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Jeremy_Davis
Mycelial NetworkAdministrator
Registered: 04/22/05
Posts: 652
Loc: Florida
Last seen: 11 years, 11 months
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Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate
#4514810 - 08/09/05 03:04 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Hey all! I've been having a really hard time trying to find hardwood sawdust or chips to make my substrate. I searched the posts here, and didn't see any suggestions for a National Brand X BBQ chips, or mulch (only went back a year tho). I've called local mills, no one has only hardwood chips (unmixed with softwoods). The local mulch places only carry cypress, red mulch or melaluca (SW Florida), none of which will work. The feed store only has pine shavings for bedding because apparently some hardwoods are toxic to horses. I do know a place that will deliver a dump truck load for $200, but that's too much, and I don't think I can get less.
Is there a nationally available brand of something made of hardwoods that wood lovers would like? (Kind of like a Pennington's WBS, but for wood chips). This may be bedding materials, mulching, BBQ chips...
Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Jeremy Davis
-------------------- Jeremy Davis Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, Inc. Check out the ECHO mushroom blog page to see our lab, growing facility, and more-www.echotech.org/greta
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Mindzpore
Psychedelicious
Registered: 04/05/05
Posts: 319
Loc: Reject the concept of loc...
Last seen: 7 years, 5 months
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: Jeremy_Davis]
#4514837 - 08/09/05 03:10 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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im planning to use the stuff my local pet shop sells for rabbit cages. its probably not pure hardwood. but worth a try as it s very easy to come by and cheap.
-------------------- Mindzpores words of wisdom: "If you think something is foolproof, you just haven't met proper fools". Wiccan_Seeker said: "It is better to adjust to become a better listener than to keep on cranking up the volume".
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Aiko Aiko
Registered: 05/13/05
Posts: 6,418
Loc: Lazy River Road
Last seen: 12 minutes, 44 seconds
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: Mindzpore]
#4515329 - 08/09/05 05:59 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Wally World sells harwood chips for the BBQ, but I dont know if its small enough. This may be a dumb question, but does anyone have a suggestion for grinding these chips into a suitable substrate without having to buy a chipper?
-------------------- Easily test the dosage of your tabs at home! qtests.org Man says, "God, show me and I will believe." God says, "Believe and I will show you."
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure
Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 1 year, 1 month
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: Jeremy_Davis]
#4515350 - 08/09/05 06:05 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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You can use lumber if you want. Get birch, ash or oak shelving boards and saw them into strips. Oak or birch plywood also works very well. It's also a myth that pine won't work. That only applies to fresh cut pine. You can buy cheap 2 X 4's at the lumber yard and they work ok once cut into strips. Hardwoods are better, but pine will work in a pinch. The kiln drying process removes any toxins to mushrooms that are in the pine. Another source is the birch and oak wood dowels that wood working shops use when gluing tables together. Do an internet search for 'spiral grooved hardwood dowels' and order a package.
Oak sawdust fuel pellets work fine for hardwood sawdust. Another source I use in my city is wood working shops that build doors. They have bags full of oak, ash and birch sawdust. If you just can't find sawdust, coir from the pet shop is a great replacement for sawdust, however it's several bucks for a brick, while you can find sawdust free if you keep looking. The following coffee can reishi grow was done on sawdust fuel pellets, coir, coffee grinds and birch plywood strips. 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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Aiko Aiko
Registered: 05/13/05
Posts: 6,418
Loc: Lazy River Road
Last seen: 12 minutes, 44 seconds
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: Aiko Aiko]
#4515462 - 08/09/05 06:39 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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So as long as it's not treated lumber it's OK to use?
-------------------- Easily test the dosage of your tabs at home! qtests.org Man says, "God, show me and I will believe." God says, "Believe and I will show you."
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Jeremy_Davis
Mycelial NetworkAdministrator
Registered: 04/22/05
Posts: 652
Loc: Florida
Last seen: 11 years, 11 months
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: Aiko Aiko]
#4515595 - 08/09/05 07:15 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Rodger, Thanks for taking your time to help out. Fuel pellets are a little difficult to come by in South Florida, but you CAN find them, at specialty shops that cater to that kind of item. I like the wood shops that work with doors! I'll start calling around tomorrow when the shops open for business. I have a huge pile of wood chips out on our farm here, that I can use for free. One of the directors there was telling me that it was a mixture of hard and softwoods. He said that it did have some pine, so I immediately ruled out that pile. However with Rodger's post, I may give that woodchip pile a whirl. Rodger, how much by weight or volume (whichever you prefer) of coffee grinds and coir would you suggest using in with the substrate? I'm planning on using 2:1 sawdust: wood chips, and then mixing in 1 part wheat bran to 4 parts wood mixture, 1% gypsum, 3% flax seed, and B1 ( I forget how much to add, but I'm sure I'll find my reference.) I'm surprised at the difficulty I ran up against trying to find the unmixed chips and sawdust. Thanks for the tips everyone, keep 'em coming. Light and Love, Jeremy Davis
-------------------- Jeremy Davis Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, Inc. Check out the ECHO mushroom blog page to see our lab, growing facility, and more-www.echotech.org/greta
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure
Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 1 year, 1 month
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: Aiko Aiko]
#4515658 - 08/09/05 07:44 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Gobblin said: So as long as it's not treated lumber it's OK to use?
Correct, treated lumber has arsenic, a deadly poison. Don't even build a deck with that stuff. If you do, don't walk barefoot or lay on it to get a tan. 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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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure
Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 1 year, 1 month
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: RogerRabbit]
#4515683 - 08/09/05 07:53 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Jeremy, I'd cut back on the bran and up the gypsum. To be honest, I hardly ever measure any of that stuff. I just toss it in a bin and stir it up...lol. I save coffee grinds from the morning coffee by tossing in an uncovered dish outside in the sun. This way they dry out and don't grow mold before you're ready to use. Coir is an excellent substrate material for cubies as well as wood lovers. Use as much or as little as you want. It's expensive, so I dont use much unless I'm having a hard time finding sawdust. I also get sawdust sometimes from Lowe's where they have their big plywood saw set up. It's a mixture of everything, but works just fine. Home depot won't let me have any. They throw it out, but won't give it away. . .bastards.
If you can get wood chips and sawdust mixed up, use it. Don't worry about trying to follow stamet's recipie to the letter. Just have big and small wood chips, with sawdust in between to help the mycelium crawl between the chunks of wood, and it will work fine. Remember, in the wild, they grow on dead, rotting trees. 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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Jeremy_Davis
Mycelial NetworkAdministrator
Registered: 04/22/05
Posts: 652
Loc: Florida
Last seen: 11 years, 11 months
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: RogerRabbit]
#4518109 - 08/10/05 12:24 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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I found a local guy that grinds his own trees and sells an all hardwood mix of oak, austrailian pine (the evergreen, not the pine with the sap, at least that's how HE described it), fruit trees, a little mahogany for $40 for a cubic yard, so I'm going to try that. Thanks for all the suggestion guys! This was much harder than I thought to locate. Where would I come by gypsum? Health food stores, pet shops? The feed store didn't carry it. Many thanks, I'll keep ya all posted. Jeremy Davis
-------------------- Jeremy Davis Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, Inc. Check out the ECHO mushroom blog page to see our lab, growing facility, and more-www.echotech.org/greta
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shirley knott
not my real name
Registered: 11/11/02
Posts: 9,105
Loc: London
Last seen: 7 years, 2 months
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: Jeremy_Davis]
#4518179 - 08/10/05 12:47 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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gypsum: calcium sulphate. used as drywall in DIY and hardware shops.
-------------------- buh
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ThumpaCap
Beer Taster
Registered: 02/19/05
Posts: 568
Loc: Shroomwhere Out There
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: shirley knott]
#4518750 - 08/10/05 03:39 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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you can get gypsum at the outside section at home depot... so you dont have to worry about the glue used in plywood ??
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-------------------- Look into my heyes !!
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agar
old hand
Registered: 11/21/04
Posts: 9,056
Loc: Somewhere Else
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: RogerRabbit]
#4519306 - 08/10/05 06:49 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Cabinet maker shops that do a lot of spendy hardwood work, is a good source of sawdust & shavings - off their saws & planers.
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ThumpaCap
Beer Taster
Registered: 02/19/05
Posts: 568
Loc: Shroomwhere Out There
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: agar]
#4519637 - 08/10/05 08:26 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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the local high school's woodshop could be a good place to find sawdust...
-------------------- Look into my heyes !!
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mushrx1
rainy season
Registered: 04/22/05
Posts: 80
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: Jeremy_Davis]
#4520161 - 08/10/05 10:18 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Good chips come off the router table too. Ask some cabinetry shops as well as the door and window guys. You don't have to add chips to sawdust. It can be either. the important thing to keep track of is that your "block" doesn't get anaerobic with soggy wet spots. Adjusting the water % will control that. Crunchy is a good target for your blocks before inoculation (squeeze the bag), but I just finished a block of shiitake with lots of excess water pooling up inside. The mycelia just needs air with that water, that's all.
Good luck
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Jeremy_Davis
Mycelial NetworkAdministrator
Registered: 04/22/05
Posts: 652
Loc: Florida
Last seen: 11 years, 11 months
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: mushrx1]
#4524082 - 08/11/05 10:05 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Thank you!
-------------------- Jeremy Davis Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, Inc. Check out the ECHO mushroom blog page to see our lab, growing facility, and more-www.echotech.org/greta
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Jeremy_Davis
Mycelial NetworkAdministrator
Registered: 04/22/05
Posts: 652
Loc: Florida
Last seen: 11 years, 11 months
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Re: Help finding hardwood chips/sawdust for reishi substrate [Re: Jeremy_Davis]
#4528537 - 08/13/05 12:12 AM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Just to keep everyone posted: I went out to meet the guy who grinds his own hardwoods. He was very kind and gave about 150lbs. of his wood grinds to test with my reishi mushrooms for free. It was about 1/4 yard, he said. The thing is that he said that the wood was kept outside, under a tarp for about three months. It seemed like the wood was mixed with a rich soil. When I asked him, he explained that the wood composts over time and this was what the "soil" was. I think that is good, is this correct? The moisture content seems very nice. Almost perfect. I'll keep everyone posted on the progress. Light and Love, Jeremy Davis
-------------------- Jeremy Davis Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, Inc. Check out the ECHO mushroom blog page to see our lab, growing facility, and more-www.echotech.org/greta
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