Questions from a beginner

Hello group.
Im giving my first steps in growing mushroom´s world.
4 weeks ago I inoculated King Oysters in bags and 3 weeks ago the same in a bucket. It seems that there is something wrong in the group of the bags, because at the beginning there were growing and then it seems that they stopped. In the bucket its growing faster.
The mycelium of the bags had too much water so I made holes to drain it and the substrate it seems that its too much compacted. Some days ago I opened the bags to put more water to see what happen with that.

My question is if i only have to wait or if its better to do something to improve their growing?
It could be possible that the mycelium its gowing in the middle and not in the surface?

I was thinking to open some of the bugs and put them again in more and new better substrate and see what happen.

In the picture you can see the line uo to where it was the water before.
Thank you very much

How high is the room humidity?
Did you sterilize the mediim?
Bags do need some holes since mycelium need oxygen to grow. You stated that the medium was saturated so you then added some holes for drainage. If that is the case, the mycelium could have died from lack of O2 and too much moisture.

Yes, I steralize the medium.
Mmm I don't know how to know the humidity of the ambient.

It could be what you said.

Which are the sintoms of a dead mycelium?

That fungus has white mycelial strands, as they die they turn yellow brown but at the point of solid brown the mycelium can't be brought back. If the substrate dries out the fungus can go dormant.

Redhawk

You might have too much water in those bags. If the mycelium stagnates this might be one of the causes. If you used a nutritious substrate (supplemented with bran or stuff like that) the cause could be bacteria or molds

Aguilar,

Similar to what others have said, you need to get more O2 to the fungi and release CO2.  Also, you need some holes along the sides of the bag so that the mushrooms can grow out.  At the moment it looks like the bag is completely sealed in plastic.  The mushrooms need to grow out and up.  They need some fresh air.  I would try cutting little slits in the sides of the bag to see if you can encourage the mushrooms to grow out the sided.

Eric

I'm basing my reply off a lot of experience with, shall we say, non-culinary fungus...

First off: Only some of your medium is colonized by the mycelium, so when you opened the bags you introduced the potential for unwanted microbes. Just like weeds are the first to grown in bare earth, these unwanted microbes now have bare medium that could very easily take over and ruin your bags before your mycelium gets to take over. So try not to open your bags until they are fully colonized unless you can open them in a sterile environment.  

As others have said, mycelium does need air. But to give it air safely, the bags should have a safe way to get air and not unwanted microbes. This is usually done with a bag that has a "filter patch" built in, essentially a little square of filter to let air in while keeping spores out.  

So one thing you can do is gently break up the medium through the bag. Just sort of massaging/rolling/kneading it to re-distribute the extra moisture and break up the mycelium to distribute it like little seeds into your uncolonized medium.

Cutting holes in the bag to let mushrooms grow happens AFTER the bags are more fully colonized and consumed by the white mycelium. To expose bare medium before that is a recipe for disaster.

Don't be dismayed. It takes a lot of practice to get a feel for exactly how wet your medium needs to be, your sterile technique, and your transition to fruiting.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:That fungus has white mycelial strands, as they die they turn yellow brown but at the point of solid brown the mycelium can't be brought back. If the substrate dries out the fungus can go dormant.

Redhawk

So you think that they are alive, but more o less inactive?

Matt Todd wrote:I'm basing my reply off a lot of experience with, shall we say, non-culinary fungus...

First off: Only some of your medium is colonized by the mycelium, so when you opened the bags you introduced the potential for unwanted microbes. Just like weeds are the first to grown in bare earth, these unwanted microbes now have bare medium that could very easily take over and ruin your bags before your mycelium gets to take over. So try not to open your bags until they are fully colonized unless you can open them in a sterile environment.  

As others have said, mycelium does need air. But to give it air safely, the bags should have a safe way to get air and not unwanted microbes. This is usually done with a bag that has a "filter patch" built in, essentially a little square of filter to let air in while keeping spores out.  

So one thing you can do is gently break up the medium through the bag. Just sort of massaging/rolling/kneading it to re-distribute the extra moisture and break up the mycelium to distribute it like little seeds into your uncolonized medium.

Cutting holes in the bag to let mushrooms grow happens AFTER the bags are more fully colonized and consumed by the white mycelium. To expose bare medium before that is a recipe for disaster.

Don't be dismayed. It takes a lot of practice to get a feel for exactly how wet your medium needs to be, your sterile technique, and your transition to fruiting.

Thank you very much.
I thought the same about holes and air. I had even seen that if holes are made later, the process will be faster.
I had to make holes to drain the water, and then squeezing, since it was with holes I made more for them to breathe.

Luckily the second batch I inoculated seems to be growing very well.

With the bags that I have these doubts, I am going to open them, and mix them with new sterilized substrate to "start again".

I will see how it follows

Thank you all for your time.