Holes on Bags

Diana,

You’re absolutely right – we have neglected to mention this in the course and it’s a key point, so thanks for mentioning it. We’ll add it on the first update of materials for sure.

The best place to make the holes is directly where the white colonised substrate is. If you are using small bags, you may be best with just one cut appprox 5cm x 5cm on one side of the bag. If you are using larger bags you could cut more holes of the same size but space them apart by  10-15 cms around the bag. You can cut a X shaped hole with clean scissors or a sharp knife. Introducing contamination at this point is less likely as the coffee is already colonised by the mushroom mycelium, but it’s still good practice to keep everythiing as clean as possible.

Best wishes,

Adam

Hi Alison,

Although you could just cut off the top, it is much better to cut a few small holes on the side of the bag instead. This enables better shaped clusters of mushrooms to form, and stops the substrate from drying out so much between flushes.

If you cut the top off, you tend to get lots of smaller individual mushrooms of a lesser quality growing and they are more work to harvest, plus the substrate dries out quicker and is more susceptible to contamination.

Hope this helps,

Adam

• This reply was modified 11 years, 1 month ago by Adam.

Hi Jonny,

Good question! You can just leave the flaps after cutting and you’ll find that the mushrooms will push their way out.

They sense the fresh oxygen at the site of the cut and grow out from that spot. Just make sure to spray with water each day and prevent from drying out – you should have some mushrooms coming through in the next couple of weeks 🙂

Best wishes,

Adam

Yes – when you are ready to fruit the mushrooms, you cut the holes (or just one hole if it’s a small bag) right over the top of where the mycelium is.