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Stumpwhiskey
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Oysters on non-convention substrate
#26370282 - 12/09/19 06:29 AM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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I have some blue oysters on spawn right now starting to consolidate. I’ve grown brats on cardboard and coffee grounds before when I lived in the blue ridge which was a fantastic climate for mushrooms. I took big pieces of cardboard and and pasteurized and fruited out of trash bags and got magnificent clusters. The cardboard I took from work when I used to stock shelves. I’m all about recycling products. Fast forward to now. I work in an office and they shred a lot of paper. It not the high quality paper that has a sheen. Just your regular cheap copy paper so it wets easily. I tried growing on it before but it didn’t do well because the moist heap didn’t offer much for pore space. I don’t want to throw all of this away. I would like to grow my oysters but I need more pore space for the mycelium to run. I don’t think perlite will do a good job and does not offer much for holding water.
What are your suggestions besides a different base for the substrate material. I was thinking incorporating 1:1 or 1:2 vermiculite to shredded paper. Or even incorporate dead leaves on the ground and supplement with coffee grounds on the shredded paper. I have some wood chips from Douglas fir from a wood working project but the material I have will run out quickly. I’m looking for resources I have around me that don’t require sterilization. This is merely experimental. I intend to do supplemented sawdust as I get closer to spring weather because I prefer to have oysters outside when I can. Thanks!
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trubblesome
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: Stumpwhiskey]
#26370336 - 12/09/19 07:24 AM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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I'm interested in playing around with this as well. After some extensive research on what's safe and what's not, i'm gonna shred up junk mail and do a run on it in some small buckets. I was thinking the same thing as you - that the paper material will just turn to mush and make it difficult for the mycelium. I'm not sure that vermiculite alone will provide the structure necessary so I was planning on trying coco coir as well, maybe in a 4:2:1 paper:coir:vermiculite ratio, but I'm still very much in the theoretical realm at the moment, nowhere near spawning anything yet, or even sitting down with some coir and paper and seeing what I could make. The idea would be to make a paper pulp slurry to mix in to the coir, coating it in pulp, and then drained to field capacity/brought there by the verm, it might give you a solid balance between appropriate nutrients and structure for mycelium to run. Alternately, paper pulp at FC could be mixed in to coir and verm at FC and probably achieve the same effect, it might be easier to get each to FC individually.
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Stumpwhiskey
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: trubblesome]
#26370591 - 12/09/19 10:01 AM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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Yeah trubblesome I think that is a good idea. I like the pulp slurry idea. My girlfriend might have a fit if she sees me grinding up paper damp paper in her blender lol. I was thinking about the dried leaves because they are big pieces and when crumbled up, offer a lot of surface area. Going off the concept of mixing wood shavings in with sawdust-a mix of fine and coarse particles. I definitely going to use some gypsum with the paper to resist so much clumping. I’ll try a few things out this weekend and post if a make up any mycobags.
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Stumpwhiskey
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: Stumpwhiskey]
#26385365 - 12/16/19 03:25 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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Update: spawned to bulk this weekend. I did 1 pint of spawn to all my substrates.
 
#1 dry weight substrate: blue oyster 500 g wheat straw 115 g alfalfa 95 g paper 1 cup gypsum

#2 dry weight substrate: reishi 400 g paper 560 g vermiculite 100 g leaves 115 g alfalfa 1 cup gypsum

#3 dry weight substrate: reishi 400 g paper 400 g leaves 1 cup gypsum No alfalfa because I’m not that optimistic about this one.

#4 dry weight substrate: blue oyster 250 g paper 250 g straw 280 g vermiculite 115 g alfalfa 1 cup gypsum

#5 dry weight substrate: reishi 1 kg straw 90 g alfalfa 1 cup gypsum

Since I’ve spawn I’ve already seen growth in the bags. Even though it’s too cold for reishi I accidentally grew some grain spawn.. injected a few bags without realizing. I have some other oyster spawn currently colonizing.
I’ll try to keep this thread updated.
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Hillbillyjohn


Registered: 11/13/15
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: Stumpwhiskey]
#26385383 - 12/16/19 03:33 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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I'm interested in this I have blue oysters on paper and some dried long blade grass from outside but I think I screwed it up (my first edible) cause it's growing like large masses inside the bag but not pinning just blobbing on the bottom. It's not doing a lot near the slits for some reason.
-------------------- https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/24297804. Everything you need in one place read,follow,and fruit
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Stumpwhiskey
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: Hillbillyjohn]
#26385468 - 12/16/19 04:39 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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Do the blobs look like mycelium. Or does it ooz? I’ve had mycogone before aka wet bubble which I’m pretty sure is verticillium. I wish I had a pic of mine that I could show you. I would definitely put it outside if you have it. It’s a parasitic fungi and it puts out spores as well. Do you have pics?
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trubblesome
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: Stumpwhiskey]
#26387340 - 12/17/19 03:47 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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nice! I'm excited to see your progress!
I inoculated 4 quart jars of oats with blue oyster on sunday. I decided to try running them in 1 gallon buckets on various ratios of paper/cardboard/coir/verm. I guess I'll have to figure out how I'm going to prep that this weekend!
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Stumpwhiskey
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: trubblesome]
#26387405 - 12/17/19 04:13 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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As far as ratios go I found shredded paper to be a bit much when I added up to 50%. I had to squeeze it like it owed me money just to get it to field capacity. Plus it’s dense. I’m interested to see which colonizes the quickest. Cardboard is easier to work with vs “paper” to manage field capacity without tiring out your hands from squeezing
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Digit
Surreal Estate Agent
Registered: 08/10/15
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: Stumpwhiskey]
#26387917 - 12/17/19 11:23 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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I hate to be a bummer because I love your idea and your philosophy but I feel like I should tell you that bleached white paper usually has some trace amount of dioxins from the bleaching process. That's why brown paper coffee filters are a thing. I'm not sure how much there is in there, or if the mycelium tends to concentrate it like it does with heavy metals, it may even be that the mycelium will break it down into less toxic compounds, but it seems worth looking into before you go forward. Best wishes
-------------------- Question everything. Believe nothing. Think for yours3lf.
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Stumpwhiskey
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: Digit]
#26392638 - 12/20/19 03:24 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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You’re not that much a bummer man. I don’t know enough about dioxins to argue a position on it. I do know the mycelium breaks down hydrocarbons. I know there have been studies on the breakdown of diesel and fruiting bodies sequestered hydrocarbons over the tolerable level.
I think whatever may be present in the fruiting bodies wouldn’t cause enough to pose a real risk.
For your viewing pleasure! Here is a lady that is addicted to toilet paper! I think she may be exceeding her dioxin levels. Enjoy My Strange Addiction: Kesha Eats Toilet Paper
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Digit
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: Stumpwhiskey]
#26400645 - 12/25/19 04:33 PM (4 years, 1 month ago) |
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I LOVE "my strange addiction"! It makes me feel so normal hahaha. Dioxin is no joke, there is literally no safe amount of it. There was once a paper mill in one of the bays near my town and they dumped so much dioxin into the bay that it is still considered unsafe to eat any bottom fish or shellfish from there, even 30 years after they shut down the mill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioxins_and_dioxin-like_compounds
Anyway, just stick to unbleached brown paper and you'll be fine.
-------------------- Question everything. Believe nothing. Think for yours3lf.
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Stumpwhiskey
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: Digit]
#26406959 - 12/29/19 09:48 PM (4 years, 30 days ago) |
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So as expected, leaf mixes didn’t do much. The paper/straw/alfalfa and paper straw alfalfa and vermiculite has done well. Pinning on my blue oysters now. The leaf and vermiculite has had some ok growth in some areas, but as expected the leaf didn’t hold much moisture.
I will continue to add in vermiculite with my straw mixes. I really think it could help hold onto water for future flushes and dunks.
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Stumpwhiskey
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: Stumpwhiskey]
#26451840 - 01/25/20 12:53 PM (4 years, 4 days ago) |
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So non-conventional didn’t work for me. It’s ok though. Wheat straw and alfalfa was great though. Vermiculite or paper didn’t seem to make too much of a difference other than they are simply more difficult to squeeze the water content out. Here’s a picture of the 2nd flush. First flush sucked. Too leggy because I grew indoors. I’m doing my oyster outdoors now in a little cinderblock set up. Love the air flow as a result. Plus you can spray down the blocks with water for some added humidity. Put a heating cable in a tub of wet perlite/Verm for some humidity and ambient heat on those cold nights.   
These two coming up:
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trubblesome
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Re: Oysters on non-convention substrate [Re: Stumpwhiskey]
#26452523 - 01/25/20 08:00 PM (4 years, 4 days ago) |
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nice!! looking good!
now that I've got my indoor set up a little more conducive to growing oysters I'll finally get around to the experimental subs. very encouraging stuff Stumpwhiskey!!
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