Phaethon said:

I used alfalfa once, I think at 20% by dry weight. I still have the bag...unfortunately I couldn't tolerate the dust, which made me sneeze and had my eyes red and puffy for days. (Even the odors from pressure cooking it bothered me for days. Not sure what I am allergic too but it was really unpleasant.) The mushrooms liked it fine, though I didn't use it enough to get a fair comparison with wheat bran, which is the only supplement I've used consistently.

Hope it works for you! I wish it had for me - it's super cheap and available here.

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Phaethon said:

Usually 20% of total dry weight. I did 30% a couple times, but I can't remember if it was noticeably better, and I wasn't really keeping records. And then some life stuff happened last summer and I haven't had my gourmet tent setup going since. Hoping to get it back up in the next month or two.

For shiitake, I haven't tried more than 20%, since I read it tends to push out mutated fruits with higher supplementation and/or spawn ratios, and it takes so long to mature, I wasn't willing to risk more. And 20% bran does ok for me there, little under a pound per 5lb block first flush, even with low-tech (basically monotub) fruiting chambers.

I bought some beet pulp pellets to try. The one batch of bags I made with it (again at 20%) failed to even colonize, but I don't even remember what I tried on it. I suspect any oyster would eat it anyway. Going to need to try that again this year, maybe with varying ratios in case 20% is just too much.

What do you like to grow?

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Blizzloo said:

These are tiny oyster mushrooms. The first growth from the clone I made in the fall from wild oyster mushrooms found in the forest. I'm not sure if there's something wrong with the conditions or if it's just rich genetic diversity, but either way, I think it's beautiful.

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