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Growing tropical species of mushrooms in a cold house

O

O_oSam

Greenlighter
Joined
Nov 2, 2010
Messages
8
Location
Brighton, UK
Hi everyone; this is my first post ;D

I'm posting for a friend of mine who has been thoroughly disappointed with the mild weather we have been having in the UK this Autumn. It has meant our psilocybe season has completely failed!!
As a result of this my friend has decided to try and grow her own mushrooms, but tropical varietys rather than the psilocybe semilanceata that grows naturally here.

She knows how to do this competently after some research but has come across a problem...
For the duration of the process a temperate somewhere in the mid 20's needs to be maintained in order for healthy sized flushes. Her house falls to about 10 degrees centigrade at night because it's a shared student house and she trys save money on her heating bills.
She is looking to grow in a perspex box of rough dimensions: 10cm * 15cm * 20cm (maybe smaller if she can find one to buy)


The best way she can think to do this is using a reptile tank heating mat. This is because they are low power, can fit happily inside the box, and the temperature is probably adjustable.

Her questions are: Will a matt like this be able to reach the temperatures she require? Or are there better ways to approach this?

Thank you for your time & input
Kind Regards
Sam
 
Which tropical species are you referring to?

Any species of psilocybe mushrooms besides cubensis is going to be very difficult to cultivate, especially for a first time grower.

As for the temperature, I've found in my own grows it doesn't really matter all that much. Higher temps allow growth to go a tad faster, but that's about it. Mushrooms like to have a little lower temps at night anyway.
 
Just make sure it's nice and humid where they are growing. That's one of the advantages to growing things at home. You got climate control.
 
This works great too keep a good temp range.

Use two rubbermade tubs (The Same) and a submersible fish tank heater. place heater in tub, fill tub about 4 to 5 inches of water, Place 2nd tub into the tub with the water. sometimes depending on the shape of your tubs you mite want to use 4 plastic or water proof blocks in the tub with the water to hold the 2nd tub up a few inches.

For humidity
Put about 4 inches of very wet perlite into the top tub to generate humidity.
Good luck otherwise

Thats about it; it worked great back in the day.
 
She was thinking of growing Amazonians as they have a good yeild and are relatively easy for first time growers.

She said an incubator sounds overly expensive, and wouldn't a submerged fish-tank heater over complicate matters if a reptile heater/heating mat performs exactly the same job without the need to have extra boxes for water?

Also she already has vermiculite to maintain constant humidity ;)

Thank you for your help.
 
O_oSam said:
She was thinking of growing Amazonians as they have a good yeild and are relatively easy for first time growers.

She said an incubator sounds overly expensive, and wouldn't a submerged fish-tank heater over complicate matters if a reptile heater/heating mat performs exactly the same job without the need to have extra boxes for water?

Also she already has vermiculite to maintain constant humidity ;)

Thank you for your help.
Click to expand...

follow the PF tek

you might want to look at some other forums... [like mycotopia.net]

the people over there can totally help you grow
 
the shroomery is another good website for shroom specific stuff. Also, i would imagine that amazonians are a subtype of cubensis.

My suggestion was going to be closet+space-heater, but i imagine the reptile mat idea would work. I'd get a thermometer & test it out beforehand though.
 
O_oSam said:
She was thinking of growing Amazonians as they have a good yeild and are relatively easy for first time growers.

She said an incubator sounds overly expensive, and wouldn't a submerged fish-tank heater over complicate matters if a reptile heater/heating mat performs exactly the same job without the need to have extra boxes for water?

Also she already has vermiculite to maintain constant humidity ;)

Thank you for your help.
Click to expand...

Vermiculite ain't gonna maintain humidity dude. You need lava rock or perlite or something. And like I said, temperature really isn't that important, as long as we're not talking alaska or something. A lot of times trying to add heat ends up in lowered humidity and much lower yields.

And I'd also say screw the PF tek. Monotubs are an equal amount of effort, more fun, and 100x more yields. There's no reason a beginner couldn't do it.
 
Problem with a heating mat is there's two stages to growing. For the first couple of months you keep them in a dark box at 20-odd degrees till they turn the jars white. Then you need to move them to a fruiting box the bottom of which you've filled with perlite soaked with water. Can you keep a heating mat in damp conditions?

I'd recomend the "box within a box, water and aquarium heater in second box" technique to be honest.
 
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