home grown shiitake and King oysters

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by worowa, May 7, 2010.

  1. worowa

    worowa Junior Member

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    I grow these delicious mushies on cooked grains (wheat, rye, oats, brown rice etc.-either solo or in combo) and a bit of gypsum, which I place on a few sheets of newspaper (for food and to soak up excess moisture) inside a filter patch bag. I Pressure cook the bags for 2 hours at between 5 and 15 psi, then let them cool for a few hours. Then I open them, sprinkle in some grain spawn or drop in an agar wedge of mycelium, seal the bag, and wait for a month or 3.
     

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  2. worowa

    worowa Junior Member

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    I sometimes use crushed eggshells, carrot pulp from juicing, left overs from dinner, stale cereals etc. as the substrate to King oysters on.
     

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  3. Speedy

    Speedy Junior Member

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    Hey Worowa, I like your idea with the layer of newspaper in the grainspawn.
    Sometimes it gets just a bit too wet and can inhibit good colonization.
    I'll be trying that out next time I knock some up.
    Thanks

    They look tastey!
    do you know what strain of Shiitake you have there?
     
  4. worowa

    worowa Junior Member

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    Thanks Speedy. I'm amazed at how well it works, with the newspaper. I've never had shiitake fruit so quickly.
    I don't know which strain it is, from a market mushroom. I'll clone some from the next flush and send you a plate if you want.
     

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  5. Speedy

    Speedy Junior Member

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    Thanks worowa,
    but I'm a bit behind with the cultures I've got going atm.
    maybe later though.

    Just curious... do you have Almond Agaricus culture?
     
  6. worowa

    worowa Junior Member

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    Hi Speedy,
    No, I don't have any agaricus cultures. Do you mean blazei?
    I fill the ute with spent bags from a commercial button mushroom farm, about 50 bags for a case of beer. They chuck them after the first flush, so I get 2 months of new flushes before the worms get them.
    Much easier than doing the whole process myself.

    When I was in Tassie, I could get free spent logs of all the gourmet mushrooms they grow. They even had Maitake for a while, until a rival company from NSW complained.
     
  7. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Arrh. . . very clever, so do you just buy an unusual mushroom you want to grow, take it home and wait for the spores to pop/drop out?

    so many plants can be grown from the 'veggie/greengrocer shop'.
     
  8. Speedy

    Speedy Junior Member

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    Yeah i've done that, also used spent comercial ones as spawn under straw/ paper mulch and had big yields the following season.
    even kicking it around on the lawn and watering it in can work sometimes.

    "...rival company from NSW complained (about Maitake??)?"
    Why?
    Arrrrrgh!

    I've never seen it in Australia.
    If I did I'd surely grab some and culture it.

    The Almond Agaricus... I found some, pretty sure it was A.subrufescens , at Myocum a few years back.
    I put it into sterile culture and have since lost it.
    Before that I handed some out , but cant remember if it was to you or Jim...
    I was just wondering if anyone still has it.

    It was fruiting up around Byron recently and a friend wanted to know if it was edible.
    I gave him nice recipe for it.
    He said it was great, but didn't save any spores or send a mushie for me to clone. :-(
     
  9. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    With the current, recently discovered epidemic of Vit D deficiency this is interesting; and a worry about how mushrooms are presently factory farmed under lights.
    https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/05/04/2560266.htm
    this also
    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100401101519.htm
     
  10. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    How can a mushroom be more "mushroomy"! LOL

    Where do you grow them? Have you got a special mushroom "cave"?
     
  11. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    And what's a filter patch bag?
     
  12. Speedy

    Speedy Junior Member

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    A filter patch bag is a bag made for growing sterile cultures in, that is sealed but can exchange air through a filter patch
    while excluding potential contaminating organisms ( fungi and mould spores, bacteria, viruses etc).
    the bags are made of plastics that can withstand sterilization temperatures (121degC), usually polypropylene.

    They're often used for growing mushroom spawn in.
    Also, for fruiting 'gourmet' wood loving species to fruiting stage.
    After colonization of the substrate by the mycelium, the top of the bag is cut off before initiation of fruiting.
     
  13. worowa

    worowa Junior Member

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    I usually take a piece of mushroom tissue, and drop it onto enriched agar in a petri dish. Spores are more complicated.

    No cave, just bags in my kitchen, study etc.

    Speedy summed up the filter patch bags-thanks, except for me, I usually don't cut the bags open until some mushrooms are ready to pick. Different filters allow for different rates of gas exchange, some bags are designed for fruiting.

    Damn shame about the Maitake. Jealousy I believe was the reason, because the NSW grower couldn't get permission to grow Maitake, they argued no one in Oz should be allowed to. The NSW grower told me all this at a market one morning.

    When I started out, I used recycled jam jars, plastic buckets, etc....the bags are just easier and more reliable, and the used bags make great little plant grow bags-like a mini greenhouse.

    Apparently the Vitamin D content of Shiitake (I think it was Shiitake) increases massively if the gills (underside of mushroom) are exposed to sunlight for a day.
     
  14. Speedy

    Speedy Junior Member

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    Vitamin D...I recall something about that with Reishi/ Ling Zhi (Ganoderma spp.)
    It may have been one of Stamets books...
    I think maybe Mycelium Running there's a pic of Ganoderma drying upside down in the sun.

    The Maitake culture may still be here.
    surely if it was, no one in their right mind would let it be lost....?
    Anyway if there are the right conditions for it here somewhere it may turn up anyway,
    y'know how spores may travel around the globe on air currents before settling.

    Ghetto Teks are good, they allow more people to grow without specialized , expensive equipment.
    Fruit jars, jam jars, micropore tape, oven bags, takeaway food containers, beer agar,
    dogfood agar, wild bird seed, Hydrogen peroxide
    Pressure cooker , metho etc.
    stuff you find in the supermarket, chemist or around the home is enough to allow you to grow your own mushrooms.
     
  15. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Speedy / Worowa can you do a mini-tutorial on how a non-mushroom grower like me could do this at home using the stuff that I have to hand? Seeing those wonderful pictures makes me want to give it a go.... I've grown a few by sticking bags of spent mushy compost under the back deck and waiting, but I only ever get a handful from one bag.
     
  16. worowa

    worowa Junior Member

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    Sure, sometime soon I'll post a start to finish tutorial, the way I do it now. Be happy for you to add to it Speedy.

    Here are a few older grows. The recycled take away food containers work great, the plastic breathes a bit compared to glass. That said, glass jars work well too, but much slower growth.
     

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  17. gbell

    gbell Junior Member

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    Does anyone here in Oz bother growing Shitakes on oak logs? If so, where the heck do you get oak logs in Australia?

    I saw from Rowan Reid's site that he's had success using some hardwoods - at least those are local but still who do you call to get logs of a particular type of tree??
     
  18. gbell

    gbell Junior Member

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    Obtaining logs?

    Does anyone here in Oz bother growing Shitakes on oak logs? If so, where the heck do you get oak logs in Australia?

    I saw from Rowan Reid's site that he's had success using some hardwoods - at least those are local but still who do you call to get logs of a particular type of tree??
     
  19. Speedy

    Speedy Junior Member

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    Hi gbell,
    Rowan grows them on tassie bluegum (E.globulus) and very likely other Eucs. from plantation thinnings.
    most lighter coloured Eucalypt timber should be ok for Shiitake.
    they're about the right density similar to Querces spp.
    some wattles and banksia should be ok as well.

    Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus spp. and Hypsizygus ulmarius) prefer softer deciduous 'hardwoods' eg poplar, elm, alder, maple, willow etc.
    also worth trying 'weed' trees.
    depending on where you are they may be Camphor laurel, privet, Erythrina spp. etc.

    Wood ear fungi (Auricularia spp.) can be found growing naturally in eastern Aust. on dead native fig (F.platypoda, F.coronata) wood.

    I usually grown shiitake on messmate (E.obliqua) sawdust in bags.

    ...from reconstituted sawdust firelogs
    https://www.ecologs.com/

    the sawdust is heated and compressed in the process of making the logs and as a result,
    the peroxide decomposing enzymes that are naturally occuring in wood are broken down.

    this means that you can grow wood loving mushrooms useing the peroxide method
    and thus eliminating the need for some expensive lab gear (laminar flow hood -HEPA filter).
    https://www.mycomasters.com/

    here's a post by in another forum about growing mushrooms in log rafts in the garden.
    https://www.australianethnobotany.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=464

    and here's a new forum about growing edible mushrooms
    https://www.ediblemushroom.org/forum/index.php

    you should find plenty of info to help you in this forum...
    https://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showforum=14
     
  20. Speedy

    Speedy Junior Member

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    Ther's also https://www.pelletheaters.com.au/ for wood heater pellets.... located at Woodburn!!;)
    they should be very good for the peroxide method.
    just add hot water to the pellets and they swell to become sawdust.
    from memory the pellets are 80% Euc and 20% Pine sawdust
     

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