Non-Sterile Mushroom Growing

This question is aimed towards the more experienced people, like 36fuckin5 and the like.

So, suppose you had either multiple fresh caps, with spores intact (of any variety mushroom) or syringes of the mushroom you intend to grow. Then, suppose you had an old fishtank/terrarium/ tub that you filled with your growing substrate (BRF and Vermiculite). Then, you simply innoculated the substrate within the terrarium/fishtank and kept a good humitidy within the tank by giving it ample water and the like.

For the record, I have not had any success capturing any kind of wild fungus in the substrate-filled terrarium in the last...7 months, so it doesn't seem like anything will colonize the tub without my introducing it to the tub manually.

So my question is, could I grow mushrooms, or any kind (and that's not jsut for protection, i do want to grow some tasty mushies of the sautee-with-butter varitey) in this manner if I know how to identify them correctly? It just seems that because nothing has gotten its way into the terrarium (which is suited for mushroom cultivation), that the whole sterilization process would kind of be in vain. Oh, and the temperature and humidity here are very favorable to fungus growth. Any and all help is appreciated!

The Mushroom Man

 

OK, so you're wanting to take a big terrarium, fill it with substrate, inoculate and throw it outside to colonize and eventually in-vitro fruit?

There are a couple things wrong here. First, you'll definitely have to keep it closed. There will be no other way to keep humidity up, unless your outdoor humidity stays at a constant 99-100%. Watering it won't work, either, because 1) your humidity will vary too much and 2) the excess water you'll need is just asking for contamination. I know they say that contams aren't a problem outdoors, but this is when you are using spawn.

Using BRF cake for something like this would also be a total waste. It'll end up getting compacted before it colonizes, creating anaerobic conditions in the middle and making all kinds of nasty things happen. If you really want to try it, I suggest WBS. HUGE bags are no more than like $7-8.

Overall, I don't think this idea would work in the slightest. If you really want to grow an outdoor patch, check out The Shroomery and search for Moe's Outdoor Tek. However, I've never tried something even remotely close to this, so I can't say for sure either way. If you wanna try growing outdoors in a container, I'd suggest colonizing some jars inside, then spawning them to straw/hpoo outside.

 

Thanks for the speedy relpy!

I did look up the outdoor grow technique on the shroomery, and if I was livivng by myself or with friends I would definitely do it, but my current housing situation prohibits it, whereas the tank method would work because it is just sitting there waiting for mushrooms (that is its intended purpose). As for the container itself, it is rather small ( 8" by maybe 4", about 6" tall) and it has a mostly closed top with small slats and a hatch top.

I would like to try this method, just to see what happens as I am really curious about mushrooms, but after your reply I will also do a normal PF-TEK thing with some button spores to see if I got it right. As for the WBS in the outside container, would it need vermiculite to keep it airy or will it work just pouring it in and adding some water?

The Mushroom Man

 

You'll have to prepare the WBS in the normal way. Simmering and all. Honestly, if you can't be open about it inside your house, you shouldn't be doing it. Like I've said before, it's not just yourself that you're putting at risk, it's everyone in the house.

Button mushrooms (agaricus bisporus) won't work on BRF though. They're actually one of the harder mushrooms to grow. You should look into some Oysters or some Lion's Mane. A bag tek for Oysters works great and is really simple.

 

Alright, i'll check out oysters. As for endangering everyone, I would only eat mushrooms produced via the questionable, non-sterile outside tub metohd if I could get a 100% ID, for which I would call a friend of mine who is a mycologist. Thanks for all the help, dude!

The Mushroom Man

 

if you want to work non sterile use a wood eater such as psilocybe cyanescens.

oysters are fun and use pretty similar substrates to cyans, they eat cardboard, you can feed them your junk mail. they're very cute and come in a couple colors, white, gray, yellow, pink.... hmmmm... they're not my favorite mushy, i dont like the texture or the taste, hahahahaha rarely do we get to plain edibles on here and worry about taste, mmmmm boletes, califlower fungus, chanterelles, sulpher shelf, bolete buttons you dont even need to cook them they are so dank, kinda tastes like a peanut, texture kinda like dried apple only hella better, slice it in cubes and throw it on a salad. if you were to make a completely fungus lasagna it would be very possible with califlower fungus, cooked right it is just like lasagna noodle, you could use pine spikes cause they cook down to a tomato sauce like consistency, stinky wiffel balls if you pick the yellow/orange stuff out of the brain shaped white part it tastes like some kind of european cheese sulpher shelf tastes just like chicken, the fungus world is awsome.

 

Thanks for that little bit of info, I didn't know that. The problem with that is that my oly way to get spores is from fresh caps a friend of mine gets, and I don't knoow exactly what variety they are. I believe they are Psilocybe caerulipes. As for edible, non-magic spores, I was just going to attempt to get a print from a store-bought cap. I know I am geared towards failure in every way, but I've got nothing better to do

The Mushroom Man

 

I have to say, you encourage my drunk-driving at 3 AM to the grocery store to pick up food.

I'm not really driving drunk, for those who want to flame. It's tempting as fuck, though.

 

Check out my post man. If you have any more questions after reading, let me know. I love to ID wild edibles, so if you ever need some help feel free to message me. As far as non sterile growing, you are asking for more work than it would be going sterile.

If you dont want to make the initial investment of a pressure cooker, just use the PF tek method using brown rice ground up into flour, mixed with a little water and vermiculite.

This can be boiled in a large pot with a lid, and will produce enough mushies to make it worth your efforts.

Brown Rice cakes tend to contaminate more than bulk spawn, as listed in my post, here is a little more work up front, but in the long run, it is the easiest way to pull off beautiful fungi gardens like the ones pictured in the post.

Anyways, let me know if there is anything I can better explain, or add to.

OH, and you can get pink oyster live tissue syringes at www.sacredspores.com

I think they are about to open a whole selection of oysters as well, but they are also offering shiitake, miataka, and lions mane, or hericium.

All but shiitake are pretty easy to grow. Shiitake are too, but they take a little practice, and the right substrates.

Good luck!

 

Oh believe me i ahvee read for days about all kinds of mushroom growing techniques. Thanks for the info-filled post, Shaman. I will go check out your post. I would undoubtably go with the PF tek, by the letter, if I was planning on doing this really hardcore and wanting mushies for sure, but to tell you the truth, I'm just kind of doing it to experiment and as a hobby. Even if I do get a contam, like a diff kind of mushroom grows in my substrate, I will grab it and preserve it and try to ID it. Shaman, I will deff hit you up if there is one I can't ID or have troubl Iding (always good to have a second opinion, right?). and thank you all so much for all the info, I really appreciate it. A more helpful bunch of internet people I have never met!

The Mushroom Man

 

<3

You guys should check out shroomtalk.com for a little more advanced discussion. Great people there.

 

people are strange.

 

My name is "The Mushroom Man" because I like mushrooms and collect them, not because I trip on them all the time. People are strange huh

The Mushroom Man

 

What kinds of mushrooms have you collected?

 

Well I found one ggrowing on an old tree in the forest, the rest are from lawns around the neighborhood. They are an interesting lot, these mushrooms. one is green and has a nipple on it. Unfortunately, the only book I have for id'ing mushrooms doesn't cover the area in which I live, so I haven't been able to ID any of them so far. I am fairly sure, however, that none of them are edible/psychedelic, aka no cubes or any even semi-common edible. It's a fun hobby, IMHO, any time I see a mushroom I'm like "ohh, a mushroom!" and I go grab it

The Mushroom Man