The mushroom farm is looking good this morning. This is my first run of grow bags, and they're not fully colonized because the substrate was too wet, but they're still growing strong.
I have 2 lions mane blocks, and 1 king oyster right now. Cant wait to eat them.
@DanIsWriting
Awesome! I’ve always wanted to try growing mushrooms. Congrats on your success!
@Lillyrat its totally worth it. If you buy ready to grow fruiting blocks, its fairly easy and you will usually get good results.
This is my first attempts at making my own blocks, and I'm learning a lot. One day I would like to have a fully functional mushroom farm and sell locally, but I'm a long way away from that.
@DanIsWriting @Lillyrat What are you using for substrate? For now, I'm still just buying kits, but at some point I'd like to start making my own substrate, too.
@HaikuHedgehog @DanIsWriting My bro has been growing with his own substrate (I don’t know what it’s made of), but has found that he has to spend a lot of time with proper sterilization or he has problems. I don’t know if it’s the kind of mushrooms he’s growing, the substrate he’s using, or if this varies by the kind of mushroom. He also runs a hepa filter nearby. I’m def curious what results others have had.
@Lillyrat @HaikuHedgehog yeah, proper sterilization is key for consistency. Its like, 40% of the process. You can do it without proper sterilization, and it will work, but it will have inconsistent yeilds and colonization rates. Right now I'm taking my time to find techniques that work for me that can be scaled up as I grow this into a business. If I only perfect substrate handling and nothing else, most of my work will be done.
@HaikuHedgehog @Lillyrat I'm using wood pellets, because I have a lot of them for my pellet stove. Soon I'm going to switch to sawdust, because I have a few local sources that I can get it for free.
@DanIsWriting I also have a novel about a viral apocalypse (wrote book 1 pre-COVID - yikes!) and book 2 features mold/fungus/mushrooms as a means of fighting the virus.
@MKMartin thats a cool idea, I could see how that could be a solution, especially with the antiviral and immune boosting properties of many mushrooms.
I thought about mycellium as a cause of a zombie infection. Mycellial networks replacing neural pathways in the brain and hijacking the body. Maybe I will, but I love mushrooms too much, and don't want them to be the bad guys.
@DanIsWriting Grow bags are cool. I've always wanted to try that. You know if you edit the pic a wee bit and then save it before posting it will be right side up.
@RCLZ yeah, I did see that somewhere. I just tell myself that its just extra style angles.
@DanIsWriting That is so cool!