Can mushrooms clean my barn out?

It would be A LOT more work than simply cleaning the barn out.

Not all artisan mushrooms are fragile.  Oysters can be very aggressive, and they can grow on straw/manure mixes, as long as the manure has been leached a bit.

I was thinking about those snow shovels with wheels.

frankenstoen wrote:
Here's a way to think about it - if it was so easy, wouldn't it naturally just happen on its own?


Right now it can't happen very well because it is so dry and also because the goats would step on, pulvierize and/or eat anything that grows. Some white mycelium are in the "brick".

What's the natural course of events in the barn now? In my experience, the manure and straw pack down into a dense material resembling particle board. Sometimes there is a lot of white mycelium growing throughout, but overall the material is fairly dry. I've never seen any mushrooms sprouting up.

That's what happens in my barn too. So why don't those mycelium sprout?

Outdoors, straw and manure can build up into a deep layer of wet, stinky, anaerobic muck. Very little composting occurs because the material is too wet, the moisture becomes trapped, and no oxygen can get in.


That's what happens in front of my barn door.

Now, if the barnyard muck and the barn are cleaned up, and the contents are placed in a big pile with plenty of aeration and the right amount of moisture, we get thermophilic composting. The manure will heat up to 150 degrees, or even up to the point where it will spontaneously combust. Along the cooler surface, a few small mushrooms such as Coprinus species (inky caps) might eventually sprout.


Yup, that's what happens in my compost pile where I have been putting the barn cleanings each year.

(If you are determined to grow mushrooms with manure, Coprinus comatus is large and delicious and may be well worth a try. Another species to try might be Stropharia rugoso-annulata. Both of these are typically cultivated outdoors, though.)

I may end up not doing anything with mushrooms/manure, but am keep thinking that there may be a bit of potential here for this idea. I appreciate the suggestions. If I do try something with the brick this year, it already has some sort of mycelium established. I'll go with what's already there. The initial idea was simply to see if I could reduce my workload as to the barn cleaning.

The thing is, the straw and manure are already well colonized by bacteria and fungi (like green mold) that are well adapted to breaking them down. Any spawn that you add must compete (or co-operate) with these organisms on their own terms. The trick to growing edible mushrooms is tipping the balance to choose for the species you are trying to grow. Sterilization/pasteurization is the obvious, high-energy way- you simply kill as many of the competing organisms as you can. Getting the proper airflow/moisture/humidity/light/etc. ratios is another.

Which is why I'm wondering... if I did this in future years, after this years brick has been removed, if I could periodically "seed" the new pile with spore of whatever mushroom (s) I was hoping to grow... if that would help tip the chances of the brick producing something edible.

One of the great difficulties I have run into in my attempts at growing mushrooms is maintaining the proper humidity. Most gourmet mushroom species require a 90% RH. When the humidity is this high, it is like a perpetual dew. Water condenses on all surfaces. If the structure housing the mushrooms is made of wood, the wood will swell with moisture, and fungi will begin to eat the wood. A wooden structure being used to intensively grow mushrooms may be short lived!

By digging down around the sides of the brick, making it into a raised bed, with none of the sides closer to the barn wall than a foot or 18 inches AND covering the brick with plastic, I was hoping to have some humidity control as well as some restraint over the mycelium growth to protect the barn wood.  This whole thought process starting because I was watching that Paul Stamets TED video again and I decided that if mushrooms were capable of saving the world they should be capable of starting by cleaning out my barn

frankenstoen wrote:
I'd really like to try one of those "snow wovels" out on some snow (and other tasks).

Perhaps a wheeled pitchfork for the barn?

That's what happens in my barn too. So why don't those mycelium sprout?

Which is why I'm wondering... if I did this in future years, after this years brick has been removed, if I could periodically "seed" the new pile with spore of whatever mushroom (s) I was hoping to grow... if that would help tip the chances of the brick producing something edible.