Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

J, will be interesting if the mushies will work in ap.

My understanding (limited) is that the mushies feed on the rotting material at thge bottom, not by extracting nutients directly, but by growing into it and liquifying the material.........sort of...........hang on, i'll post a link.............

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taken from wiki:



key point (thats not actually up there) is that they can not fix their own carbon (via cloropyll and photosynthesis) and must obtain it externally from their "food"

our nitrate rich water should not really do anything for mushies.

HOWEVER (and i just thought of this ) there is HEAPS of decaying organic material in a f&D grow bed. mushies might just be another way to process this waste!

mushies de-hydrate easily and might be more suited to high humidity climate or green houses. From what i can tell they use oxygen via surface gas exchange so the highly oxygenated beds would be good for them.

i'd get a mushy kit, ditch all the dirt or peat moss, and break up the innoculated straw into matchbox size and "plant" them quite deep all over the bed. if plants you pull from the bed leave behind enough roots to be fed on by the mushies then you should be able to have a decent run.

comments?

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what we're doing is buying some bags of "spent" mushroom compost, $1/bag.
Underneath the big grow bed is a large area of cool dark. We'll put the bags under the grow bed and water them (run to waste) from the tank. Axl assures me we can get another 2 or 3 crops off each bag, they are just not commercially viable anymore. But for a dollar its a cheap experiment (well $10, 'cos that's how many we're getting

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oh, ok, disregard my raving then

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What type of mushrooms were you reffering to steve, not the magic mushrooms i hope

nah, just the normal ones

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Steve a bloke near gaffney st sells spent compost

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If it/s free pick it up
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i think i know the one, has a sign up? went past there years ago, and he wasn't very friendly for small qtys. i thought i could get it i bags, but i think he wanted me to take it by the trailer load. might be a different bloke though.

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If you cant get it from him they sell it in gisbourne straight from the farm i have seen trailers going down the road with white dots all over it

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If it/s free pick it up
If it isent broke dont fix it

GF wondered aloud if we basement types could grow mushrooms in our light-challenged environments. Would AP be amenable to this endeavor in any way? It _is_ humid and warm around the tank. Could those with mushroom cultivating experience comment about it in an AP context? Thanks!

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DD's Landing Page

Plant and fish pictures are money

we grew some last year in tubs under the growbeds. good moist conditions.

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Noli Illegitimi Carborundum

I have tried several times to grow mushrooms. I tried various times on newspaper, toilet paper and coffee grounds. I didn't like the manure idea here in FL. I didn't buy one of the kits that are available but tried to start my own culture from store bought mushrooms. I wasn't successful at all. It takes patience and more patience. From what I've read each type of mushroom requires it's own type of substrate and environmental conditions. Just because it's dark and you are feeding them manure doesn't ensure the growth.

But if you are interested here is a web site that tells all. www.thenook.org/archives/tek/Volume1.html#14A

Good Luck.

Thanks Axl, was this conventional growing except for the location? Did AP contribute anything to the compost or ?

Thanks for the info CF! From what I've scanned so far they begin their lives in sterile labs; maybe the only place that could have AP leftovers or other in it would be for grow out, although maybe the microbes in AP would overtake any mushroom organisms if the conditions weren't right.

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DD's Landing Page

Plant and fish pictures are money

we bought mushroom compost from a mushroom farm (they turn off thier compost every week or two) and just chopped pieces off and stuck them in plastic crates. they were watered with fish water. some of the compost got bumped around and turned over during travel and tranference so not all of them produced to the potential. but that said I would do it again this year, time willing(I love mushrooms)

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Noli Illegitimi Carborundum

I played around with mycology a bit before I found aquaponics - my previous adiction . I didn't do it for too long, but was able to culture oyster mushrooms from one that I bought at the shops - starting it on agar and then transferring to a seed mix.

It is something I want to do some more of when my AP system is up and going fully and I have some more time.