As promised, I have got a few pictures together to show how I'm trying to grow mushrooms in coffee grounds. This is the first time I have tried this and I can't promise how it will turn out. But I think that's what these forums are for. Hopefully someone can learn by my mistakes and go one better.
I'd read somewhere about using coffee grounds to grow these Oyster mushrooms and I'd wanted to grow mushrooms for a while. The reason was simple... I love eating mushrooms.
The first step was to find a source of coffee grounds on a larger scale than I could supply with my one pot of coffee a day. No problem, both my wife and I work at a school and the custodian makes a giant pot of coffee for the teachers each morning. I just asked her to save the grounds for me.
Then I looked at suppliers of the spawn, and after a little more reading I chose Field and Forest over the others. They supply it in all the different forms, plugs, spores, and spawn on rye seeds. I chose 2lb of the rye seed, because I knew I wasn't going to use it all at once and you can keep it for three months in the fridge.
Okay I have the grounds and the spawn, the next thing is to start it all off.
Here is the gallon ziplock bag of coffee grounds.
The next thing I did was to zap it for three minutes in the microwave. This is to try and kill any bacteria that may kill the mycelleum.
Here is the bag of rye seed inoculated with the spawn. I just use a handful and then mix it well into the bag of coffee grounds. Then seal the bag up.
Here are the bags I have done so far. They have about a week between each one, starting from the left. That one is really going strong. The one in the center may be a dud. I think there was too much moisture in the bag as I noticed last week that all the water had drained out of the grounds and was sitting in the bottom of the bag. I drained it out but we will have to see what it does.
This is a view into the top of the first bag. I try and open each one for a minute or two each day to dispel any carbon dioxide that has settled in the bag. These are being kept in the garage at the moment as it's nice and dark in there and a fairly constant temperature. Once the mycelium has colonized all the grounds, the pinheads should start to appear.I will then transfer them to the barn where there is dappled light. This should produce the mushrooms.
The next batch I am planning to do in the rubbermaid box I have the bags in now. I'm collecting the bags of grounds and will dump them into the box and add the spawn. I'll post more pictures as things develop.