Who grow their own Mushrooms? (Non-hippies only)

dks · **on:** December 31, 2011, 10:34:19 AM

I was at the DIY shop and came across a bale of Hay in a plastic bag.
I was told that you water the hay through the bag with a sprayer 2 to 4 times a day and the mushroom spores allready invluded in the hay will grow into Pleurotus mushrooms (Oyster) in about 10 days.... (Cost was 7 Euro)

So I bought one to try.

I have it in my workshop which is cool and shady, though it gets some light in the morning.

I am quite competent at picking wild mushrooms and have been doing that for many years. There are about 5, decent, edible varieties here.

Though, to me, cultivated Oyster mushrooms lack the texture and taste of Wild mushrooms I thought it will be fun to grow them.

Anybody else tried that (Not in the sixties...)

papa_mcb · **Reply #1 on:** December 31, 2011, 02:01:59 PM

I have grown my own using a different technique, what i use is a mix of brown rice flower and vermiculite to create substrate cakes in canning jars and then inoculate the cakes to allow for colonization. Once colonized I birth the cakes into a terrarium and then mist once a day to keep humidity up. This process works pretty well and is alot if fun.

Watch out for dark green mold as it is the enemy and will contaminate your mushrooms and you will need to trow everything away.

Also you may want to place your mushrooms in a warm climate as they are very dependent on humidity.

Hope you enjoy your new venture, I would have to say it is very addicting.

dks · **Reply #2 on:** December 31, 2011, 04:06:11 PM

The room I have them in has a fridge and a computer in so it never really goes below 10C.
Maybe I will stick the bag out in the sun too.
Usually in the wild, mushrooms come out after you get heavy rain followed by a few days of strong sunlight.

I am only worried that I may overwater them.
The hay looks moist enough, but the instructions said to water 2-4 times a day.
So far I have plenty of white mold, like you see in the forests..

papa_mcb · **Reply #3 on:** January 01, 2012, 08:45:40 PM

Awesome the the white is the mycelium colonizing this is what you want to see ( I love watching this stuff grow) from my experience you just have to mist the area but then again we are talking about 2 completely different ways to grow mushrooms. I would love to see pics as they progress.

dks · **Reply #4 on:** January 07, 2012, 04:07:07 PM

Here is what I have as of today.

Reinier · **Reply #5 on:** January 07, 2012, 04:18:58 PM

Cool. The only mushrooms I've ever grown were in my coffee machine

dks · **Reply #6 on:** January 09, 2012, 07:33:56 PM

growing..... lots of smaller ones too!!

tattoosteve99 · **Reply #7 on:** January 09, 2012, 08:52:25 PM

Be careful. You got a fungus growing on that thing. Lol

dks · **Reply #8 on:** January 09, 2012, 08:59:40 PM

Quote from: tattoosteve99 on January 09, 2012, 08:52:25 PM

Be careful. You got a fungus growing on that thing. Lol

you have to eat it without thinking what it actually is... The whole bag now looks pretty disgusting...

dks · **Reply #9 on:** January 12, 2012, 06:44:26 PM

today!!!!

MirrorEdge · **Reply #10 on:** January 13, 2012, 11:38:56 AM

Good job

dks · **Reply #11 on:** January 13, 2012, 12:01:56 PM

Thank you!

I should be able to eat some in a few days.

papa_mcb · **Reply #12 on:** January 13, 2012, 04:43:59 PM

those are looking really nice

dks · **Reply #13 on:** January 13, 2012, 05:19:01 PM

A couple of quick ones from today, showing some of the areas of growth from two sides of the bag.

dks · **Reply #14 on:** January 16, 2012, 06:40:57 PM

I took the bag off yesterday, see how it goes.

Some pictures from today.
I think the big ones should be cut and taken care off, however since I am not really familiar with this type of mushrooms I have no idea how big they get..

dks · **Reply #15 on:** January 17, 2012, 05:10:18 PM

Chow Mein, with my mushrooms (and beef)

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