36 replies to this topic

[Myc]

Two days in and I thought I'd post some progress pics.

Purely in the interest of science, I had to try one today......:thumbup:

Loving the new greenhouse.

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[hyphaenation]

Excellent progress Myc.

The fruits look so different than the the strain i'm growing and the block is yet to turn brown. Its good to know that the gene pool is so wide with this species.

Thanks for sharing

H

[GordianHyphae]

excellent work myc. looking tasty!

[Myc]

The soaked block produced 505 grams (less the fruit sacrificed for scientific study :o ).
The misted or "hydrated" block produced 459 grams.

57 days from spawn to harvest......not bad IMHO.

I wish I had paid more attention to the weight of the blocks
post-pc
post spawn
post colonization
post hydration
post harvest
as I wonder what the water content was like during those times. I will, weigh them and put 'em down for a 24 hour cold dunk in a 5% H2O2 solution in order to get 'em ready for the next flush.

It would appear as though pre-soaking the woodchips has little or no effect on yeild. In fact the data, thus far, supports the opposite. I have begun experimenting with other hardwoods and controls have been more carefully observed.

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[sooshane]

Sweet growlog Myc! Well Done!

Very nice first flush.

:eusa_clap

[HumanExperiment]

What I hope to achieve here is a complete growlog from tissue culture to fruiting. I've done a lot of scrounging the internet and haven't found a complete tek anywhere. What follows is the cumulative knowledge I have collected from various sources.

Hopefully this will serve as a meaningful contribution to this site. I have learned so much here I'm hoping I can give something practical and useful back.

Hey Myc, thanks for this thread. I'm brand new to this site, and to mushroom growing. I am only interested in growing Shiitake right now, but like you, I was kind of disappointed by the lack of information I found on the web. Sure if you dig hard and long enough, you can scrape together enough info to get started - but I found almost nothing in the way of controlled tests (comparisons) of the various factors important for growing Shiitake.

There are dozens of things that need to be tested (supplements, ratios, humidity levels, species of hardwood, size or mix of sizes of sawdust, compression level on substrate material, starting moisture content of substrate, temperatures, shapes of synthetic logs, shock techniques, etc). Many of the factors are different depending on the stage of growth - ideal temps and humidity are different during mycelial growth, during the "pinning" phase (where the mushrooms first begin to form), during the shocking process, and during actual fruiting (when full size mushrooms grow). One expert has also told me there is often a trade off between quality and quantity - lower temps may take longer to produce a flush for example, and the mushrooms may be smaller, but the mushroom quality is higher. This is yet another thing that would have to be verified using double blind taste tests, preferably using people with discriminating taste buds.

Edited by suckerfree, 03 March 2009 - 11:35 AM.

[aumbrellaforainydays]

good luck!

[Myc]

So here are the results of the second flush thus far. Several pins are struggling to catch up.
Both blocks were weighed, dunked in a ice-water (5% peroxide solution) for 20 hours, re-weighed and placed in the greenhouse with RH maintained @ 94-98%

The pre-soaked block took on 446g of water. Pictured on the left followed by a photo of the bottom of the block. The fruits from this block appear more "regular" as opposed to the very irregular appearance of all of the fruits from the first flush (both blocks).

The misted block took on 563g of water. Pictured on the right followed by a photo of the bottom of the block. Very sparse fruiting up top but a couple of nice ones downstairs.

Further experiments are in the works using Russian Olive, Mesquite, Gambel's Oak, and whatever other pure hardwood sawdust I can lay hands on.

I wonder if the irregularity of the first flush was due to supplementation content?
Perhaps the blocks are too nutrient rich to be spawned with a quart of grain spawn?
After I've studied some other hardwoods maybe these questions will answer themselves. Unfortunately, my scientific method suffered because of my excitement to cultivate something new.

HumanExperiment,
Followed your link. Nice start! Looks like you know more than I did when I started! LOL
More valuable information in "The Mushroom Cultivator" pages 177-179. This species has been studied pretty extensively and a copy of the book can be found here:
http://archives.myco...html?1075070998

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[HumanExperiment]

That's pretty neat how they even grow out the bottom. I like your fruiting greenhouse, I'll have to build something like that. I know I won't be getting any growth off the bottom with my current setup...

Thanks for the link to the book, I'll definitely check it out. There is another book (print) that I ordered from my local library that someone recommended, called "Growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms" by Paul Stamets.

[Hippie3]

they turned out really well.
:bow:

[Myc]

Since starting this thread in 2008, I've become quite fond of the Shiitake and continue to cultivate them on a moderate scale.

Spawn production discoveries have made it possible to enjoy a year-around harvest with minimal effort.
I've begun to use the colonized blocks in the above photographs to spawn a second generation of pasteurized woodchips/chunks rather than fruiting them. One colonized block can spawn at least four bags of chunks.
They sit and colonized well in an unused closet.
Further spawn is held in the refrigerator until a second "wave" is needed for production.
Each colonized block will support at least 4 very nice flushes sporting some pretty nice fruitbodies. They are allowed to rest for 14 to 21 days to allow them to dry down and rest between flushes and the next "wave" is put into the greenhouse.
Spent spawnblocks can be further pasteurized and used for production of Oysters.

Here are some Westwind that I've been working with.

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Edited by Myc, 11 April 2009 - 12:37 AM.

[eatyualive]

kickass myc!

[shroom_seeker]

Shiitake!! :teeth:

Your second flush had some big fruits.. reminds me of the monsters I saw in Stamet's grow room last year. Great work! :bow:

[OZZZ]

Right F***ing on ......... this is what I have planned. The fact you can grow oysters on the spent blocks is even more intriguing!

So how many fruiting blocks do you have in place at any one time to keep yourself constantly "supplied" ??

Good stuff here bud! AWESOME!

[Myc]

So how many fruiting blocks do you have in place at any one time to keep yourself constantly "supplied" ??

I currently have five but one or two are on their fifth and sixth flushes - very low production and not worth repeating.
From now on, fourth flush is el fin.
Two blocks will keep me in shiitake just fine but I like to share.
I also dry and freeze some of the surplus. These can be used in soup-stock, roasts, etc. Nothing is wasted.
Or they can be dried, ground and encapsulated for a daily medicinal dose.

I'll be experimenting with some of Stamet's culture this year. So far, I have three distinct sub-strains of warm fruiting cultures. The first fruiting pics are my first, the second set of fruiting photos is the other (notice the darker caps - much different appearance than the first group). I can't wait to see how they size up against the latest one.
Will keep posting in this thread.

[OZZZ]

Good to know! So is that an ultrasonic piped in or a coolmist? Im assuming ultrasonic in my experience coolmists dont seem to have enough umph to keep the humidity up when piped in like that. Ive been trying to get my greenhouse dialed in. Forgive me if you mention that in the thread I dont recall seeing it anywhere.

I do see you have the fan on 15 minute increments for FAE, but what about the ultrasonic .... what kind of cycle do you have it on?

Thanks for the details, it helps me to analyze my GH and get it up and running!

[fucgubarn]

Wow, very very well!!