Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Not quite aquaponics but does anyone here grow mushrooms??? Is it viable? Easy?? Any ideas on how to and what I need too do it would be sweet!

You can buy mushroom kits from bunnings at times. They are fairly small but are good to get an idea of how to grow them. You can also use them to seed a much larger mushroom bed. You can also get mushroom spawn from mushroom growers. It usually comes in a bag and is grown on corn kernels.

You can use just about anything as a mushroom bed, half barrels are good. Get some straw and manure (chook poo is good) and mix it with the straw. Keep it in quite moist and let it compost down for a few weeks till it is squishy. Add mushroom spawn and then top the barrels off with wet peat moss. Put the barrels in a dark humid spot, not too cold and keep the peat moss moist but not sopping wet.

Usually take a couple of weeks for the spawn to grow up through the moist peat moss and start to pin on the surface. Once the pins start to show you will have mushrooms popping up like......well like mushrooms

i have grown mushies from those boxes of dert you get, you open the box, spray with water then close it up for two weeks and reopen and water and wait.

dont remember how long it took but we got loads and loads of mushies, if i find those boxes again i will have another go.

Yeah, those little styrofoam boxes you can get work pretty well I have seen them at garden centres, hardware shops etc.

You can get a few good flushes out of each box, great fun for the kids

Theres a post on a garden forum that I am on where a bloke got several bags of spent mushroom compost, cut them open after laying them down under some trees. A while later had a massive bloom of mushies. Apparently the spent compost is not completely spent, just not commercially viable any more. Worth a shot if you find some

Last kit I got had no growth in almost 2 months. That was a couple of months ago. I should have another look.

Hmmmmm might have to investigate at b or a nursery try get onto it I love them use them in everything.

Diggers were selling oyster mushroom kits in their last catalog.

Worth a look.

I recently inoculated some logs and stumps with plug spawn for shiitake, oyster, and reishi mushrooms. It'll be several months before they're supposed to be ready to fruit, so I have no idea if they're growing or not, though in a couple of places I can see the mycelia growing. It's not hard to do; just drill holes in the logs and pound in the inoculated dowels. I got them from Fungi Perfecti, in the U.S.; they say they ship internationally, though I don't know about Australia specifically.

www.fungi.com/

Found this site last night.

http://www.fungi.net.au/index.php

When you work it out, $23 + P/H to grow approx 3-4kg of Mushies isnt too bad

Currently i pay around $9.99Kg for them, wouldnt mind finding somewhere to Buy a Bulk lot of What ever it is inside the box (Live Mushroom compost or somthing....)

Maybe one of them kits tipped in with mushroom compost and mixed up might be enough to get it going, i can feel some experimenting coming on here

i am thinking an old fridge/Freezer would be a pretty good growing place.

Depends what type of mushrooms your talking about

Usually prices I see at Vic Market are:
Button $5 kgs
Potabello $6 kgs

Maybe more or less in other places

I tried them kit ones, they grow more mushies than the cost of the kit but don't quite have the taste, have seen kits in B for $10 here in WA anyhow

I have bought loads and loads of mushroom compost, but never seen one mushie pop up. But then my brother who lives down south bought some down there, and he had loads of mushies grow from the spent compost.

I reckon most of the growers heat the compost or do something to it that kills the left over mycelium before the sell it. Keeps your market sales of harvested mushies guaranteed... Don;t want gardeners growing lots of mushies from their left overs otherwise it kills sales...

I reckon you might be right. I havent had any mushies from spent compost either but the guy on the ozgrow forum had loads of them. He got his compost in bags, and I have only ever seen it here in bulk

I used to work as a mushroom picker a long time ago and it is true the mushroom compost you buy is not viable commercially but I have had some bumper crops from them, would not think they would work in AP systems but would respond very nicely to the fish water I would think, the kits are ok but come up in blobs and you quite often lose many of them as they are all growing over each other. If you get some compost just check how old it is and try not to get the dried out stuff.