#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Farming & Gardening In Thailand >  >  Milky Mushrooms

## IsaanAussie

I thought I would drop a note about our new enterprise in Mushrooms. These come from India and as you would expect are perfect for soups and curries. 
They can grow to giant sizes of a kilogram each. We have had them at 300grams. 

Like this one the wife is holding. Edible stems and all, listed as gourmet and medicinal.
http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...68828096_n.jpg

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## afghanpicker

Are you growing these?

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## IsaanAussie

Sure am. The photo shows our first bed in first flush. We have six beds filled with another six to go to finish stage 1.

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## jamescollister

And that gentlemen is a good example of thinking outside the square.
Have an idea, research it, find if it's viable and do you have a market.
Know Tony, he is a hands on farmer here and a profit making one at that.
Just goes to show you can do it if you work hard and have the right ideas.
Will no doubt be buying his tinned mushrooms in Tesco's one day. Jim

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## afghanpicker

are you buying the bags with spore all ready and cost per bag 

are they sale-able ?

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## poorfalang

^ that would be saying too much

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## poorfalang

Thanks for sharing IA 
i google it straight away and it took me else where where i understood how you got it from,
very nice, when have time will ask more, now i must leave the net, and go clean the shit off the pens,

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## jamescollister

> are you buying the bags with spore all ready and cost per bag 
> 
> are they sale-able ?


Don't think you will find them for sale in Thailand, believe Tony imported the spores. 
Many people grow mushrooms, but Tony will be the only one with these. Jim

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## IsaanAussie

> are you buying the bags with spore all ready and cost per bag 
> 
> are they sale-able ?


We make up the grow bags on farm. Cost, or rather how much would I sell them for? Who knows? There is lot of time and work in these bags by the time it is cased and fruiting. I think of it in terms of yield, each bag gives up over 2 kg of mushrooms. I believe they have to be worth at least 25-30% of the mushrooms value.
But here we are in Thailand and who is going to pay 100 baht for a plastic bag full of farm wastes and fungus infected seeds? Actually it is quite amusing when the locals ask this question and get told 100 baht. You would think I had cut their throats. They always say "But the bags in town are only 10 baht!" The only thing the same is they are all mushroom grow bags and therefore big or small, they should all be worth 10 baht.

Jim, no I didnt import the culture here, but I have been buying spawn seed from the guy that did bring them here. I will be making up my own seed bags soon. 

I would be happy to sell the grow bags or seed spawn and show anyone how we do things. But my generosity doesn't run to giving them away.

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## The Big Fella

There is a retired ex Thai army guy that has a mushroom farm North of BKK. He will show you how to grow  different varieties of mushrooms such as this one for free. He also supplies the spores and everything else you need to set up and start.You just pay for the aircon bungalow on the farm at 700 Baht a night. i'm planning on going up next month to stay for a week or so. not to grow on a commercial basis just a bit of a hobby. :Smile:

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## IsaanAussie

That's the man. Col Packdee Tongon. His farm is in Saraburi. He is very approachable and thoroughly professional.

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## IsaanAussie

Now, this comes from the Philippines where they grow them a "little" larger. This bunch of three weighed in at over 4kgs!
http://www.shroomery.org/forums/thum...b_DSC01394.jpg

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## Necron99

How do they taste?
Fried or soup?

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## nigelandjan

Nice one IA and all the best with your new venture !

Also big thanks to the Big F for the tips ,, thats something I will deffo be interested in later on , what a fabulous idea ,, allthough like your good self it will be hobby time for me


BTW it would be good if you could post a link for his place

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## beerlaodrinker

jim is correct a good example of thinking outside the box, Hope you do well out of it here in Laos the company i work for have a community relations department who are always looking for small business ideas to get the locals on to, Mushroom farming has been a success so far, sorry no idea what variety they grow but they arent those large ones you grow, top effort thanks for the post

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## Packdee

Hello friends there.
Thank you IsaanAussie for introducing me a useful forum for farming & gardening in my country.

I grow mushrooms for pleasure not for commercial. 
So feel free to come and stay on my farm stay and get free training for mushroom growing.
I have equipments neccessary for doing every steps of mushroom growing. 
I willing to share these equipments to my friends who is interested in growing the mushrooms and do not know how to start it.
Your expenses are only room, meals and expendable material with reasonable price, so you can bring back mushroom beds as many as you need.

My place in in Saraburi. (Lat 15° 2'4.32"N, Lon 101°24'44.19"E)

Col. Packdee Tongon

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## crepitas

way to go IA....you sell to local markets? Do locals buy at what I assume must be a premium price?
Wife just got back from Phuket, an ex _massage_ friend is growing the standard button types ..wife went to help pick..seems they use some palm oil husks etc? as growing medium.... she gets by the truck load, says it is more expensive in Phuket because it comes from Krabi.
Sounds an attractive business..grosses approx 3k a day selling to a local market vendor..same sort of labour hours as rubber..ie getting up at 3am to pick before they _open_ ( less cash if they are open?).
Maybe will think about setting up...unlike rubber, not so dependent on the weather/middlemen and _others_?

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## poorfalang

> Hello friends there.
> Thank you IsaanAussie for introducing me a useful forum for farming & gardening in my country.
> 
> I grow mushrooms for pleasure not for commercial. 
> So feel free to come and stay on my farm stay and get free training for mushroom growing.
> I have equipments neccessary for doing every steps of mushroom growing. 
> I willing to share these equipments to my friends who is interested in growing the mushrooms and do not know how to start it.
> Your expenses are only room, meals and expendable material with reasonable price, so you can bring back mushroom beds as many as you need.
> 
> ...


Welcome to the forum,

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## pseudolus

> Hello friends there.
> Thank you IsaanAussie for introducing me a useful forum for farming & gardening in my country.
> 
> I grow mushrooms for pleasure not for commercial. 
> So feel free to come and stay on my farm stay and get free training for mushroom growing.
> I have equipments neccessary for doing every steps of mushroom growing. 
> I willing to share these equipments to my friends who is interested in growing the mushrooms and do not know how to start it.
> Your expenses are only room, meals and expendable material with reasonable price, so you can bring back mushroom beds as many as you need.
> 
> ...



This would make a great picture thread if anyone is willing to try.

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## nigelandjan

^ If no one gets there before me in October then I will give it a go

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## Packdee

*Preparing PDA  (Potato Dextrose Agar) media.*





My PDA for mushroom tissue cutiivation is not PDA. 
It is CWA (Coconut Water Agar)





The fruit for getting water should not be too young or too old.

Recipe: coconut water 1.5 liters + agar powder 25 grams. 
Boil coconut water, mix well agar power with cold water in separate bowl and pour into boiling CW, keep stirring.
Use a syring to fill the bottles 30 CC each. 



Normally PH of coconut water is 5.5, which is suitable for mushrooms tissue cultivation.

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## nigelandjan

Great stuff Packdee and BTW well done for getting the hang of posting the pics here  :Smile:

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## IsaanAussie

I will second that, the photos are very well done. Content informative. Packdee, when are your writing a book?

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## Bower

Great thread, I have no desire to grow them but love eating them.
Good luck to those growers.

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## afghanpicker

I would love to know what the bags have in them. what kind of grain for growing the spore and how do you guys sterilize the bags/growing medium before adding the spore. or is that not how they do it here?

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## IsaanAussie

> How do they taste?
> Fried or soup?


To me they taste a little like chicken. The Milky grows on a drier substrate than many mushrooms and hence a lower moisture level. The stem of the mushroom is quite dense and the whole shroom has more body to it. This makes them ideal for cooking in dishes like soups, stews and curries. To use them in stir fries or on the BBQ, they are best boiled for 5 mins first to hydrate them and soften the flesh.

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## Packdee

Grain spawn preparation.



I grow millet for my own purpose to make sure the grain free from pesticide.



Soak the grain over night.



Precook the grain with rice cooker.



Spread the grain on a sieve allow it to dry with wind until having suitable moisture content. Then fill into bottle or pp bags and sterilize at 15 psi or 121 degrees C for 30 minutes.

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## afghanpicker

could you use quinoa as the grain and what/or how are you sterilizing..

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## IsaanAussie

Hi there AP,

Rice, sorghum, even corn if you like.
Autoclave for the richer among us, pressure cooker for the lucky to find one, or oil drum and steam for the likes of me.

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## charleyboy

IsaanAussie and Packdee. Very interesting thread,thanks. I just like eating them!

BTW.Macro here in Huahin is full of pressure cookers.

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## Packdee

There are many suppiers to fabricate mushroom growing equipments and delivery to home for you with reasonable prices.

Autoclave

http://www.sritongmushroom.com/index...414343&Ntype=1

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## Packdee

Smaller size autoclave costs only about 15k.

http://www.sritongmushroom.com/index...414335&Ntype=1

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## peterpan

It looks interesting for me, we have some spare land close by and it look like a fitful purpose, I just need to contact the gentleman to kick it off.

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## Packdee

Visit me here.

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## IsaanAussie

Stay tuned. I have been learning a lot about these mushrooms over the last few months and now need to put the hammer down on volume. Growing in bags has proved difficult to control the moisture so I am moving to mass case the content populated substrate contents of the bags to form a larger mass. So far so good. 
These mushrooms keep extremely well so we are refrigerating them after picking and sell in 1/4kg bags. We have also sent some to customers by bus in styrene boxes on an ice bed without issue.

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## peterpan

Packdee, I am getting very interested in your course, so will top- up my phone account and contact you, hopefully for a couple of days and it would be nice to bring my daugters up as well, make a holiday of it, as well the eldest girl 10 yrs old, is much brighter and more active than her mother.
(who is so lazy that muchrooms would be too active for her)

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## Packdee

Peterpan, I need few more posts to have right to PM.
So I will post the pictures of my farm.
It is on 22 Rais, in Muak Lek Distric, Saraburi, 200 km from Bangkok.

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## Packdee

I've just added one more building for mushroom activities.

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## Packdee

The four-room guest house is separate from my house.
There are two air-conditioned rooms and two fan rooms.
But only one family or one group of four will occupy the house, no stranger.

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## Packdee

It is only 20 km far from the 

.

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## Packdee

One more post.
Thank admin. 

It's not a commercial.
This place is for our members who want to learn about growing mushroom with very minimum expense just for paying electricity bill and room cleaning and material they bring back home.


Tricholoma Classum.

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## peterpan

Look foward to seeing you and your mushrooms.

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## IsaanAussie

We are about to launch our grow it at home Milky mushroom kits. The picture shows what can be achieved. This mushroom weighed in at 750gm.

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## 2Prick

How do they rate on taste?

EDIT: Oops! "like chicken"!

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## IsaanAussie

Good question. They have a texture somewhere between meat and vegetables. To me the taste is like chicken with a nutty after taste. Very large ones can develop a cumin like smell which if you like it then they are great in curries. If not, boiling the cut up mushroom for 5 mins will eliminate the spicy smell.

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## poorfalang

> Milky Mushroom Grow Boxes for DIY gardeners
> We are about to launch our grow it at home Milky mushroom kits. The picture shows what can be achieved. This mushroom weighed in at 750gm.


can you PM some details on that
ie: price and is it like what i have seen around? all ready in a bag, just place it in the tent?

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## charleyboy

IA. I took the liberty of posting it for you.

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## charleyboy

:Smile: ^ That would make one hell of a garlic mushroom!

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## youneverknow

A story broke today about four people from Ubon who died in one of those mushroom huts. It isn't in the English news as far as I can see. I guess they were spraying something and they couldn't see and the chemical got to them. I didn't realize mushroom growing could be dangerous. Anyways, keep your eyes open for the news.

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## IsaanAussie

We do not fumigate with chemicals. We grow organically. Plus our mushroom beds are in an open pig sty and fully ventilated. But the deaths of that farmer and three workers was tragic.

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## youneverknow

Is it common in Thailand for them to fumigate? I'd never heard of it until this morning.

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## poorfalang

> Is it common in Thailand for them to fumigate? I'd never heard of it until this morning.


around here some do it,

anything to increase production

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## youneverknow

Back to the cooking. I've tried delicious mushroom larb from the market. Would this type of mushroom work in that type of a dish, IA? Usually they have those stringy long mushrooms in larb.

 Also I wonder if there is any issue in mixing mushroom types when growing them. i notice that most pictures I've seen around the Internet seem to show just one type in a room, never mixed.

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## IsaanAussie

> IA. I took the liberty of posting it for you.


Thanks for that Charleyboy.

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## IsaanAussie

Even bigger. Today we harvested a joined group of three mushrooms that went 3.1 kg
https://teakdoor.com/Gallery/displayi...556&fullsize=1

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## charleyboy

^ Turn them fookers upside down, add fried egg, bacon, blackpudding, sausage, baked beans, a couple of rounds of toast, cup o tea and open a restaurant...


I'd be there in a shot!

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## charleyboy

Here you go IA.

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## peterpan

Am about to contact Packdee and make arrangements to meet him on  his mushroom farm, school holidays start on the weekend (cries of delight) so will drive up from the great Metropolis Udon  and make a family holiday and learn the intricacies of mushroom  cultivation.

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## IsaanAussie

> Am about to contact Packdee and make arrangements to meet him on  his mushroom farm, school holidays start on the weekend (cries of delight) so will drive up from the great Metropolis Udon  and make a family holiday and learn the intricacies of mushroom  cultivation.


Good idea. Packdee's operation is really growing into a valuable training and supply centre for people like us. I followed a group he had this week from the Philippines and he certainly showed them a great time. Love to do it myself one day.

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## PolarisT103

Hi IA
Can you advise me where I can buy some of these lovely mushies...?
Thanks Tom

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## IsaanAussie

Hi Polaris,
We sell from the farm and can send via bus or EMS. Packdee has several outlets near him and may give you some ideas. 
Regards
IA

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## Issan Calling

> Originally Posted by Packdee
> 
> 
> Hello friends there.
> Thank you IsaanAussie for introducing me a useful forum for farming & gardening in my country.
> 
> I grow mushrooms for pleasure not for commercial. 
> So feel free to come and stay on my farm stay and get free training for mushroom growing.
> I have equipments neccessary for doing every steps of mushroom growing. 
> ...


Hi Col. Tongon,

My Wife and I would like to come to visit you for 2 or 3 days. We want to learn as much as we can about mushroom growing. I have studied many websites and watched countless YouTube video's. However I know I will learn much more face to face with an expert. It will probably be early August when we can manage to come to Saraburi, do you have room available around this time?

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## Neverna

Packdee hasn't logged into the forum for almost 4 years so I doubt he will reply to your post. If you have transport and need accommodation, stay in Pak Chong. Packdee's farm is about 45km north of it on Road 2247. Chance your luck and pay him a surprise visit.

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## jamescollister

Believe his farm stay is still up and running, see him post on facebook at times, through IssanAussie shares.
Do a google, you will find out more details.

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## Pragmatic

> Believe his farm stay is still up and running, see him post on facebook at times


 https://www.facebook.com/packdee.tongon

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