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Old 01-23-2010, 10:18 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Location: Lake Havasu AZ.
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Just a few things to add. First, it looks like as I suspected they grow quite different from plants because they are a fungus.

"mushrooms are not a plant, but a fungus and they have a requirement for organic substances and compounds for growth and development which are not supplied by the usual inorganic nutrient salts we put in hydroponics. Because mushrooms do not have chlorophyll and do not photosynthesis to produce their own food in the form of sugars, they rely on decomposing plant and animal matter to supply the organic compounds and nutrients required for growth and development. Mushrooms also do not therefore require light for growth so it would be a waste of a well-lit greenhouse or growing area to produce mushrooms--these are usually grown in specially designed sheds which have temperature and humidity controlled."

Also because mushrooms rely on decomposing plant and animal matter to supply the organic compounds. I am not sure about the boiling water in the compost tea idea. It would probably be much better to boil it then let it cool down before adding it to the compost. The coco fiber would probably be fine but not necessarily the cheapest plan. I understand they usually use sawdust, straw, peat moss, and/or vermiculite and perlite as well for growing hydroponic mushrooms. I am also wondering if adding some of the leftover compost from making the tea to the growing medium wouldn't be a good idea. It wouldn't be a true hydroponic system then, but probably wouldn't hurt anything at all.

Also, it seems that it takes a while for the fungus to become mature before it flowers creating the mushrooms. They usually put the spores in a moist sterile grain to cultivate. They call this "mycelium" and sometimes refer to it as mushroom spawn. They then place this mushroom spawn in the sterile growing medium to flower. Kind of like a live yeast sourdough starter for making breads. I am trying to put together a text document with the important aspects I find on growing mushrooms and hope to be able to post it. The text document limit is 19.5 kb for this forum. Also bookmarking useful links on the subject.
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 01-23-2010 at 10:23 PM.
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