Churpee Choozle said:

Yeah I normally give first timers cubensis or a low dose of cyanescens. But I must say that for me, cyan clade woodlovers aren't 'tame' at higher doses (say 2-4 gram). Nothing scares the piss our of me like Ps cyan.

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Churpee Choozle said:

Though I must say that Pan cyan seems to have more potential for chaos. ...the swings and goofyness of Pan cyan.

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Adas said:

Great work Kloakk, but why add all the plastic? Is it to keep the critters out? Or do you live in a particularly wet climate? Where I am that wouldn't do at all - any parts of the mycelium cake not in contact with soil would dry out and die.

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My whole property is built on rock and both beds slopes into a rock pit. My thought was that it will pool water every time we get some solid rain and I was warned about the cake drowning. So I figured leca would help with drainage. Without the cloth I was thinking that the leca would just be clogged and drainage would fail.

I also asked about the importance of the chips touching soil and was told it was basically not a concern, now I'm conserned

Since they were put outside today I guess it's no problem removing everything except the leca, put down a layer of soil with some perlite and put the chips directly on that, does that sounds like a better option?

Thanks for looking out Adas, appreciate it

Kloakk said:

Adas said:

Great work Kloakk, but why add all the plastic? Is it to keep the critters out? Or do you live in a particularly wet climate? Where I am that wouldn't do at all - any parts of the mycelium cake not in contact with soil would dry out and die.

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My whole property is built on rock and both beds slopes into a rock pit. My thought was that it will pool water every time we get some solid rain and I was warned about the cake drowning. So I figured leca would help with drainage. Without the cloth I was thinking that the leca would just be clogged and drainage would fail.

I also asked about the importance of the chips touching soil and was told it was basically not a concern, now I'm conserned

Since they were put outside today I guess it's no problem removing everything except the leca, put down a layer of soil with some perlite and put the chips directly on that, does that sounds like a better option?

Thanks for looking out Adas, appreciate it

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No problem, but the best solution will depend on your climate. As a general rule though, woodlovers LOVE soil contact. The more the better. Here summers are hot and dry, but even in Fall we often don't get enough rain for decent fruiting. I wouldn't make a bed without a generous amount of soil mixed thoroughly with the chips. Hell, perhaps more soil than chips.

Soil functions as a rain sponge. Mycelium is hydrophobic and if it rains on just mycelium chips, the water rolls right off and it doesn't hydrate them. If there's soil, it will soak up the rain and gently, slowly feed it to the mycelium and chips so they can become hydrated.

Just my 2 cents.

LewDoja said:

Plastic VS cloth are two different material with completely different properties... The cloth I imagine has drainage unlike plastic would.

It's also been advised to have some kind of separation such as cardboard before laying out new beds, no?

I'd like to say you're  good kloakk, but wait for the experts

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The cloth let's water through, but not much else, however, there is no contact with any soil except on one side in the big bed, so maybe add a layer of soil on top of the cloth and then add the chips?

Any other advice from whoever is welcome, this is all new territory for me and appreciate the help

Adas said:

No problem, but the best solution will depend on your climate. As a general rule though, woodlovers LOVE soil contact. The more the better. Here summers are hot and dry, but even in Fall we often don't get enough rain for decent fruiting. I wouldn't make a bed without a generous amount of soil mixed thoroughly with the chips. Hell, perhaps more soil than chips.

Soil functions as a rain sponge. Mycelium is hydrophobic and if it rains on just mycelium chips, the water rolls right off and it doesn't hydrate them. If there's soil, it will soak up the rain and gently, slowly feed it to the mycelium and chips so they can become hydrated.

Just my 2 cents.

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I would say we have a balanced climate, but I have no clue how good that will be for my Azurescens and would love to hear your thoughts after taking a look at the chart.



Edit: I also read that Azurescens don't colonize coir very well, would that be an option to soil or maybe good to mix with the soil. I get that it doesn't hold water very well outside if it is exposed, but I was thinking if it was mixed in with the chips.

Quote:

Nothing scares the piss our of me like Ps cyans.

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Generic said:

happening now...

funny that none are fruiting out of the center, any thoughts?
reminds me of a fairy ring, though some of you might just call them 'side pins'

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^May of 2025


I was thinking about how last year's ovoid fruiting was all at the soil interface, and this current fruiting is literally all around the edges in contact with soil.  (within 8 in of soil)  the part that contacts an other, older wood chip pile, is not fruiting.

4/15/2026
Another sprinkling rainy day, I think this is the 4th or 5th day in a row of at least a little bit of rain every day.


They start to develop their umbos at about this time, before the cap unfurls.


I went looking around and found some impressive rhizomes shooting out into the soil under leafs, and what looks like the second flush, coming in.  Here are some baby pictures.  Notice the soil interaction.


My ps. cyanescens fruited all over last fall, including the middle of the patch, though.

Thanks for saying that, Adas, I'll be experimenting with loong wood chip beds for more perimeter, and mixing soil in.

Tweeq said:

I think you should be good Kloakk.
If you really need cloth underneath, Idk. I'm not a believer in creating a barrier myself but it depends more on drainage. Too wet for too long isn't good but unless you live in the NL or UK or somewhere wet like that it shouldn't be an issue.

It can't  hurt to sprinkle some potting soil on top to keep it from drying out but you can also do this later, as I have done before. Not sure if it's really needed though.

Good work man! Don't worry too much about it.

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Thank you kind sir It seems your beds and patches all have soil mixed in with the chips, is that the case or is it just mixed with the top layer? I would think I have pretty much the same climate as both NL and UK.

And I've read several post now saying that woodlovers often fruit where they meet soil, so I'm torn on what to do really. I want do do this properly and I want to do it soon rather then later as I would like to mostly LITFA

Generic said:

Generic said:

happening now...

funny that none are fruiting out of the center, any thoughts?
reminds me of a fairy ring, though some of you might just call them 'side pins'

---

^May of 2025


I was thinking about how last year's ovoid fruiting was all at the soil interface, and this current fruiting is literally all around the edges in contact with soil.  (within 8 in of soil)  the part that contacts an other, older wood chip pile, is not fruiting.

4/15/2026
Another sprinkling rainy day, I think this is the 4th or 5th day in a row of at least a little bit of rain every day.


They start to develop their umbos at about this time, before the cap unfurls.


I went looking around and found some impressive rhizomes shooting out into the soil under leafs, and what looks like the second flush, coming in.  Here are some baby pictures.  Notice the soil interaction.


My ps. cyanescens fruited all over last fall, including the middle of the patch, though.

Thanks for saying that, Adas, I'll be experimenting with loong wood chip beds for more perimeter, and mixing soil in.

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Thanks for the insight, again I keep reading about woodlovers fruiting where they meet soil, I am now leaning towards pulling shit up and doing some changes.


Right now I'm thinking of leaving the leca at the bottom to avoid my chips sitting in water, I am also thinking I'll keep the cloth(water and roots easily penetrate it), but I think I'll lay down a layer of substrate on top of the cloth and on all sides of the beds. What I am uncertain of is if I should mix substrate among the chips as well and if I should have a substrate top layer

So any thoughts from you fine people would be helpful. I have potting soil, perlite and coir, I actually have a 5kg shitty brick of coir I don't want to use for indoor grows so if I could use that it would be great, even just to get a better structure to whatever substrate mix I end up doing.

Thanks again everyone

Churpee Choozle said:

@Kloakk: I think you're fine man, you just tend to overthink stuff. Doesn't seem to hold you back from producing absolutely sick grows.

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Thanks Churpee, and yes overthinking is a big part of who I am, just can't help it
I also love seeing my mushrooms thrive without much interferens after the ground work has been done and it pays off most of the time. So yeah I am for sure overthinking this, but the better I get it set up from the start, the less work and overthinking comes down the line.

And would appreciate any thoughts you have on the changes I'm thinking about doing bud

Roger Heim said:

Hi woodlovers lovers,

3 days ago, I got a nice surprise, some Azurescens started to appear in a 8 liters pot where I put some "azurescensed" wooden chips 18 months ago.
I was not expected it at 48°N during spring time!?!

This night, to check the spores presence, I left under shrooms a piece of white paper:
NO spores yet.

So, my question is:
when do I have to pick up them?
when is it the right time?

Have a very nice day everybody.

^_^

Roger Heim.

PS: I created an identical post, if it's "doubling"(?), I can delete it, sorry, I'm quiet new on Shroomery.  : )))

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