21 replies to this topic

[shedthemonkey]

:cacti: :cacti: :cacti:

There are these little bales of straw at Michael's Crafts in the USA that are cut to size and make a goodly size log or whatever you wanna do with straw...and usually they cost about $5.00 each. The Holloween clearance sale is goin on and there still might be some left. Bought several for 99cents each just now. :) Makes them very reasonable for those who don't have a lot of storage space for the real ones. Plus not having to cut the straw is a BIG plus. :D

[Hippie3]

if you lived closer
i'd ship you plenty of straw dirt cheap,
it's like $5 a full bale in this little flower shop
about a mile from my house...

[shedthemonkey]

Thank you, My Friend. :)
There are feed stores and farms in the area where I certainly could put my hands on a real bale or two if I should desire. But Storage is a bit of a problem. These little bales are already shredded to the apropriate length and easily fit whole in the cupboard until needed. Some day when I have a bit of acreage, I may graduate to needing more straw than a few mini-bales a year. But not in my current location.
For someone who dabbles, there is not much easier than popping open one of these little bales, soaking the whole thing in a tub of 160 deg. F water (or chemical pasturization if you prefer), draining, and making a nice log or medium-ish laundry basket. :)

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[Hippie3]

what are the mini-bale's dimensions,
i.e. length/width/height ?

[shedthemonkey]

It is 6X6X12 inches. (or for you metric peeps: 152x152x304mm).

[alounacara]

Its comforting to know that the little things in life arent avoiding you *big smile

[sinthetic]

Lets get a pic of the mini-bales.

[shedthemonkey]

Here ya go. That's one foot in length, which gives you a feel for how big The Killinator, my prized Cheshire Cat is. Wow he's a big cat...just realizin! Sometimes when I am trippin he goes invisible on me. Just leaves his stripes on whatever is there. :D

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[alounacara]

Awww look at Kitty *pets s strokes

[mindovermycelia]

I'm not sure if that's the brand I have, but I did a test on one of those and the straw was not cut small enough, it took forever to colonize, it started pinning before it finished so I let it go invitro, which turned out pretty good - about 150 g wet. now I have it in a chamber to see what else it will do from here on out.

[sevenveils]

I've used those mini bales from Michael's with success. I made miniature versions of the Visions LB, letting them colonize in open air with daily watering.

[insight]

Michael's was the only place I could find straw (while living in Florida). Now that I am in New England, I am around more farm areas... so I can finally get good shit and straw.

[sinthetic]

Very nice. The definately are 'mini'.

I bet one could simply cut holes in various places and then dunk the entire bale into a bleach / lime no - heat pasturization bath.

[BennyBlanco]

you dont have to cut this straw up? I got the same straw....

sin I was thinking the same thing...I going to what till I move then give it a shot

[BennyBlanco]

double post

[Zen_]

FYI - We will be selling mini-bales of organic wheat straw shortly. I'm in the process of updating our catalog with a ton of new products and ALL new product images.

Our mini-bales will be bound at 12x12x8 inches and weight approx. 5lbs. We'll be selling them as part of our straw log kits and individually. Each bale will hydrate to 22-27lbs which is enough for several 36in straw logs or enough to fill a 60qt tote.

Our straw is cut with a custom built machine which makes every piece an average of 2 inches in length. This provides for a perfect myco environment, much faster colonization times, and a lot less contamination problems.

MycoSupply sells 6"x6"x12" bales for $9; ours are over twice the size and will be priced at $2/lb... Yes, that's over twice the size for about the same price.

If you haven't already you should come take a look at our other products -

:hippie:

[mindovermycelia]

they sell even smaller super mini bales they are real cute.

who is we zen, cuz that sounds interesting, i think these logs I have are from walmart and the straw is not cut short enough although it seems to work as well as straw from lowes and it is def easier to store without looking like a farmer in a condo.

[mindovermycelia]

damn good prices, I say, and a great selection of products
I wish yall would have been in business a year ago when I was doing alot more, but if I ever get busy again I will know where to go - I def think mycosupply is overpriced and you stand to get alot of their business
I have to stay small scale for now though, I just don't have enough time or space.
I will need more straw at some point in the near future and I hate cutting so I may just take these I have back and go through you guys.
Do you think you will ever sell flowhoods? I don't know if you could beat fungiperfecti on their price but that would be cool, I want a flowhood but I don't want to build it or spend $500 right now. Oh well.

[Zen_]

Yes, "we" is MZ Mycology. Heh, read the sig boy! :p

We are looking into some flowhoods but it is difficult with pricing. We had thought about designing a flowhood and glovebox that could easy be disassembled and stored mostly flat but the pricing was too high. In order to build a quality, professional product they would have been around 300$ each anyway.

We may look into it again in the future, but right now we're just trying to get our product line expanded into the substrates and kits a bit more. As soon as I can get them up we'll have kits for oysters, shittake, and um... one other one I think.

Keep an eye out as our product line changes over the next couple of weeks.