MUSHROOMS
About a week ago V bought aruond a mushroom kit. Today I attempted to read the instructions... quickly fell asleep on those and decided to google.
So far this is the most useful and least scarry guide I've found
This video talked about the use of card board and coffee grounds, but I didn't quite understand why?
This next one explained the coffee grounds a little (albeit no audio) and gives you an option to increase your yield
Then I found a fantastic website that explained some of the terms and gave you idea's on what to grow them in... also explained coffee grounds :)
http://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/grow-mushrooms.html
So then I got to thinking... it's all very well, putting the spores into the soil but how do you get new spores without having to buy them again. Then I found this site which I have to say has been the most enlightening and has video as well. It told me the name of the process of 'getting more spores' was called cloning (surprise surprise) and then - you guessed it - GOOGLE for more videos. http://www.mushroomvideos.com/Mushroom-Cloning
Just before we move on to cloning though this site really was the best one I think... should our mushroom venture take off that Bill (AKA DH to Lin) will likely be tasked with creating a boiler for us to sterilise the substrate... (see at this point in the process I am starting to use strange words).
So anyway, cloning - I found this video with green lighting and done in silence until the end where mexican/spanish (I think - we don't study that part of the world down here) is spoken... thus making me wonder if it really was taking a culture from a button mushroom (but infact it was...) It was done in open air and if you read the comments, some people were horrified by that. Personally I figure if it is done in an unsterile natural environment then why have all the pomp and ceremony of a glove-box (but that's just me)
There was also a video of the same sort of thing done in front of a Hepa-Filter blowing air toward you thus pushing any contaminants away from your work... a little bit of protection doesn't hurt I guess ;)
Of course if we want to go down the petri dish method we'll best learn how to prepare petri dishes. This is a video about how to do with ath with Potato Dextrose Agar 'mix' the name of which I got from the 'green' video.
and then there was this beauty to extract the spores (far easier and a different video had already said that aluminium foil comes off the roll sterile)...
Best spore print without all the scientific gear - Part 1
then what to do next
and with that and the fact that I have been at this for two hours and it is 11:15... it is time for me to sleep :)
One last thing before I go... I've seen this word coir used here and there, and was baffled as to what it was and how it is used. Turns out it is just another type of substrate (growing mix)... or, as per a site I found... Coir is condensed coconut fibers that expand in moisture and when properly prepared can help budding mushrooms fight off the molds and bacteria that would kill them. Other material must be added to meet the high-nitrogen requirements of mushroom growth. http://www.ehow.com/how_10045860_use-coir-substrate-mushrooms.html#ixzz1bPeNIqft
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