shroombaby part III (21q2)
We have been up and running!
November 15, 2020 was my last update and lots has happened since. Here is what’s left on the SHACK roadmap:
Wrap up solar roofing installation
Install chamber lighting and racks
Foregoing the drain — i know, i know— it is unfortunate, but the effort to integrate it now just isn’t worth. We plan to sweep the water out. Some changes we made were adding more fans within the unit to circulate the humid air more as it was accumulating quickly. I would also love another CO2 vent or two.
Success
So far, liquid culture and grain spawn have been fairly successful. Fruiting substrates on the other hand— much more challenging. But we have had a lot of rookie success with our strains — screening 32 in total!
erica’s sautee x ilyssa’s oysters
mushroom soup | local market vegetables x ilyssa’s mushrooms
Issues
Happy to see Lions Mane even though it was getting attacked by a predator!
Contamination
Lost a decent amount of bags from:
penicillium
trichoderma
zygomycetes
Admittedly some of this being human error— not pressure cooking long enough, poor clamping setup, etc
More on this later (see blog Sporangiophores for zygomycetes).
Scaling
deja vu; two pressure cookers aren’t enough…!
We need get three AND an additional heating element while we are at it.
Even with this setup, it’s extremely difficult to reach production capacity.
She picks the mushrooms when they are ripe for harvest— here, she was informed & investigating which to go for first.
Looking Back
Since April, it’s been a year since we started this project. I was just looking back at the evolution of it all — it all started with some foraging videos. Before I knew it, we ordered a tent, fan and humidifier unit. Here we are, optimizing and driving development!
Where it all started… the small martha chamber —> a grow tent —> lets build a fruiting chamber.
it’s just like that sometimes <3
