Hi Josue,

you typically soak the straw for 14-18 hrs and then drain all the water. Once the water has been drained you leave it for another hour or so to further dry and this should work fine. How long did you soak it for?

Cheers,

Eric

That looks great and many thanks for sharing 🙂

Hi Eduardo-

thanks for your note and it sounds awesome what you guys are doing in Cancun- so well done! Bit of a pain with the spawn and I hope the supplier will have a listening ear when you explain your situation and the good you’re trying to do.

What we’ve done for a while now is use lay flat tubing used in aircon industry like this:

https://www.kitepackaging.co.uk/scp/polythene-tubing/lay-flat-polythene-tubing/?gclid=COSMs5K_v9QCFbYV0wodqXcDTA

And then you punch holes in it during before putting in incubation. try between 12- 16 holes to start with in a X shape about 2 cm wide. Might need some testing where you are but should work fine. Let me know how you get on.

Happy growing!

Eric

Hi Andrew,

in the video Ian uses 6 kg coffee and 600 gr straw and 300 spawn and makes two bags of this.

So depending on which bag size you’re looking to fill I think that should set you on the path 🙂

Keep us posted!

Eric

Hi Leisha,

we sell our mushrooms to shops and restaurants in the all too familiar (blue/ black) plastic trays (you’ll see a lot of them used by veg shops/ wholesalers). What we do is use these again and again.

The way we keep the mushroom fresh is by putting a layer of kraft packing paper with a bit of water sprayed on. The same when you cover it over and then keep it in fridge.

Hope that helps and happy selling 🙂

Eric

Hi Mirela,

thanks for pointing this out. Unfortunately that business is no longer trading but there are some other option for the bags:

http://shop.ukmushroomsupplies.com/10x-Unicorn-14A-Mushroom-Substrate-Spawn-Filter-Grow-Bags-68423.htm

Or you can buy it from us with some spawn as well (UK Only)

https://shop.grocycle.com/products/oyster-mushroom-spawn-uk

with regards your questions: The mushrooms would come out of small holes but it won’t be for a great harvest. They’ll need a bit more space and we cut small slits in the bag of up to an inch or so. The spawn rate we use if typically 5% nowadays but has been as high as 15% when we were still trying to get the mix right.

I trust that helps and if anything else please ask.

Best wishes,

Eric

Hi Shaun,

good thinking about incenticing the cafes! I thought I’d add that it also helps to tell the staff that you can’t use it if it is full of rubbish. Most of them  like seeing their waste being put to good use and reminding them of this might well see a change in how they deal with it.

Eric

Hi Charlie,

that does sound like a good thing to do with the price of spawn being that high! If your original spawn is in perfect shape it can certainly be multiplied up like you do- makes perfect sense!

Do you find it remains strong enough, ie doesn’t slow down the spawn run?

Cheers

Eric

ps saw your note about the forum too, I agree it’s not very user friendly and we might need fb page instead.