I'm looking maybe at wrong time to inoculate (in fall)?  I live in East TN where we have a lot of moisture almost every morning.  Had power company drop off pile about a few weeks ago.  I already used half the pile for garden paths.  What is easiest cheap way to start?  King str?  Guess I may have to spend $30 for spore?  Thank you in advance for any input.

I'm in the same boat as you Michael. East TN, ready to learn more & start growing some yummy mushrooms. Let's find the answers!!!

Wine Cap Mushroom.
I am not too sure how you can bring the cost down to just $30 when you are time constraint.
You might have to get a 5lbs sawdust spawn then boil/sterilize some more sawdust to make a total of 20lbs, then maybe repeat again for 100lbs. But that will be hard while you are time constraint  

Maybe to start in Spring 2019 for the Wine cap mushrooms to remove time constraint.

If you are getting the woodchip this month, I would make the 100lbs of sawdust spawn and add it this winter lets say December after hardening then off
That way the the woodchip will get 'infected' by the good wine cap mushroom, while it just lay on the ground.
If you can more woodchip next year you can do another batch in spring.

I do not have saw dust.  I have small twigs, half inch chunks of wood in some cases.  It is a coarse compost with oak leaves, pine branches/needles.  It has been starting to compost (see smoking in still wind) in the big pile.

You can see how I have been knocking down the pile in 9 days.  I laid down card board for one row bed where I avoided seeding field peas.  The big bed 25 feet square is card board too, with two 4 foot square sections planted with fava beans (and today garlic) plus cereal rye block.

Pile in picture is long gone, not sure when I'll get another load.  Plan to use next load to pile up against house.  This to help water know what way to go.

You can also grow oyster mushrooms in that material.

It looks in your photos like there may already be some fungi hyphae in those chips, if that's the case  (and even if it isn't)  I'd think hard about sterilizing the chips that you want to grow a specific fungi strain (mushroom) in, a 20 minute steam bath will do the job but 30 minutes would make sure any stray fungi were dead.

Wine caps are wonderful eaters and so are oysters, and both are super for your soil.

If you buy the bag kits you can mix them into the steam sterilized media and place in an area that gets shaded half the day or more. (this is a great time to set up for us southerners for a next year crop)

Redhawk

Bryant RedHawk wrote:You can also grow oyster mushrooms in that material.

It looks in your photos like there may already be some fungi hyphae in those chips, if that's the case  (and even if it isn't)  I'd think hard about sterilizing the chips that you want to grow a specific fungi strain (mushroom) in, a 20 minute steam bath will do the job but 30 minutes would make sure any stray fungi were dead.

Wine caps are wonderful eaters and so are oysters, and both are super for your soil.

If you buy the bag kits you can mix them into the steam sterilized media and place in an area that gets shaded half the day or more. (this is a great time to set up for us southerners for a next year crop)

Redhawk

I wonder if I could sterilize by adding water to my glass Pyrex cup, toss in some wood chips.  And MW both for a while.  Then if I had an inoculate which I do not yet, I could do that then introduce to the pile, or under pile...  I could put them on North side of pile.

As long as you can get the temp up to 225 f you could use a cup.
I have an old pressure cooker that holds around 5 quarts. The closer you can get to an autoclave the less time it takes to sterilize anything.

Most of the edible mushrooms don't survive if there are any other fungi present, fungi (just like bacteria) excrete poisons so they are the only fungal organism present.
That means that if there is any fungi already present, spore, spawn or already to the hyphae stage, your preferred spawn will most likely be killed off.
Since fungal spores are everywhere, it is imperative to give our preferred fungi as clean a growing medium as is possible so we will have success.

Boiling chips works, but, just like most things, the size of the pot does matter for speed of getting ready.
If you have to boil chips one cup at a time you also have to have a sterile environment to store them in while you boil more, until you have enough to inoculate with spawn or spores.

Redhawk

Have you considered increasing your spores by growing spores in cardboard?  I just came across it last night, as well has how to sterilise grain in jars and increase your own spores that way.  Plan to try it myself so can update.

Annie, please add some links for that.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:As long as you can get the temp up to 225 f you could use a cup.
I have an old pressure cooker that holds around 5 quarts. The closer you can get to an autoclave the less time it takes to sterilize anything.

Boiling chips works, but, just like most things, the size of the pot does matter for speed of getting ready.
If you have to boil chips one cup at a time you also have to have a sterile environment to store them in while you boil more, until you have enough to inoculate with spawn or spores.

Redhawk

I have a 23 qt pressure canner so maybe use that for sure.  Do you know what Star San is? (Used in brewing to sterilize).

I'm guessing that the mushroom bed has been laid by now, but I just saw this. I wanted to mention that there are a couple of different ways you could pasteurize the woodchips without the need to raise their temperature to kill off the microorganisms. I personally would not try to put that pile in a pot and boil it up, it's just too much material for that kind of treatment.

Cold pasteurization can be achieved by a soak in water with hydrated lime dissolved in it (which is the mineral powder that is left after limestone is incinerated). The hydrated lime should be fairly fresh, as it will oxidize and lose effectiveness over time. At least 2 grams hydrated lime per quart of water should be used, and for barrel sized amounts "a big double handful" will work. The hydrated lime raises the pH level to highly alkaline, which kills off the bulk of the serious competitor microorganisms in the woodchips.

Other way to do it would be just a long soak in water, like 2 weeks. You could move the woodchips onto a tarp, prop up the tarp on all sides, and fill it up like a really gross swimming pool. After 2 weeks the water will be stinky, anaerobic bacteria odors are not pleasant. Drain the water and allow to dry out in the sun. The operating theory is that the water creates an anaerobic environment that allows anaerobic microorganisms that colonize the soaked wood, instead of the normal aerobic competition. Once the water is drained and the wood starts to dry, this kills off the anaerobic population, which effectively creates a pasteurized woodchip pile.

I have done the hydrated lime soak method but mostly with wood pellets. I haven't done the water-only 2 week pasteurization myself, but I've read of it being done many times with claims of success following.

Michael Moreken wrote:
I have a 23 qt pressure canner so maybe use that for sure.  Do you know what Star San is? (Used in brewing to sterilize).

Yes I am familiar with Star San, I clean my brew kettles with it. I think it might take extra washings if you used it for sanitizing grains or wood chips for mushroom growing though.

Patrick's idea of using hydrated lime is a no go for mycelium unless you rinse all of the lime away, it will act in an allopathic way to the mycelium.
using an anaerobic situation raises the numbers of ciliates to dangerous levels too, the time period for letting chips dry and thus kill off the ciliates would be around two weeks so with this method it would be four to five weeks before inoculation. (unless  you turn the pile of chips daily, which will shorten the wait time)
In the end it is more about how much time you want to spend I think, over which method is best, they all work well when done correctly.  

Thanks Bryant, I was unaware that the remaining hydrated lime would give the fungi a disadvantage. I've done hydrated lime pasteurization in indoor grows with chopped straw and with wood pellets, both with oysters, with success - straw is drained, and with pellets the lime water hydrates the wood so nothing is drained. The technique is used with straw and pelleted wood but it seems that white/blue oyster can handle it better than other species. So I have the benefit of learning something new today.  The bulk of my grows have been indoors using sawdust or straw, and working with oysters or lion's mane.