Mushrooms
- Thread starter timetravel_0
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wireme
Masterpiece
Super cool! Nice red fruit.
wireme
Masterpiece
I know eh? Those 16yr old looks are worrying!
Enano
Seedling
I would suggest mycorrhizal fungi. Enoki, shiitake, and oyster all grow off of dead wood and act as decomposes, saprophytes. i would be hesitant to grow these in a bonsai pot. Im sure you could make it work but I've grown too too many funky fungi to risk a bonsai project while I'm still so new to it(bonsai). Button mushrooms from the store are grown on compost also sapros, but require more complex subsrate. Mushrooms are interteresting and fun because of the science and lab work involved. Working with plug spawn on logs is one thing, isolating strains and petri dish work in a glove box is a bit more involved. I always wanted to work with mycorrhizae and I think bonsai is the perfect way, considering both would take years.
Wireme, what method do you use for your spawn on your blocks? Have you used spore slurries at all?
Mycorrhizae (fungi root), grow in a symbiotic relationship and are able to assist the living tree in pulling nutrients and moisture from the soil. I know very little about bonsai but have been studying mushrooms for about 10 years. The little red ones above look like amanita miscarria. Boletus should work too. Note that you'll need to match the correct type of mushroom to the type of tree. Ie those amanitas will only grow on certain softwoods. There is a boletus called the chicken fat mushroom, suillus americanus, that I believe only grows under white pines.
Ideally you would take a wild specimen, take a spore prints or stem butt and put it in a solution to make a spore or mycelium slurry. Google Karo spore slurry for a recipe/idea. A root dunk in a spore slurry during transplant might be the ticket. Th mycelium would penetrate the cell walls of the roots and become a part of the bonsai. Fuzzy white mycelium on the roots would be a good thing here.
Again my knowledge of bonsai is close to nill, but I think mycorrhizae are the way to go. Note after inoculation, it could be years before they actually fruit. Paul stamets, owner of fungi.com truly has a wealth of knowledge. For growing, the shroomery forum has everything your need.
I intended to just lurk on the forums for a while, but my passion for fungi got the best of me.
Wireme, what method do you use for your spawn on your blocks? Have you used spore slurries at all?
Mycorrhizae (fungi root), grow in a symbiotic relationship and are able to assist the living tree in pulling nutrients and moisture from the soil. I know very little about bonsai but have been studying mushrooms for about 10 years. The little red ones above look like amanita miscarria. Boletus should work too. Note that you'll need to match the correct type of mushroom to the type of tree. Ie those amanitas will only grow on certain softwoods. There is a boletus called the chicken fat mushroom, suillus americanus, that I believe only grows under white pines.
Ideally you would take a wild specimen, take a spore prints or stem butt and put it in a solution to make a spore or mycelium slurry. Google Karo spore slurry for a recipe/idea. A root dunk in a spore slurry during transplant might be the ticket. Th mycelium would penetrate the cell walls of the roots and become a part of the bonsai. Fuzzy white mycelium on the roots would be a good thing here.
Again my knowledge of bonsai is close to nill, but I think mycorrhizae are the way to go. Note after inoculation, it could be years before they actually fruit. Paul stamets, owner of fungi.com truly has a wealth of knowledge. For growing, the shroomery forum has everything your need.
I intended to just lurk on the forums for a while, but my passion for fungi got the best of me.
wireme
Masterpiece
Hey Enano,
The thread was started in the accent plants forum, so the op was looking for ways to grow mushrooms in a pot desperate fro the tree as an accent, that make the saprophytic cultivatable shrooms a suitable choice. I agree I would not try to grow them in a pot with a tree. It would be fun to try shooting up a fir with red belted polypore or something and try to grow a conk on the trunk though, not a real good tree, mad experiment you know.
Never tried spore slurries but have started strains on Petri dishes from collected spore prints.
Since this thread started I've started up a side business growing edible mushrooms for some local restaurants and farmers markets, I've built a small lab, flow hood, pressure cooker etc. So, standard methods, agar to grain to sterilized supplemented substrate mostly.
The enoki in the pot this spring I wanted to try with more low Teck accessible methods though. It was done by running mycelium from stem butts on cardboard in a ziplock with pillow stuffing filter in the fridge. The cardboard spawn was added to stovetop pasteurized sawdust lightly supplemented, stuffed into the pot and incubated again in a ziplock in the fridge. It shouldn't really work according to the books but if you have a high spawn ratio you can often get away with less sterilization and clean methods than we are lead to believe.
The literature is mostly geared towards larger high Teck grow operations where contamination can be huge financial losses, low Teck is less reliable but can work.
The thread was started in the accent plants forum, so the op was looking for ways to grow mushrooms in a pot desperate fro the tree as an accent, that make the saprophytic cultivatable shrooms a suitable choice. I agree I would not try to grow them in a pot with a tree. It would be fun to try shooting up a fir with red belted polypore or something and try to grow a conk on the trunk though, not a real good tree, mad experiment you know.
Never tried spore slurries but have started strains on Petri dishes from collected spore prints.
Since this thread started I've started up a side business growing edible mushrooms for some local restaurants and farmers markets, I've built a small lab, flow hood, pressure cooker etc. So, standard methods, agar to grain to sterilized supplemented substrate mostly.
The enoki in the pot this spring I wanted to try with more low Teck accessible methods though. It was done by running mycelium from stem butts on cardboard in a ziplock with pillow stuffing filter in the fridge. The cardboard spawn was added to stovetop pasteurized sawdust lightly supplemented, stuffed into the pot and incubated again in a ziplock in the fridge. It shouldn't really work according to the books but if you have a high spawn ratio you can often get away with less sterilization and clean methods than we are lead to believe.
The literature is mostly geared towards larger high Teck grow operations where contamination can be huge financial losses, low Teck is less reliable but can work.
wireme
Masterpiece
Oh yeah, I do sometimes drop the caps of wild fungi that I know to be mycorrhizal with certain species of my trees into pots for the spore release, haven't seen any fruit yet.
Enano
Seedling
Hi Wire,
Awesome to hear, I've been hoping for years to get a small side business going doing the same. Where are you located?
now understanding that they would be meant to grow in a separate container definitely opens up options, though it would decompose it over the years, a nice piece of wood could be plugged with a saprophyte and would work great as a separate piece.
For first timers, ordering some plug spawn off of fungi.com will be the easiest. Shiitakes are super easy and are damned purdy too. Though you should be able to make a dowel or sawdust spawn for plugging a log with any conk or polypore, those would stick around a bit longer. You could also force fruit logs for a display by soaking them in water for about a half a day. Otherwise they just fruit every time it rains.
Mycelium running is an excellent book for anyone interested.
Awesome to hear, I've been hoping for years to get a small side business going doing the same. Where are you located?
now understanding that they would be meant to grow in a separate container definitely opens up options, though it would decompose it over the years, a nice piece of wood could be plugged with a saprophyte and would work great as a separate piece.
For first timers, ordering some plug spawn off of fungi.com will be the easiest. Shiitakes are super easy and are damned purdy too. Though you should be able to make a dowel or sawdust spawn for plugging a log with any conk or polypore, those would stick around a bit longer. You could also force fruit logs for a display by soaking them in water for about a half a day. Otherwise they just fruit every time it rains.
Mycelium running is an excellent book for anyone interested.
wireme
Masterpiece
Enano, hi still around? I've been meaning to reply to this, I'm in S.E. British Columbia, Canada.
Thought I'd show you a bit of our set-up if you're thinking of this as a side business.
A truly isolated controlled fruiting chamber is a challenge to set up properly and expensive, fan, filters, fresh air exchange, humidity.
We have found that a shade cloth structure open to the air with misters can work really well for 3 seasons, rotate species appropriate to seasonal temps.
With this low cost, low Teck set up we turned a decent profit the first season and that almost never happens with mushroom growing operations.
For oysters we have a steel drum and fire pit for hot water pasteurization and a table outdoors to inoculate, easy to make a couple straw logs in the evening after work.
The grow structure is here.
It's covered with shade cloth and the poly comes down in warmer temps.It's a simple pole frame made with small beetle kill lodgepole pine from the backyard joined with ardox spikes and some chainsaw notching, sitting on deck blocks on the ground, only a day and a half to build the frame and almost free.
Straw logs hang from horizontal poles above and there are overhead misters on a timer adjusted daily depending on temps. These logs are frozen now and not producing but you get the idea. 
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wireme
Masterpiece
We grew, oysters, shiitakes, reishi, lions mane and enoki out there last summer. 
I also kept a corner for a couple trees that were collected with disappointing rootballs, this Doug fir was harder to get than I'd hoped when I started digging, very little root and I'm sure it would not have made it this far without the shade and mist, I don't know what will happen next year but looking like this in fall.
Anyways, if you have the interest, go for it, local healthy food production is awesome, just start small and as low cost as possible at first, it's easy to lose crops and you don't want high cost while figuring things out.
I also kept a corner for a couple trees that were collected with disappointing rootballs, this Doug fir was harder to get than I'd hoped when I started digging, very little root and I'm sure it would not have made it this far without the shade and mist, I don't know what will happen next year but looking like this in fall.
Anyways, if you have the interest, go for it, local healthy food production is awesome, just start small and as low cost as possible at first, it's easy to lose crops and you don't want high cost while figuring things out.
wireme
Masterpiece
And the winter grow box, just finished yesterday inside the misthouse.
A warm mist humidifier in the cooler taped to the outside draws in fresh air by convection and a hole in the floor allows co2 to escape. I hope it works, trying to keep a couple restaurants supplied over winter, will be growing a couple cold temp high co2 tolerant species.
A warm mist humidifier in the cooler taped to the outside draws in fresh air by convection and a hole in the floor allows co2 to escape. I hope it works, trying to keep a couple restaurants supplied over winter, will be growing a couple cold temp high co2 tolerant species.
JoeR
Masterpiece
I dont know about making a business of it but...
I would love to grow enough mushrooms for my family [6]. I have grown oyster and shiitaki with good success. I bought the shiitaki logs off Craig's list and they had a few good crops this fall and the oysters were just some kit I got for Christmas lol.
I want to grow buttons like you buy in the store as they are a little more mild than the shiitaki. I would really appreciate any suggestions on growing those small scale of anybody has experience with them.
I would love to grow enough mushrooms for my family [6]. I have grown oyster and shiitaki with good success. I bought the shiitaki logs off Craig's list and they had a few good crops this fall and the oysters were just some kit I got for Christmas lol.
I want to grow buttons like you buy in the store as they are a little more mild than the shiitaki. I would really appreciate any suggestions on growing those small scale of anybody has experience with them.
Enano
Seedling
Very nice set up. I was hoping to set up an indoor fruiting room but the soon to be better half wont let me dedicate a whole room to my hobbies. This spring ill be plugging a few longs with lions mane and shiitake. I like the idea of the shaded frame to support the logs and was thinking of doing something similar.
Enoki should be pretty cold tolerant and high co2 should make them stretch out a little searching for o2. How did you grow yours, jars with necks?
Looks like a beautiful area your in.
Enoki should be pretty cold tolerant and high co2 should make them stretch out a little searching for o2. How did you grow yours, jars with necks?
Looks like a beautiful area your in.
wireme
Masterpiece
Enoki should be pretty cold tolerant and high co2 should make them stretch out a little searching for o2. How did you grow yours said:
wireme
Masterpiece
I haven't taken much interest in buttons, so readily available anyways.
Nice thing is they are one of the only types you can grow without lights, con is that they need a composted substrate, maybe manure based.
The mushroom growing group on FB is great, everything from large commercial growers to kitchen countertop types and many helpful people. Join and ask questions or just watch for long enough and you'll figure out what you can do.
JoeR
Masterpiece
Thanks for the info, I will look into the fb page.
Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
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I had not dropped in on this thread in a while, great info, Thanks. WireMe - your set up is great and has me thinking. Thanks
wireme
Masterpiece
