Q: How Much Gypsum Do I Use in a
Bulk Mushroom Substrate?
A: You can use five to ten percent gypsum in your bulk
substrate, measured by volume, to see increased yields & performance.
This is in addition to the gypsum you should be adding to your grains during their soak (if that's how you prepare your grains).
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Q: How Much Coffee Grounds Do I Use in a
Bulk Mushroom Substrate?
A: You can use ten
to fifteen percent
spent coffee
grounds in your bulk substrate for
increased yields & performance.
On a side note, you can also use half strength brewed coffee
water as the soak water for your grains, instead of plain
water alone, to see increased colonization times for your grains.
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Q: What are Some Good Bulk Mushroom
Substrate Additives?
A: Things like chicken
manure, gypsum, coffee grounds & worm castings are all great
additives. However, only when the proper amounts are used,
otherwise, you'll do more harm than good.
Gypsum is a great additive that supports the very healthy
development of mushrooms, as it provides a much needed source of
sulfur and calcium. Gypsum should be used at around five
to ten percent by volume.
Chicken manure should never be used at more than five percent
by volume. The reason for this is because it's too "hot"
(nitrogen rich) & will burn the mycelium.
Coffee grounds can be used at around ten to fifteen percent
by volume.
Worm castings can be used at around ten percent by volume.
More could be used without doing any harm, but their
texture is like that of dense mud when they're hydrated, making
them unsuitable as anything more than a carefully measured &
used additive.
Here is an excellent thread at Shroomery to read about
Mushroom Substrate Additives that goes into great detail
about each and every one.
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Q: Should I Pasteurize or Sterilize My Bulk Mushroom Substrate (or neither)?
A: You should always pasteurize your substrate & not sterilize it.
The reason for this is because you won't be innoculating your
bulk substrate in sterile conditions like you would if you were
doing, say, the PF Tek. You pasteurize a substrate by
holding it at 140 degrees Fahrenheit to 160 degrees Fahrenheit
for at least 90 minutes.
By only pasteurizing & not sterilizing your bulk substrate,
you allow a select group of microorganisms to survive the
pasteurization process. These microorganisms in your
substrate won't harm or inhibit the mycelium you'll be spawning
to it, but they do inhibit the growth of molds & other bacteria
that may land on your bulk substrate when you're spawning to it.
Pasteurization also ensures that you kill all mold spores,
seedlings & most bacteria & other harmful organisms that would
otherwise prevent the mushroom mycelium from properly colonizing
your substrate.
If you were to sterilize your bulk substrate prior to
innoculation, if some mold spore or bacteria were to land on
your substrate during the innoculation process (and they most
surely will), they will thrive in an environment with no
biological competition for the nutrients in your substrate
(since molds/bacteria grow at a significantly faster rate than
mycelium, the mycelium doesn't actually count as competition
until it has fully colonized a substrate. When mycelium as
fully colonized a substrate, it is all but 100% protected from
contamination).
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Q: How Do I Properly Pasteurize My Bulk Mushroom Substrate?
A:
Pasteurizing your bulk substrate might seem like an intimidating
idea at first, but it is actually quite easy.
You
pasteurize your substrate by holding it at a steady internal
temperature of 140 to 160 degrees Fahrenheight for a
period of at least 90 minutes (temperature measurement should be
measured at the core/center of the substrate).
There are a number of methods to do this, such as placing
your substrate in quart jars and placing those jars in a "hot
water bath" or by placing your substrate in oven bags and then
placing those bags in a "hot water bath".
Here are a couple of excellent threads at the Shroomery that
give step-by-step instructions on how to pasteurize your bulk
substrate (which should always be performed, particularly if you
want to use any additives that will increase the performance of
your substrate):
Proper Pasteurization of Substrates (in oven bags)
Proper Pasteurization of Substrates (in quart jars)
Proper Pasteurization of Substrates (in oven bags, but with dry
heat)
Proper Pasteurization of Substrates (for MASS Amounts of
Substrate)
There are plenty of other threads outlining how to pasteurize
your bulk substrate, those are just some "fan favorites" and are
well laid out (both in words & with pictures). Feel free
to search for more if none of those suit you.
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Q: How Much Coir/Verm/Poo Do I Use in a
Bulk Mushroom Substrate?
A: This is kind of a grey area.
One of the most infamous monotub teks (
Damion5050's
Coir Tek) uses a "recipe" that is 80% coir & 20% vermiculite (by
volume).
You'll see others have use 30% horse or cow manure, 30%
vermiculite & 40% coir. Others have used straight horse manure with great success.
Others still have used 70% coir, 10% verm, 10% coffee grounds, 10%
horse manure. There is no "magic recipe", so feel free to
experiment.
The most important things you want to make sure you've got nailed
down when you've got your final mix ready to go are:
Texture
Moisture Level
You want a nice, light & fluffy texture to your bulk substrate.
It shouldn't muddy or clumpy, as this leads to slow/incomplete
colonization. You also want to make sure you haven't over or
under saturated your substrate. The perfect moisture level for
a bulk substrate is called "field capacity".
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Q: How "Wet" Should My Prepared
Bulk Mushroom Substrate Be?
A:
Your substrate should have enough moisture added to it to bring
it to what is referred to as "field capacity". Field
capacity is a term used by mushroom growers (amongst other
professions) to refer to the perfect amount of moisture in a
given substrate.
To get a rough idea of field capacity, it's about what a
wrung out sponge feels like. If you can pick up a handful
of your substrate and hold it in your hand and no water drips
from it, then you can squeeze that same handful of substrate
kind of hard and only get a couple droplets of water & then
lastly, squeeze that same handful of substrate really hard and
get a small stream of water for a second or two and then it
stops, that's about field capacity.
Here is an excellent video on YouTube demonstrating
how to check your substrate for field capacity.
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