This is a new thing for us, and while this first try has had zero results, we are undaunted.
Per instruction gleaned from various sources, mostly Tradd Cotter's book/site, we pasteurized wheat
straw that we had on hand and shredded with the lawnmower. We let it pasteurize on the
rocket stove outside for an hour or two, then let it cool, squeezed out the excess moisture, inoculated it with a handful or two of purchased sawdust spawn, packed it into three 1 gallon plastic buckets w/ holes drilled in them, and set them to colonize in a cool (approx 73-74 degrees) dark space in the house. After 14 days mycelium run was present but spotty - there were big patches where we couldn't see any at all...so we let it go another week....I'd read it can possibly take 21 days for full colonization. However, after 21 days, there wasn't any more mycelium growth, but there were yellow spots which I believe is mycelium "waste" and a sign that we waited too long. We tried fruiting in a shotgun fruiting chamber outside away from direct sun w/ plenty of humidity/ventilation and no warmer than 85 degrees at that point, but no pinning, no nothing after 5 days. :( No visible signs of mold or anything, so I feel like the straw was well pasteurized, but very patchy mycelium and of
course, no
mushrooms.
I have a few guesses at what went wrong - I can see a lot of condensed moisture inside the buckets, so I feel like maybe the straw was too wet. I also wonder if we needed to put drain holes in the bottom of the buckets. And I'm wondering if the buckets themselves aren't ideal for some reason (thought I can't really think of why)...so our next go round we plan to do some experimenting with making sure the straw is well wrung out, punching some holes in the bottom of a
bucket, having one bucket just like before, and then using a plastic bag and making a straw brick, and seeing if any of these variables make a difference.
Input is totally welcome! Thanks, y'all! I'll try to post some pictures later today.
S
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