Pink Oyster Mushrooms – I am calling it a comeback!

6/1 A few days ago, my Pink Oysters Mushrooms started to pin and are doing great!!! They have tripled if not quadrupled in size! I am also noticing that there is a slight color change in the fruit. As they get bigger, I guess the color fades just slightly? They are still a really pretty color of pink though!

6/3 My Pink Oysters are now NOT doing great! I think I got over zealous with a few of the things I had read. Early on in the growth, I left the edges of the plastic that covered the mushrooms more open. A few days ago, I started to tamp the edges of the plastic down after I sprayed the water under the plastic. Not tight but I think it prevented the good air exchange. That allowed carbon dioxide to build but did not allow for oxygen to flow freely around the mushrooms. This is only a guess, but I think I am on track with my thinking here.

I hope my mistakes help others!

**Update – I looked at the mushrooms again and noticed that there was a clump of pins under the original old mushrooms. I find this a bit odd but also fantastic. Maybe they are not a total lose? I will update on their progress. I am keeping the end of the plastic more open now.

6/7
YAY! Success! And OMG were these delicious! I just did a super simple Pan Fry!

My Pink Oysters, I am letting rest right now. I took them out of the plastic, and I am letting them dry out just a bit. In about 2 weeks, I will try to get them to pin again.

Zucchini update

5/30

So my first two zucchini have been a little misshapen. The very first was small in size, and the blossom end was narrower than the stem end. The Blossom end also started to rot as it started to change color indicating it was ripe. The second fruit did something of the same thing, but it was bigger in size. It was almost at the point where it would have turned an orangey/yellow color and started to get its markings. I noticed it was smaller at the blossom end and the end started to go bad. There were a few little gray bugs on the zucchini. I am not sure what they are, but they seem to live in the soil under the hay.

I think this is blossom end rot, but I am just not sure. I had some soil with egg shells in it, so I sprinkled some of that on there.

6/1 – I am pretty sure this is now Blossom End Rot. I looked up some DIY at home solutions for this. I read that TUMS can help with that. So I added both crushed egg shells and TUMS to the pot. From what I read, egg shells can take a while to break down, so they are a good long-term strategy. I add the TUMS as a short term strategy. Fingers crossed!

6/9 Still having problems with small fruit and Blossom End Rot but not as bad. It has also been raining EVERY DAY for over a week! In some of the research I have done, this can also contribute to this problem. 😦 I don’t think I will know what is truly going on until it stops raining but that does not seem like it will happen for another week.

Also, the zucchinis also stay pretty small. I have had really thin ones that get to be about 4 inches in length. Some suggestions I have seen only for this problem are lack of or insufficient pollination. Seems strange as I have bees and butterflies in the garden, but I guess it is possible. I will try hand pollination and see if that does anything. Will update as I try some things.

Fruit Flies in my mushrooms :(

Update on my big box of mushrooms and hay. I have never done a big box like this before. I also had my mushrooms in plastic bags, and then once the bags looked good, I would transfer them to this bigger box. This time, I put the wet hay in the box and then added the mycelium. About a day after doing this, I realized I had an extra smaller basket that had slits in the side. I figure this would be a better basket since it would allow for airflow and provide the holes the mushrooms like.

When I check on this today and move the hay to the smaller bucket, the mycelium was spreading as expected, BUT little fruit flies had found the box and were starting to lay eggs in the hay.. NOOO!!! :(. The bugs can contaminate the hay! I decided to go ahead and move the hay to the smaller basket and then figure out what to do about the bugs. I might just have to let this one go and put it in the composter and start over.

I think my mistake was leaving the hay too wet. Might have to go back to my old way of doing this.

Pink Oysters

So I was looking at my two bags of mycelium and notice that there were little pins in the pink oyster mycelium. Eeek, I did not think they would start producing until I clipped the bag!

Well, I decided I should prep the bag and a spot for the pink oysters since they were growing! I draped the bag with plastic and have been spraying clean water around the holes I clipped. So far, they are doing well! Will post pictures.

Mushrooms Madness!!!

I have planted and messed around with oyster mushrooms in the past. They are fun and can grow really quite fast. I cannot say I was around on a consistence enough basis to really grew them well. I was also making do with what supplies I had. Some success and some failure!

It was fun though! I decided I wanted to try mushrooms again when I got the itch to do the garden. So I ordered some pink oyster mushrooms. I believe this is the one I ordered http://www.gulfcoastmushrooms.com/product/pink-oyster-kit/. I think I also have a Blue Oyster kit too.

The grower was really nice and emailed quickly when needed. I was about to go on my honeymoon, so I emailed to see if they could hold off on shipping. Really helpful!

I bought a bail of hay when I was planting the garden to use there and as the medium to grow my mushrooms in. I started to prep the hay to inoculate it. You are supposed to clean and sanitize everything really really really well! I kind of did. 8[. I am a little nervous that I was not careful enough but not too nervous. I cleaned and washed out my plastic been. I boiled the hay, but I did not time it. I cleaned the tongs I used but also figured the boiling water would help to sterilize them. There are a few places and times where something might have become contaminated, but I did a pretty good job of being careful. I did not use the whole bag of mycelium. So I have a backup if there is a problem. Now, oysters like little holes to come out of. I do not have that. I am thinking of a way to still do that. However, now that the hay and mycelium are in the plastic tub, I don’t want to mess with it too much or add something that might be contaminated. They will still grow, but might not do as well. I will need to think about this the next go round. Will report back on the mushroom madness.

Inside plants!

The inside of my house is getting plant crazy too!

I have had no luck with my orchids over the years. They died or never produced flowers again. So I started doing some reading and experimenting with them. I took my inside orchids that were not producing flowers and put them outside in a tree. Not the best tree, just a tree. My parents keep their orchids in trees, and they do well. Something attacked and ate a few of the leaves on one of the nicer looking ones. I was a bit bummed, but it survived. I left them out there for about a year and still nothing! I started to look for a new idea. I saw some images of orchids in bathrooms with windows or skylights. So I thought, what the heck, why not!

Currently, have my 2 older plants next to the tub. I have one that I bought about a week and a half ago with them too. I cleaned up one of them today and repotted it with some lava rock. I also noticed as I was walking around the building that an orchid had been discarded in one of the bushes. One of the stems had some “pups” (I think that is what they are called?) on it, which is a side shoot with roots. I broke them off and potted them with some lava rock and bark. They have joined their older adopted brother under the skylight in my bathroom.

They all seem to be doing really well. They love the humidity in there, and I splash as little extra water on them every day to every other day. This finally seems to be working! On the plant that was eaten up outside, I finally see 2 little nubs coming out by the leaves. I think these will be stems, but with my lack of experience and knowledge, they very well could just be new roots. Either way, progress! One the other old one I just repotted, I noticed a nub on that one too! Yay! I did mess with the roots on that one quite a bit today, so I am not sure how it will react to that. Might not be good for it, but who knows. Will report back later on whether I have stems or roots!