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AdamHi George,
Good question! We have experimented with spent hops in the past and had mixed results. They definitely help to introduce extra moisture to the mix and many bags we made grew brilliantly, but we found two issues with them in particular:
1) the hops tended to clump together alot and didn’t easily distribute amongst the coffee
2) contamination rates (green and blue mould) increased, even when using fresh hops straight from the brewing process. There appeared to be more mould surviving the pastuerisation than occurs with pastueriused straw or coffee.
It must be said that we only tested this in large column bags and only for a relatively short period of time, so it certainly deserves further investigation. I would have thought the fresher you can use the spent hops after brewing the better, and avoiding contact with open air by transferring straight to clean buckets, then carrying out inoculation under the cleanest conditions possible would all increase the chance of success.
Best of luck and let us know how you get on!
Cheers,
Adam
AdamGeorge Asked:
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Hello Adam,
We are thinking of experimenting with using pasteurized spent hops to replace the staw using the same ratio’s you have suggested on the course. Do you have any advice to make the experiment successful?
Thanks,
George
AdamHi Karla,
not sure exactly what that might be without seeing a photo, but we’ll do our best to help (can’t see any twitter link here).
You should be able to post a picture by clicking the ‘Add Media’ button at the top of where you write a reply here. If this doesn’t work for any reason, could you email some photos instead to support@growmushroomsoncoffee.com with a description of how many days ago you inoculated, what spawn was used, spawn rate, growing conditions etc.
We are working on moving the forum to a private Facebook group which should make it easier to share photos.
Best wishes,
Adam
AdamThat’s ace!
More happy customers and getting the little ones involved too – nice one 🙂
AdamHi Alison,
many thanks for your experience, that sounds like a really good simple and effective setup 🙂 do you have a photo of it that you’re able to post here?
Also, thanks for your suggestion for the Facebook Group – it’s something we’ve been looking into a bit as we’re not entirely happy with the forum format either. It’s useful to hear that you found the Facebook Group system better and something we’ll definitely take on board when we carry out a review of the course soon.
best wishes,
Adam
AdamThat’s fantastic! Mushroom selfies!
Great idea, and what better way to involve people in the project. Once the word spreads you’ll have to up your production 😉
You’re in Toronto, right? I just saw this other post in the forum from Sally in Nova Scotia who was wondering about spawn sources in Eastern Canada – would you have any advice for her?
Thanks, Adam
AdamSally asked:
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Hello there,
Has anyone had any success in finding a good source for spawn that ships to eastern Canada? I’m located in Nova Scotia and have been struggling to find a supplier.
Any leads are appreciated!
Sally
AdamGreat you found that post elsewhere in the forum.
In addition to this, I would say that one way to know when to cut holes for fruiting, is to leave them in incubation for longer and see when they start to pin in there.This will gove an indication of the optimum time to move through into fruiting.
You may find that they are actually wanting a bit longer in incubation – we often leave our bags for 5 weeks before fruting.
In terms of size of the hole: with large bags like you are using, you could cut holes anywhere from 2cm-5cm in size, and experiment with just straight slits as well as ‘x”s. It depends on the size of fruitbodies you are looking for. Bigger holes produce bigger clusters and tend to waste more growth in the stem. Smaller holes produce smaller but more numerous clusters.
AdamWow – looking good Anthony!
Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing. You’ll soon have more than you can eat for yourself! Any plans for selling?
AdamWow Anthony, looks like a nice setup and what a cool location!
A great image of post-industrial rejuvenation, and perfect for growing mushrooms! Looks like you are well on your way to a bumper crop before long 😉
AdamHi Karla,
It’s a good question, and not something that we’ve tried ourselves before so I’m afraid. A couple of potential issues that I could see would be:
– The coffee may become very wet and saturated upon soaking, which may not be soa easy to drain off and could cause problems in the grow bags later
– If the coffee is a few days old and has already developed contaminant mould growth, this may not be effectively killed off by the lime soak
You never know until you try these things though, so if you do give it a go then please do let us know how you get on.
best wishes,
Adam
AdamGreat tip Anthony! Never used those before but they sound like a perfect addition for wet coffee and are obviously sterilised under high heat and pressure when they are made. Would probably help to break up the density of mix a bit too.
AdamHi Jon,
I don’t know about baking soda to be honest – never tried it. Let us know how you get on if you give it a try.
Best wishes,
Adam
AdamHi Jon,
Yes the 50% full would be based on the coffee and spawn combined mix, and 100%Â would be from the base of the bag, right to the very top of the bag where it is sealed/closed up. This usually tends to be just under where the filter is positioned.
best wishes,
Adam
AdamHi Chris,
Apologies for the slow response. Yes you are absolutely right – the internal temperature of the substrate will be a few degrees higher than the cupboard due to the growth activity of the mycelium (and any competitor moulds).
Depending on the size of the bags and the stage of colonisation you will normally find the internal temperature to be around 3-6 C hotter than the outside bag temperature. We have only found increased contamination rates when the room temperature climbs above 27C, so at 24C you are at a perfect temperature for fast colonisation.
Best wishes,
Adam
