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Post by steve on Jan 31, 2011 9:22:13 GMT
I've never really bothered with these as I tried one years ago and didn't have any success and white button mushrooms are usually fairly cheap But I had a Thompson & Morgan voucher for ten pounds to use up and I spotted a kit for about that amount, also it was brown oyster mushrooms so a bit out of the ordinary and a bit more expensive to buy You got a kit consisting of a bag of straw 2 polythene bags and the spawn impregnated grain I had to place the straw in a polythene bag, pour over it boiling water (must be a special bag able to stand the temps) wait until it cooled then sprinkle in the grain, shake it up seal the top with a tie wrap and leave it for 4 weeks in a fairly warm room while the mycelium spreads through the straw....that was stage 1 Stage 2 place it now in a cooler room for a week to start the fruiting process stage 3 which is where this picture is at, remove from the polythene bag place in a tray and spray with cool water twice a day it then has the second polythene bag/sheet just draped over it (remove to spray) This is how it looks now with mushrooms just starting to develop
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Post by steve on Jan 31, 2011 9:24:22 GMT
I'll take a better pic with my camera as they develop
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Post by Rosie on Jan 31, 2011 9:27:42 GMT
Fascinating stuff there Steve. I have never used a mushroom kit before.
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Post by Lou78W on Jan 31, 2011 9:29:22 GMT
Me neither....will watch your progress with interest
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Post by Cherry on Jan 31, 2011 9:32:41 GMT
That is really exciting. Yum!
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Post by steve on Jan 31, 2011 9:36:54 GMT
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Post by Tel on Jan 31, 2011 10:23:25 GMT
I had one bought years ago, i had no success with it. I have had more mushrooms, from spent mushroom compost, that was just spead on the garden.
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Post by wildlifefriendly on Jan 31, 2011 10:33:33 GMT
I've tried a couple of times with mushroom spores but not a complete kit. With the spores you need barley straw based manure, it doesn't work with ordinary manure as I found out. I did scatter some spores around the garden, I got a few to grow in the bed beside my greenhouse but because they grew in soil they were always gritty. Next door is now bedding his horses down in Barley straw so I will have one more go.
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Post by steve on Feb 1, 2011 14:01:23 GMT
Here's a couple of pics taken today This shows the mycelium spreading from the impregnated grain throughout the straw This one shows some of the fruiting bodies just beginning to form
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bists
Full Member
Posts: 108
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Post by bists on Feb 1, 2011 22:34:15 GMT
The kit looks good. I don't recommend the impregnated wooden dowels....purchased about 600 of them 3 years ago for work. Diligently drilled hundreds of holes in beech logs and thought I'd only have to wait the recommended 10-18 months...Ha Only about 10% of the logs have started cropping - after 36 months, and the Oyster mushrooms seem better than the shi-take....the Lions mane seem rubbish. I wouldn't bother with them again. boo hiss
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Post by grindle on Feb 2, 2011 6:50:29 GMT
I tried one of the button mushroom kits but it didn't work for me, that looks interesting
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Post by Cherry on Feb 2, 2011 7:11:27 GMT
We are definitely mad. Steve is actually growing this ugly mass, and I am actually looking in to see how the ugly things are doing. Just occasionally I have a reality check and look at us from outside.
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Post by steve on Feb 2, 2011 8:03:58 GMT
Yes it does seem a bit like watching aliens appear, but I get the last laugh hopefully with egg, bacon and tomato's ;D
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Post by steve on Feb 5, 2011 14:18:59 GMT
A few days further on
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Post by peony on Feb 5, 2011 14:46:56 GMT
They're growing well Steve Do you have to keep them in the dark?
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