Tag Archives: Cultivation

Cultivation, Miscellaneous

Product Review on The Giant Morel Mushroom Patch™

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I bought the The Giant Morel Mushroom Patch™  as a gift for my dad last October. The kit is available at fungi.com (link on homepage) and is one of many mushroom kits and products available. Dad lives in Oregon now and I was curious how the kit would grow. He also loves morels and is living in a new area, so homegrown mushrooms in his backyard seemed like a good idea.

Dad followed the instructions and his mushroom bed was ready before the end of October. The kit can take up to 2 years to produce mushrooms, and morels are one of the tougher fungi to grow. Report from Oregon last week was the patch has produced its  first morel. There won’t probably be many mushrooms to eat this year, but we know the fungus is established and growing underground.
Quite a feat for a first time mushroom farmer, and when the conditions are right there will be gourmet food.

I have ordered another outdoor kit and some inoculated plugs from fungi perfecti and will report on their progress. I was so impressed with the results of the The Giant Morel Mushroom Patch™ that I just ordered another one as a gift. I will report on it’s progress also as it will live in Montana!

Cultivation, Miscellaneous, Montana Mushrooms News

Oyster Mushrooms On Coffee Grounds

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I have wanted to inoculate coffee grounds with oyster mushrooms for quite awhile. With the help of the cool people at Wild Joe’s, I have managed to collect some great organic, free trade coffee grounds. The grounds are too rich to waste and the folks at Wild Joe’s  feel the same way! Oyster Mushrooms grow on almost anything, so it stands to reason they would like coffee grounds. The very strength of coffee grounds, is also their downfall.They are a perfect semi sterile substrate for growing fungus because they have been steam pasteurized. The problem with that is the quickest fungus to get to them is usually green mold. The trick to this project is going to be controlling the growing conditions to help the oysters while making the mold unhappy.When I first put the spawn in the coffee grounds, the spawn took off because it was warm in the garage and the spawn was hungry. Then I noticed the green mold creeping in, and as you see in the pictures, there is a major war going on between the mold and the oysters.

Coffee Grounds From Wild Joe'sOyster Spawn on Coffee GroundsOyster Spawn on Coffee GroundsOyster Spawn on Coffee GroundsOyster Spawn on Coffee GroundsOyster Spawn on Coffee Grounds

The little brown specks are the grain from the spawn mixture. The white spider web is the Oyster spawn growing and the green is, you guessed it, mold.At this point the project has gone outside,and neither the spawn nor the mold is happy! But I know the spawn is still growing as the temperature is just above freezing, and the mold won’t survive the cold.Hopefully the bucket will produce mushrooms. Either way the experiment has already told me that Oyster spawn does indeed like coffee grounds.

Thanx again to the awesome crew at Wild Joe’s for saving the grounds for me,and thank you Hannah for setting it up. Stop by their coffee house on Main Street in Bozeman and create some grounds for us.

Cultivation, Miscellaneous, Montana Mushrooms News

Oyster Cultivation Update

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Checked on the “Oysters growing on cornstalks” project and was excited to see life! The project had survived being outside during this cold weather.The last time I posted pictures, the oysters were starting to grow(see other posts on oyster cultivation). Then in a couple weeks the fungus gnats found the fungus and it had to go outside. At the time the weather was pretty good and I wasn’t worried too much. Well the weather turned so it lived under the deck covered with a couple small blankets. Even though I wanted to check on it, I knew it could kill or at least slow the project. This weekend it was finally warm enough I felt safe in checking on it, and took some shots of progress.

CornstalksOysters on Cornstalks

As you can see the mushrooms are coming along fine and will be producing food when the weather warms a little. Since the last shots of this project it has been below zero a few nights and has been too cold for most mushrooms. I think since the tub was covered and the fungus provided some heat of its own, it survived. Oysters are amazing!

Oysters on CornstalksOysters on Cornstalks

Oysters on CornstalksOysters on Cornstalks

As you can see they are itching to get outside.We will keep close track of this project all the way to the pan!

Cultivation, Montana Mushrooms News

Oyster Cultivation Update

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Checked on the oysters growing on cornstalks, and was excited to see mushrooms forming.

There is a couple of clumps forming and the mycelium has spread throughout. The mass may grow pretty fast now that that the fruiting has started! The timing might workout pretty well since the temperatures are almost stable enough to set the tub outside.

Oysters on cornstalkOysters on cornstalkOysters on cornstalkOysters on cornstalk

It is good to see this working because I didn’t have to put much work into it.There is not much much money invested either. The cornstalks were just broken up enough to fit in the tub and soaked in water. Since it is very low tech and low cost it has real possibilities for farmers, both those farming for a hopeful profit and those farming to provide food to  survive.

The cornstalks could have been bagged up and sent to the landfill, and instead will be turned into food. I will keep you updated on this project.