Wowwwwww. . . .good for you!

That looks like a lot of fun! Special light or heat requirements?

It is fun to try lots of things, isn't it?

When I didn't have any cuttings this year (sent them all to a gentleman in Florida who expressed and interest and lost lots of his stuff over the freeze last year). . .I stood there with my hands on my hips, and said now what am I gonna do with this orphan green room this year, hmmmm?

Sooooooo. . . . .I'm on a hydroponic tomato experiment. Apparently, if they're grown in water, they're much more vigorous because the roots don't need to fight for or convert the nutrients.

However, it's a bit more than just water (eesh!) Hydroponic solutions. . .air bubblers. . .the aerobic compost teas versus anerobic (no oxygen) compost teas. . .etc. . .bacterial dominant, fungal dominant. . .

Yesterday, sat there saying to myself "I didn't sign up for another science class man. . "

Keep us posted

Wow Kathy, that looks like it's going to be a great endeavor! Just curious, do they continue producing once you've eaten most of them or do you have to sow 'spores' again?

Hey Dweeb, great to see you posting! Good luck on your hydroponic tomatoes -- sounds like a lot of work to me, LOL!

I swear I have almost bought a shroom kit ..A Hundred times and never did.. That is cool..

Technodweeb-
Yes- there are special requirements- it's a delicate balance of moisture, warm temps for 7 days, and then cool temps after that. Here's a great video for all of you who've always wanted to try them but were just a bit leery-
http://www.mushroomadventures.com/t-kit_instruction_video.aspx If you watch it a few times, and do a google search on how to grow them, it's pretty easy and fun!
My kit has a little variation in instructions, compared to the video. The main thing is, when they are pinning, (forming little mushrooms) you have to be careful that carbon dioxide levels don't build up. Agaricus species are sensitive to that. I just keep the tent off of it and make sure the casing is moist to the touch. I mist with water whenever I don't see condensation on the sides of the box. I'm hoping to harvest the spores and start everything from scratch so I'll never have to buy another mushroom again! :) (I eat them every day!)

Eloise-
You can harvest up to 6 weeks, and then the production really drops off. The mushrooms come in flushes, every 10 days or so. When you're finished, you throw the mushroom compost in your garden. Supposedly, you can still get a few growing outdoors after that. Can't wait! I'll keep you updated with photos.
kasha77

You are going to love them. They are so much better then store bought mushrooms. I've grown button mushrooms which were very easy and portabellas are just mature buttons. They weren't nearly as picky as the instructions made them sound. I don't remember how long my kit continued producing but it was quite a while. Enjoy.

I tried it once, already you appear to have better luck than I! Fun stuff!

What fun! I have almost bought one a bunch of times too, lol. We loveeeee mushrooms. I have had them sprout in the mushroom compost I added to my potting soil once but didn't know if they were the right kind or not to eat, lol. Might have to give it a try. Let us know how they do. Hydroponics just sounds like a lot of work to me. Too much science, lol.

Somewhere on a site I recently saw where this person had their mushrooms growing on logs in their yard. Looked pretty neat.

Shitakes grow on inoculated oak logs. I'd love to try those but they look quite a bit more difficult to grow then the buttons and portabellas.

That is really cool. I too, have almost bought mushroom kits a dozen times lol. Keep us posted as they grow. I would really love to try this.

Gosh we have dozens of downed oak trees/logs on this property and out in the woods behind us there are tons more. I swear there are vines out there bigger around than my arm in the tangled canopy of trees.

these are the latest photos of my mushrooms- it's now the 10th day since I've started them. You can see a distinctive mushroom cap, and some are turning a light brown!
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How awesome Kathy!!!
Looks like your doing a great job!!!

Karen

They look great! Try cutting one as a button (about 2" diameter) just to taste the difference from a store bought one. You'll love it.

Thanks for posting Kathy. I think I'm going to try growing some this spring. I have mushrooms growing everywhere around my plants without even trying so they should thrive in our summer humidity.

Here we are on the 16th day- notice the size of the mushrooms compared to the quarter.
kasha77

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Won't be long and those will be on the grill!! Yummo!!!

Kylie

Have you tasted one yet? They are soooo good. You're never going to want a store bought shroom again. Thinking about it maybe you shouldn't try one. You might like it so much that you won't be able to resist cutting them before they mature ; )

I can wait! I'm really waiting until they get bigger- I want to take a mature one and get a spore print to start my next batch as soon as I can. I've got the horse manure compost ready and standing by!
LOL!
kasha77

That's a good idea. I never tried doing that. I just used the spent soil in the garden.

Kathy, those mushrooms are looking good! What a great experience.

Here we are on the 19th day- almost ready!
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They look great!!! How exciting!

They look delicious. It's amazing how fast they grow once they are above the soil.

Yum! I see some very small ones popping up. Did it say how many spores you got in the box?

I went back and counted- it's actually been 17 days til my first harvest. (Which happened today:) I grilled one with olive oil, garlic and onions, provolone, put it on a toasted chiabatta roll with a bit of pesto, mayo, tomato,and romaine. All I need is grilled eggplant to go on it! It was great, needless to say. I used to eat these all the time sitting by the pool at the Yacht club 2 summers ago. (oh, the life of a nanny:)
I counted 10 mushrooms-
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WOW, they really grow fast! You're making me hungry with the description on how you used one, especially since you used all the stuff I love, LOL!

I don't think I could have stayed out of them that long.
I would have started eating at the quarter size.
pa

Wow they really look yummy now. I wanna stuff them like the ones you get at Olive Garden LOL! Do you have to use horse manure compost or can you use bunny or chicken manure compost? I guess I could go to one of the nieghbor's and borrow some horse manure lol if I had to.

Kathy I want to come eat at your house! LOL YUMMO!

S-J-N- Yes they need horse compost. I'm going to let one really mature and start my own- from spores.
Kylie- Come on over! I had a spinach and mushroom and onion Frittata (Italian omelette) with Provolone for breakfast. Tonight we had homemade spaghetti and meatballs with - of course- mushrooms!
Stuffed mushrooms are for tomorrow night:)

LOL OMG!!! You are Killin ME!!! I am pretty sure I have your address..

That all sounds so good. Now I want some grilled portabellas. Might have to make DH suffer the cold and use the grill tonight. I really need to buy a new Jenn Air with a grill attachment : )

I watched that video and looked around on the website. Those blue oyster mushrooms look really cool. So retro, I can just picture them with a black light and some Hendrix playing in the background LOL!
My dh always has lots of sawdust from building stuff. I don't know if I've ever eaten oyster mushrooms or not. What do they taste like?

From what I've read, oyster mushrooms taste like- Oysters. I'm not into that flavor, so I don't think I'll try them! Back home in NY, during the spring and fall, my children and I used to ride around town on our bicycles, looking for Meadow mushrooms on everyone's lawn. They were exactly like Portobellos and were the size of your hand, and so good! We'd have a blast- like on a treasure hunt! We'd each come home with 2 Walmart bags full, hanging from our handlebars! My dear 80 year old native Indian neighbor Lucy taught me how to forage for them. This spring, I'll learn to forage for Morels here in N.C. I have a great field guide, and always take spore prints of everything before eating them, as well as studying their particular characteristics.

Now for a lesson on taking a spore print. I am going to harvest the spores, and create my own grow box of Portobellos (and save $40.00! :)
Cut the mushroom. Cut off the stem, flush with the cap. I waited til the cap was throwing spores in my box, to make sure they were ready.
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Lay the cap- gills side down on a white piece of paper.
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Place a bowl over the cap. leave on the counter for 24 hours.
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Take bowl off the next day, and let spores dry.
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How cool is this?Looks like a giant eye, with pronounced Iris!
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I'm going to get my horse manure compost ready in a few days when I'm off from work, & I'll finish up these instructions!
kasha77

Spore prints are very cool!

Nice pics. Are morels the ones that will grow in the goat pastures?

I don't think so- those might be Meadow mushrooms. Morels look like this-
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They grow in the woods under Tulip Poplar trees. Best to get a field guide and study it just to be sure.
kasha77

That is so cool!

Really like the look of the spores' print! You could frame it as modern art :-)

Yes I think so too! Sorry I haven't continued any more instructions here, I'm so busy! Further info can be found at- you tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua-bAdvxEhg
The guy demonstrating how to make your own spore syringes sounds a little creepy- but the info is GREAT!
Kathy

Here I am, one of those wannabee mushroom growers, reading all this a year later. One of my co-workers told me that he had just prepared/started shiitakes on hardwood logs in his back pasture, expects growth in the following year. This sounds too cool! I have been gardening for years, ready to try something new like this. Thanks for the inspiration! I saw a description of straw mushrooms that said that they would grow easily in **composted** grass clippings if you tossed the spent mushroom medium into it.

Did anyone else take the plunge?

--Rick in CT

Now this is something I really envy. I tried mushrooms in Florida, no less, and it didn't work. Here in dry Colorado I would think it might be a challenge. But I'm enjoying your success Kathy! Munch one down for me!
Diane

First of all thanks for sharing the mushrooms with us (at least to taste visually :-) and I hope you had good luck on your spore collection. My question is about spore handling. I watched the link you posted and yes he is creepy sounding. He kept stressing sterilization. Now nature is far from a sterile environment and mushrooms grow just fine in nature.

Does anyone know the importance of sterilization when spore collecting / processing ? I wondered if it was the 'type' of mushrooms he was dealing with. I can understabd it for the edible ones. For me I would want to do edible mushrooms and possibly a few non-edible. We have recently learned about using mushrooms to help decompose wood chips which we will have a bunch of soon. What I learned was that if you add mushroom spores to the chips it helps them decompose better. After seeing the cost of mushroom syringes I cringed. I would pay that for edibles but would probably buy a kit instead. I was considering walking around and collecting spores of normal mushrooms via the print method you described and using them on the wood chips or simply taking those shrooms and dropping them down on top and letting nature do the rest. If I need to take prints I really did not want to go through so much trouble for the non-edible ones.

Would someone with experience in shrooming touch on my question and ideas or offer better/less expensive ways of getting shrooms to assist the decomposition of the chips ?

thanks !

You're welcome! I collected those spores and never did anything else with them. I went to Walmart pharmacy and bought regular syringes for 20 cents. After a bit of searching, I studied how commercial producers grow portobella mushrooms. Check out you tube again, it's a different method than the "shroomer" guy, because he's growing psychedelic mushrooms. Commercial growers also sterilize their growing medium, from what I recall. All in all, it's way cheaper to buy them from the grocery store. I had to try it once, and it was fun.
As to helping your wood chips decompose, you'll find that mushroom spores will attack those chips on their own with very little help from you. I'm not sure what you want to use your chips for, but if you mix composted manures or anything "green", (grass clippings, vegetable scraps, etc) the decomposition of your pile will accelerate. Check out the process of creating compost using "greens" and "browns" and you'll get the general idea. Best wishes on your new endeavor!

kasha
did you grow mushrooms again
I very much enjoyed reading these postings
thanks

Diane-
No, actually, I haven't. I'm too absorbed in brugs! I think the thrill of growing them is past, and it's much cheaper to just buy them at the grocery store!