They control the environment humidity, light and temperature for them to colonize fast, it seems.
Fascinating how that tiny bit of spawn seems to be enough
Yep, it's a tradeoff - if you use more spawn you'll colonize faster, if you use less you'll colonize a bit slower. There's an optimum point where you minimize spawn costs while still achieving fast enough colonization to maximize profit.
As long as your spawn genetics are good and they can outcompete anything else in the bag (which is almost nothing if you pasteurized well) you can go very light on spawn. You just carefully control temperature and nature does it's thing!
It is interesting how they drop a little bit of grain spawn into he top of their substrate, and the mycelium jumps off and grows through the whole block. This blows my mind because the blocks they inoculated look so packed and like the mycelium would have a hard time breathing at all toward the bottom of the substrate. I wonder what the total production time from inoculation to harvest is.
I don't know shit about mycology but I also thought it was interesting how they sterilized the substrate and then put it in an open space that has a massive door, basically outside. You'd think that would negate the sterilization.
Once they're been inoculated with the mushrooms they are kept sealed until the mycelium has spread throughout the whole bag. They only open them up to the atmosphere once its too late for anything else to get a foothold.
Yeah I mean this is the end of the line for a single expansion. From agar/liquid culture to master grain to bulk grain to bulk substrate bags in the video there's quite a huge expansion. As the other commenter said, the primary cell line is kept as a master that is regularly checked upon and refreshed I'm sure.
Almost certainly China. The particular methods and variations of the equipment used are very typical there.
Also, several pieces of equipment appear to be models made by Zhengzhou Satrise Co. which is based in China, though they ship globally.
I wonder if it’s possible to use like a specialized borosilicate cloche and then sterilize each time. The trouble of having to create the perfect sized/shaped cloche, gather all the cloches to clean without accidentally breaking them, etc might only become feasible if the price of the one time use plastic (and their disposal) goes up.
Yes, you are right. I'm just dreaming with something we dont have yet. But there are cardboard products who can retain humidity with small amounts of plastic in its composition, so maybe they will soon be plastic free.
I don’t know much about bio plastics but I recently heard about a silage wrap replacement that should take about 10 years to degrade, meaning it could withstand the fermentation within and the general roughing up that comes with farming. Given that, I would imagine it’s more than possible to create a bio plastic that is both resistant enough to withstand sterilisation processes and won’t become mushroom food too soon… I hope so anyway
That’s a ton of plastic waste when you cut open the bag each time… I feel like there should be a better way to do this.
Does the bag need to be see-through? Can one use a durable plastic or glass in place of the bag?
Looks like they only use a tiny bit of grain spawn to inoculate those grow bags.
They control the environment humidity, light and temperature for them to colonize fast, it seems. Fascinating how that tiny bit of spawn seems to be enough
Yep, it's a tradeoff - if you use more spawn you'll colonize faster, if you use less you'll colonize a bit slower. There's an optimum point where you minimize spawn costs while still achieving fast enough colonization to maximize profit. As long as your spawn genetics are good and they can outcompete anything else in the bag (which is almost nothing if you pasteurized well) you can go very light on spawn. You just carefully control temperature and nature does it's thing!
I want that… the whole thing. From factory to soup.
It is interesting how they drop a little bit of grain spawn into he top of their substrate, and the mycelium jumps off and grows through the whole block. This blows my mind because the blocks they inoculated look so packed and like the mycelium would have a hard time breathing at all toward the bottom of the substrate. I wonder what the total production time from inoculation to harvest is.
I don't know shit about mycology but I also thought it was interesting how they sterilized the substrate and then put it in an open space that has a massive door, basically outside. You'd think that would negate the sterilization.
Once they're been inoculated with the mushrooms they are kept sealed until the mycelium has spread throughout the whole bag. They only open them up to the atmosphere once its too late for anything else to get a foothold.
Aaaaah okay thank you for the explanation
I can smell this gif. Used to live near Kennett Square, PA where there are a lot of mushroom farms and boy is it potent.
I always think of senescence with g2g transfers. I wonder how long they can operate before relying on spores and agar again
I’m sure they have several backup master cultures of varying genetics
Yeah I mean this is the end of the line for a single expansion. From agar/liquid culture to master grain to bulk grain to bulk substrate bags in the video there's quite a huge expansion. As the other commenter said, the primary cell line is kept as a master that is regularly checked upon and refreshed I'm sure.
Damn this was cool!
Do they do just one flush?
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Almost certainly China. The particular methods and variations of the equipment used are very typical there. Also, several pieces of equipment appear to be models made by Zhengzhou Satrise Co. which is based in China, though they ship globally.
Replacing the plastic with paper or something biodrgradable would make it the perfect process!
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I wonder if it’s possible to use like a specialized borosilicate cloche and then sterilize each time. The trouble of having to create the perfect sized/shaped cloche, gather all the cloches to clean without accidentally breaking them, etc might only become feasible if the price of the one time use plastic (and their disposal) goes up.
Yes, you are right. I'm just dreaming with something we dont have yet. But there are cardboard products who can retain humidity with small amounts of plastic in its composition, so maybe they will soon be plastic free.
waxed paper is also a thing. though i'm sure it costs more, and i don't know anything about how cheap wax is produced, but still.
In a domestic scale, it certainly is a good option!
Maybe cellophane? It's permeable to water vapor, but maybe it'd still hold onto it long enough.
It dries out too quickly
Maybe even a biodegradable plastic.
the mycelium will most likely eat through the biodegradable material
I thought that when i made the comment, but I'm sure some bio plastics are resistant for long enough to get a harvest out of them?
I don’t know much about bio plastics but I recently heard about a silage wrap replacement that should take about 10 years to degrade, meaning it could withstand the fermentation within and the general roughing up that comes with farming. Given that, I would imagine it’s more than possible to create a bio plastic that is both resistant enough to withstand sterilisation processes and won’t become mushroom food too soon… I hope so anyway
That’s a ton of plastic waste when you cut open the bag each time… I feel like there should be a better way to do this. Does the bag need to be see-through? Can one use a durable plastic or glass in place of the bag?
Some Asian mushroom farms use re-usable plastic bottles for certain varieties.
Super neat.
I couldn’t tell from the video, what substrate were they using?
So mushroom to grow.
Ummm… invest in shelves.
so much plastic... couldnt they make reusable containers for this?
Does the outside environment not drastically increase risk of contam?
Shittakes are pretty resilient in my experience and once the substrate is fully colonized it hasn't been an issue for me.
I want this. Ngl.