121–130 of 135 posts
Just a side note. I started growing mushrooms a couple of years ago. Very interesting and fulfilling hobby, they are incredibly interesting critters. Takes a little bit of dedication to get started but once you start seeing them fruit and making your own substrate it's quite inexpensive and a lot of fun. I have a feeling lots of folks in this community would really like it. Basic starter package is a 'monotub', selec…
Just a side note. I started growing mushrooms a couple of years ago. Very interesting and fulfilling hobby, they are incredibly interesting critters. Takes a little bit of dedication to get started but once you start seeing them fruit and making your own substrate it's quite inexpensive and a lot of fun. I have a feeling lots of folks in this community would really like it. Basic starter package is a 'monotub', selec…
Is there any risk of wild, potentially dangerous, mushrooms colonizing your garden?
There are plants that can screw up your life if you touch them, but people sort of have the two threat levels flipped in their heads. The scariest thing a fungus can do to your insides is horrible, but an insect or animal can do the same but also you die screaming. So... be careful out there kids. And don't go to Australia.
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what do you use as a low-cost substrate? I think this would be something I'd be into, but the idea of buying 5lb bags to be delivered by UPS really kind of takes the magic out of it.
Mycelium has been shown to colonize some of the most unexpected substrates - cigarette butts [1], sawdust, you name it. https://circulareconomy.europa.eu/platform/en/good-practices...
Beer is basically knocking out natural bacteria and trying to get yeast growing before the bacteria can turn it into cleaning supplies. The alcohol is kind a there because it kills bacteria.
So for instance I put winecaps (Stropharia rugosannulata) into wood chips that had already been exposed to the elements for six months, and ended up with more than I could possibly eat.
Meanwhile oyster or shiitake mushrooms want a fresh log, cut with a sterilized blade, and cross your fingers and hope. I haven't even tried because I've watched people who know way more than me about mushrooms, fail.
I think I have some logs that might have lions mane in them, but they're fighting the turkey tail that was already in my local environment and also on the property of the person who donated the logs.
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On the other hand, the morels that seemed to come with a load of wood chips were great for the year or two we had them. I tried growing a little wine cap bed once, and it hadn't gone well. Perhaps it was the chickens pecking at it, can't say. I do still get wine caps on occasion, but they have migrated to more far-flung parts of the yard.
> the morels that seemed to come with a load of wood chips were great for the year or two we had them. You probably already know this, but for anyone reading, there’s a species of mushrooms that looks kind of like morels that is poisonous, potentially fatally so. https://www.foraged.com/blog/morel-mushrooms-vs-false-morels
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Nope. Edible mushrooms generally need similar conditions as mold/mildew/rot to grow, i.e. moisture, low light, and the right material -- though they tend to be pickier, and are less suited to human-adjacent conditions. So if you find mushrooms growing where they shouldn't, there's a much deeper moisture and mold issue.
Lots of houses have unresolved water damage issues. Termites for instance mostly show up in wood that already has water damage.
Looks really cool, though I don't know if the name is conducive to business. With just the URL I would not have clicked to see that the business is about.
Looks really cool, though I don't know if the name is conducive to business. With just the URL I would not have clicked to see that the business is about.
Ironically I only came to this HN post and clicked on the URL because of the name. At first I misunderstood the description and thought they were doing industrial-scale packaging of magical mushroom mycelium.
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Molasses was cheap because it was the packing material for plate glass - which was only made in England. Place your plate glass in a barrel, fill it with molasses and you can ship it to North America. Just wash off the glass and you're good to go.
That’s wonderful so I want it to be true. Your comment is one of the top results on my search for more info!
Moreover, molasses was shipped from America and not the other way around.