Hi Mateo,

We have worked in a more open-source way in the past and found that it took up all our time answering the many questions that people inevitably have. While it was fun and great to be helping people out, we simply aren’t able to spend all our time like this. As a small non-profit organisation with plenty of overheads and a big ongoing workload, the only way we are able to spend our time sharing our knowledge is to create some structure to it – we’re not able to keep up with the demands that open source creates.

This forum is designed more as a follow up space for asking questions related to the course content. This is explained a little more in the forum rules here: https://growmushroomsoncoffee.com/topic/forum-rules-how-to-use-this-forum/

Anyway, appreciate your feedback and hope you understand where we’re coming from.

best wishes,

Adam

Hi Kaleb,

The Unicorn bags we use in the video inside the course are the 3T bags, but we have also used some smaller 10T bags with good success. Although a bag sealer is useful if you’re sealing lots of bags, you can also just turn the tops over and then seal with paperclips or tape.

Best wishes,

Adam

Mateo asked:

I was wondering if anyone here has experimented with innoculating with LC’s. I figure it’s much easier to innoculate with a liquid culture than with grain since you can make liters of it at once… That is, if you make i sure beforehand that it’s a clean culture, or else you’d be growing contams and not mushrooms.

Some people use malt, honey, karo or other syrups for the nutrient in the liquid (usually 2%) so for example 100ml would be 2 ml of honey.

I’ve also been adviced to use grainwater from grains used to colonize (reuse/recycle) which seems like a good idea which I’ll be trying soon.

Any tips that any of you fellow shroomers can offer would be appreciated

Questions are welcomed as well

Happy holidays!

Hi Jerome,

we used to produce all our own spawn, but it began to take up too much of our time as it is a whole other operation in itself. In our view it’s better to buy spawn from someone else who specialises in it, and then focus instead on the mushroom production.

This was the case for us, but it’ also true when doing things on a smaller scale that it reduces costs and gives you an appreciation for cultivating mycelium and the kind of conditions it thrives in.

As to how to do it – there are many steps involved, it can take a while to learn, and you need clean sterile conditions. There’s too much to learn to cover it here and it’s beyond the scope of the online course, but you could learn more about it in Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets.

Best wishes,
Adam

Hi Marco,

I can delete the post if you wish? From the title it sounds like you were wondering what the yellow honey-coloured liquid in the bags was. Here’s a photo of something similar in the bag on the right:

The liquid is nothing to worry about it – it’s just waste metabolites that the mycelium produces as a byproduct whilst growing across the substrate. You can wash it away with water when you cut open the bags to fruit if you wish.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes,

Adam

Vaclan asked:

Hey everyone,

I got to a situation, where I need some help. I prepared 4 samples, to learn how to grow. I set them up first week in september. Unfortunately 3 bags stoped growing, it could be by bad gasses circulation, according to person with lot of experince. I tried to cut more holes and it seems to help.

Fourth bag is fully grown mycelium, I cut holes to let grow mushrooms out but it only grow white mass inside of bags, in some places it is turning licht brown. Holes seems a bit dry and this mass dont grow in them. What is your opinion? Look at the pictures.

Václav

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Hi Andrew,

Sorry, I have only just seen your question here – unfortunately the webinars are only available for a week afterwards with the webinar platform that we use.

However, there will be another one at the end of February and you are more than welcome to ask any questions you have here on the forum in the meantime.

Best wishes,

Adam

Hi Ute,

During the rest period between crops, you can just leave the bags in the same fruiting conditions. They will take 5-10 days ‘resting’ whilst they break down and gather more nutrient from the coffee, before fruiting again when they’re ready. It’s best for them to be in the fruiting conditions so they are able to fruit as soon as they’re ready.

Hope this helps.

best wishes,

Adam