Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi! I am new to AP, Going to be building my first system this September! And I am also in to growing mushrooms, so I thought this would be the best first post.
Paul Stamets is awesome, all his books are worth reading, but for low tech mushroom growing try Mycellium Running. There are as many different kinds of mushrooms as there are plants, there are surely some that will be good for AP. If you live in the USA look at his web site http://www.fungi.com/.

so hello

Some options for AP mushroom fusion

1. Standing logs in media beds
Inoculated with wood ear or oyster mushrooms
Mimic old hawaiian practice of standing kukui logs on taro paddies
Kukui is candlenut (Aleurites mollucana)

2. Using sumptank as Soak tank for shiitake on logs or blocks
They will benefit from nutrients because I've added fish emulsions to mushroom soak waterand got better yields
They do release tannins but maybe some black water fish need that

3. Building mound beds between veggies in moist gravel
This technique may mimic the way mushroom beds can be built in vegetable gardens interrow under veg canopy on moist mineral soil for the wicking effect
Would suit the magic mushroom types where it's not illegal

4. Strawbale biofilters
Whole innoculatedstraw bales used as biofilter media to catch fish solids and soak up nitrates

Many other applications I'm sure

The effect of standing logs in a recirculating system si probably unkown... but certainly some woods are poisonous to fish... and the rotting that may occur could also introduce unknown micro-organisms and/or pathogens into the system....

Not IMO... a controllable scenario... and a possible compromise to fish health.... for the sake of a few mushrooms that could be grown elsewhere... or by other means...

Rup,
When I visited Growing Power mid year last year they had shitake logs suspended under grow beds, over fish tanks. They began by soaking the logs in the fishtanks, then suspending them. If I remember correctly they would dunk them periodically. I am unsure how they turned out.

I cannot find my pics of the visit but will look again.

Cheers.
Brian

Be good if you could find that brian.

Can you remember what type of logs they were? Not an easy question sorry. An old river log (running water) would prob be best... one that was seasoned Im thinking.

Be pretty cool to grow mushies in AP too. But as Rupes post implied.. I think precautions would need to be taken.

Well it's good someone knows first hand what they are talking about
I guess if we all just assumed the worst abd never tried
Then we'd never know would we!

There's a few woods it'd make sense to avoid as a precautionary measure
Essentially plants known to contain large amounts of alkaloids or saponins

Shiitake grows well on oaklike woods
So tassie bluegum, and any of the proteaceae are candidates
As one defining feature of them is an oaklike grain in the wood

I did experiments on wood teas
This involved boiling sawdusts from many woods until an extract or tea was made
This had the water soluble leaches from the woods
This was made into growth media for fungi with addition of sugars and salts
Solidified with a gelling agent

I innoculated several mushroom species onto this media and monitored growth rates compared to the control
There was significant differences even within the same species (various shiitake isolates)
In the ability to grow on various woods

Relevant to this discussion was that the teas were very rich in pigments
But as the experiment progressed the fungi bleached the media
Digesting a lot of the pigmented components
The relevance is that inoculated logs are not the same as the raw wood

It's not reasonable to assume a colonized log shares the same risks as a raw log

And no
You cant grow mushrooms on old river logs
That's just not how the game is played

We inoculate fresh cut logs
They colonize
Then we dunk and bash them to initiate fruiting

Please read stamets books as as accessible introduction

The middle image is how they were arranged. Sorry it is not mine, phone change, tied with multile computer changes...well, you get the general idea...

And if I remember correctly they were oak logs.

Brian

I would have though most woods are AP safe.
I have used all sorts of collected wood for my aquarium and none have caused any issues, and tropical fish can be sensitive.
Some release too much tannin and make the water dark, those are generally thrown out.

Im hoping to get back into trying to grow mushrooms again.. still no success

I am going to sit on this idea for a bit. I may try a log or two suspended above my sump tank/below my grow beds at some point. That is unused space and in the shade anyways!

It is humid here... and hot. Might try one oyster log and one shittake for the cooler months. What does it take like 1.5 years to fruit right?

Well done mate resurected a 4.5 year old thread may be a new record.....just sayin

Your welcome. The subject is still valid. Lol

I read this thread just before posting that I was going to try it.

I think I've been talked out of it.

So far my experiments include burying some Enokitake mushrooms in my system and sticking a bucket over the spot.