Piles of woodchips!

[Cafro]

are woodchips a suitable casing layer for outdoor beds of cubensis mycilia?

if so are the woodchips soaked in water to hydrate
before being used? or simply used right out
of the bag.

also, could somone please reccomend a "type" of woodchip

peace

[Togaebi]

I'm a newbie here, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that woodchips might be too nutritious to use as a casing layer. 50/50 peat/verm with some lime to balance pH seems to be popular for terrariums, but I'm not sure about outdoor growing.

Good Luck!
~Togaebi

Don't use wood chips for cubes. Although they can colonize and utilize wood to an extent it is not the best for cubes. You can go the peat/verm route or you can simply lay straw on top of them to a depth of about an inch or so. I would cut the straw up into 1-3 inch peices, soak it, drain it, and apply. No need to pc the straw for an outdoor bed.

[Cafro]

what would you think of just using cardboard
as a bottom layer? instead of crumbled cakes or grains.

would this colonize the straw efficiently?
i have heard some negative comments
and some positive comments
concerning the topic.

thanks for the quick reply dial8

Depending on the depth of your substrate one layer on the bootom may not suffice but if you had multiple layers or you could cut the colonized cardboard up and thoroughly mix it with your straw.
Now we are talking about cubensis and not a wood loving species, right?

[Cafro]

yes, cubensis species. from what i hear,
i would be able to spawn way more cubensis during warm months.

i would consider other species but the cold months in my area are few, and the warm months are more common. i dont think the cold cyans would do well for me,, but i am in a mixed weather climate, winters are short and cold, and summers are warm. i read somewhere that cyans we're difficult to fruit, so this scared me off. what would you reccomend?

[Cafro]

i havnt started my cardboard yet,
waiting on cakes to pin,but i can definitly make enough
for cutting pieces and mixing through the straw.
this sounds better than my original idea
of an all cardboard bottom layer.

i want to use tissue for my cardboard, so i gotta wait
but i have a huge mass of cut up boxes saved and ready to go

Yeah, I would use the cakes as spawn and forget about the cardboard unless you plan on cloning with it after you harvest some fruit. Just mix the cakes thoroughly witht the straw.
If you are spawning cakes to straw I would pasteurize the straw. Although this is not necessary for outdoor beds I think it softens the straw some making it easier to colonize.
Above I thought you were wanting a suggestion for a casing layer. What you are wanting is a substrate material, and straw works great.
Straw can be used as a quazi/pseudo casing layer outdoors.

Clariffication: Casing layer is a non nutritious layer that simply supplies water for the developing fruit bodies.
Substrate is the medium that the mycelium colonizes and uses for food.

Here is a link to a tek. http://mycotopia.net/discus/messages/5/132876.html

[strangegem23]

In regards to growing azures and cyanescens, how important is it that the woodchips are "fresh". (How about green, is that a problem?) Does draining the woodchips after soaking them leach out nutrients, and if so, is this a problem? Will they grow on hardwood mulch, or should the bed be mostly woodchips? A mixture?

[golly]

Both fresh and older solid wood Chips are colo'd by the Myc..Older chips should be pasteurized to eliminate compeditor fungi n' bugs...
HW Mulch can make up 20-30% of the mix ..Best to have a matrix of different sizes ..The larger chips provide a nessessary long lasting food source to carry the patch through the next season..
I'm sure some sugars are leached with the drain water from fresh chips but
shouldn't be a significant problemo...

[strangegem23]

Cool, thats helpfull. Thanks Golly!

What about incorporating some leaf litter into the matrix?

I'm going to be starting some Azurescens and Caerulipes so I went to my local, over priced, grocery store in search of woodchips. The only woodchips they had were Apple and Birch. Will either of these work? Also, do I just soak the chips or is there some kind of sterilization/pasteurization process that is needed?

[golly]

They should work, although never tried myself..

Best to heat the chips by bringing a large pot with chips n' water to boiling point then turn off heat and let sit untill the chips sink [fully hydrated]...

Awesome! Thank you, Golly. I ended up getting the birch. More expensive, but I just heard someone saying the were using birch. What's the normal soak time until they sink? 48 hours?

[golly]

Depends on chip size and original moist content ..Mine take about 3hours but yours could take a day...I've heard of peeps using birch..try to have mixed sizes together...Even a bit of coir in the mix is good as it's 30% lignin i think..

They are all different sizes. The size ranges from 1cm to 2in. All about 1-2cm thick. Are you saying I should add about 30% coir?

[the_other_chap]

Once they're started, I think they'll go for practically any type of wood.

I've had good colonisation in my outdoor bed but no fruiting as yet (it was started too late last year).

The bed is made from a bag of "forest chips" I found at my local nursery centre which seems to be mixed hardwood & softwood chippings and about 30% bark bits.

I need to move the bed in a month or two, and I had a small experimental probe in the bed and everything seems to be covered in nice thick white mycelium

I'll be moving (and expanding it) shortly, and if I remember I'll take pix and post them.

Excellent, Chap. That's what I want to do; an outside bed. I live in an apartment building, so it's kinda tough. Just the other day, I was chatting with my landlord and told him how much I like to garden. He told me "Feel free to put in whatever plants/flowers you want to as long as you take care of them." One side of the building is always shaded, so I think I'll start there.

[HipsterDoofus]

Alder is the ideal woodchip. Any hardwood will be fine. Cardboard's good, too.

Avoid the resinous woods like pine.

[hyphaenation]

I had a quick Cyans question. I have some jars of P. Cyans growing on alder chips. I'am expanding them into more sub. What I was hoping to do is take some extra colonized alder shavings and somehow get the myc in an LC. Is it okay to slide some chips into the PC'd karo / alder soak water LC ? I wasnt sure if I should soak the chips in the LC and then strain the chips out or just leave them?

I would really love to get some of that established P. Cyan mycelium into the LC. I don't have any agar or experience in it.

Thanks for any help

H

[hyphaenation]

Now that I just finished the transfer of chips I have a dozen jars with colonized shavings sticking to the edge. I was hoping to take an alder soak water / karo LC that I made last night and slide that into each jar to pick up the mycelium. I have a bunch of extra empty syringes.

Do you think its feasible to mop up the mycelium on the leftover chips? If it works I want to start some bran / alder sawdust starter jars and also spray the mycelium on an outdoor patch of alder chips that were lightly innoculated with colonized chips.

Thanks In Advance

H

[Hippie3]

i snag some snippets of mycelia , dip in peroxide and
then toss it in the lc ,
all inside a glovebox , of course.

[hyphaenation]

thanks Hip

This myc would be hard to snag because its attached to tiny fragments of alder. I'll let you know how it goes. If I do swish the LC water into the jars and then empty that into an incense bag the chips will float. I can rub the myc off the shavings inside the bag and syringe them out from under the floating chips. I understand that woodlovers have their own contams to deal with , but doing this procedure inside the glovebox may work.

I'll report back

cheers

H

[hyphaenation]

I have PC'd some syringes, a funnel, coffee filters and a jar of alder soak water with karo.

Can I take my jar of myceliated chip water from cleaning out the jars and pour it through a sterilized coffee filter into the freshly cooled LC jar? I would do all of the above inside a glovebox.

Any Help Appreciated

H

[Sean]

Hey Guys a quick query,

I see a lot of people discussing cardboard spawning and etc. it seems most people like to pasturized or sterilized both the cardboard and woodchips when working with woodlovers. I heard of a guy who didn't do either, just because he felt he would have a stronger more robust mushroom if he let nature take it's course. He found some woodlovers and he just took some of the mycelium attached to the woodchips he found them in, plus stem butts and wrapped it all in soaked cardborad. He made cardboard towers. Finally he added a shallow layer of woodchips. Left it outside, will let it go 4 to 8 months by itself. He thinks, if you have the time, and patience,don't mind losing your crop to contam, it may be a preferable method vs. pasturizing and sterilizing everything. Hell, they grow in the wild profusely without pasturization or sterilization. I think Stamets feels the same about this. not sure, but I think he prefers the natural method for growing fungi, supposedly, you get a more tenacious fungi. What do you guys think?

[Hippie3]

i think
taking the easy way
fails more.
work improves the odds.

[Sean]

Interesting,

I would argue the easy way is sterilization and pasteurization. It's a lot more difficult and you have a lot more to lose going au natural. Interesting point though. Thanks!

[spacecake]

I have tried both ways and if you sterilize,then it will colonize alot faster...!

[Sean]

I agree, I think would colonize faster. At what cost? Do you get a weaker strain? I'm not a proponent of either. Interesting! Thanks for the input!

[golly]

I believe it does help very much to initially expand the mycelium with pasteurized chips/card b..
Especially indoors...Once a patch is established ,then fresh chips can just be soaked and spread as a new top layer..
Adding small amounts each time helps insure that compeditors won't have time to get a foothold b4 your myc can overrun the new chips...

[Sean]

Thanks!

This guy has already started, so it's too late for him. Maybe he learn new (good or bad), which is a good thing. Let's see what he has in 4 to 8 months.

[Hippie3]

Originally Posted by Sean

Interesting,

I would argue the easy way is sterilization and pasteurization. It's a lot more difficult and you have a lot more to lose going au natural. Interesting point though. Thanks!

i think you are confusing the term easy with likely to succeed.
i meant it in the more traditional sense
as in the easy way means doing no extra work.

[HUMBLE STUDENT]

I like the whole idea of skipping the whole steralization process for one. and I also agree with hippie it is kinda cutting corners skipping it but if you could get a more scrappy strain (by scrappy i mean one that could do battle with contams and win) it might be worth a try especially if you were goin to try to colonize an out door bed might be worth trying to build up there defence just my opinion take it or leave it by the way tell your friend i said good luck

[Sean]

Humble Student,

I think you're right on. Stamets agrees, especially if one wants to establish an outdoor patch. That's actually my friend's purpose to establish a tenacious, strong patch, that can fend off contams and etc. It's an experiment, we'll see. If I get pics in 4 to 8 months, I'll share.

[ethnobotanica]

I am actually doing a similiar thing at this moment. I have put beech chips from the pet store in ziploc bags and placed a small piece of myc off the root into this( on MJ's advice), i've watered them and they are in the bottom of my fridge now. I've also filled a jar with chips on top of soil/myc from the location. I'm not sure at the mo because MJ's were fully colonized in 10 days and mine have done nothing in 5 days. I didnt actually soak the chips though, just poured water in the bags, they are moist though.
I was not aware of this "scrappy" strain concept though, is a nice bit of info to be aware of, I havnt read Stamet's book, yet.
I am trying to get some spores now, as back up. Had a couple fresh in the fridge still, luckily. Am a newbie to growing in general (yet am well aware of the power of the shroom). Hoping I get a good print so I can do a pasturized run as well.
I will definately post any of my progress as this is a good thread. Looking forward to seeing someone else's results without pasturization later this year
Good luck and blessings to all patches everywhere
check here http://forums.mycotopia.net/fungi-gr...questions.html (Cyans outdoors in uk, couple of questions..)

[waylitjim]

When building spawn, it helps to hydrate the woodchips first by boiling the chips in a large pot. Just bring the water to a boil, for about 20 minutes untill the chips sink. This also semi-pasteurizes the woodchips. This isn't necessary for outdoor beds.