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| Oyster Mushroom Bucket Experiment |
This morning I was aghast to find my oyster mushroom bucket experiment and, when successful, culinary treat had grown coral-shaped formations overnight.
My first flush of mushrooms doesn't have enough flesh to make a meal.
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| Coral-shaped formation--elegant shapes, but undesirable for an oyster mushroom. |
This undesirable coral formation has one of two causes:
- not enough light
- not enough oxygen; too much carbon dioxide
I've had the oyster mushroom bucket in a western facing bay window, where it gets ample indirect light--ideal for this method of propagation. So, I deduce that the cause is not enough oxygen.
I was using a plastic tent to keep the bucket humid. Though I have ventilation holes and three times a day pull the tent off to let the carbon dioxide escape, I deduce I needed to give the patch more time to air each day.
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| Oyster Mushroom Bucket -- Out for Fresh Air |
The weather is perfect today--70 degrees F and raining--so I took the oyster mushroom bucket to my screened in porch. I plan to trim the coral formations and hope for a second flush of edibles.
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Pale Green/Gray Mold
Note: Even the coral doesn't grow here. |
Near three of the air holes--where I may have carelessly touched the patch to clear coffee grounds away from the hole--first indications of mold appeared today. This is another undesirable development in my experiment, but easy to correct. In the past, light, regular misting of a mild hydrogen peroxide solution has worked for me.
The three steps I plan to take to encourage a second flush of healthy Oyster mushrooms:
- give the patch more fresh air
- trim the coral back to the mycelium
- spray the green mold with hydrogen peroxide solution
In my next report, I'll give the steps I took to inoculate coffee ground substrate with the spawn I prepared in a June seminar led by Paul Stamets:
Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Save the World.
To learn more about why this author writes sci-fi eco-adventures, and to find out more about her work-in-progress and how writing
Mission to Blue Grannus requires her research into fungi and myco-remediation, tap on
KHBrower.com.
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| Thank you, Fungi Perfecti, for supplies, training, and inspiration! |
