I thought some folks might want to see an update on what I’ve been growing. For reference, I tried to grown button mushroom spawn on boiled cardboard, only to learn a few days later that this shouldn’t be possible. Imagine my surprise when the mycelium started growing anyway!
So it’s been about three weeks now and growth has been painfully slow, but then again they didn’t really have any decent food. I also realized when I opened the container that there was still way too much moisture in the cardboard. Today I transferred what I could into grain jars to give it a better chance at growth. Basically I went through all the layers and peeled the cardboard apart, then tore off smaller chunks of anything that had decent growth on it. This was divided between a jar of popcorn kernels and a jar of rye berries, so I have a good chance of one or both jars really expanding the small amount of spawn I had available. Considering this was started from chopped stems I got at the grocery store, I’d say I’m doing pretty good so far!
I’ve started doing some reading on how to make the pasteurized compost for this type of mushroom, hoping to start picking up supplies next weekend to get it ready.
Mushrooms are so weird. Love it
Right? I probably did everything wrong here, except for trying to keep a sanitary workspace while setting these up in open air on my kitchen counter (which even that should have failed), and yet the mycelium still gave its best shot to grow out. I can’t wait to see what the grain jars look like in a few days.
Lmao the chad cardboard mushroom vs the fragile plant
Last update… the jar of rye berries has suffered the same fate and is also lost. Such a bummer, I I have a suspicion that my mistake was in taking the lid off to get the above picture before placing it inside the still-air box. Ah well, at least I have more knowledge of what I can do and what I shouldn’t do. It was fun to see what would happen, and next time I’ll get them started in a properly sterilized jar immediately instead of messing around with multiple transfers.
Meanwhile my oyster mushroom spawn should be ready for fruiting bags soon, so I’ll focus on them for now before trying the cremini again.
Some parting pics of the destruction. Please avert the eyes of any small children, they shouldn’t be exposed to this travesty…
I find what you do super cool! Even though my grower heart just screamed while reading that… :D
I personally don’t see much value in growing “boring” button mushrooms, since I can buy them super cheap everywhere. Other, less available ones (Lions Mane, Oysters, etc.) are just as easy and more rewarding imo. But it is still fun!
Next time, try oyster mushrooms. They also grow on cardboard and other waste. But you need grain spawn first for that.
For sterile technique, you don’t need it in the later stages (substrate), but definitely in the beginning (stems/ whatever -> grains). No matter how clean your kitchen looks, there are spores and bacteria EVERYWHERE. One single mold spore or can ruin your whole experiment from experience.
Invest in a pressure cooker if you want. It is also nice for potatoes! Then build a cheap still air box or even a laminar flow hood (look at gordon tec).
Maybe take a look at r/Mushroomgrowers on reddit or, if you are german, at “Pilzzucht” here on Lemmy.
Let the rabbit hole begin…!
I made a couple other posts here at the same time as this one, check those out for a bit more info on what I’ve been up to – but essentially I started this experiment before I had my grains available and wanted to see if I could keep things clean enough to get these started. These button mushrooms were actually started in open air, yet amazingly I managed to not get any contamination! Since then I have set up several jars of rye berries and popcorn kernels, gotten my oyster mushroom starts transferred to those (pink and blue), and then also transferred the button mushrooms to some of those jars. The grains were prepped in the pressure cooker, and all transfers were done in a still air box…
So yes, I have all of that equipment on hand already, plus fruiting bags, chopped straw, and lime for pasteurization, and I’m starting to search for supplies to fruit the button mushroom in. I’m just about all set once I have everything expanded out suitably. Once I can grow these I plan to try lion’s mane and shitakes next. The idea isn’t so much what I can buy locally, but rather to get some practice at what I can grow myself.
Oh, alright. I didn’t know that, sorry. I thought you were a newcomer without any prior knowledge :D Again, sorry^^
Yeah, mushrooms are weird man. They eat basically everything they can find. They’re both the biggest divas and the most aggressive motherfuckers I know, at the same time. Some people report oyster mushrooms growing in their toilet (r/Toiletshrooms), and at the same time I get contamination in the most sterile environment possible.
Keep doing what you do and experiment - just like me. I will post one of my crazy experiments too here, soon. Keep being up to date!
If you are in Germany or central europe, I can send you some gourmet cultures aswell if you like to. Like huge portobello mushrooms, which are the same as you grow, only in huge. I have a truckload of different species at home, many of which are cloned from the supermarket. Hit me up if you like :)
Afraid I’m in the US, so that won’t be possible, but thanks for the offer! I did recently discover a local farm growing lion’s mane though, and I saw fresh shitake in the store this weekend so I do have some options.
Yeah I was doing a bunch of reading on how to get started, then put in orders for things I couldn’t find locally. While I was waiting I ran across that article about starting mushrooms on cardboard and thought I’d give it a try. A few days later I found out button mushrooms “need” a good manure compost to grow, but I kept it going to see if I would get any contam. And then I started seeing mycelium growing and was just amazed that it had worked. So now that some of the cardboard has been transferred to grain I’m just waiting to see if the mycelium makes the leap.
I’m not sure what size these guys will end up growing to. I grabbed a few from a bulk bin at the grocery store which still had the base of the stem and some obvious mycelium on them. Judging by what they have on the shelf, these could be anything from just a few centimeters to much larger. I’ve seen white buttons there with caps between 2cm to about 7cm, so there’s quite a variety in genetics.
Some bad news this morning… the jar with popcorn kernels has blue mold growing everywhere and is a total loss. Damn that stuff appears fast, yesterday there was no sign of any problem.
On the other hand, the jar with the rye berries looks like it is doing ok? There is suddenly quite a lot of white growth that doesn’t look the same as the mold, so I am tentatively hopeful? I guess I’ll probably know by tomorrow if it is more blue mold.
What really gets me is there was no mold from the initial growth off of the stems. I wasn’t even thinking and chopped up the stems on our cutting board, and everything was done in open air. Yet the transfer to the grain jars was done in a still-air box, wiping everything down with alcohol, and one jar still got contaminated. With results like this a person might get the wrong idea that it was safer to work with your spawn in open air! Ah well, that’s only one jar out of seven (with the other five jars going to oyster spawn), taken from varying conditions, so I guess I’m still doing petty good.
