So far, we tried the new mix, and the mycellium started spreading over the substrate wonderfully! However, the growth speed just dropped like 3 days ago and it’s not growing anymore… It’s not mould contaminated (just one, which we disposed already), so we are wondering what would be stopping the growth. All of our bags we made holes after inoculation (24 hours), and ensured that the substrate is not compressed. We make sure the area has air exchange, and the incubation area is inside a black tent, on the shadow, so no sun light exposure at all.

The interesting part is that the bags are warmer that enviroment temperature, which usually means that the mycellium is “working” inside the bag, but why we cannot observe any more growth on the surface? I’m referring to the mycellium stars we see on the surface of the substrate… And we are kind of in a hurry, we have never had this trouble before 🙁

Thank you for your answer Adam!

Sadly, I have to report that our bags didn’t grow properly… First two days showed mycellium growth (around 1cm diameter stars) but, it stopped. One week after inoculation, the bags doesn’t present any micellium growth… and we have mould showing up today in one bag (yikes!). The hard part is that we cannot define a specific reason for it to fail, althought I believe is due to the lime bath (since we have never tried that… but the mould was present!), or, in the worst case scenario, the micellium we bought (from a different provider that the times before) or the wood concentration wasn’t enought for the proper air exchange (which is less % that we have tried before).

So, we are gonna make another batch, and this time we are going to apply soap bath (on a reason of 100mL of soap for 20 water litters and 1Kg of wood shaves). We are going back to the usual concentration on wood (10% dry weight) and 10% micellium, so that the micellium colonizes before any competitive mould shows up.

We hope this will work, since we are kind of desperate to get the proper results soon… We will keep you posted!

Thank you for your answer Eric!

I have a couple more questions. We already filled 40x60cm bags, with 7 Kg of substrate mix (we made 9 bags, so you can imagine the manual labor!), and put them on the incubation chamber we prepared. We already made the holes trough the bag (9 “X” holes on each side), and were wondering about the humidity during incubation phase. When you use the filter bags, since you seal the bags, the water is contained inside from the start, and you know it’s going to be humid during the process; but in this case, since the bags are “open”, should we spray water on the substrate bags? How often? I have read documentation, and most of them suggest you to spray constantly during fructification phase, but doesn’t specify on incubation stage.

The second question is regarding the course info. In the course you specify to pasteurize on lime bath or soap bath, and the wood is going to be hydrated during the process. And when you give the mixing proportions you mention 20% for straw, but I was wondering… you mean dry weight? or hydrated weight? Because we made our substrate with 20% hydrated weight, and our mix looks different from yours (quite black actually); since the straw increases air excange, and the less proportion of coffee decreases the chance for contamination grow from mould, I was wondering if you meant dry weight for the straw proportion.

BTW, which kind of “soap” do you use? Laundy soap? Dishes soap? Hand soap? or which one should we look for? how much should you apply per litter? We already tried the lime baths (we had a lot, and a pH potenciometer on hand), but lime bath is complicated, because of how dangerous is to manipulate a 1% lime bath.

I have to admit that, we have already cultivated mushrooms with the traditional “high tech” esterilizing at 15psi, etc etc. But we want to try to change to your “low tech” metodology, because it would be easier to apply, wouldn’t be dependant on school’s equipment, and friendlier with the enviroment. That without taking into account that the methodology is actually “right” from the biotech perspective (I mean, we wouldn’t imagine this  procedure ourselves if we didn’t found your course information!). So, i’m sorry for making so many (and long) questions, but I want to be clear on everything so we can fully develop our mushroom farm!

Last comment. I have mixed perspectives on P. djamor (pink oyster) with coffee grounds, because some info mentions it grows faster and better that on straw, and other sources mentions otherwise; so, i’m going to give it a try, and let you all know our results!

Thank you for your time!