DOES LIGHT REALLY AFFECT COLONIZATION? Side by Side Comparison

[@georgenyvlt]

That was actually a pro experiment! I love how you don't "JUST GROW" mushrooms, but actually try to understand how it works. Very cool.

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Appreciate it, thanks for watching 👊

[@JonathanYankovich]

I love the experiment too! Have some engagement! Seeing other people doing experiments with mycelium is really interesting. Love your style and delivery. Keep it up!

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Thank you for the kind comment and for watching 👍

[@mse1333]

Hey RM, Mark from Charlotte. No matter what you share, there’s always atidbit that everyone can use. Thanks so much!

[@1ntwndrboy198]

I put bubble wrap on top to mimic leaves. Seemed to work 👍

[@JasonOtto]

Thank you for the value derived from that experiment.

[@pyrocircus129]

Very interesting, thank you and keep them coming!

[@JolynJessica]

I have read lots of charts, but seeing live results is way cooler. thx

[@ChrisMeek-gg5de]

Catching up on some of your vids. KZbin must have unsubbed me. Same as always, great content.

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Thank you for taking the time to catch up, glad you liked it 👊

[@gregoryshifflett6320]

Hey bro,Greg from Va recently found your channel.Getting ready to inoculate my 1st spawn this weekend.Thanks for the awesome help.

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Hey there, glad you found the channel and good luck on your first grow 👍

[@johntexan4165]

I colonize in near complete darkness. Once the mycelium has colonized the media, I place it in diffused lighting for the best results. Temperature is most important.

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Agreed 👍

[@KennedysMushrooms]

I love that you did this experiment on just pellets! That was extra cool. The only light my colonization and grow rooms get is when I turn the light on to do something in them. I've been growing about a year for learning purposes working my way up to having a more full understanding. Eventually I will get it down enough to start a business of it. Being new and not having a lot of funds I do everything as cheaply as I can. Actual lights are an added cost and all the info makes it one more learning curve that I decided at the beginning I would only take on if there seemed to be an honest need for them. So far I've seen no issues in growing mycelium or fruit without any consideration for light.

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

That's a smart play on your part. A lot of new growers over-emphasize the need for lots of grow lighting. As you're finding out, they only need a little.

[@aarondingus3548]

Love the content and inspiration. I wouldn't be messing around in this space without your videos. Would love to see more experimentation with supplementing bulk substrates. After I saw your video using wheat bran I started my own experiment with 5% bran flake cereal (figured the fortifications would help). So far it seems to be working well for me, but I'd love to hear about what others have tried and maybe see some documented comparisons. Anyways love the videos and thanks for sharing your knowledge and wisdom! 😎 Edit: looks like my tubs with the bran flakes got contaminated with mold(s). Tubs were about 80% colonized before contamination and I think my issue was the temp in my environment is more suited for mold than the cold loving species I'm working with. Anyways it's always a learning experience and I'll keep experimenting. Looking forward to the future and staying tuned for future content.

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Planning more substrate experiments soon, thanks for watching and commenting 👍

[@maddogmaz1576]

Id like to see two different light spectrums and see which grows better

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

That would be a fun experiment, definitely something I could try in the future.

[@TheTubejunky]

The reason for the under side to grow even shows that no light helps. The underside would obviously have almost no light due to it sitting on that side. So I would suggest no light for this specific fungi is better.

[@davidstadelman6140]

Cool experiment. RM. Thanks for sharing this with us Merry Christmas to you and yours.

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Merry Christmas 😁 Thanks for watchin.

[@anthonysurrency7134]

It's been awhile since I've commented, mainly because I stepped up into the commercial world and have been using commercial equipment. We went from unicorn to sakato black bags for the majority of what we do now and I've noticed for the most part that the black bags colonize faster than our clear "window" bags

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Cool, that's good to know. Never heard of the Sakato bags, I'll have to check them out.

[@anthonysurrency7134]

@@RenegadeMushrooms we get them from far west fungi. They're Japanese made and probably the best quality bags ive handled. I hate having to deal with unicorn bags now

[@glennplatvoet7111]

Okay makes sense to me

[@NathanLogsdon-uj3yr]

I can’t find any sakoto black bags you described. Can you send a link please?

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

@@NathanLogsdon-uj3yr Says their USA Agent is Far West Fungi. [e-mail]

[@Anthony69420]

Interesting. I keep all non fruiting bags in my closet

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Probably a good idea, certainly doesn't hurt during colonization.

[@roseknows702]

The cover is going to insulate it ever so slightly, not enough data to see any significant effect.

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

I did check temps on both sides a couple times and didn't see a difference. If there was, my thermometer didn't pick it up.

[@SpencerLemay]

@@RenegadeMushrooms You probably have to make lot's of them doing the experiment over and over and carefully calculate the area colonized. The difference may only be 5%.

[@sonnybrasco9735]

Nice experiment man

[@jaysizzle3023]

How do you decide your block’s ready for fruiting conditions ?

[@SpencerLemay]

Depends on the species but usually I just wait for pins. Sometimes you have to adjust the temperature before pins appear. King oyster it's best to wait for pins and let them get a little chunky before exposing them to air. Most oysters just cut it open when you get 100% colonization.

[@jaysizzle3023]

@@SpencerLemay cool I just been growing the 👽 species. But I do notice if I let pin better yields. When I fruit based off looks fully Colonized 10 to 14 of spawn to bulk. They take longer to pin. If I just basically wait 20 days then fruit. Got mushies ready be picked in 4 days 😅 and flushes like crazy. Have had 5x flushes with GT

[@joaorebochooaw6321]

Awesome! Now a video of chopped vs whole straw for substrate please!

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

I doubt I'll do a video on that, but I have used both quite a bit. The chopped straw definitely works better. The main reason is that straw needs to be packed tightly to get good cropping efficiency. This can be pretty labor intensive. The smaller particle size of the chopped straw makes it much easier to pack.

[@NightEcho85]

Interesting

[@JosephBarton-x2v]

Hey I’ve recently taken up growing and so many questions. I tend to venture towards your page for info so figured maybe I could reach out and ask for guidance.

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Other than just answering your comments here, I do offer a personal mushroom growing consulting service for $12.99 a month through Patreon. Once you join, I send you an invite to my Discord server if you're interested here's a link: www.patreon.com/RenegadeMushrooms671

[@RJGNZ]

I dont think the light makes a difference they have no real requirement for light be more definitive if they were not the same colony the moisture will be more at the bottom ?? I'm just checking out some brown rice bags I have one of them has the purple doom growing so far I've had the green death ( trich) the green penis ( penicillium digitatum ) I think we have lots of cirus - some sort of yellow fungus that I think got under my skin which then died after a anti fungal drops It's a fun pursuit

[@Alexmw777]

nice video! i think the format could be improved by having a more distinct "conclusion" section. was your hypothesis confirmed? did the contamination invalidate your results? what would you do differently if you were replicating the experiment?

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Not sure what I would do differently, I thought it turned out pretty well. I really didn't have a hypothesis, just a curiosity on if the mycelium would react at all. While the difference in growth rate may not have been significant, it definitely seemed to prefer darkness. The contamination was expected. I was actually surprised it took so long to show up because the substrate was continually exposed to open air.

[@Alexmw777]

@@RenegadeMushrooms well i come from a technical background so i may be biased in that regard. i tend to prefer having clear abstract, hypothesis, method, conclusion sections. in video form you might represent that with timestamps/sections. your intro section was really solid as far as method is concerned, and you commented on competing variables which is great. even "the difference in light would have no effect" as you commented here would be a valid hypothesis. surely you had some expectation. in the video you mentioned that old advice was for darkness being better, so that would be a fine hypothesis too. maybe i wasn't watching as attentively as i could have but around the last section while discussing results it seems you kinda just tapered off into describing the results and commenting on contam without neatly interpreting them as a conclusion. i hope this good-faith feedback is helpful edit: just realizing i somewhat misread your reply, but i'll leave mine up in case it helps

[@maineoutdoorsman677]

Roots for tree won't grow in light ,wh6 don't u see myselim everywhere out in nature,..? Why not do 2 different tests 1 totally in dark 1 totally in light , That's the test I want to see

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

I'm planning on doing more tests, thanks for watching.

[@glennplatvoet7111]

I thought you would see different colors in contaminated areas . Guess not that interesting thanks for sharing this

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Sometimes, but not always, depends on the type and growth stage of the contam. Many don't show much color, or only color up in later growth stages. That's why it's also important to watch the behavior of your mycelium.

[@metlwrker4285]

I started growing mushrooms using 5 gal buckets, they were white ones. After two flushes I'd dump the substrate out. I noticed the mycelium didn't eat all the way through the substrate before pinning I switched to 3.5 gal buckets and use the black buckets with black lids. After 2 flushes when I went to dump the substrate out it was all inundated with mycelium. In regard to this video, I agree with your assessment that dark incubation is more productive. I do have a question for you, not related to thi video. First of all your recipe for water to fuel pellets works perfect. now what I'd like to know is when using soy hull pellets with fuel pellets should the same ratio of water to pellets be used, 1.2 lbs water to 1 lb of pellets for all the pellets ? I forgot to add, I grow buckets outside, on seedling mats ,in a wire rack covered with plastic in a shaded area and give them 6500 kelvin 12 hrs on and 12 off for the fruiting cycle.

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

I honestly haven't played with soy hull pellets much so I'm not sure on hydration. I have a bag of them, but I've found them more prone to contamination than wheat bran with pasteurization methods, so I mostly use bran.

[@metlwrker4285]

Thank you so much for your quick response! I've been using aspen chips with the hwfp and bran. In my desire to improve my harvests I realised that I was spending $2.58 per lb on Aspen chips and can get soy hull crumbles for $1.25 per lb. I've been blending hydrated lime to a ph of 14 with the water I blend with the hwfp's, & wheat bran. The wood chips are soaking in the S hydrated Lime for 16 to 20 hrs then allowed to dry down to an adequate weight. My next batch will be a masters' mix recipe. I will also try with the 1.2 lb of water per lb of Soy hull pellets. I will still use the s hydrated lime blend. I'll let you know how that goes. I stumbled across this, one of my buckets never pinned. After 3 weeks late to pin I put it out for recycling in the green waste but didn't get to it promptly. I did take the lid off and left the bucket in the sun. The bucket evaporated down about 1.25 inches and pins started popping out like mad. I put it back in my fruiting rack and was able to harvest 3+ lbs from it. Since 2022 I've lost one bucket to contamination, currently growing 6 buckets per mth. I think I'll put all buckets out in the sun for 3 to 4 days with the lids off, after the 2nd flush.

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

@@metlwrker4285 Very cool, not alot of people growing with the methods you're using. I love to experiment with different substrate, but for regular growing finding what works and is relatively inexpensive is important. Let me know how it goes for sure with the hydration and soy hulls.

[@metlwrker4285]

{you have my word, I'm growing on the west coast of Ca}@@RenegadeMushrooms

[@faranaz1]

Can the paper absorb the light and convert to heat? Meaning maybe effect is temperature and not light?

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

It's possible in some situations, but in that case you would also get greenhouse effect on the uncovered side I think. It didn't seem to happen with the LED's so far above the table. I measured the temperature on both sides at intervals and couldn't detect a difference.

[@CM-xr9oq]

Blue light for pinning

[@cinderblue3251]

Green LEDs to increase fruiting yields by 1.6x Please find Glukova's paper from 2014, publicly available, "Increased mycelial biomass production by Lentinula edodes intermittently illuminated by green light emitting diodes" I plan to peform my own experiments in a few weeks. Just waiting for some more equipment.

[@shaunm1983]

Close enough to not worry about it imo

[@gregory410]

Nicce

[@Schmidlapp84]

Why has the alphabet tape been changed at 3:08 after previous scene?

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

Very observant!!! I peeled it off at one point to look directly under the tape out of curiosity and then immediately applied another piece.

[@GarlicClove-k3t]

Do you worry about inhalation of spores over the long term? I see the pros wearing respirators but not the ams. Is it not a concern?

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

It's a volume thing. As a home grower, you typically don't need to worry about it as long as you pick early before your mushrooms dump heavy spores.

[@GarlicClove-k3t]

@@RenegadeMushrooms ♥️Thanks

[@dont.ripfuller6587]

Well, go to the woods and nearly all the mycellium you will find will be under ground, under leaves, under logs, under rocks so...one may draw the conclusion that mycelium prefers the dark when left to it's own devices, no need for us to try and change the game. 😊

[@RenegadeMushrooms]

The interesting thing though is that low level light in certain wavelengths actually stimulates growth of some species so it's worth exploring further.