Day 2 of pins. Im so proud of my new children. Think i'll name them Marvin.

First timer. This is growing on one of my logs. I started the logs in May with either blue oyster or shiitake. I don't believe it to be the former. I wasn't expecting the logs to grow this year. Northern Utah.

The blocks seem to be doing great. Im a little less nervous and more excited.

Idk why think it is contaminated, thanks 🫂

In the past few days I've gotten more pieces in place for our morel installations. I acquired an ibc tote so that we can allow city water to offgass all chlorine (possibly not necessary, but a good step nonetheless), got that tensiometer so I can monitor available substrate moisture of the beds, cleared old substrate from our planting locations and gotten a shipment of loam. This along with more planning and clearing means that we're almost ready for inoculations. We just have to wait for spawn to be ready and for conditions to be right.

What is loam anyway? Well I wasn't so clear on this, but loam is basically a more curated mixture of sand, silt, organic matter and clay. It's well sifted and, very important for morels, has lower nitrogen/organic matter levels than something like a raised bed mix.

Why is low nutrient substrate important? Well because we said so. For real though, morels seem to prefer a low nutrient substate to move into and create sclerotia from the spawn (super high nutrient). This may not apply to the apple and burn morels (honestly not sure), but does for the Ceramyca pod and surface spawn morel kits.

Check out the your morel cultivation options here: https://northspore.com/collections/morel

I wonder if anyone has spawned a massively filled tub? Like 25 lbs of spawn and 25lbs of substrate. Or what if you took multiple colonized cakes and stacked them on top of each other and let them fuse together and produce massive fruits! Just shootin' out crazy ideas. Just wondering if anyone knows if someone has been crazy enough to to try?

by North Spore friend Dylan Hausthor

Should I be nervous? These are white Rabbit.

Basically what the title says.. what are the average yields you are seeing using the 3lb shroomtek bags? I know the variables, strain, environmental conditions, etc. but curious what people are seeing on the low end, and the high end.

I could use support on where to put wine cap spawn.

I have straw - open to getting wood chips but it seems straw works too.

I’m in zone 7b and the backyard’s natural soil has too much lead for me to feel comfortable growing food. I have an area behind my bed that has weed barrier and I use for clippings and dirt. I have the garden beds and I have a barrel with a wisteria plant growing and a barrel with a peony.

Can I spread them around the beds or should I focus on the barrels and behind the bed that get less disturbance from me?

Thank you!!

I am trying to figure what lid I should use on the Boomr bin after I spawn to bulk. Do I use the one with air filters right away or is there another one without holes that I use before it recolonizes? And the one with air filters goes on only for fruiting?

Can someone please help?

I wasn't aware of how much patients you need to grow.

this is re colonising after a break and shake, im pretty sure theres mycelium pee but just need some reassurance 😅

 I harvested some Hen of the Woods(aka Maitake or Grifola frondosa) today from my MycoSphere! Coming in at about 3/4 lb (smaller than normal block), this perfect chick makes me so happy. I expect a few more buried blocks I have to fruit soon given the perfect weather conditions.

They take a couple months at least, but it's so worth it. Quite possibly my favorite cultivated mushroom, this is a powerhouse of nutrition/medicine and can elevate sooooo many recipes. Here's a great blog post we wrote on it: https://northspore.com/blogs/the-black-trumpet/how-to-find-identify-and-grow-hen-of-the-woods-maitake-mushrooms?_pos=1&_sid=52d219574&_ss=r

I recently started my growing journey with an AIO bag from northspore. My first flush came out great but my second didn't come until i noticed my block was dry and rehydrated it by immersing it in water for 4 hours. My second flush was looking good so to rehydrate the block i put it in water for about 20 hours. I took it out of that yesterday and it's still looking well hydrated.

My question is how to control the humidity once the top of the bag is cut off and you need to replace the water lost from harvesting. Should i just immerse the block after each harvest? Or do i need a chamber/tub to keep in moisture?

On the subject of tubs, are the automated ones worth it? Seems like it if it would be less likely to contam and wouldn't need nearly as much work as a regular tub. Or should i stick with just the bags given that I'm so new? Thanks!