oyster basket

[lindsay]

great time of the year here for outdoor grows. looking forward to a week

of 20 C average temps. so the timing for a blue oyster basket is looking

good. doing this one with a high spawn rate of 6 ltrs.

the jars don't look fully colonized, but several days before they were fully

white. I had to give them a shake to buy some time till I go around to

pasteurizing and spawning the straw.

fitting nice in the fridge incubator.

5 days later looking 90% done.

[Shrooman]

Looks great, I like the mesh basket!

How do you get enough FAE in your fridge incubator?

Edited August 27, 2014 by Shrooman

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Got your posts are inspirational mate!

[lindsay]

I only use the fridge to colonise. the garbage bag has about 70 skewer holes

in it. I did set the thermostat to 21c, but after a day it became self heating.

had to leave the door 1cm open to stop over heating. the temp has been

sitting around 22-23c.

the basket will go outside with board wider than the top, on top, with a plastic

sheet over hanging.

[NSF]

Sure, that spawn rate is high but 5 days for colonisation is amazing! I guess it just goes to show that optimum temperatures are called optimal for a reason!

I need something like this for my grain spawn!

[lindsay]

yep I was blown away when first looked in on it. I had to look back

to the dates on my picks, I thought I was going silly or something.

the high spawn rate is what has done it.

if your looking for an old fridge NSF, advertise in gumtree and offer $20

for them to deliver. its better than them paying to dispose off it. i had a

dozen calls before I could pull down the advert.

the older the fridge the stronger the shelves, I have found.

[Shrooman]

You can even go to Harvey Norman/Good Guys and get them from free if you can pick them up - they have to pay to get rid of them.

[Zen Peddler]

Awesome work - looks great. Im surprised more permis arent into oysters now days - they are just so easy to work with really.

[fungi1963]

but several days before they were fully white. I had to give them a shake to buy some time till I go around to pasteurizing and spawning the straw.

This is the story of my life! :-)

Work tends to get in the way, or is it the spawn never seems to want to align for the weekend. Once I get to the second shaking required I usually get fed up and do a midweek straw run into the wee hours of the night.

I haven't solved the overheating issue with large amounts of spawn in the fridge at one time but I've been thinking of punching a hold in the top of the chest freezer and running a PVC pipe down near the floor with fans for active co² evacuation and screens for insect barrier and perhaps fins a co2 controller to activate the fans automatically but haven't thought up a heat vent solution unless I go simple and stick a flat object on top of the pipe when wanting to keep the heat inside and then off when wanting to vent.

[Darklight]

great time of the year here for outdoor grows. looking forward to a week

of 20 C average temps. so the timing for a blue oyster basket is looking

Sweet as!

I've given up on incubators, these days I work with the seasons.

What volume is yr laundry basket? Did you make the straw bale yourself? Chop it up beforehand? Or buy it as-is from somewhere

[lindsay]

yep, I hear an eco here on the mycology forum, Fungi1963. Growing mushroom is a real time bandit.

I am always trying to make thing easier faster or as you say, getting things to happen when time is

available. the timing of spawn I think I am just about on top of. I've been keeping records of each

of the cultures I have. what temps they are incubated at, when they are shaken and when they are done.

so next time round I should know about what day things need to happen.

hey Fungi1963, better to be trying to find time, than to be trying to find something do with your time.

will tipping the freezer on its side work better for you?

Darklight the basket is about 50 ltrs. The straw i buy it by the bale.

i chop it with a paper guillotine which takes about an hour. it is, a slow way of doing it.

Edited August 30, 2014 by lindsay

[Darklight]

 

Darklight the basket is about 50 ltrs. The straw i buy it by the bale.

i chop it with a paper guillotine which takes about an hour. it is, a slow way of doing it.

Thank you! It looks so good, would love to see fruiting photos

I'mma try this when the weather warms up a bit. Power supply can be dodgy here so I won't rely on incubators for mass production any more

Love your work

[lindsay]

basket has 10 or more sets of pins happening now.

[fungi1963]

Looking good mate.

For the straw I chop mine up in a couple minutes tops. But I'm using the baby ozito chainsaw you get when on sale at Bunnings for around the 80 mark. Feeds that inner man beast having a petrol saw blazing through a bale at warp speed.

Handy little unit when you don't want to run a $1,200 saw through an unknown quality bale. And severely underestimated too, I then climbed a full grown eucalyptus and cut it down to the ground with that tiny saw just to see if it could do it and was amazed at how well it did it.

I've got a few logs in barrels for a couple log grow experiments to thanks to this saw.

With the freezer I suppose I could but I also use it for fermentations so I'm trying to keep it as multipurposed as possible at the moment so I haven't tipped or modded it yet but if I dedicate it then its full on for modification.

Though I just had a thought of building an aluminium flyscreen from and putting in screen material and using that in liue of the lid when the large mass overheats. The mass is so great its sometimes hard to control temps in the core of the straw.

Cheers,

Fungi1963

Edited September 10, 2014 by fungi1963

[lindsay]

did not get a even pinning, most happen all around the bottom.

dam wind took the plastic of and dried the top off when I

was at work. but still a good crop.

looks like dinner.

Edited September 12, 2014 by lindsay

[sundrop]

they look delicious and healthy! amazing work man

[lindsay]

here is the 2nd crop picked 2 days back, its more evenly spread. the mushrooms were

just a little smaller. the first pick weighed 2.5kg, this pick was just 5 grams

less. so 5kg off the basket so far. I will give it a good soak tonight and see what

I can push out for the final crop.

[Zen Peddler]

nice work...

[NSF]

That's really really impressive lindsay.

I like that second flush more almost. Less stem.

[lindsay]

a little less stem, but more cutting to harvest. not complaining though.

the third crop is happening. a good even pinning all over the basket top

to bottom. plenty of small pining groups and single pins, giving plenty of light

between them. should give less stem again. and the light intensity is a

little higher now than at the start. the temps forecasted the next 3 days

are 25, 27 to 31c. looking forward to see how they perform.

[lindsay]

3rd flush is looking to be as good as the others.

will pick tonight. should be close to the last pickings in weight.

I think I will go a 4th round.

update: 1.5 kg picked

Edited October 8, 2014 by lindsay