Mushroom Grow.. Various Substrates...

So as I elluded to in another thread... Im starting my very first mushroom grow this week. Got everything together, just gotta wait for a bit o "free" time to get going.

Anyway, Ive been doing alot of thinking about substrates. My thoughts is the basic purpose of a good substrate is to offer a sterile, yet nutritious and moist environment for the mycelium to grow. I have a dozen jars, so my plan is to do 6 of them with the standard verm and brf pf tek method. since im not selling these shrooms and I have pleny of spore, Im gonna experiment with the other 6 jars. So heres some Ideas I have for other substrates than brf that I have around the house: Brown sugar (may not work because of solubility in water but IDK), oatmeal, barley, bone meal, corn meal, bread... I dont knowIm just kicking around some Ideas, nothing really to lose.

Any other Ideas, please feel free to throw my way! also feel free to shoot down any of my Ideas, I dont know what Im doing, just wanting to play god a little BWAHAHAHA

shredded newspaper, dry grass, sawdust. Just suggestions I dont really know if they would work at all

I dont know if any one else does this but I actually grind up wild bird seed and mix it in with my brf sorta wild bird seed flour if you will so I use wbsbrf cakes lol

It starts getting fun when you have a hundred jars going

duh on the paper etc... I dont know why i never even considered wood based stuff... and I got bags of potting wood stuff outside...

man I cant do a hundred jars lol... Im gonna be in bad enough trouble if my wife finds my dozen... i got a little hiding spot I think will work though

You get two kinds of fungi basicaly, primary and secondary digesters...
The first group can eat stuff like wood and rocks, the second has to wait for primary digesters to finish their work, or for bacteria to break down food sources... cubes fall in the second group.

I can suggest you try popcorn if you are scared of horsepooh in the kitchen. A nice 2litre icecream tub covered with 1/4inch of verm and you got a nice tray going.... doint try to use corn like Pf cakes though... I just use plain whole corn chickenfeed.

When i grew them it the substrate was a mixture of vermiculite and powdered brown rice. Had to be steam sterilized.

hmm I think I should have known that i've looked in to wood growing mushrooms before...... how would you use popcorn ANC I have an extremly large amount of kernals just laying around, of course I got WBS to, is method simular and does it colonize faster still grain spawn methods yes?

No, I mean you use the popcorn as the actual substrate.
You innoculate the corn in the jars, then when its done going white you beat the bottle against a rubber shoe sole till its all broken up, empty into clean tray tat doesn't let light through the side (stacking a few icecream tus helps).
Cover with moist verm and stick in your fruiting closet.

Heisenberg said:

When i grew them it the substrate was a mixture of vermiculite and powdered brown rice. Had to be steam sterilized.

Click to expand...

That's the basic essence of them sir! The first way of many ways to do it.

ANC said:

No, I mean you use the popcorn as the actual substrate.
You innoculate the corn in the jars, then when its done going white you beat the bottle against a rubber shoe sole till its all broken up, empty into clean tray tat doesn't let light through the side (stacking a few icecream tus helps).
Cover with moist verm and stick in your fruiting closet.

Click to expand...

Ah I see its just instead of wbs or rye seed, right? the mycelium can eat through the outer shell? do you soak them like you do wbs? sorry.. im sure i can find this info else were but if you wouldn't mind saving me the trouble of looking lol

If you want a meaty amount of information about mushrooms, take a look at this thread:
A Complete Pictorial & Editorial Shroom Grow