Is this gypsum suitible ?

[BentoSpawn]

I want to try spawning to rye grain with gypsum added.

I havent been able to find pure gypsum on its own, i have however found a bag of richgro gypsum clay breaker.

The ingredients are as follows:

is this suitible for using in with the rye for my portabellos ? My guess would be yes, but a second opinion would be welcome

Edited August 31, 2012 by BentoSpawn

[BentoSpawn]

I have also read that i can use some smashed up drywall/gyprock for gypsum, i am just not 100% sold on the idea because i am not sure what else our local gyprock sheets contain. It woukd certainly make alot of sense for gyprock to contain a fungicide imho. Anyone tried using smashed up gyprock here ?

Hopefully this will make for some nutritious portabellos!

Edited August 31, 2012 by BentoSpawn

[goneski]

Well, I hope that Gypsum is okay, as it's the same one I got.. I haven't tried it yet though.

I was really hoping to buy a small bag (1 - 5kg) locally, but for $8, 15kg is okay.

Edited August 31, 2012 by SYNeR

[BentoSpawn]

Found a material saftey data sheet on gyprock:

The composition is as follows:

Calcium sulphate dehydrate (gypsum)

Paper lining

Clay

Paraffin wax

Vermiculite

Starch

Paper pulp

Continuous filament fibreglass

Trace amount of quarts

Looks pretty fine for use to me

Edited August 31, 2012 by BentoSpawn

[Distracted]

I'd just use a sift or something to make sure you only put in the powdery stuff.

I checked out 'Continuous filament fibreglass' as it seemed a bit out of place... seems odd but harmless.

http://www.ppg.com/glass/fiberglass/Documents/apfe.pdf

[migraineur]

I use that stuff. You don't need to grind the hard bits up. Just put them in your pot of boiling water that you use to pasteurize your substrate with. Problem solved.

[Roker]

I use ordinary drawing chalk. You don't need much, just get some sticks from the stationers and crush up what you need. Also you can use egg shell, it's a bit of a pain though.

[footinmouth]

i have used the same stuff. it works well.</p>

Edited September 2, 2012 by footinmouth

[BentoSpawn]

I use ordinary drawing chalk.

 

I am pretty sure chalk is calcium carbonate and not to be used in place of gysum for rye grain cultivation.

[NSF]

You actually want both for rye spawn.

You generally don't want to put lime/chalk in your substrate mixes though, unless you want to alter the pH. That being said, I've got some grow bags that I added a little lime to that are still flushing 12 months after inoculation.

Here's a bulk grain spawn ingredient chart. Equal weight of grain to water. Just do some math to divide it down to the size of your grain cook.

[BentoSpawn]

Yeah the calcium carbonate (chalk) generally speaking goes into the casing layer.

That said, I cant see why it wouldnt hurt to throw a bit of coarse shell into the substrate though to take care of the acid produced by the myc. That would help to keep the ph in the substrate in check considering normally the substrate would normally need to rely just on the lime/shell in the casing layer for ph balance.

Edited September 3, 2012 by BentoSpawn

[NSF]

Interesting about using it in casing. This recipe definitely isn't for casing though. That doesn't mean they don't use it in casing too but this is just in the spawn lab.

[BentoSpawn]

i plan to use the revised 50/50 casing tek:

 

• 5 1/2 cups vermiculite
  
• 15 1/2 cups peat moss
  
• 4 1/2 cups crushed oyster shell
  
• 1.2 cups of hydrated lime (calcium carbonate is better)
  
• 15 cups of distilled water (1 cup short of a gallon of bottled water) 16 cups = 1 gallon
  

 

i couldnt find oyster shell however, so i am using some shell grit i found at a pet shop for $8 for 5kg - should do the trick i think

In place of hydrated lime i am going to use the same shells run though a coffe grinder until they turn into a reasonably fine powder, should basically the same thing as buying calcium carbonate.