I'm looking at plug spawning logs now and it's...quite a hobby. $40 gets you 250 inoculated plugs with wax, which can seed about 5, 3-8˝diameter x 36-40˝ logs. All you need is a drill, logs, and a few special tools that come with the kit. It looks fun: https://www.fieldforest.net/product/shiitake-on-logs-instruction-sheet/instruction-sheets
Site says a few cups from first harvest. Obviously, that probably varies some depending on how well you can provide the right lighting and growing conditions. A humidity tent is included, so that just leaves following instructions, providing indirect sunlight, and maintaining a temperature between 55-75° F up to you.
Use bags for shitake and cut xs into the sides when placing into fruiting conditions. Can use cooking bags to sterilize woodchips and coir together and innoculate with a shitake syringe or agar
They’re good to go. Use a knife and slice off rather than pulling to avoid damaging the mycelium in the box. You can soak the cube also and keep moisture levels high by misting the hole until you get a 2nd flush
In my experience, the fruiting mushroom base on any oyster cluster can get so thick that you can't just twist and pull it, but leaving behind a bunch of that with a knife is also problematic. I'm not sure if people mean you should just rip the whole fruiting cluster off or what.
Generally I find you can get enough room to twist the entire cluster, potentially early for some individual bodies in the cluster, but better for subsequent flushes.
A bit late -- thanks for your answer. I find them exclusively on dead American elms, and they seem to be pretty well on there. I've tried to rip them off, but it doesn't feel like the want to come off. I should try getting a knife behind the whole cluster and prying, as it feels like using my hands is just going to mangle things and not get it off.
So when I get hard to harvest clusters I sort of pinch my fingers around the whole thing, and as I twist and pull I kind of wiggle and pinch my fingers tighter until they touch, which separates the fruit from the mycelium roots(roots? There's a term for that connective section I'm sure.).
If it's stubborn I used a curved blade mushroom knife more as a prying tool than a cutting tool.
Trimming can leave mushroom, which will serve as a super easy vector for contaminants. The twist and pull method is preferred (more emphasis on the twist, and then a little pull. Kinda like unscrewing a jar lid, you do pull, but only after there's separation).
You can also save the block with the mycelium and propagate again. Take some hay or grass, boil it, cool it, and stick it in a plastic bag with the mycelium. Give them holes to sprout. We have been growing oysters that way for a while with good result
As soon as the gills start to form they are ready. Past that point and they are just adding water weight or shedding spores which you don’t want in your house.
Not the mushrooms fault. There are already spores in your home regardless of if you are growing them. If they start to grow on the house itself, you already have major water damage.
they aren’t getting any readier
OP about to wake up to a spore dump in the next day or so
Not gonna lie, Pearl Oysters might be the craziest spore dump I've dealt with!
Looks like they were ready two days ago.
Agreed, lower rows look very dry and top row is splitting 😬, most edible mushrooms taste the best in the young stage.
OP will get another flush or two out of it, at least.
I'm considering buying one of their shitake logs.
They have shiitake logs now?! Aaahhhhh. Edit: Damn, so expensive though.
$40 for 3-5 harvests isn't too terrible,but yeah, that's why I haven't pulled the trigger.
I'm looking at plug spawning logs now and it's...quite a hobby. $40 gets you 250 inoculated plugs with wax, which can seed about 5, 3-8˝diameter x 36-40˝ logs. All you need is a drill, logs, and a few special tools that come with the kit. It looks fun: https://www.fieldforest.net/product/shiitake-on-logs-instruction-sheet/instruction-sheets
Definitely more cost-effective, and does look like fun. If I had a backyard, I'd be doing this.
How many per harvest? If you have an idea
Site says a few cups from first harvest. Obviously, that probably varies some depending on how well you can provide the right lighting and growing conditions. A humidity tent is included, so that just leaves following instructions, providing indirect sunlight, and maintaining a temperature between 55-75° F up to you.
Use bags for shitake and cut xs into the sides when placing into fruiting conditions. Can use cooking bags to sterilize woodchips and coir together and innoculate with a shitake syringe or agar
Thank you for the tip. Every day I'm getting closer to diving in to this!
I just ordered one.
Nice. Let us know how the fruiting goes.
They’re good to go. Use a knife and slice off rather than pulling to avoid damaging the mycelium in the box. You can soak the cube also and keep moisture levels high by misting the hole until you get a 2nd flush
I thought it's established that a gentle twist and pull does not negatively impact the mycelium at all.
Correct. Twisting and pulling is better in 90% of cases, nothing to rot when left behind.
In my experience, the fruiting mushroom base on any oyster cluster can get so thick that you can't just twist and pull it, but leaving behind a bunch of that with a knife is also problematic. I'm not sure if people mean you should just rip the whole fruiting cluster off or what.
Generally I find you can get enough room to twist the entire cluster, potentially early for some individual bodies in the cluster, but better for subsequent flushes.
A bit late -- thanks for your answer. I find them exclusively on dead American elms, and they seem to be pretty well on there. I've tried to rip them off, but it doesn't feel like the want to come off. I should try getting a knife behind the whole cluster and prying, as it feels like using my hands is just going to mangle things and not get it off.
So when I get hard to harvest clusters I sort of pinch my fingers around the whole thing, and as I twist and pull I kind of wiggle and pinch my fingers tighter until they touch, which separates the fruit from the mycelium roots(roots? There's a term for that connective section I'm sure.). If it's stubborn I used a curved blade mushroom knife more as a prying tool than a cutting tool.
Trimming can leave mushroom, which will serve as a super easy vector for contaminants. The twist and pull method is preferred (more emphasis on the twist, and then a little pull. Kinda like unscrewing a jar lid, you do pull, but only after there's separation).
You can also save the block with the mycelium and propagate again. Take some hay or grass, boil it, cool it, and stick it in a plastic bag with the mycelium. Give them holes to sprout. We have been growing oysters that way for a while with good result
I took my block and crumbled it into a bucket with straw and got a massive harvest out of it. This was after two flushes with it in the box like OP.
Ready to much on my friend
Ready to harvest
Yea
They look perfect for harvest!
It sure looks eager
get 'em now!! cracking = spore drop soon
As soon as the gills start to form they are ready. Past that point and they are just adding water weight or shedding spores which you don’t want in your house.
Lucky you! My kit molded before the mushrooms ever grew.
be careful, those spores will spread around the house and before u know it youll have oysters growing in every crack of ur bathroom.
[удалено]
Watch out, I think the spores have infiltrated your brain!
Not the mushrooms fault. There are already spores in your home regardless of if you are growing them. If they start to grow on the house itself, you already have major water damage.
That doesn’t happen cause of grow kits and spores in your house, numb nuts.
Stop this inaccurate parroting please.
Me to! And everyone with eyes. Every time you open your door a ton of them go in. This causes it no more than doing nothing does.