Recording of Webinar w/ Beau: Homegrown Mushroom Insulation, DIY Doors, and Giant Wooden Hinges

dave cashin wrote:From one of your bullet points - what does 'Rural Redlining' mean?

Beau M. Davidson wrote:What does everybody want to talk about?  

Matt Goto wrote:Before I left last year's PTJ, I could see through the window of the mycelium door some stuff growing in there.  As we discussed, I took some pictures.  You can see them below.





It is my understanding that the white stuff is the mycelium that we like and want to grow.  As I recall, the green stuff growing is a mycelium killer; I can't recall the name for it.  (Could you share what you think it is?)  Do you know the status of the two growths and the overall status door?  Did the experiment work?

Hey Matt!  Wish you were joining us again this year, m8 . . .

Yes, the second-flush bags we picked up had some pre-existing trichoderma, which is a fairly common competitor.  

I talked about it a little bit here:
https://permies.com/t/186123/oyster-mycelium-contamination#1475108

And Caleb took some follow-up shots here:
https://permies.com/t/220/174418/Caleb-Bootcamp-Experience-BRK#1568850

Then the door dessicated enough that the growth of both pleutorus and trichoderma had pretty much halted.  But not before he got some mushrooms out of the deal!  

https://permies.com/t/250/174418/Caleb-Bootcamp-Experience-BRK#1596463

Not generally supposed to happen, but it revealed some things about our process and presented no major problems.

I had Caleb open up the window and replace the trich'd substrate with some fresh straw and oyster spawn, but it never really took off again.  

We learned a lot from this project.  We know where some edges are where we need to take some more precautions.  We discovered some methods that will give us better, faster, more reliable results.  And I will enjoy telling you allllll about it!  A week from Saturday.

Adam Cartwright wrote:Hi Beau! 2 topics I'm keenly interested in are:

How does mushroom as insulation work for say homebuilding where you have inspections during the build process and/or home insurance impacts?

What do you think of the feasibility of using it as the primary insulation source for say a solar lumber kiln (like these: https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/basics-of-solar-lumber-drying.html) where there will likely be high moisture?

Rachael Cart wrote:Thank you for doing this.... can I say all of them?

Do you have a schedule for how long the zoom will last please?

Rachael Cart wrote:Will there be a recording if we can't make it please?

Rachael Cart wrote: so upset I missed this, everything in my life seems to be all about mushrooms and fungi at the moment.

I couldn't get online. Very intermittent internet here... did you make a recording I can view please?

Rachael Cart wrote:Hi Beau,

I just got caught up and watched the webinar. Thank you for that.

I live in the UK in an old static caravan (mobile home) that I'm renovating, but it has very little in the way of insulation, just an inch or so of polystyrene between the interior wall and external sheet metal skin. This will be our first winter, and I have a stack of larch boards ready to clad the whole structure with. I hate the idea of putting in 'standard' insulation from both an ecological point of view and for the cost. Could I fill the gap between the exterior metal wall of the caravan and the larch boards with this mycelium insulation? Could I fill it as I board with the loose substrate so it solidifies in place? Could this be done at this time of year with success? I'm in the North here, and it's wet most days and although still fairly warm, soon we'll be below freezing, so I don't have time to wait 6 weeks to grow panels.

Any ideas or suggestions that you may have?

Many thanks

Rachael Cart wrote:Thanks for the quick reply Beau. Yes, I had considered sheeps wool too, but wrong time of year again for finding any, but love the idea of testing out the mycelium in this application. I do like to tinker with stuff I did wonder if it might be too cold to grow in the winter, then it might get going itself in the spring?

Or I wonder if I was to wait until next year, whether I could still clad it for the winter, then I could take the top board off in spring and tip lots of loose substrate in the empty cavity and seal it back up again, whether that could work?