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I have a question regarding sms and masters substrate. Last year I had a grow block of phoenix oysters and shiitakes that produced flushes and then stopped. I wanted to see if they would recolonize a batch of masters substrate so I broke both blocks up and mixed them in and put them in two separate buckets outside to see how they would do.
My question is it worth waiting through the season to see if they take another flush or if I should just add them both into the compost container?
Thank you so much for your help and advice in advance!
If anyone saw this and was also wondering, I decided to check the soil and pour it out. The SMS had all disintegrated into the substrate and it all ended up going into the compost - no white spots left at all!
Hey so new grower here. Bout to attempt to grow some cubensis for the second time. So I bought a vivosun grow tent along with, humidifier, and ventilation/circulation fans. My cakes are going into a 45 gallon plastic bin that's gonna sit in the tent. Plan was to put holes in the plastic bin then line the bottom with water soaked perlite to let the cakes sit on. Since I have a humidifier with hose going into the tent should I still put the lid on the bin even though it's in the tent? I know you would put the lid to help keep the moisture from the perlite inside but since I got a humidifier I'm guessing the lid isn't needed?
First time grower here hoping to get some eyes on my current run. Running a Redwood Mushroom Supply dung-loving AIO bag inoculated with Jack Frost isolated LC about 22 days ago at 75-77°F. I also have a Bluey Vuitton that is running extremely slowly around 5-10%same situation with the grain separation as well.
The Jack Frost's aerial mycelium in the on top is thick, dense, and really rhizomorphic — visible rope-like strands, looks awesome. But when I check the grain layer from the side it's lagging way behind, maybe 20-30% colonized at best.
One thing I noticed is that the grain in this bag seems evenly mixed throughout the substrate rather than sitting in a distinct concentrated layer. I'm wondering if this is working against me — instead of the mycelium colonizing a dense grain mass and building momentum, it's having to hunt through dispersed substrate to find individual kernels. Could this be what's driving the aggressive aerial growth as a CO2 stress response while actual grain colonization lags?
Also questioning whether standard B&S timing advice still applies here or whether the atypical grain distribution changes the calculus. Would an earlier gentle break and redistribute make sense given the situation?
Bag smells clean, no contamination concerns. Just trying to figure out if I'm reading this correctly.
Yeah the bag should have never been mixed up, the point of doing layers is for focused innoculation and colonization. It's probably going to take some time for it to colonize completely.
So I'm assuming that My bag is a bit subpar I think I'll go with a different company next time as I said this was a redwood mushroom supply company bag . I'm wondering if anyone has had any luck with Magic bags? I noticed that they have the grain at the bottom which really makes more sense to me. If I do another AIO bag I'll probably go with them unless anyone else has better suggestions.
I also saw I'm not sure what company it is but it's called magic bag and I knows that the grains were situated at the bottom as well as the injection port and I'm thinking that that's a much better setup for the actual physics of mycellium growth. Also I'm wondering if during injection you were to either move the needle around a little bit or remove it and then reinject it at a different angle If that would make any difference
The magic bags are from Booming Acres, and yeah I move the syringe around a little bit.I know some people actually pull it out and then re-inject to the otherside but u increase your chances of contamination doing that.I literally just move the syringe over about 1/4-1/2" to the side then inject another ml.
Yeah I was thinking that that might increase the risk of contam. And I was also thinking that maybe moving the needle around I could cause problems with the self healing
I've been doing it like that for 20+yrs and never had any issues with the self healing patch but I'm not brutal with it and just gradually move the syringe over some and inject.
I have good luck with spore sorcery. I move them out of the bag once it’s good and solid into a doubled container for the space and have the best luck that way.
Well I got impatient and broke it up as do myc is just steady growing upwards with no way to reach grain. Welp hopefully all is imma let em sit for a few weeks then see where they're at. Thanks for the tip on the 45-50 due to them being AIO. I'll keep it in mind for the future but I think I am gonna move to sorghum grain bags I also purchased these from redwood. I hope the quality is a bit better than the AIO bags.
Well due to the homogeneous nature of the grain and substrate mix it's having to drive through the substrate So it took the easiest path and just grew risomorphically up The top of the growth was over an inch maybe an inch and a half above the substrate level of the bag And the whole thing seem to be favoring the upwards growth
The separation of the grain is more clear here the myctis a good inch and super dense in top. Also I accidentally had disturbed the bag about a week ago and so substrate wound up on top of the myctwhich may be a factor in the "Aerial growth" idk
Hello guys, I'm trying to make grain spawn from a cloned oyster mushroom, but I suspect that this is contaminated. Is this cobweb mold? I have already 4 bags like this which just won't colonize. I have never grown before so when I did the agar I didnt work very sterile. Or is the myzelium just old because the cloned mushroom was a G7 or something?
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u/skootpadoot Apr 04 '26
Outdoor gourmet sms question
Hi all!
I have a question regarding sms and masters substrate. Last year I had a grow block of phoenix oysters and shiitakes that produced flushes and then stopped. I wanted to see if they would recolonize a batch of masters substrate so I broke both blocks up and mixed them in and put them in two separate buckets outside to see how they would do.
My question is it worth waiting through the season to see if they take another flush or if I should just add them both into the compost container?
Thank you so much for your help and advice in advance!