9 replies to this topic

[Auxin]

Every year when I rake up leaves I save them to dig into my rather large garden, my area is quite dry so I dont even attempt to corral and compost them the forest homestead way but just digging them straight into the ground is inefficient and awkward. I had the idea to wet them, pack them into bags with oyster spawn, and let that have a run to break them down some. Not to get fruits, just to compost the leaves. I've looked up the cultural guidelines for oyster spawn for growers and mushroom farms do their spawn run far warmer than my winters. But thats ideal conditions for profit.

My question is, if king oyster spawn were introduced to large sacks of leaves in an area that routinely freezes but on average is above freezing all winter might the mycelium show substantial expansion in 4 months?

[pharmer]

Don't know the answer but love the idea

 

My mower will mulch leaves. Wouldn't mulched leaf be better? Assuming there was enough oxygen in the mix to feed the digestion

 

Looking out the window right now we've got a small amount of snow sitting on top of the still falling leaves and grass that could use a cutting. I'm thinking that defines what you want in a compost - green, brown, and wet.

 

Assuming one had a mulching mower which would also bag the cuttings he'd be golden

[Auxin]

I have a mulching riding mower that does not bag. I make some neighbors envious, I just zip around my large yard blasting heavy metal not having to bag in the last 20 years while they struggle with their push mowers and bags. Hell, just to rub it in I disabled all the safeties on the mower so I can mow laying down

I've never tried mulching the leaves with it though. I guess I should try it out and see if the result would be rakable, I just always assumed the grass would capture the stuff, the cut grass simply vanishes.

 

If I do compost them whole, and winter is too cold, I suppose the worst case scenario is skipping one year of digging them in and giving the bags 12 months to compost. Its bone dry here but who knows, poke some holes in the bags in late spring and I might get some bonus king oysters

[pharmer]

I'm in a weird and good spot this year.

 

We're moving and a riding mower came with the half acre of trees :(   but I have a push/mulch/bagging mower from the old house

 

So I'll drive the riding mower around in circles - discharge pointing inward - until there are several piles around the half acre

 

then push the bagging mulcher to collect the shizz which will be easily bigger-bagger

 

I like this idea so much, Auxin, I'm going to work a trade - cactus for oyster spawn

 

need a Bridgesii?????

[Auxin]

I dont have wedges or spawn for oyster either, I was planning on starting on agar from an old spore print

I cant even clone store bought oysters, as theyre all irradiated here.

 

I'm not surprised they killed the oysters with nuclear fire, you know oysters, they were probably consuming the semi trucks and diesel locomotives used to transport them.

[crazy1]

Oysters grow everywhere I've ever been. Why not take a walk in the woods and just grab a rotting piece of wood that's already colonized?

This would be local and more what I'd look for in this type of experiment.

 

I've grown oysters inside and outdoors on wood, I believe your idea would work. If the pile is big enough, it may hold enough heat to keep runing through the winter

 

I'll be watching this thread and how you do

 

Peace

[CatsAndBats]

I dont have wedges or spawn for oyster either, I was planning on starting on agar from an old spore print

I cant even clone store bought oysters, as theyre all irradiated here.

 

I'm not surprised they killed the oysters with nuclear fire, you know oysters, they were probably consuming the semi trucks and diesel locomotives used to transport them.

 

Huh? You're telling us that they're dead from some flash irradiation? All the Mush that I've ever seen in the store is alive and very much clone-able.

[Auxin]

Yes, I'm in the US and in my town oysters come from canada and when I try to clone them the tissue just sits on the nutrient agar not doing anything for weeks. When I did shiitake from oregon it jumped right out and started growing. Peppers are the same way, I got some great peppers imported from mexico but the seeds were 0% viable. Peppers from cali, they grow.

I'm not sure if its a state or federal law that mandates import irradiation, all I know is that its on the list of things that decrease my pleasure

Why not take a walk in the woods and just grab a rotting piece of wood that's already colonized?

I've walked in the woods many times here and have never seen mushrooms growing out of decaying wood except 1 time, they were just 1 cm and I couldnt ID them, my area is very dry

There is a branch-post in my garden with some sort of mycelium growing under the bark, I've been toying with the idea of growing it in captivity to see what it fruits as.

Mycelium grown from a king oyster spore print would have no ambiguity, and I'm not convinced the almost fanatical fervor with which people insist that gourmets have to be from special isolated lines is relevant to anyone but commercial growers, to whom a 15% drop in yield would be catastrophic.

[CatsAndBats]

Yes, I'm in the US and in my town oysters come from canada and when I try to clone them the tissue just sits on the nutrient agar not doing anything for weeks. When I did shiitake from oregon it jumped right out and started growing. Peppers are the same way, I got some great peppers imported from mexico but the seeds were 0% viable. Peppers from cali, they grow.

I'm not sure if its a state or federal law that mandates import irradiation, all I know is that its on the list of things that decrease my pleasure

Why not take a walk in the woods and just grab a rotting piece of wood that's already colonized?

I've walked in the woods many times here and have never seen mushrooms growing out of decaying wood except 1 time, they were just 1 cm and I couldnt ID them, my area is very dry

There is a branch-post in my garden with some sort of mycelium growing under the bark, I've been toying with the idea of growing it in captivity to see what it fruits as.

Mycelium grown from a king oyster spore print would have no ambiguity, and I'm not convinced the almost fanatical fervor with which people insist that gourmets have to be from special isolated lines is relevant to anyone but commercial growers, to whom a 15% drop in yield would be catastrophic.

 

 

Shoot me your addy, I'll send you a slant of oyster myc. If you have some dough, please donate to the site, if not, don't sweat it.

Edited by CatsAndBats, 09 November 2019 - 12:25 PM.

[Auxin]

Thanks!