What's the next step in mushroom farming?

I'm tired of reading so I'm here to ask for help.I am an Eco-Farm Owner. We are fully employed here on our farm with the products that we produce on the farm.We normally spend the winters traveling or just resting for the upcoming growing season.In an effort to keep busy year round we've built an indoor, temperature controlled inoculation chamber(Part of our cold storage) and a 12 x 13 temperature controlled fruiting area. We can provide constant humidity and temperature. We've also got enough equipment to sterilize about 40 medium sized autoclavable bags in one day.I've purchased every suggested book on every mushroom website. I've spent hundreds of hours reading websites and watching youtube. But here is where I get stumped. This seems to be a tinkerers type of venture. No one seems to be able to just give me an outline of how to proceed. What I'm saying is I do not want to know how to grow or incubate agar and make my own culture so I've purchased both inoculated sawdust for about 10 different kinds of mushrooms. Also I've purchased the liquid culture version of all of the same mushrooms. I was wondering how to start...seriously I know this sounds like putting the cart before the horse. But what I've done is spend the winter making sure my environment and equipment is working perfectly. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to keep these varieties I've chosen going. I have read tons of stuff about Grain Master spawn and about liquid master culture. What I'm trying to determine is how to keep a constant supply of spawn available to keep my fruiting chamber constantly in production. I have purchased hickory sawdust and hickory chips and also gypsum and grain. My future goal is to be able to take what I've learned and use my worm castings and compost as my substrate. But in the meantime I'm looking for a good recipe and the next step in getting this operation "in production". I do not want to purchase a laminar hood or learn about how to make my own slants. I've found a local source for those things. I do have a sterile glove box large enough to inoculate 10 medium sized autoclave bags at a time. Now do I just keep a liquid culture master to directly inject the bags or do I make a grain master...too many questions. I'm a grower not a tinkerer.

Vicki Boliard wrote:I'm tired of reading so I'm here to ask for help.I am an Eco-Farm Owner. We are fully employed here on our farm with the products that we produce on the farm.We normally spend the winters traveling or just resting for the upcoming growing season.In an effort to keep busy year round we've built an indoor, temperature controlled inoculation chamber(Part of our cold storage) and a 12 x 13 temperature controlled fruiting area. We can provide constant humidity and temperature. We've also got enough equipment to sterilize about 40 medium sized autoclavable bags in one day.I've purchased every suggested book on every mushroom website. I've spent hundreds of hours reading websites and watching youtube. But here is where I get stumped. This seems to be a tinkerers type of venture. No one seems to be able to just give me an outline of how to proceed. What I'm saying is I do not want to know how to grow or incubate agar and make my own culture so I've purchased both inoculated sawdust for about 10 different kinds of mushrooms. Also I've purchased the liquid culture version of all of the same mushrooms. I was wondering how to start...seriously I know this sounds like putting the cart before the horse. But what I've done is spend the winter making sure my environment and equipment is working perfectly. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to keep these varieties I've chosen going. I have read tons of stuff about Grain Master spawn and about liquid master culture. What I'm trying to determine is how to keep a constant supply of spawn available to keep my fruiting chamber constantly in production. I have purchased hickory sawdust and hickory chips and also gypsum and grain. My future goal is to be able to take what I've learned and use my worm castings and compost as my substrate. But in the meantime I'm looking for a good recipe and the next step in getting this operation "in production". I do not want to purchase a laminar hood or learn about how to make my own slants. I've found a local source for those things. I do have a sterile glove box large enough to inoculate 10 medium sized autoclave bags at a time. Now do I just keep a liquid culture master to directly inject the bags or do I make a grain master...too many questions. I'm a grower not a tinkerer.

Hi Vicki,
If you have a source for slants, what do you do with them? Normally you would use the agar slants for the masters, which you would innoculate onto agar petri dishes and then to grain etc. All of this should be going on in a very clean environment too, so a fume hood (even home made) would make your life a lot easier. I haven't heard of using grain master spawn or but am familiar with the liquid method, which is very hard to work with. You could get away with using a glove box, but if this is more than a hobby I think you would need to look into a fumehood and learning to work with agar, its not that bad once you get your feet wet. If you don't want to work with agar, and this is a money-making project, I think you'd have to keep purchasing the spawn.

Vicki, my suggestion is to visit another mushroom farm and see how they are doing it. Just start inoculating substrates using different methods. Keep careful notes of what works best and what doesn't work. Keep it simple and avoid expensive equipment that you don't need- especially since you already have a bunch of strains that you have purchased. Develop local markets- selling directly to gourmet chefs at fancy restaurants always fetches the highest price. Supplement your cultivated mushrooms with wildcrafted ones that are in season and in demand by the chefs. These are some of the techniques that work for me. Good luck!

Hello all... lurking for awhile.

As a mushroom farmer of 10 years I will tell you your next step is to start growing mushrooms regularly. Start small, experiment, make mistakes, learn and create a cultivation system that works for you. You will figure it out as you go.. As long as you keep going with it... and not stop.

I would also highly recommend you attend a Stamets seminar if you have not already. It will be the best money you will spend as a new fungi farmer.

FYI: you will either need to build your own lab and produce your own spawn as I did.... or.... You have to buy it in from someone else. That’s how you’re "keep it going". Paul Stamets has some wise words to share with all fungi farmers...."whoever controls the spawn, controls the farm"


Hopefully there is some info in the following links that will help you along your way and understand how I started and where I am today.


www.openmindedorganics.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/drumbum1577

www.edibleeastend.com/online.../the-mushroom-man-redux/

Be well, Dave

I don’t see how you will be successful without a laminar flow hood unless you are growing only oyster mushrooms.

I only grow for my own use and I just broke down and bought one after half of my lions mane and chestnut bags were infested.