Benny Chin

Thanks everyone for the very informative posts. I think I have a good grasping of the terminology now. Essentially all the seeds coming out of my garden this year will produce hybrids - F1 Hybrids to be exact. And each year I save seeds they will continue being F1 Hybrids. And the only way to ensure an heirloom stays an heirloom would be to grow only one variety and/or prevent the flower from getting pollinated by another tomato variety plant.

I get the message loud and clear and 100% agree with you all that I should only want to save seeds from fruit and plants that do well in the garden to keep the “good” genetics. Phew who knew I’d have to brush up on high school biology to better understand my tomato garden

We just bought our first house in the suburbs and finally have a yard to grow things! I’m still learning but I’ve read that it’s best to grow heirloom if possible. I bought about 5 different heirloom tomato seeds from a seed supplier but the terms (heirloom, hybrid, F1, OP,etc) that I’ve seen really confuse me. Long story short, I’m wondering if the seeds that my tomatoes produce this year will produce the same plants next year or will I have produced some kind of hybrid? The yard is not very large so I’ll likely be placing 1 plant of each variety within a few feet of each other. Considering how expensive seeds are online I’d much prefer to be able to save the seeds and have the same plant/crop next year.

Looks like some type of Parasola. There’s a few Wikipedia pages on it. It probably came from the wood chips and/or leaves you mixed in. Some parasola mycelium hitchhiked into my garden a few years ago from a bag of bark mulch I bought from Home Depot. I didn’t notice until a bunch of mushrooms popped up under the fruit trees. They looked very similar to yours but of course can’t say for certain.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I took two forks as suggested (dipped them into a pot of boiling water for a few minutes first) and dug around. No mycelium to be found. I has pasteurized the straw by boiling for an hour but temps were unknown though, no thermometer handy. As for tools from latex gloves, to scissors, to the bin, all were wiped down with rubbing alcohol before it touched anything.

I think I’ll wait about another two weeks and dig again just to be sure as to not waste a good slice of bread. Deep down I’m thinking it’s mold too to be honest. I guess I’ll stick to the stropharia in the yard this spring. Just thought and heard that oysters were supposed to be very easy as well.

Thanks all

I’m trying my hand at growing oyster mushrooms scratch for the first time. I’ve only ever grown stropharia in the yard and only experience with oysters was using the premade grow kits. I wanted to try spawning my own substrate this time. I pasteurized straw and innoculated it with sawdust spawn from Mushroom Mountain. It put them in small plastic bins, kind of like a mini laundry basket and then into plastic bags with holes poked all around. It’s been a few weeks and I’ve yet to see any signs of growth so I peeled back the plastic and saw this fuzz all around. Being a novice with oysters, I’m not quite sure if I’m looking at mold or is this what it should look like. There’s two bins in the pictures below. Any help would be awesome. Thanks!