51–60 of 135 posts
There are a few companies in this space, notably Ecovative, who have been trying to make mycelium-based packaging for almost two decades. The problem is that it takes around 7 days for each piece of packaging to "grow", and the finished part is heavy and not compressible so it adds significant cost in manufacturing, storage and transit. And these costs don't get any better with scale. For those reasons, mycelium pack…
Like real mold on fiber or
> Mushroom® Packaging, grown from natural mushroom mycelium and agricultural by-products … Does anyone know the agricultural byproducts are?
Certainly dung. A common substrate for growing mushroom is a straw or shredded wood depending on the species plus manure.
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.
There are a few companies in this space, notably Ecovative, who have been trying to make mycelium-based packaging for almost two decades. The problem is that it takes around 7 days for each piece of packaging to "grow", and the finished part is heavy and not compressible so it adds significant cost in manufacturing, storage and transit. And these costs don't get any better with scale. For those reasons, mycelium pack…
Like real mold on fiber or
> Mushroom® Packaging, grown from natural mushroom mycelium and agricultural by-products … Does anyone know the agricultural byproducts are?
There are a few companies in this space, notably Ecovative, who have been trying to make mycelium-based packaging for almost two decades. The problem is that it takes around 7 days for each piece of packaging to "grow", and the finished part is heavy and not compressible so it adds significant cost in manufacturing, storage and transit. And these costs don't get any better with scale. For those reasons, mycelium pack…
Two packages made from mycelium can behave very differently because “mycelium composite” is a category, not a single recipe. Particle size, fibre content, and the ratio of substrate to mycelium all change density. Higher density generally brings higher compressive strength and better edge definition, but it also increases weight and can reduce the springy cushioning that protective packaging needs.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Certainly dung. A common substrate for growing mushroom is a straw or shredded wood depending on the species plus manure.
Not certainly. A LARGE number of fungi grow just fine without manure. I think this is a common misconception since agaricus bisporus (portobello, bella, white, cremini, button) need it to grow well, and it is the most commonly human-grown fungus by a long shot.