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Psilocybimater
Hunter of the Wild!


Registered: 06/07/11
Posts: 400
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
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Thoughts on applying termite mound ventilation to mushroom grows.
#24196501 - 03/27/17 09:34 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Recently i saw a documentary on how termites grow fungi and maintain a perfect environment around 100% humidity and perfect temperature.
To simplify what i have learned the termites basically have one large vertical vent leading to the growing chamber which creates low pressure, around the base of the colony there are many small holes around the circumference that are high pressure.
The air goes into the small holes and circulates through the colony and out through the large vertical vent.
This can easily be tested with a little smoke to show how the airflow is moving an how the temperature is regulated along with greenhouse gas emissions.
It appears that a single large hole in the center of a lid on a tub covered with micro pore tape and several small holes around the bottom of the tub filled with polyfil would replicate this type of ventilation.
The termites have been cultivating fungi in this manner for millions of year before human beings attempted to grow fungi, it seem the bugs have more experience as fungi growers than humans.
Just some thoughts ill have to use some smoke to test this and see if it indeed creates suitable fresh air exchange once everything reaches ambient room temperature.
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psilly the kid
Hedge wizard/ Cultist



Registered: 05/17/16
Posts: 4,615
Loc: Stoprock City
Last seen: 1 year, 6 months
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Re: Thoughts on applying termite mound ventilation to mushroom grows. [Re: Psilocybimater]
#24196526 - 03/27/17 09:42 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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neat!
-------------------- CA weed @ all times unless specified currently this high pebbles suck its turtles all the way down
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36fuckin5
Alchemycologist


Registered: 08/11/03
Posts: 12,091
Loc: Diving into Mystical Territori...
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Re: Thoughts on applying termite mound ventilation to mushroom grows. [Re: psilly the kid]
#24196873 - 03/27/17 12:01 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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I haven't heard of this, but it sounds cool. Maybe this is how the original monotub was conceived?
The problem I'm thinking of is that the termites are probably also using the difference in ground and air temps to get this to happen, as the temp and pressure would vary more between underground (even slightly) and above ground than it would at the bottom of an above-ground tub and the top of an above-ground tub.
-------------------- Pat The Bunny said: A punk rock song won't ever change the world, but I can tell you about a couple that changed me. bodhisatta said: i recommend common sense and figuring it out. These are the TEKs I use. They're all as cheap and easy as possible, just like your mom.
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catnip40
xฬ็



Registered: 03/09/12
Posts: 752
Last seen: 2 days, 22 hours
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Re: Thoughts on applying termite mound ventilation to mushroom grows. [Re: 36fuckin5]
#24197243 - 03/27/17 02:41 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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drake89
Mushroom Magnate



Registered: 06/26/11
Posts: 4,168
Loc: TN
Last seen: 5 years, 2 months
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Re: Thoughts on applying termite mound ventilation to mushroom grows. [Re: 36fuckin5]
#24197431 - 03/27/17 03:46 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
36fuckin5 said: I haven't heard of this, but it sounds cool. Maybe this is how the original monotub was conceived?
The problem I'm thinking of is that the termites are probably also using the difference in ground and air temps to get this to happen, as the temp and pressure would vary more between underground (even slightly) and above ground than it would at the bottom of an above-ground tub and the top of an above-ground tub.
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Marty Mycfly
Time Traveler


Registered: 12/16/13
Posts: 976
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Re: Thoughts on applying termite mound ventilation to mushroom grows. [Re: drake89]
#24197451 - 03/27/17 03:52 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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Time to pull out the shovel and get digging
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foragedfungus



Registered: 09/30/13
Posts: 1,873
Loc: out there
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Re: Thoughts on applying termite mound ventilation to mushroom grows. [Re: Marty Mycfly]
#24197698 - 03/27/17 05:38 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-coupled_heat_exchanger
Could work great at the right scale. You need to dig pretty deep and lay a lot of tubes in the ground. Not practical for a few tubs. But if you are building a new commercial size farm.....
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure



Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 1 year, 2 months
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Re: Thoughts on applying termite mound ventilation to mushroom grows. [Re: foragedfungus]
#24200921 - 03/28/17 08:21 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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It's passive air exchange, the engineering I used to design my mushroom farm, which is a shipping container buried into the hillside. Two 12" diameter stacks protrude from the ceiling up about fifteen feet. The air is at a lower pressure the higher you go so there is a natural flow from the window in the entry door, through the unit and up the stacks mounted at the far end. It's the same physics a fireplace or woodstove chimney works on. Even with no fire, there's still a draft due to the pressure differential. RR
-------------------- Download Let's Grow Mushrooms semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat "I've never had a failed experiment. I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work." Thomas Edison
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Marty Mycfly
Time Traveler


Registered: 12/16/13
Posts: 976
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Re: Thoughts on applying termite mound ventilation to mushroom grows. [Re: RogerRabbit]
#24200942 - 03/28/17 08:25 PM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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RR, Is the mushroom farm down right now? Any projects going?
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c10h12n2o
serial dilutor



Registered: 01/21/15
Posts: 3,200
Loc: the abyss
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Re: Thoughts on applying termite mound ventilation to mushroom grows. [Re: Marty Mycfly]
#24212273 - 04/02/17 12:08 AM (7 years, 1 month ago) |
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this is a fascinating concept, anything that reverse engineers nature is so cool 
the concept of copying nature is called biomimetics, and is a really interesting field... there are companies that construct buildings based on the termite design, get waterproofing concepts from plant surface shapes, all kinds of cool stuff
nietzsche said "There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy" , ive always thought that the biological processes in nature hold tremendous potential for us to learn about.... for example, how much energy our bodies are able to make out of rice, etc, and use that to fuel computational tasks, motor skills, etc... it really makes our machines/systems/computers look so inefficient... wetware is coming!
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  C10's Agar Guide + Tips and Tricks | c10's Flow Hood Build Guide "Partial knowledge is more triumphant than complete knowledge; it takes things to be simpler than they are, and so makes its theory more popular and convincing." "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies" ― Friedrich Nietzsche
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