Are these mushrooms growing right?

[gib65]

Hello,

I inherited a mushroom substrate and I would like for others to tell me how it looks.

I've been trying to keep it moist and at a decent temperature, giving it a little bit of light, but not too much. But it's been two weeks and no growth. It also looks rather "sick". It's covered in brown spots, as you can see from the pics, and it's starting to look "pasty" rather than "fuzzy" the way it looked at the beginning.

Can anyone tell me the signs to look for if you batch isn't going right? Thanks.

 

[Hawk-o]

It's a little difficult to tell from the pics, but they look ok to me. Looks like they are ready for the monotub, dude.

 

[Solipsis]

You inherited it from like a wealthy uncle who died? ;p

Anyway, the brown liquid can be normal I'd say as metabolites (waste) from the mycelium looks like that - basically it's pissing and shitting itself. If it starts to look really wet (not just condensation droplets) and spotty then you might have a bacterial infection. Don't worry you will most probably smell that when you open up the substrate bags. Which I agree will probably be soon since you have full colonization - although it is smart waiting a little bit on consolidation after 100% colonization (plus you can't look on the inside everywhere), but I wouldn't be surprised if you have already waited those extra 5 days or so.

2 weeks and no growth.. what kind of growth are you waiting for beyond this full colonization - pinning? What are you going to do with the substrate anyway - spawn to bulk or to coir, or another option?

Anything else is hard to say from the pics, but the fuzziness in the beginning is the rhizomorphic growth - solid mature mycelium that has overwhelmed the substrate eventually loses that quality since it is so consolidated.

 

[gib65]

Ok, thanks for the replies both.

Sounds like it's *probably* going normal. We'll see.

I'm not very experienced in mushroom growing. This is my third attempt. The first two were years ago and the method was a little different than this.

It came with a heating tent which I spray with water (previously boiled) once or twice a day. I'm thinking of limiting this though. I can see condensation droplets inside the bag which *probably* means it's got enough moisture. This is what I'm using to gauge.

 

[Twigs]

What kind of mushroom are you growing? The "lumps" on the bags look like oyster mushrooms to me.

 

[Solipsis]

It would be very interesting if you ask about oyster mushroom growing advice in the psychedelic drugs forum but I agree that the lumps look unusual. Did you make holes (accidentally or on purpose), that are now growing fruits - if so if the holes are very small maybe that could cause deformity - it does look a little bit like pinning. It also could be an optical illusion with the lumps just lying on the oven plate.

Still not clear on what you are waiting for or how you are planning to do the fruiting.

The substrate had to be wet enough initially, it's not much use gauging whether it's wet enough now. Although dunking in cold water in the fridge is one technique that allows some water to be soaked up right before fruiting.

A heating tent, you mean like a plastic filter bag that will be the fruiting chamber? There will have to be enough space for the fruits. If this is oyster mushroom then yes poking holes in the bag is more common and the fruiting can be done that way - the mycelium senses where the fresh air is coming from and grow there.
How are you actually spraying these blocks of mycelium - you just open up the bags and mist?

So looks like you have a decent chance but don't wait too long going to the next phase. Please clarify cause I don't get what technique you are following here.

 

[phuckingnutz]

You inherited it from like a wealthy uncle who died? ;p

Hopefully he didn't die of mushroom poisoning!

Those "lumps" appear to be outside the bag and not on the bag, unless I'm looking at different lumps. The one on the right looks like something escaped and is sneaking away...?

All in all though, it looks pretty good, but you need to set up a tub or at least get them in a decent fruiting chamber pretty soon it looks like.