37 replies to this topic

[Scratch]

Hi, first time with pearl oyster.
Used sponsor dowels > wbs > straw

Made up some bags of straw yesterday.
I layered spawn & straw into these
1 gallon ziplock storage bags.



Couple questions...
Do I put the X air holes in now or later?
I'm thinking just snip the 4 corners but
not sure if that's a good plan.

Any suggestions?

[Umbo]

You should poke holes as soon as you
fill and seal the bag, but ASAP should
work in your case now. Snipping the corners
may cause it to dry out quicker, unless
you put it in some kind of fc and pump
the humidity to it. It would look cool
to have oysters from all corners tho.

[Scratch]

Thanks for the tips Umbo.

I have a dark tub, I'll put em in there with
some perlite and hope for the best.

Cheers

[Hippie3]

good luck

[SharkieJones]

Keep us posted

[the_chosen_one]

You should poke holes as soon as you
fill and seal the bag, but ASAP should
work in your case now. Snipping the corners
may cause it to dry out quicker,

indeed. pin holes. in a grid pattern spaced 1/2" - 1". air requirements at this stage are pretty low. the pin holes are large enough to allow exchange while keeping chances of contamination minimal and holding in moisture. larger slits can be made later near primordia when they begin to form. usually the fruits will move toward the slits and burst forth, but sometimes they require a little chasing. good luck!

:heart:

[Scratch]

Update...

I went with slits in the four corners for fresh air.
Put the 4 "Pearl Pillows" in a 64 qt sterlite tub with
perlite on bottom for humidity. Threw a blanket
on top to keep out light. Not much happening
the first couple days. Then, this morning I see
progress.



When I picked up the pillow to photograph, it was
very warm. There is definitely something going on
in there.

Once started, this fungus is voracious. I suspect
it will only take another 2-3 days to fully colonize
these pillows.

I'll keep you posted if anyone is interested.

Cheers

[kcmoxtractor]

I personally love edible stuff... Like the hobby just for that.

[M&M420]

Cool Man!!I'll be getting this strain soon and am looking forward to working with it.I've also heard it's an extremely aggressive colonizer.Keep us updated man

[Scratch]

Update...

Its taken longer than I anticipated for the straw
to be colonized. I am surprised since this culture
gobbled up the wbs pretty fast once it got started.

Today looks like it has made good progress.



The air slits in corners are now clogged with myc.
Can this still breathe?

So far it looks healthy to me.
I'll leave this to incubate a few more days.

Cheers

[TastyBeverage]

It needs more FAE. Oysters are huge oxygen consumers and very contam resistant, so go ahead and poke little holes all over that bag. Even if you do get a little spot of trich etc at one of the holes, you can scoop it out with an ISO swabbed spoon and the myc will recover almost immediately. I grow my oysters in plastic grocery bags which i just tie very loosely at the top and leave on my dining room table.

[Scratch]

I cut the corners off for more fresh air.
The slits I started with just weren't enough.
They seem to like it and growth has started.

Here are some updated pics for your
viewing pleasure...





3 of the corners are growing nicely. The fourth
is still recovering from surgery.

Cheers

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[Om shanti]

Very nice! Congratulations on those! What are the temperatures for incubation and fruiting of these?

[Phx]

Phx pulls up a chair. :eusa_clap

[Scratch]

What are the temperatures for incubation and fruiting of these?

Om shanti, I don't know what it's supposed to be.
I just went with room temperature (65-80) for both
incubation and fruiting.


UPDATE:

Yesterday...



Today...



I'm calling this one a success!

All suggestions and help given much appreciated.
Thank you.

A big shoutout to ~freakachino whose posts on
Straw, Small, Simple were inspiration for this project.
http://mycotopia.net...all-simple.html

If you just dig around a bit, there's a wealth of
good info here on Mycotopia.

Looks like I get oysters for dinner!
Recipes???

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[Phx]

Very nice. One your next flush try to increase FAE. Thats the only advice i could see needed. Sorry i cant think of any recipes right now but i'm sure someone will give you some ideas.

[the_chosen_one]

great job! :eusa_clap

[Dr.Hallucination]

Nice job on the Oysters Scratch,congrats:eusa_clap

[M&M420]

Looks delicious although I've never tried oysters.Congrats man

[Scratch]

Can you believe it, these things are still fruiting.



Production is sporadic. Not exactly flushes,
more hit & miss. I'll pick a small cluster like this
two or three times a week from the 4 straw bags
I started with.

Pins will usually stall out and dry up on 3 of the
4 corners and fruit develops on the 4th corner.
I think next time I will only cut 2 corners. Too
much energy wasted producing the dried up pins
with all 4 corners open.

Tried dunking these bags without much success.
No weight gain during a normal dunk. Seems this
stuff is water proof. So instead, I resorted to a
squeeze dunk. Gently squeezing the middle of bag
then releasing would bubble out some air and
draw in some water. Repeated squeezing 5 or 6
times and then let drain.

Maintenance has consisted of misting tub walls/lid
and fanning twice a day. I had to clean the tub
once before and its time again.

If I don't pick the fruit right away, they start
dropping spores and make a mess. Perlite in
bottom of tub is starting to look cruddy again.
Its time to rinse it out, bake it for an hour. While
that's baking, I clean the tub out with bleach
solution so everything is fresh & clean again.

I've gotten much better production out of these
straw bags compared to the newspaper bags I
tried. The newspaper got only 1 or 2 flushes.
Then haven't produced since. Newspaper myc
still looks good, but, it just sits there without
fruiting. Newspaper bags are easier to prepare,
but, the results are disappointing compared
to straw.

Cheers

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