Oyster Mushroom Mycelium Experiment

On the 29th of February 2020, we did a little experiment to compare substrates for Oyster Mushroom mycelium growth?

We tested: cardboard, kitty litter (made of cardboard?), dried Buckinhamia flowers and shredded paper mix, pine shavings, pea straw, and coconut peat or coir.

This is also the order of colonisation by mycelium, with the exception of the coir (coconut fibre), which the mycelium still has not colonised, and perhaps it never will.

The results can be seen in the following images:

On the 4th of March, 12 days after inoculation we can see that at top right cardboard is covered by white mycelium, under which we have the kitty litter, then top middle we have the pea straw, with dried Buckinhamia flowers and shredded paper mix underneath, top left we have cocopeat coir with pine shavings underneath

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Then on the 5th of March, we have a similar situation but with a top down view:

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On the 10th we have another comparison:

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And then on the 17th of March notice the growth spurt on the pine shavings:

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Here are the labelled containers:

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Additionally, on the 24th of March I have noticed that the dried Buckinhamia flowers and shredded paper mix started to produce primordia (baby mushrooms) and it is the only substrate that allowed for this:

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What can we deduct from this? That substrate or food source for mycelium makes a difference to the mycelium, the easier to consume the faster and more vigorous the growth. Also some substrates seem not edible to the mycelium, like the coir. And some substrates as that including the Buckinghamia flowers stimulates mushroom formation. Why might that be? Is it nutrient dependent? Of course our experiment was rudimentary with many variables such as differences in moisture and addition of mycelium volume versus substrate, to start with, however despite this, we can conclude that there are visible differences in the development of mycelium, depending on substrate or growth medium supplied.

Check out this cool research

What *Wood* A Fungus Eat⁠

which takes this experiment much further.

A MYCELIUM BRICK

Our first mycelium brick by Lisa and David is looking good too:

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