The only thing I would be concerned with getting in would be insects. If that happens, I would definitely cover the hole, but I haven't personally needed to do that. The cues that attract insects are all coming from the outflow side, which is covered. Other than that, normal things in the air won't hurt the developing mushrooms any more than they will hurt you:)

@@thefungalnetworkvideo it's funny because yesterday i was imagining about putting a fan for the same reason and today youtube poped out this this video randomly

I would humbly suggest that you could scale it up and grow 2-3 pounds a week, friend! :)

If you're only going to fruit a couple of blocks at a time, I would definitely go with something smaller. We've actually got another video on setting up a really simple monotub, called "Make an inexpensive but highly effective mushroom fruiting chamber for under $20..." It's cheap and easy and, like you say, easy to clean! Good luck, friend!

@@thefungalnetworkvideo ok so i have mine in a greenhouse tent in my room, where im growing my jars mycellum, and i put 2 of them in the tub, but i didnt use the water and heater, but i have a heater keeping the temp in the tent around 77f , i have the top close with 12 hrs light , its next to a window with sunlight, and i have the air pump going, i got an extra air pump i may run in there, but it has no way to let the air out, will it stay moist or should i spray it daily ?

For fresh air to go in you've got to have a way for air to come out, and if dry air is coming in and humid air is leaving, it's going to dry out inside the tent. You will definitely need something like a humidifier in this setup, or you'll need to spray really well several times a day.

My son does the music. I'm proud of him and I stand by the music. If it doesn't suit you, I hope you'll make use of your volume button so it doesn't keep you from benefiting from the video. Happy growing, friend!

I'm really sorry. Colorado is Zone 7 for shipping from here in North Carolina. $22.29 is actually right for shipping four of them. Shipping six of them would come in at $26.45. I'm sorry it's that much, and I wish we could do it cheaper, but shipping costs are based on weight, dimensions, and distance. I know I mentioned cheaper shipping in our part of the country in the video, and I definitely didn't mean to imply that the costs are the same regardless of destination. I will add that I think that, even at $12.60 apiece all in, they are much more affordable than other products that are out there, and will produce much better. Again, my apologies for the misunderstanding!

And just to amend my previous comment, if you're buying four of them, with the 20% discount they are actually $11.20 each, all in.

Thefungalnwtwork.net

For sure. It's all about getting a search image in your head. I recommend studying some photos of them before you go out and periodically while you're looking. Just have to find that first one!

Sorry, no. We don't ship internationally, as the cost of shipping would defeat the whole goal of making home growing cost effective. You should be able to at least get spawn from a local grower though, and you can come up with other, local substrates. The important thing is that these mushrooms want to grow aren't super demanding.

You can, but I don't recommend it. Certainly with our DIY kits it's not necessary. When we've experimented with it in the past, we've found that it hugely increases the risk of contamination before you get three good flushes. As long as you keep your fruiting slit covered whenever it's not actively fruiting, and you seal your slit after two flushes and cut a new one on the back for the third flush, you'll get three great flushes without needing to dunk it.

Thanks, friend. I don't know why these species haven't been more popular with home growers -- nor why growers charge so much for them. They so easy to grow, and very productive, in addition to being delicious!

That's a good question. Paper isn't going to do much as a supplement. It's more like straw--easy for the fungus to digest, but not much nutrients. And the good thing about that is that it's not so attractive to mold that tends to really go at substrates with a high protein content. I really just don't know about edibility. My gut suspicion is that you could eat mushrooms grown on paper your whole life and the benefits of eating mushrooms would outweigh any possible issues with their substrate, but without confirmation from a food lab I just don't know.

Thanks friend! Happy growing!

That's our son, Gabe. He does all of our music for videos. Nice to have a musician in the family!

Thanks, friend!

Thefungalnetwork.net

Thanks for the kind words, friend!

Pink oysters usually take 3-4 days to fully develop. They are faster when the temperature is higher and take longer in cooler temperatures. If you need guidance, feel free to email us a photo and we'll tell you if it's ready to pick. Happy growing!

This reishi paper is pretty tough. You can break it, but it's not going to happen from normal use -- you have to work at it. And it's much softer and more flexible than normal paper. Oyster mushroom paper isn't as strong, so if you're going to use it, you'll want to make the paper thicker.

Fist time huh? Don't that hurt?🤣🤣🤣

This is great advice! Thanks for the contribution!

Thanks so much, friend!

Start with a good mushroom book. I recommend "How to Forage for Mushrooms Without Dying" by Frank Hyman for complete beginners who want to learn about the most common edible and poisonous mushrooms and "Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians" by William Roody for more advanced ID in our area. Another good idea is to find and join a local club!

No, Pilot Mountain, NC, USA. But if you're on Vancouver Island, you can sure find these!

Back at you, friend!

Yay! Small world! Miss you guys, too!

I'm a fan of constant ventilation, but I know opinions vary. The key is to ventilate at a low enough rate that it doesn't take an excessive amount of work to keep the humidity up. If you don't want to use a smaller fan, you can always get a "dimmer" cord, that is used to lower voltage to a plug-in light, and plug your fan into that. If it's not made to be a variable-speed fan, it may not have really good control that way, but I've used this method really successfully before.

The material that's left after you grow mushrooms is referred to as spent mushroom substrate (often abbreviated as "SMS"), and there are lots of studies that show how it can be used as a soil amendment to really boost productivity. There are even studies showing that using it as mulch around tomatoes reduces bacterial wilt! Many mushroom farmers sell their SMS to gardeners or plant farmers. So yes, it's very valuable!

Many thanks!

Well everything gets exposed to lots of different molds eventually, so whether it's a regular cleaning or a cleanup after a known contamination, you can use the same thing -- regular dish soap and hydrogen peroxide. If you're having problems with contaminated fruiting blocks though, it's probably not coming from your grow chamber. Nine time out of ten it's a problem with your spawn. It could also be from not adequately pasteurizing your substrate, but that's less common

@thefungalnetworkvideo ok thank you !!!!

Some times the trich will get infused into the plastic..just throw away the tub..

Bleach water or hydrogen peroxide. Don't think alcohol will do it, I made that mistake and lost over 20 tubs.

@@SporeWhore661 ok thank you

Thanks Jim, glad it's useful!

That's a good question. It's really up to you, but what I do is exclude it from figuring into the flush averages by not recording any numbers. I highlight the row of cells for that block red and make a note in the comments of what happened, specifically (i.e. green or black or lipstick mold, or bacteria, etc.). As long as you don't enter anything into the weight cells, they won't be included into the averages, which is what I want because I don't want to think that a culture is performing poorly when the real problem is my sterile technique. You definitely want to track what your contamination percentage is, though, and if you can figure out where it came from each time. If it's all throughout your fruiting block evenly, it's either a problem with your substrate preparation or your spawn. If it's a single spot on the fruiting block, it's likely either a faulty bag some "dirty" thing that happened during inoculation. Hope this helps, friend!

That's fantastic! We just had some in a cream sauce last night! We get them starting in June (this was June), and usually lasting through September

Still faster than a garden, though!