Serial Mushrooms

[Wombat]

Good evening all

It seems to me that when you are trying to go self sufficient, staging crops so that they bear over a long period is a good thing. So my next idea is - serial mushrooms!

I already have to compost cooking and I think that this is the right time of year. Last time I tried this was in late spring and the mushies got to pinhead stage and that was it! I think the hot weather killed them. So, how will I do it this time? I will get hold of a bag of spawn and keep it in the worm shed in a pot-in-pot cooler, (last time I kept it in a little peltier effect fridge but on 12 volt it consumed 4 amps so I needed a better way).

I will need to pasturise the compost by heating it to 60oC, last time I did it in the glasshouse, but we are getting on towards winter and I don't know If it will acheive those temps, so I will make or otherwise get hold of a thin steel box and put it into the solar food drier, which I know can get to 60oC. So, put the compost into (hopefully free) polystyrene containers, put them onto shelving I will build in the (cool and moist) worm shed and away they go.

If I could fit,say, 10 boxes on the shelving and set up one a week, that would give me at least two and a half months of mushies, once they started to bear. But if they cycled right, I might be able to set it up so that as a box is being harvested the one at the other end of the line is just being prepared. Anyway, that's the theory!

So how much sense does this make? Is there something I haven't thought of?

Nev

[matty]

Go for it Nev. You should be able to have shrooms in the summer as well, with oyster shrooms, as they grow out here where it gets pretty hot. They are pretty good, as you fill a bag with substrate, pasteurised, mixed with spores, poke holes in the bag and they grow out the sides. Not tried it yet though. Tried Paris Mushrooms, but they never germinated, too hot i think.
How long do you pasteurise your compost for?
Good to hear that you are using a pot-in-pot cooler too... Have wanted to get one made for a while now!

[ina]

Good to hear that you are using a pot-in-pot cooler too... Have wanted to get one made for a while now!

Mine didn't really work last year... Don't know what I did wrong, have to look into it again this year!

[Wombat]

Thanks Matty! (good to see you back with us!)

Ina, because they work by evaporation, if you live in a humid area they won't work too well. I find they work best out of the sun, but in the breeze!

Nev