Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Rowan Reid from Melbourne Uni is setting up a series of workshops on growing shiitake mushrooms. I expect to attend the Ballarat session. I know it's not aquaponics but I felt some members might be interested anyway.

The workshops are supported by the Victorian Government and the Otway Agroforestry Network. And will be held:
COLAC – Saturday 20th September – Special Effects Nursery – 3km before Colac when entering from the Geelong side
BALLARAT - Saturday 4th October – Gib Wettenhall in Mollongghip
GIPPSLAND – Saturday 11th October – Lardner Field Day site, Near Warrigal

More info can be found here
http://www.mtg.unimelb.edu.au/

On an aside, since I will be in Ballarat I had heard that there was cheap barramundi/trout food available there, does anyone know who to talk to?

Not a big mushroom eater because of a bad food poisoning experience but I'd still like to hear about it after you attend. Maybe you could post a summary.

There's a heap of trout places around Ballarat...someone should be able to help you out...

You might be thinking Ballarat Trout Hatchery...l

Located in Gillies Street
BALLARAT VIC 3350

Ph: (03) 53341220 ...

Couple of others....

Learmonth Trout and Fauna Park is located on the Sunraysia Hwy at Learmonth (tel: 03 5343 2287)

Mitchell Park Trout Farm is on Wiggins Rd near the Ballarat Airport, tel: (03) 5334 6523.

Tuki Trout Farm.... operates a fish out business... but also has trout produce...

Physical address
60 Stoney Rises Rd.

Smeaton, Victoria 3364
Contact details
Telephone: +61 3 5345 6233
Facsimile: +61 3 5345 6377
Email: info@tuki.com.au
Website: www.tuki.com.a

Ok a follow up finally on the results of the shiitake mushroom workshop.

The workshop ran for 3-4 hrs with some talks and images of growing them on logs, I inoculated 1 log at the time and came home and did the other four. Well after 12mths nothing happened

So I decided to learn some more, out onto the net I went. Well it's amazing what you can learn. After reading lots I was really glad that I had used the beer fridge to store some of the dowels they gave us to impregnate the logs with, as I could attempt to grow them without the logs but using saw dust cakes instead. I still have the logs and I concluded that it was such a hot year that the logs had dried out too much and too frequently. To test this I brought one inside and put it in the bath, yes I know I have a very tolerant wife
I kept it soaked for a few days and then just kept it damp I repeated this for about 6 weeks and wholla we have mushrooms

I also started my trial of sawdust cakes and they are almost ready to try to trigger fruiting in too, I will let you know if they succeed.

If you look at the log you will see a mushroom, not quite ready to pick, up near the top. You can also see the white mycellium showing through at various points. These logs wont last the 4-5 years they could as too much bark damage has occurred due to drying out.

At this stage I feel I have learned enough that I should be able to reproduce the strain and produce more from the spore so if anyone would like to try growing let me know I am happy to supply spawn.

This is another thought provoking thread. Thanks, I spent a few hours watching youtube vids on the subject and found that blue barrel pasturizer that I posted in the vermiponics thread. I love mushrooms especially in italian dishes! Portobellos are my favorite! I'm gonna have to try this!
Climate here is wet and wild (probably poisonious) mushrooms grow all over the place. There are books on which ones to pick but too risky for me! I'm going to order a mushroom in a box kit and work my way up from there.
Kinda like making wine, pasturize-inoculate-grow-enjoy!

I like to do that too and beer, yogurt, cheese and bread

This has been one of the things holding me back, you have a much better range of choices over there. Until the last 12 months we have had virtually no available mushroom kit varieties.

Has anyone tried canning or preserving/freezing excess mushrooms?

I think it's a fairly new thing as far as kits go 5 or 6 years that I recall but getting much more common. Here is a link for lots of them here state side but I guess being a fungus shipping abroad is highly controlled by most governments.
http://www.groworganic.com/browse_384_M ... es=6477238
http://www.mushroomadventures.com/store/

Here are some links in Australia:
http://www.fungi.net.au/products.php
http://www.mushroomkit.com.au/products/
There are quite a few on google.

I've tried various "kits" many times over the years... and I may be doing it all wrong... but frankly... MOST of them have barely produced enough mushrooms to cover the cost of the kit... and usually don't produce for more than a few weeks at best...

Rupert that has been my previous experience too but it is because the substrate gets exhausted. The mycelium needs to colonise a new substrate to continue. It may also be that a mushroom mycelium has a limited lifespan so it seems you need to have dormant seed stock, ie grain or dowels in a fridge and possibly new spawn from spore every now and then as well. It's actually quite interesting and like always rewarding when you see something grow.

Novaris, did they teach anything about the mature mushrooms going to spore and how to collect it? I know some of the wild ones that grow in the yard if you touch them they explode a smoke cloud of spores out of them, others I think is in the gills???

I had a dabble a couple of years back. Managed to produce spawn by cloning shop bought oysters on agar. Could presumably do with other shop bought mushies also. Ended up discontinuing my experiments before I made up bulk substrate due to lack of time.

This is one thing I'll definitely be getting into again in the future. My intention is to colonise my no dig gardens with suitable varieties. The substrate will therefore be the mulch and composts that I will use on my gardens, hopefully sourced onsite. I'm keen to see what varieties will grow in wood chip made onsite from suitable fast growing plants. Am hoping that some variety might grow on pigeon pea wood chip and even chip from various shrubs around the place that I am constantly having to prune back (like sheenas gold for instance). I'm also trying to build up the number of mulch producing grassy plants that I have around the place so will also try growing on this type of mulch if not the compost produced from them. Not sure how well this will go as many of these grasses probably have mild antiseptic properties that may retard the funghi growth (for intance my east indian lemon grass, west indian lemon grass and vetiver grass).

Oysters will also grow on sugarcane mulch, which I currently use a fair bit of sourced offsite - so until I manage to cease using this on my gardens, then I should be able to grow on that in my garden beds.

Will watch with interest how you all go with this so that I am all clued up when I give it a go again.

Bill - if you have a mushroom in the yard that you want to produce from, you are best in my opinion cloning from some flesh rather than trying to use spores.

That may be what I'll try, my confidence level on distinguishing the good ones from the deadly is growing. On my brothers hunting property he has a lot of bottoms and hardwoods the recent hurricanes toppled a bunch of. He has thousands of mushrooms growing in there. I trust I can identify the oysters and Chicken of the woods but will leave the soil ones alone for now. I may get a couple kits started and use it to propagate from.