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fiddle_head
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Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp
#28549819 - 11/20/23 05:07 AM (2 months, 7 days ago) |
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Hi guys 👋 I am new to growing gourmets and I have a question. I wasn’t able to find any newer posts related to this so that is why I am posting. I have Reishi, mature, on millet, ready to spawn. My question is would something like this be ok?

From what I can gather should be fine, but I wanted the newest data available. Lowe’s has a large bag as well:

Would it be better to get the flake or the fine (usually it is marketed as pet bedding, I was just wanting to make sure there aren’t any common additives in these products that could be detrimental to hyphal growth in the aggregate or retard fruit development.) I love Agaricales and agaricomycotina in general, but I am especially fond of Reishi. Apart from that I will be growing lions mane, bk and blue oyster and shiitake. I plan to spawn with coir and verm, but I’m not sure how to proceed. Should I “pasteurize” the wood chips with the coir, just in a normal way by pouring boiling water over it, letting it rest for 24hrs? I feel like that is wrong and will highly oversaturate the wood. I know you can avoid this wait by using room temp water. Or should I just boil the shavings slightly and add them in ex post facto? Instead of shavings should I go for chips or larger chunks? What does it like, are most gourmets pretty much the same? Fairly resilient and not picky? From what I can gather this is mostly true with some exception. I know lions mane and oyster are wood lovers too but idk about shiitake. I think so. I know sawdust is also a good option, so if they like that I feel like the fine “soft” shavings for pets should be fine even at a Petco or something. Other than that I wouldn’t know how to get sawdust from lumber without any treatment or chemicals added, so this is a concern as well. Maybe I’m worried about nothing. Any help or input would be appreciated guys, I’m about to leave to get it right now. Just wanted to make sure. I probably will have a lot of questions in the coming days, so pardon in advance. I also am looking back sorry for the length of this post. Just had alot of questions about spawning. Hope everyone is well and happy growing. I’ll come back with pics of the harvest if I get one!
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fiddle_head
I'm not the dude, guy



Registered: 08/05/08
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Re: Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp [Re: fiddle_head]
#28549821 - 11/20/23 05:11 AM (2 months, 7 days ago) |
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I forgot to mention I am fruiting in 2gal ziplocs, introducing fruiting conditions from the get go should be fine right? I have a 6x8 tent with a swamp cooler, humidifier and exhaust. I plan to make a 5gal ultrasonic with an independently sourced element. I am running timers for the exhaust, but I still need to buy a temp and humid controller and a small heating element of some sort. Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
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yoosername
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Re: Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp [Re: fiddle_head] 1
#28549872 - 11/20/23 07:16 AM (2 months, 7 days ago) |
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Hopefully someone with more experience will chime in, but I believe hardwood pellets would be the best option for the species you want to work with.
-------------------- O son of Kunti, I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.
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fiddle_head
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Re: Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp [Re: fiddle_head]
#28549921 - 11/20/23 08:07 AM (2 months, 7 days ago) |
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Yea I believe so as well. To my knowledge most or basically all hwfp manufactured stateside at least are formed from pressed sawdust anyway. I bought some today at tractor supply as well as some medium-fine pine flakes as well as bulk baled hay for my oysters. I will try this out with a few different dendrophiliac species
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fiddle_head
I'm not the dude, guy



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Re: Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp [Re: fiddle_head] 1
#28549950 - 11/20/23 08:33 AM (2 months, 7 days ago) |
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Nice pic btw, you remind me of a friend of mine lol
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father_fungi
Mold Farmer



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Re: Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp [Re: fiddle_head]
#28550378 - 11/20/23 02:08 PM (2 months, 7 days ago) |
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Check the label on the HWFPs. Most say they are made from "mixed hardwoods". I don't recall the exact verbiage, but I've seen bags that say otherwise. They probably all work fine, but I stick with the hardwood based pellets.
Also, while you are TSC, you might want to pick up pelletized alfalfa to use as a supplement. As best as I can tell, it's comparable to wheat bran, soy pellets, etc. It's what's readily available to me, so it's what I use.

Lowe's also has a hardwood mulch that I've had good success with. The bags vary. Some are more like wood chips, some more like finely shredded bark. Most of what I used was more like chips. I like it because it's not dyed. Seems close it's natural state. And it's cheap! $4 for a bag, which weighs like 40-50 lbs. Grown Oysters and King Oysters on it.
-------------------- Agar and Liquid Culture Formulas Equipment, Teks, Etc FF Lid Tek
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fiddle_head
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Re: Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp [Re: fiddle_head]
#28550387 - 11/20/23 02:17 PM (2 months, 7 days ago) |
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oh hell yeah man thats awesome! yeah thanks for the response, that helps alot. this is what i got:



the compressed hay bale is for the oysters. idk why but i had a moment today where i had to ask myself if there was a difference between hay and straw. i got tripped up and felt bad about myself for a minute man lol.
ive got like 30 threads on reishi pulled up; tek, grow log, questions, noob etc. gonna get into some heavy reading tonight. i prepped my coir at 1pm today so im gonna mix the pelletized bedding and the cv/alfalfa for one and do pine shavings and cv/alfalfa or wheat bran for the other one. hopefully that works.
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fiddle_head
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Re: Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp [Re: fiddle_head]
#28600223 - 12/27/23 07:31 PM (1 month, 21 hours ago) |
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So i did a little following up and testing and it turns out pine (soft wood, not hard) is not really suitable for mushroom cultivation. Both my pellets and shavings were 100% pine. About a 10 days in some weird grey-green mold started taking over everything, even though the reishi was doing good and didn't seem to give a fuck. its toast now, out in the compost in the backyard (trash) I have been doing some looking since and it seems like the most common places where actual hwfp (hardwood) can be found are:
Home Depot Wal-Mart Samś Club Costco Tractor Supply Co AceHardware Lowe´s
Turns out most of the stuff they have at tractor supply, and what is mostly sold in general as ¨signature blend¨ or´premium/Appalachian´ blend is usually about 10% pine. unless it says oak, maple, hickory etc. on the bag, you can expect there to be some soft fir in there. Not saying that it won work, just be wary if you´re a first time edibles cultivator and are looking for the right sawdust to give their wood-lovers an ideal substrate.
I settled on traeger ¨signature blend¨ maple pellets 20lb bag and green-something ¨Appalachian hardwood blend¨ 40lb bag
My question is will hickory, cherry, aspen, almond, birch, apple, elm or work as well as oak? I´m thinking it should not make a difference but i hope to generate some discussions on different brands and blends that have worked out for people in the past.
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deadmandave
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Re: Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp [Re: fiddle_head]
#28600296 - 12/27/23 08:46 PM (1 month, 20 hours ago) |
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I've used pine + soy hulls for a while now without problems. I tried fir a few times but it leads to slow growth. Perhaps the shavings are not a good addition because they have not received the pressure and heat generated during pelletizing. I do believe the pelletizing process helps break down the pine and firs natural antifungals.
Mossy creek and also oak n spore both have videos discussing pine I believe.
Mold usually isn't caused by the type of wood but by the processing.
What was your pasteurization or sterilization method?
I think all the other woods you mention will work fine.
mossy creek vid on straw and pine
oak n spore - pine vs oak
cactus hat speaking on pine pellets
Edited by deadmandave (12/27/23 09:06 PM)
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fiddle_head
I'm not the dude, guy



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Re: Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp [Re: deadmandave]
#28600393 - 12/28/23 12:24 AM (1 month, 16 hours ago) |
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Thanks a lot for that. Yeah I bought pine pellets for animal bedding, pic’d above. I think it was something in there perhaps, or maybe you are correct about the flakes/shavings. Either rate something was telling me it was the bedding because it seemed to start randomly from underneath. Really though that doesn’t prove anything, the pine flakes just seemed ok, so I gravitated toward thinking something was running amok in the pellets. Either that or my spawn was not as clean as I thought? So you’ve used pine with success? I’m growing reishi, lions mane, blue/black oyster, shiitake. From everything I’ve heard pine has too much resin or byproducts etc? Interesting though maybe it is something I haven’t thought of. It’s always something innit.
I’m using traeger competition blend oak-maple-hickory and green brand Appalachian hardwood blend, which I believe most of these signature “blends” are at least 10% pine or other soft fir. I can’t believe that would make much a difference however, given that you are having success with just pine. Thanks for the reply man, you’re an ACE!
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Silentraindrops
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Re: Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp [Re: fiddle_head]
#28600467 - 12/28/23 03:58 AM (1 month, 13 hours ago) |
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I've been doing tons of research , this thread was interesting as well...
everything I've gathered is you wont have much issues for all the mush listed except shiitake. which can be tricky.
I'm trying to get a mix together for maitake*known difficult* and shiitake right now. I feel if I get the Maitake i can use that recipe for everything else. They Prefer Oak Primarily. I have heard mixed reviews on successful fruiting on mixes without oak or maple.
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deadmandave
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Re: Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp [Re: Silentraindrops]
#28600602 - 12/28/23 08:03 AM (1 month, 8 hours ago) |
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Yeah I've been growing on pine for a few years. I use a brand called Noah's choice, they cost about $7/40lbs.
Traeger or any smoker pellets will be cost prohibitive.
I grew shiitake for a few months and they did fine on the same pellets as the others. I used bran and pine. Yield was never super impressive but my fruiting conditions weren't optimal - too hot and also inconsistent humidity and temp.
Anyways, for most of your growing needs, use what's local and available.
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fiddle_head
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Re: Tractor Supply/Walmart/Lowe’s pine or cedar wood shavings, hwfp [Re: fiddle_head]
#28600619 - 12/28/23 08:21 AM (1 month, 8 hours ago) |
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Yeah I believe the Appalachian hardwood blend from like TSC or kirkland smoker pellets, ace hardware is another place to check if you are near one.
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