Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Mushrooms often get overlooked in the grand scheme of gardening, just because they're not plants.

However, they are extremely beneficial to your garden's soil, are highly nutritious, and make a tasty addition to almost any meal. While it's true that some species can be a little tricky to grow, but once you learn a few basic requirements, it is feasible to grow all the mushrooms you can eat.

Each type of mushroom has specific "ideal" requirements for temperature, humidity, light, and nutrition. Some grow in soil, others on compost piles, logs, trees - the list is endless. However, for the beginner, we recommend oyster mushrooms.

Get your feet wet with this most forgiving mushroom and you'll definitely want to advance into the realm of others like Shitake, Paddy Straw, Garden Giant, and more.

Growing oyster mushrooms in a laundry basket is easy, cheap and it's a great project to do with
kids. They'll enjoy watching the quick growth of the fruiting bodies as well as the rewards of eating them after harvest.

For detailed instructions, please visit:
http://velacreations.com/food/mushrooms/edible/item/173-oysters-laundry-basket.html

More photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/velacreations/sets/72157624463908734/

wow this reads like an ad, i thought that was against the rules.

Naughty naughty vela

an ad? really?

well, I'm not selling anything. I thought people would be interested in mushrooms.

thanks for the info.
It certainly does not look like spam to me

if you feel it is spam, please remove it. I didn't mean to offend anyone, I just wanted to share info. I'm kinda obsessed with mushrooms...

We'll decide who's spam.... and valcreations has been an active member for years with plenty of input on a number of topics including AP.

The post will stay.

I am getting into growing mushies with kits and have ordered some inoculated (king oyster) dowels to inoculate a maple log from a recently cut down tree.
Thanks for the post, very interesting

You can take cuttings of the stems and mycelium to keep those growing perpetually. The kits are a great way to get started, and then use cuttings from your growth to keep up your supply.

I have thousands of spoor prints, and each contains hundreds of billions of spores, so I literally have TRILLIONS of spores in storage!

Paul Stamets has a wonderful book, if you guys get into this, called Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms. He gives details for several species, their growing requirements and identification details.

I have always thought that a mushrooms biofilter would be a great addition to an aquaponics setup. Oyster mushrooms on straw would be perfect for this.

I saw oyster mushrooms used as a greywater filter: http://katherineball.com/Indoor-Greywater-System

I'm glad you decided to keep the thread, but i thought it did read like an ad myslf.

I have been trying to grow oysters my self. Had some trouble getting them started. took som eplugs from a kit i had gotten for xmas. The last two attempts appear to be working as the mycellia are now spreading through the bag. My question: is there something i need to do to get them to a fruiting stage? I believe i have blue oysters.

Going to go check those links now.
Thnx for the post!

Poppa

yes, you have to change the conditions to trigger fruiting. First, you should make them cooler, and next, expose them to light an fresh air. Only do this after they have completely colonized the substrate.

Blue oysters require cooler temperatures, like 50-60F to start fruiting.

Mushroom biofilters... I have been thinking about that for years. The question I have is if it can handle the rate of flow needed for ap.

that depends on the flow and size of the filter. I think I would put them after a plant bed, as sort of a final, polish filter.

Though, if the bioload is small, and the filter was big, I bet they could handle it.

An added benefit is that tilapia can eat the mycelium and spent substrate, so you have extra high protein fish food.

I have the perfect spot and have done shiitake in the past outdoors
Just gotta work out the plumbing to keep the right moisture levels.

also what's the species in the OP? it's a beaut!

Interesting thread Guys and I'm not a Mushroom fan in the slightest but I'll certainly take the time to read up.

Thanks