My indoor mushroom kit (agaricus bisporus)

[Riz]

Salaam everyone,

For a while i wanted to grow mushrooms indoors, ( edible not magic mushrooms) and a couple of days ago i managed to get hold of a mushroom growing kit for under £5, this is my first time growing mushrooms, so here is a "newbies" guide of how to do it,

It says on the kit that i can harvest 3 times and get a pound ( in weight) of mushrooms :)

i am doing this grow as we speak. I will be following the instructions that came with the kit by verbatim

pic 1 : mushroom kit polystyrene box
pic 2 : plastic bag containing casing soil
pic 3: polystyrene box containing spawned compost

[Riz]

growing instructions

Remove the bag containing the casing soil and store in dark location until required.

store the box with the spawned compost, ensuring the lid is firmly in place in a warm location with an approx temperature of 20-25c ( 68-77f). After 4 days the casing soil needs to be spread on top of the spawned compost.

I emptied the soil out in a bucket and crushed all the lumpy soil by hand so its nice and loose

[Riz]

Lightly spread the soil over the layer of spawned compost, making sure its all even, Give it a nice soaking with water using a a fine sprinkler rose ( if you have one)

replace the lid and store for further 5 to 8 days at 20-25c ( 68-77f)

During this period the mycelium ( growth filaments) will begin to grow upwards towards the layer of casing soil. To check the growth make a narrow hole in the soil with a match stick, this should allow you to see the greyish mycelium. allow the mycelium to develop up to a few millimetres under the surface of the soil. It is important that you repeatedly check this as it is essential that the mycelium does not grow on the surface

so the box is sealed now at the temps mentioned above, i will leave the box in the room and report back as soon as something happens :)

Riz-

[Riz]

the latest pics..

as you can see the mushrooms sprouting out everywhere, very close together though.. but what do i care.. i grew mushrooms :)

should be able to harvest 3 times from the same spawn.. in a couple of weeks the mushrooms will get bigger,, as you can see the small mushrooms sprouting as well behind the big mushroom........

[Riz]

these little button nose mushrooms are growing really fast... some pics taken today for your delight....

[Riz]

another pic taken today....

[Riz]

One mushroom is a mutant and towers over the rest.....

mushroom on toast me thinks... :)

[Riz]

soooo,

does anyone like eating mushrooms or ever grown them indoors like i have :confused:

[~Obsidian~]

Mushrooms...they're ok in a mix of stuff! Never wanted to grow any :) heres the closest I got, which was purely accidental and trust me, nobody attempted to eat these!

[Riz]

nice pic.

It looks like a magic one :)

[~Obsidian~]

:eek:

[Riz]

i didnt get much of a crop too be honest with you. on the back of the packet it said you can harvest the mushrooms on 3 diffrent occasions with the same spores but i only managed one grow, but it was intresting growing mushrooms with zero light, if only you could do that with vegetables eh lol

[~Obsidian~]

Sure you can, if you want etiolated plants :p

Just chalk it down to experience eh :) thinking to grow more?

[Riz]

naaa.. i enjoyed growing them , i was curious for a while i am glad i did it though

[globalart4u]

you need to be careful with wild mushroom we used to go looking for porcini in belgium in the county of luxembourg, not to be mixed up with country. they were great but i went with italians who knew what they were looking for.

We stopped eating mushrooms as someone told us they were grown in pig waste but i could never find out if it was true or not so as a precaution we stopped

[Te'oma]

mabrooks on a job well done. Most people that try to grow one of these kits usually fail.
Growing mushrooms can be addicting, especially if you start getting into growing the more exotic wood lovers like ****akes or oysters. The agaricus busporis mushrooms are what most of us fungifiles get started with :) but the truth is that you don't need to buy a kit if you want to grow them.
I grow mushrooms outdoors in beds. It's a great way to make rich soil for other flowers and veggies to be planted after the spawn has run it's course :D

[~Obsidian~]

How do you grow them outside?

[Te'oma]

it depends on the mushroom. Agaracus Bispora is a dung lover so to grow them I would first, grow a culture out on agar and transfer that to a flask of rye seeds to grow on or wheat. When it has grown all through that, this is where it gets messy, I would collect some fresh horse dung or cow dung.
I place it all in large cotton bags and boil it in water in a 200 litre barrell for about 1.5 hours. This pasteurizes the dung and removes excess nitrogen and other nutrients. The bags are then hung to drain and cool for 12 hours.
The next step, while the bags are hanging, is to dig a hole about 20 cm deep and as long as you need for the amount of spawn that you wish to grow. Make sure that it's in an area that is shady. Set the soil aside because you will be needing it again.
When the dung has cooled, fill a 20L pail about 4/5 full with the dung and mix in 250-500 ml of rye grain or wheat that has been infected with the mushroom. You have to mix it well, by hand, making sure to break up any large clumps. Once it's all mixed, you can fill the bed with the dung/mushroom mix to create a layer about 15 cm deep. Keep the layer nice and even.
Once the bed is completely full, you spread a 5 cm layer of soil over top of the mix. If your soil is very alkaline, then I would suggest that you use commercial potting soil.
Keep the soil moist but not wet. Within about 2 weeks you will see white mycelium growing up through the soil. To initiate pinning you need to have about 75% humidity and temps around 70-80F at soil level so if necessary, you can cover the bed with plastic sheeting to increase humidity. It's a little harder to control temps though.
Usually you will get mushrooms in the spring and in the fall from this method. When the bed stops producing, dig it up and use it as an excellent soil booster.

[Riz]

Nice write up :)

you can grow them on "logs" aswell cant ya !? do you have any experience on it ? i would love to see some pics thats if you taken any...

[Te'oma]

growing on logs is limited to species like oysters, ****akes or giant stropharias. I used to have a small side business growing gourmets for local restaurants but I lost all of my old pix when my hd crashed.

[Riz]

I have thought about it, i was reading a website which sold the logs last year i was very impressed by them, I did not know there was so much money involved in growing gourmet mushrooms :)

truffles are very expenisve though, is that a part of the shroom family ?

[Te'oma]

If you are growing mushrooms to make money then you need to operate a huge farm. When I was growing them I was just breaking even but it paid for my equipment and supplies so I could keep playing :D I was growing them simply because they have always fascinated me. I grew my first batch when I was 17...am 43 now and only stopped growing them a couple of years ago :D
Truffles are indeed mushrooms. I know people that make very good money innoculating blueberry fields with truffles. There is a symbiotic relationship between truffles and blueberries. The mushroom breaks down nutrients in the soil for the plant to use and in turn, the plant's roots exchange sugar with the fungus. Neither will grow that well without the other.
Until this relationship was discovered, commercial blueberry farms were impossible because you had to rely on wild plants and truffles were a delicacy only for the very rich since they had to be found in the wild.

[Riz]

wow really..

I didnt know about the blueberrys. I have only eaten the white button mushrooms in the past and never any exotic ones or magic ones ;)
through european history the magic mushrooms played an important part in the culture and worship of nature...

[Riz]

If any one fancies growing some mushrooms indoors ( edible ones)

2 websites selling the mushroom growing kits
http://www.gardeningexpress.co.uk/PlantCatalogue.asp?GroupID=30028

http://www.suttons.co.uk/pl_P-VEG.htm?gclid=CKXUleT5zpUCFQxgQgodpn7CiQ

[Te'oma]

wow really..

I didnt know about the blueberrys. I have only eaten the white button mushrooms in the past and never any exotic ones or magic ones ;)
through european history the magic mushrooms played an important part in the culture and worship of nature...

Well in Europe, that was mainly the amanita muscaria that was responsible and most of those traditions were rather nasty. I understand that some anthropologists also suggest that it was part of the practices of the early christian church and that it could have been responsible for the visions in Revelations.

If any one fancies growing some mushrooms indoors ( edible ones)

2 websites selling the mushroom growing kits
http://www.gardeningexpress.co.uk/PlantCatalogue.asp?GroupID=30028

http://www.suttons.co.uk/pl_P-VEG.htm?gclid=CKXUleT5zpUCFQxgQgodpn7CiQ

If anyone wants to try something that's really cool, get a 10lb or 4.4kg spawn bag of pleurotus ostreatus or oyster mushrooms. What you do is get a bale of straw and soak it in water for a couple of hours and then drain it so you can just squeeze out a bit of water if you grab a fistful. Fill a black garbage bag with the straw about 3/4 full.
Then take about 1/10th of the bag of spawn(you can use more if you just want to make one) and crumble it and mix it into the straw. Leave it someplace shady where it won't get too hot. After a couple of weeks cut several 1" holes in the bag and you will have mushrooms growing out of the holes shortly after that if conditions are right ie high humidity after a rainstorm.
This is essentially how commercial farms grow oyster mushrooms only they use special "sausage" bags and hang them. When you cut the holes, the mycelium senses the oxygen and thinks that it has broken through the bark of the "log" and starts producing mushrooms.
I used to get my supplies from a company here in BC called western biologicals down by Vancouver but if you are in the US I suggest a company called fungi perfecti in Washington. Paul(the owner) is one of the leading experts in the field of mycology today

[Riz]

if i could find a source in uk i would give it a go, How do you collect the spores though i always been intrested to find out ?

[Te'oma]

Most of the time, you grow clones of mushrooms rather then growing from spores. To grow from spores presents several problems since mushrooms carry the genetics of several spores up to hundreds of thousands. Mushrooms are what are called dikaryotic ie the result of genetic exchanges between multiple spores.
The way that it works is that when a spore germinates, it sends out a filament of mycelium that is actually searching for other filaments. A single spore has an incomplete genetic makeup and is incapable of producing a mushroom. When it reaches another filament, the threads fuse and exchange genetic material which usually results in a more robust mycelium. This spreads out and in turn fuses with other mycelium and each time that it encounters compatable mycelium, more genetic material is exchanged and the potential for greater variation occurs.
When mycologists have to resort to using spores they collect spore prints on paper, foil or plastic. They then use a special device called a loop to take a sample of the spores and transfer it to agar. The spores germinate and start growing with each petri dish being called a strain. Usually about 90% of the cultures are discarded and the fastest growing strains are kept. The fastest growing strains are the most likely to fruit well.
When the strains have completely covered the surface of the agar, they are transfered to grow on grain. Here again, only the fastest 10% are kept and the others are discarded.
When the mycelium has grown completely through the grain, the grain is used to innoculate appropriate substrates ie woodchips and sawdust for saprophytes and dung based substrates for coprophiles. After all this, the best producing strain is cloned and cultures are preserved to produce hundreds of generations of mushrooms with the best genetics.
Eventually these strains will atrophy and the mycologist will have to start all over again with spores but a single strain can last for 30 or 40 years.

[Riz]

mashallah its amazing how it works. you really do know a lot about it :)
arnt you even growing mushrooms for the family to consume for yourselves ?

[Te'oma]

No, not anymore. I used to have a lab set up and that was the part of it that I loved. The new house that we moved to is too small to dedicate that kind of space to a hobby.
We used to live out in the country but we moved back into town. The cost of fuel was killing us to get anywhere.

[Riz]

No, not anymore. I used to have a lab set up and that was the part of it that I loved. The new house that we moved to is too small to dedicate that kind of space to a hobby.
We used to live out in the country but we moved back into town. The cost of fuel was killing us to get anywhere.

thats a shame....

yeah the cost of fuel is killing us in uk aswell not forgetting the gas and electricity prices that have gone up 30%

[Te'oma]

Yeah, it's pretty much the same everywhere but at least over there you have a viable mass transit system

[Riz]

hi te`oma

it so pretty almost edible :)
i saw this last year on the net i thought it was a joke, but its real :)




http://www.uoguelph.ca/%7Egbarron/MISCE2002/hpecki2.jpg
Hydnellum peckii Bleeding Tooth Fungus
The photograph shows a very early stage in the developent of Bleeding Tooth. The young fruitbody is spongy and characteristically exudes droplets of red fluid. Later the fruitbody becomes tougher and teeth develop on the underside. This common and widespread species fruits under conifers.
Description
Caps are flat to slightly depressed, 5-15 cm across, felty to woolly, dark brown at the centre, changing to salmon-pink at margin and exuding blood-red droplets when young. The teeth are salmon-pink, ageing brown and up to 4 mm long. The stalks are up to 8 cm tall and velvety. The flesh is dingy brown with a peppery taste. Widespread and not uncommon, it fruits on the ground under conifers. Not edible.


(http://www.flickr.com/photos/photostefano/718982720/sizes/o/)

[Kirsten]

:eek: that's horrendous looking!

And how do they know it's got a peppery taste if it's not edible??

[Riz]

:eek: that's horrendous looking!

And how do they know it's got a peppery taste if it's not edible??

i like it, it looks like cake you would have with a cup of tea..

somebody must have tried it first ....:GreenThumbs:

[Te'oma]

Well I don't know about the taste but it's definately one that you wouldn't want to sit down and dine on. You could bleed to death. It contains chemicals that work as blood thinners.

[~Obsidian~]

The word 'pustule' comes to mind...sorry :S

[Riz]

The word 'pustule' comes to mind...sorry :S

reaching for a dictionary and a thesaurus..:confused:


ok pustule.. i get it !!!! :)

[Te'oma]

The word 'pustule' comes to mind...sorry :S

Nawww...more like slime mold

[~Obsidian~]

reaching for a dictionary and a thesaurus..:confused:


ok pustule.. i get it !!!! :)

Nawww...more like slime mold

:D Whatever it is it does NOT look at all appetising! Its...its bleeding!

[Riz]

so anyone joining me soon to grow mushrooms indoors or what ????

:cigar2:

[~Obsidian~]

I'm not really a fan of growing mould :down: