Experiment 4.0 – Feed me rolled oats and wheat bran

Inspired by my late night findings on YouTube, I decided to use oats instead of cardboard or straw.

I was not really thinking clearly doing this one. I just poured some oatmeal that I usually have for breakfast into a plastic bag. This oatmeal has been “enriched” with fiber from wheat bran.

Glenn Coville at coldmushrooms recommends that you use unprocessed grains that still have their protective hull. You can read more about it here http://coldmushrooms.weebly.com/grain-spawn.html.

It was late so I figured it’s easier just to use something I have at home in my kitchen. I was thinking it could still work since the fibers from wheat comes from the protective hull of the wheat.

Then I poured some luke warm tap water into the bag. I don’t know how much  water I used but it didn’t seem to be that much but my oats instantly turned into porridge. If I do this experiment again I’ll probably use less water, if any.

Yummy oat meal in a plastic bag!

My friend Phellinus igniarius.

 

I then soaked the mushroom in water since  the mushroom was too dry in a previous experiment.

Lastly I tucked away the mushroom in a nice moist oatmeal bed.

I then put the plastic bag into another plastic bag containing bleach hoping it would giving it some protection.

And waited…

Growing mushrooms on untreated sawdust pellets – Youtube

After some late night googling I found this cool video on YouTube.

http://coldmushrooms.weebly.com/inoculating-pellets.html#/

on how to inoculate wooden pelleted sawdust with mushrooms and let them grow at low temperatures. 

The rational why this is working is because the pellets already have been heated and dried and if you grow the mushroom at low temperatures 15 – 21 °C (60 – 70 °F) it will benefit the growth of mushroom instead of other organisms.

Experiment 3.0 – Feed me cardboard – Result : something is growing

So this is the result after one week of waiting.

Well this bag is not that impressive. It doesn’t seem to have been much activity in it…

I opened the bag and dug into the cardboard and found this.

Yay something is growing!

More pictures.

Well it’s growing. I’m not sure if it is consuming the cardboard or not, but it seemed to have stuck to the cardboard. It seems to be slow though, I’ll just have to wait and see if it continues to grow or if it will get taken over by green mold again.

Experiment 3.0 – feed me cardboard

I ran another experiment since I had some mushroom pieces left from the experiment 2.0.

I thought I should just keep things simple so I tried to grow Phellinus igniarius in cardboard. The rational behind this is that cardboard contains lignin that the mushroom likes to eat.

So I took a cardboard box and ripped it up into pieces. The cardboard box claimed it was recyclable which seemed nice.

 

I put the pieces in a plastic bag and poured scolding hot tap water into the bag.

 

Then I let the bag rest for about an hour.

 

I then poured out the water and squeeze the cardboard mush really hard. I’m not sure if this was such a good idea to compact the cardboard.

 

I then put a piece of mushroom in the cardboard mush. I had to dig into the cardboard since it was so compacted.

 

I then tied a knot on the plastic bag and let it rest in a dark room.

 

And waited…

Experiment 2.0 – Result : not too impressive

So I waited a week to see if I could grow phellinus igniarius in an agar agar medium.

Non Bleach version

There seem to be something white growing in the agar agar. But just a little.

Bleach version

Well nothing happened to this one. It seems to been preserved in the bleach.

Conclusion

Well they didn’t grow as much I hoped for in my agar agar media.

Some thoughts on what I would do different if I were to try this again.

I think the mushrooms I used was too dry. It was very hot the day I collected them. So I would probably soak them in water first.

Maybe I should have used smaller pieces of mushroom and buried them deeper into the agar agar. I would also cut the agar agar with a sterilized scalpel to be able to penetrate it. The agar agar is like rubber when it hardens.

I also didn’t have any nutrients added to the agar agar. I read somewhere they use boiled potato peels, so I’m interested to boil potato peels and use the water for the agar agar.

Experiment 2.0

I started a new experiment last weekend.

Since the mushroom didn’t grow in straw I thought I try to grow it in agar agar.

Agar Agar grow media recipe

15 ml (3 teaspoons) of agar agar powder

300 ml hot tap water

10 ml (2 teaspoons ) of sugar

I poured everything in a plastic container and stirred ferociously with a fork.

I then microwaved it for 4 minutes and 30 seconds without paying enough attention. It boiled over and it lost a lot of fluid but I still used the agar agar.

I poured half of the agar agar into another plastic container that I had some household bleach (Sodium hypochlorite) and hand sanitizer (Alcohol gel) in.

I wanted to make two tests to see if the mycelium would grow better in a bleach solution were the it didn’t have to compete so much with other organisms.

I collected a small polypore from the forest.

The polypore is most likely a Phellinus igniarius that likes to grow on dead birches. This samples was much smaller than the one in experiment 1.0 .

I cut the polypore with an awl (pointy screwdriver). I didn’t bother to disinfect the awl.

I tried to put the mushroom pieces into the agar agar medium, but the medium had hardened and was really hard to penetrate.

I pricked some holes into the non-bleach agar agar medium with the awl and pushed a piece of the mushroom into the agar.

I later watched some videos where people cloned mushrooms. They used a sterilized scalpel to cut a hole in the agar and used much smaller pieces mushroom.

I put a piece of the mushroom in the bleach agar agar container. The agar agar medium is very dense and rubbery so it’s hard to penetrate.

I then put the containers in plastic bags that I tied a knot on.

And waited…

Experiment 1.0 – Result : green mold

I waited another week to see if the mycelium would spread but instead it seem to have been taken over by some green mold.

Conclusion:

Phellinus igniarius doesn’t grow in wet straw.

Experiment 1.0 – mushroom picture.

 

I found a picture of the mushroom I used for experiment 1.0.

Phil Ross talks about mushroom bricks that fuse together

Phil Ross talks about mushroom bricks that fuse together.