember reading an old RR post that said spent shiitake blocks could be used for fish food.
Maybe you could incorporate your spent substrates into your fish hobby.
I wish you luck with your endeavours.


--------------------
Follow the light
The Light is your guide.


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InvisibleMarty Mycfly
Time Traveler
Male User Gallery

Registered: 12/16/13
Posts: 976
Re: Just starting out. [Re: fungus_tao]
    #23929466 - 12/15/16 01:47 PM (7 years, 1 month ago)

:highfive1:Welcome to the shoomery.


--------------------
Mycfly's King Oysters                                       

Mycfly's Reishi    

                                                 


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OfflineAuban
Algae Grower

Registered: 12/12/16
Posts: 9
Last seen: 7 years, 17 days
Re: Just starting out. [Re: fungus_tao]
    #23929651 - 12/15/16 02:49 PM (7 years, 1 month ago)

Ya know, back when I was experimenting heavily with growing aquatic plants, I set up a tank with cow manure, kitty litter, and aragonite.  Standard knowledge says you cannot do that, the cow manure will over load the tank with nutrients and it will crash.  Well, the kitty litter has a magnificent cation exchange capacity and the aragonite is excellent at buffering the ph.  Pair that with ungodly dissolved CO2 levels and bright lights and you end up with a tank that can grow plants 20-30 times the normal rate.  The growth rates were so fast that nobody would believe me until I started posting daily pics with my laptop open to the thread in the pic.  Plants that normally grow 3 inches per month as an absolute max were growing several inches per day. The problem is that it gets messy if I pull the roots out, so it's only a viable method with stem plants, unless I want to tear the whole tank down with every crop.

I always thought that being able to inoculate a substrate with a mycelium and then baking it would allow me to make porous blocks that would make perfect plant bases.  So long as it holds together fairly well, it would be both a substrate for their roots as well as a fertilizer.  For customers, it would make things a lot easier.  I just ship the plant and they bury the base in the substrate in their tanks.  No need to worry about fertilizing it as the block will provide most of its nutritional needs.

That is, of course, if it holds up under water.  Casualgrowers thread with the bowls and such has my mind swimming back to that old idea...


--------------------
"The ecologist is continually having to look at the aspects of nature with which he is unfamiliar and perforce must be an amateur for much of his working time.... professionals may carp at omissions, misconstructions, or even downright errors in these pages. perhaps ultimately they may forgive them for the sake of the overall vision that only the amateur, or the ecologist, blithely sets out to experience." G. Evelyn Hutchinson


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Offlinekeifnnugs
Master fucker
Registered: 11/27/15
Posts: 335
Last seen: 26 days, 10 hours
Re: Just starting out. [Re: Auban]
    #23929860 - 12/15/16 03:47 PM (7 years, 1 month ago)

Welcome to the boards.. It really is a great place with a great group of folks


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OfflineAuban
Algae Grower

Registered: 12/12/16
Posts: 9
Last seen: 7 years, 17 days
Re: Just starting out. [Re: keifnnugs]
    #23930455 - 12/15/16 06:36 PM (7 years, 1 month ago)

since my wife is the one who will have to do most of the legwork to keep any kind of home grown operation going while I am constantly away for deployments or TDY, I want her here so that she can start learning from the wealth of knowledge on these boards. 

With that in mind, Ill go ahead and introduce her.  She is a bit shy.  LittleAki is my wife.  She suffers social anxiety, but doesn't let that stop her.  She ran our snapon franchise for two years and made quite a profit off of it.  Now she hopes to make a profit from home.  Im excited about it too.  Its always been a dream of mine to use my innovative drive to make money. 

Anyway Aki, come on in!  The water is fine!

:smile:


--------------------
"The ecologist is continually having to look at the aspects of nature with which he is unfamiliar and perforce must be an amateur for much of his working time.... professionals may carp at omissions, misconstructions, or even downright errors in these pages. perhaps ultimately they may forgive them for the sake of the overall vision that only the amateur, or the ecologist, blithely sets out to experience." G. Evelyn Hutchinson


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OfflineLittleAki
Stranger
Registered: 12/12/16
Posts: 1
Last seen: 6 years, 11 months
Re: Just starting out. [Re: Auban]
    #23931504 - 12/16/16 04:07 AM (7 years, 1 month ago)

Thank you for the intro Auban. *waves* HI everyone, I'm Auban's wife.

I guess you could say I'm just as excited as Auban is, but for different reasons. Yesterday he shared a thread with me where someone had made a bowl (sorry, still learning terminology), and my head just went straight to "what else could you make?" In the span of a few minutes, I was brainstorming a whole craft table for a HUGE yards sale that occurs twice a year near where I live.

So, let me wrap my head around terms and whatnot and I'll be pestering yall for help and questions soon enough!


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OfflineAuban
Algae Grower

Registered: 12/12/16
Posts: 9
Last seen: 7 years, 17 days
Re: Just starting out. [Re: LittleAki]
    #23931520 - 12/16/16 04:37 AM (7 years, 1 month ago)

oh, wow, i didnt even think about that.  make your own mushroom table to show off the various mushroom based products at the five mile yard sale!  That would be AWESOME!

just so yall know what we are talking about, there is a giant yard sale in our community twice a year that literally covers every square foot on either side of the road for five miles of road.  its HUGE, people come from all over to sell crafts, antiques, and just about anything really. 

i did some digging around, and while we have the only truffle farmers, there really isnt much in the way of gourmet mushrooms in our area.  the nearest place that sells more than the occasional shitake, grown on logs, is about four hours away. 

though, i gotta wonder...  if we get to the point where we can reliably deliver some gourmet mushrooms, it might be worth our time to start dealing in the local truffles.  maybe not grow the trees they live on, but if we are already in the market, might as well.  though they probably already have a distribution network that supplies our area, they may not.  never know.


--------------------
"The ecologist is continually having to look at the aspects of nature with which he is unfamiliar and perforce must be an amateur for much of his working time.... professionals may carp at omissions, misconstructions, or even downright errors in these pages. perhaps ultimately they may forgive them for the sake of the overall vision that only the amateur, or the ecologist, blithely sets out to experience." G. Evelyn Hutchinson


Edited by Auban (12/16/16 04:38 AM)


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OfflineTedTheHighlighter
Cheshire Cat
Male

Registered: 12/09/14
Posts: 490
Last seen: 2 months, 7 days
Re: Just starting out. [Re: Auban]
    #23931556 - 12/16/16 05:44 AM (7 years, 1 month ago)

Thankyou for your service and welcome to the Shroomery guys!


--------------------
Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I take?”

The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know,” Alice answered.

“Then,” said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?”


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OfflineAuban
Algae Grower

Registered: 12/12/16
Posts: 9
Last seen: 7 years, 17 days
Re: Just starting out. [Re: TedTheHighlighter]
    #23972373 - 01/01/17 06:09 AM (7 years, 29 days ago)

ok, so, in my wifes enthusiasm, she went and bought some spawn.  something that i am all excited about.  i love seeing her experiment with stuff and try new things.

but, not really knowing what she was looking for, she got plug spawn for oyster mushrooms instead of grain spawn.  which would be great if we had any logs.  but, we dont at the moment. 

anyway, rather than just sit on them, she wants to try and use them to make grain spawn out of them.  so, what she is going to try is basically just mixing them with some old brewers grains that we still have had for a while.  it has not been fermented, we have just had it for a while.  how would you guys suggest trying it out?  im thinking that the more plugs we use the faster it will colonize the grain.  im not sure if anyone has any experience with trying this or not. 

we are still going to order some grain spawn anyway, but figured this would be a good opportunity to start making observations while attempting to do something with what we got, so here we are. 

thoughts?


--------------------
"The ecologist is continually having to look at the aspects of nature with which he is unfamiliar and perforce must be an amateur for much of his working time.... professionals may carp at omissions, misconstructions, or even downright errors in these pages. perhaps ultimately they may forgive them for the sake of the overall vision that only the amateur, or the ecologist, blithely sets out to experience." G. Evelyn Hutchinson


Edited by Auban (01/01/17 06:27 AM)


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OfflineQuadman
Challenged
Male User Gallery

Registered: 04/23/16
Posts: 2,529
Loc: IL Flag
Last seen: 1 year, 3 months
Re: Just starting out. [Re: Auban]
    #23972577 - 01/01/17 09:32 AM (7 years, 29 days ago)

I've put all my cultures on plugs. I keep my grain jars just a little over half full.Sterilize at 15psi for 90 mins. Primarily WBS is what I use, putting a plug half way down the jar on each side. That's only 2 plugs per quart they colonize in approx 2 weeks.  On another note if you have a heavy bacteria load in old grain possibly like your brewers . I've not have success sterilizing it. Follow link for some pics.
https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/23795307/page/4


--------------------


Edited by Quadman (01/01/17 10:30 AM)


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OfflineFerather
Mycological
Male User Gallery


Registered: 03/19/15
Posts: 6,325
Loc: United Kingdom Flag
Last seen: 1 year, 2 months
Re: Just starting out. [Re: Quadman]
    #23972761 - 01/01/17 11:25 AM (7 years, 29 days ago)

Nothing wrong with using plugs to start or store a culture. As long as they are clean.


--------------------
                   

Growing mushrooms, general guide and information (Ferather's Journal), https://ibb.co/rG3rML2

https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/27857366#27857366

DTS DCH Driver for Realtek [DTS:X] - Unlocked and reprogrammed.


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OfflineRolledUhhp
Amateur Cultivator

Registered: 08/10/16
Posts: 246
Last seen: 3 years, 6 months
Re: Just starting out. [Re: Auban]
    #23977093 - 01/02/17 07:27 PM (7 years, 28 days ago)

Quote:

Auban said:
Ya know, back when I was experimenting heavily with growing aquatic plants, I set up a tank with cow manure, kitty litter, and aragonite.  Standard knowledge says you cannot do that, the cow manure will over load the tank with nutrients and it will crash.  Well, the kitty litter has a magnificent cation exchange capacity and the aragonite is excellent at buffering the ph.  Pair that with ungodly dissolved CO2 levels and bright lights and you end up with a tank that can grow plants 20-30 times the normal rate.  The growth rates were so fast that nobody would believe me until I started posting daily pics with my laptop open to the thread in the pic.  Plants that normally grow 3 inches per month as an absolute max were growing several inches per day. The problem is that it gets messy if I pull the roots out, so it's only a viable method with stem plants, unless I want to tear the whole tank down with every crop.

I always thought that being able to inoculate a substrate with a mycelium and then baking it would allow me to make porous blocks that would make perfect plant bases.  So long as it holds together fairly well, it would be both a substrate for their roots as well as a fertilizer.  For customers, it would make things a lot easier.  I just ship the plant and they bury the base in the substrate in their tanks.  No need to worry about fertilizing it as the block will provide most of its nutritional needs.

That is, of course, if it holds up under water.  Casualgrowers thread with the bowls and such has my mind swimming back to that old idea...





I'm really interested in the pics of the tanks, if you still have them!


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