Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My Blue Oyster mushrooms are now in the primordia stage. They'll hopefully start fruiting here next week.

There's a bit of metabolite in that image attached but the 2 baskets look really good overall.

Wow this looks great i am getting married in two weeks so when i get back from honey moon i will be trying this thats for sure will need to take the time and find out how to do it from the earlier posts.
Thanks for an awesome post

Just follow Vela's instructions. Low tech and very simple.

http://velacreations.com/food/mushrooms ... asket.html

Hello,

There is a certain type of mushroom which greatly aids vegetable production. Stamets talks about it in one of his books. Here is a paragraph from Bountiful Gardens Catalog. (A really great company, by the way.)

The Hypsizygus ulmarius Garden Patch, Hypsizygus ulmarius

A great ally for most garden vegetables, this aggressive Garden Oyster mushroom unlocks nutrients from straw, sawdust, and organic debris, feeding the roots of underlying plants. Ideal for over-wintering and mulching, or early Spring planting where straw is overlaid, the HUG kit is a natural way to recycle nutrients and grow gourmet mushrooms at the same time.

Plants are sometimes grown in straw bales, with water and fertilizer added.

So, it would seem that a straw bale colonized by Garden oysters, and filtering the water from an AP, would be an ideal place to grow REALLY great tomatoes, which would shade the mushrooms a bit. And maybe potatoes could be grown in the bale, since they could elbow it around a bit and not get all lumpy.

And then, some of you are saying that the spent material could be fed to the fish!

However, there is one problem. Mushrooms can break ALMOST anything down. But what about those horrible new herbicides which have been sterilizing farms and gardens across the US, when unsuspecting persons import them in hay, grass clippings, or manure.

Is this stuff present in straw? Grains are grasses, so I would suppose they could be in it. (The stuff was developed to keep hay fields clean, and pass intact through animals to continue the process. Hay and manure was never supposed to leave the farms which applied it, but it has even managed to contaminate major composting operations. These companies and our EPA are so smart.)

Could dry weeds or part alfalfa hay be used in this setup instead of straw to get around this? (The herbicides can not be used on alfalfa.)

Could barley straw be used, and would it also help suppress algae?

STACK FUNCTIONS!

I simply love myco threads! This is a good one.

Just started propagating king stropharia [wine cap] mycelium on cardboard to innoculate the next load of hardwood chips I get.

Also have some chicken of the woods [laetiporus sulphureus] on doweled cherry logs that are about to fruit.

Mushrooms of all types are awesome.

J.B.

Alfalfa is used as a supplement for straw or other medium when growing mushrooms much like spent grain from brewing beer.

Stamets talks about recolonizing spent growing medium with a different species to utilize all the nutrients present in it. I think it's in " Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms" or "The Mushroom Cultivator ”. I can't remember off the top of my head.

I want to cultivate those once we move to our new property just for the sheer size of them. I've never eaten any of those but hear they are similar to portabella. Is that true?

Kimocal, I have been picking them them when smaller.



They can become tough as they get bigger. Generally, as long as the outer edge has not fully unfurled they should be fine for eating. My patch is still young so I have not harvested a whole lot to experiment with in the kitchen. They taste distinctly different than portabellas. I am looking forward to stuffing and grilling some larger specimens during the next flush.

I originally planted the wine caps as composters in addition to worms and BSF to help breakdown wood chips, compost, food waste, and BSF refuse when I overwinter my dirt gardens. The mycelium has run not only through the chips but has gone deep into the topsoil. I cannot wait to plant this spring to see the difference a "Living" soil will make!

J.B.

Gratuitous Mycelial shot for the myco heads like me

Drooling and blushing J.B. Looks great.

Anyone have shroomage!?!

A couple freezes and lots of rain here; plenty of mycelial action, but no fruiting yet.

I just harvested my first Blue Oysters the other day. Have lots more that will be ready soon. I also recently started some King Oyster in some pasteurized straw a couple weeks ago that is coming along nicely.

Pictures here: https://plus.google.com/photos/10298353 ... P2DyMC4jwE

Man, That straw is caked! I got my fix. Thank you

Treat them right and they will treat you right. I'll take some pictures of the little grow tent I made for them to keep them happy.

Got a second harvest last night. Put them in whole with some red curry and ground turkey for dinner last night. Delicious!