Mycology

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Mycelium has a grain preference, it seems. (Brown rice, Popcorn mix) (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I had a bit of grain left during my last run, so I mixed the bits I had left.

This is interesting, actually. Over the next few months, I'll continue this experiment to see what grain mixes might work better for spawn.

While this wasn't a "proper" test, I had still hypothesized that the higher starch content in the popcorn would do better. I guess not.

I'll try and separate testing into different categories like starch content, moisture content, mycelium strain, etc. There is probably a ton more conditions to isolate as well.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Interesting. If you'll be trying a bunch of stuff, have you thought about hominy?

The shell of the popcorn might be an issue, and hominy has no shell.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I haven't tried with hominy, but I do have 10lbs of millet in spawn now.

Just speculation, but hominy may need to be pH adjusted and might be prone to getting too sticky and breaking down a little too fast. This might be an issue if you are spawning a bunch and need to shake the grains for even propagation.

Other than that, I just read on another forum that it spawns very quick.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What species is this? Can you get the popcorn kernel soft enough?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Mixed genetics cubensis. (It's of PE/JMF lineage; I don't want to get distracted in those details since it's not quite appropriate for this community.)

I wrote up more details in another comment, but yep, you just pre-boil the popcorn before sterilization. It's not cost effective in low quantities, btw.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I would rate this thread a B+

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I use rye berries and oat mainly, deer corn would probably be cheaper though...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Just ran six jars of popcorn through my instapot yesterday and will be inoculating today with my first run of popcorn. Ordered rye but it is weeks out and didn’t want to wait so go some popcorn from the bulk section of my grocery store. Interesting to see the mix. By left over, did you do a grain to grain transfer or just mix the two as you didn’t have enough at home to fill all the jars you had?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I haven't tested/verified this myself but I've heard that mycelium grows particularly well on millet and rye berries. Might be a couple to add into your experimenting.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Rye is the go-to and millet has a massive amount of surface area. I know rye will work but since it is a very well established grain to use, I want to explore other options as well. TBH, brown rice has been performing very well for me in all cases as well.

I have 10lbs of millet (split into 4 bags) that is getting close to 20 days or so. It started extremely slow, but once it took hold, the colonization has increased speed exponentially. I also have to break it apart more often to get more colonies established.