#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Farming & Gardening In Thailand >  >  1 basic  method of growing mushrooms

## mc2

There are many ways to grow mushrooms, this is just a proven and timetested method that I and many others have had success with. 

Items needed:

- Morter and pestle
- brown rice 200 gm to start off with
- bag of vermiculite (not sure where to source this from) 5L should cost no more than 200 baht
- 10ml syringe with 18 -20 gauge needle (3 baht)
- alchohol wipes (3 baht), bottle of IPA (10 baht)
- sterile water - if you can't buy it at the pharmacy, just get the best looking bottle of water at 7-11, there should be no microorganisms in it.
- pressure cooker (best) or soup pot for sterilization
- aluminium foil
- perlite if you can get it (2 litres is enough to start off with), and/or a spray bottle.

thats pretty much it, then you need the mushroom spores.
I grow oyster mushrooms which is used in asian dishes, there are a few other edible strains you can grow on the brown rice/verm substrate, including mm's.
Plenty of spore sellers on the internet, do a google search, they can ship overseas. This can cost about $30. I don't recommend ordering a spore syringe because it may not make it through customs. Instead, order a spore print which customs wont bother about.

The temperatures in Thailand are good for mushroom growing - 29C for incubation and 26C for fruiting, so I will keep things basic and wont explain how to make an incubator, except to say, it is just a heating element in a tub of water designed to maintain the right temps for mycellium growth.


The second photo is a "glove box" . Its easy to make and will increase your chances of success. The idea of it is to create a still air envirment so no airborne nasties can contaminate your hard work. Its worth the effort of making it. The first photo is just sterilisation equiptment. Contamination is the big problem with this hobby, however if you are careful and take all the right precautions, you should have a high success rate.






So thats the first part, the basic equiptment to get started, over the next few days I will go through how to make the spore syringe, then the inocculation procedure.

This is pink oyster mushroom just starting to fruit.

----------


## ceburat

Many mushroom growers in the Korat area. Is contamination a problem for them as well?  What type/s of contamination?

----------


## mc2

For me, I seem to have problems with bacterial contamination, but there are other, mould bases spores floating in the air which can also ruin a batch.
Not sure about Korat, for me its just hobby growing not large scale production, but I am guessing they pasturize animal manure and use that for a substrate, or use straw. If it is a professional setup, their clean sterile procedures would be all worked out and I doubt they have any problems whatsoever about contaminants.

----------


## Noggin the Nogg

Great thread mc2.

I have grown mushrooms in the UK using shop bought kits. Are these available in Thailand? 
Also, there are suppliers who sell plugs ready to insert into drilled logs...have you tried these?

Any tips gratefully appreciated by a fellow mushroom fan hoping to retire to LOS.

 :Thankyou:

----------


## keekwai

I sympathise with mushrooms .. being one myself.

In the school I work at. (Make that ALL the schools in LOS I've worked at!), I'm constantly kept in the dark and fed buffalo shit.  :Confused:

----------


## Nawty

Good start...continue.

I want to grow mushrooms...finding all that stuff seems laborous but.

----------


## mc2

Ok, lets say your spore print has arrived in the mail, this is the next step.

Have a shower and brush your teeth. Breath has plenty of bacteria, make sure you avoid breathing onto your working area as much as possible. Get a shot glass or a coffee cup, and wipe it completely with IPA, then  let it dry. Spray down the area you are going to work in liberely with the air disinfectant spray. Lets say you have not made a govebox, in that case, spray down the table you are working on, put on a pair of gloves, disinfect your gloves and very carefully open the small bag and with the blunt edge of the syringe needle, scrape some of the spores into the coffee mug. 




No need to sterilize your syringe, they are sterile fresh out of the packet (actually you would have done this when u were scraping). Open up your bottle of water and draw in 10mls, and start mix the spores with the water









In this pic there are too many spores. Its a waste.
You just need less than 1 quater of this amount. 

Redraw the mixture back in the syringe and cap it, then let it sit for 8-24 hours in order to hydrate the spores. 

It is most important in all of this to work in as sterile an environment is you can make it. Just your bad breath, if it gets into that water will probably ruin things. 


Tommorrow I will describe the process for mixing and sterilizing the jars.

----------


## mc2

> Great thread mc2.
> 
> I have grown mushrooms in the UK using shop bought kits. Are these available in Thailand? 
> Also, there are suppliers who sell plugs ready to insert into drilled logs...have you tried these?


Hi there , i dont know of any suppliers of kits in Thailand. Those kits are good but i only know of suppliers in USA and canada.



Not in response to your post, but the only tricky items you need to find are the pressure cooker, the vermiculite and the perlite , but the last two you should be able to find at a hydroponics store quite easily. The other things you can pick up at the market, 7-11 and the pharmacy.

----------


## keekwai

How on Earth do Mushrooms manage to survive in the wild?  :Confused:

----------


## mc2

> How on Earth do Mushrooms manage to survive in the wild?


You know the funny thing, is that a lot of the mushrooms that grow in the wild are notoriously difficult to grow in the lab. 

1 mushroom has millions and millions of microscopic spores so there is so many of them some of them have to get lucky, thats my theory

----------


## mc2

One thing I forgot to mention before, is you also need glass jars like these:



These are canning jars that are not tapered at the top, so it is easy to remove the contents. So, dont use glass jars with a neck more narrow than the base. You might be able to use old jam jars or penut butter jars if they meet these requirements (must also have a metal lid).

Make 4 evenly spaced holes on the lid with a nail or a drill. This is for the syringe needle.

Next, pound your brown rice to a fine powder so it is like brown rice flour. Then, mix 2 parts vermiculite with 1 part water and 1 part brown rice flour. Put this mixture into the jars but leave 1cm at the top. wipe this 1cm rim so it is completely clean and dry then put dry vermiculate on top, filling it. This dry layer is a protective layer against contaminants.

Put on the lids, then wrap the top with aluminium foild (to protect from water splashing from below and water dripping from above) and put in the pressure cooker.

Also, the jars should be raised from the water - use a tray or anything to prevent the boiling water from splashing up and getting into the holes - if this happens the water ratio will be ruined and you will have to throw them out.

Now just boil at 15psi for 70 minutes and the jars will be sterilized (hopefully).


Next I will talk about the innoculation and incubation proceedures...

----------


## English Noodles

Good thread, a lot more effort than I was expecting though.

----------


## mc2

This will be the final post for this guide and it covers innoculation, incubation and fruiting of the mushroom. Patience is the key in these steps.

Using the same sterile procedures as described before, take your pre-cooled, sterile jars and put the syringe deep in the jar hole and close to the glass squirt just 0.25 or 0.5 mls on the side of the jar. Do the same for all 4 holes - so that is 1 or 2 mls for each jar.

The next step is to place the jars in a dark, warm environment. The temperatures should be at a contant 29C - this is optimal. After about 1 week, the jar should look like this:




Notice the white spot, that is the beginning of the mycellium growing. After about 4 weeks it will take over the whole jar, then you can remove it. Just be careful, at this stage, you will find out if you are the victim of contaminants or not. If the jar smells funny (non-mushroom smell) or you see anything other than a white patch growing (green, black etc) then unfortunatly you need to throw your work out and better luck next time.




While you have been waiting for full colinisation of the jar, you can prepare the fruiting chamber. This consists of an enclosure to control humidity. 

I use a clear plastic tub of about 15L, with perlite (which is a time-tested and proven material to raise humidity). Just soak the perlite and fill the tub 2 inches high.



place a layer of foil and put your "cakes" on the foil like this:


Now, you want to give at least a few hours of light a day but more important is that humidity levels are high and there is fresh air exchange. This means, at least a few times a day, fan and give it a light spray with a water bottle sprayer of some kind.

After about 1 week of doing this, you will see the first signs of mushrooms - small pins. Another week later, they will be fully grown and time to pick and eat .


So that basically finishes up my rough guide - but there is plenty of videos and more detailed guides on the internet as well as more advanced bulk techniques if you want to get serious with this hobby.

I read on another thread some members wife was pestering him that she wanted to set up a mushroom farm, well, i dont know how profitable it might be but I don't think it will take a great deal of money to set up, at least on a small scale. It will however take some time to learn about this science and get direct experience through your own experiments. Good luck.

----------


## peter2076

Mushrooms in Thailand are categorized on the same level as heroin. I would not order spores into the country or even mess with trying to grow them unless you live alone and don't tell a soul about it.

----------


## mc2

maybe thats true for magic mushrooms but not the type of mushrooms i am showing in this thread, which are perfectly legal.

----------


## keekwai

> Mushrooms in Thailand are categorized on the same level as heroin.


Rubbish. Don't be a drama queen. The actual legality of 'het kee kwai' (coincidentally) - buffalo shit mushrooms is a bit vague in Thailand, but the consequences of being caught with them is nowhere near as severe as heroin. A "donation" to the police ball is usually enough to get off the hook.

----------


## zillionmax

[at] mc2

Do you grow the giant straw mushroom? Can you locate a spawn producer for me?
I need this strain to give it a test in my country

----------


## keekwai

Most fish produce spawn. Check the nearest body of water.  :Smile:

----------


## mc2

> [at] mc2
> 
> Do you grow the giant straw mushroom? Can you locate a spawn producer for me?
> I need this strain to give it a test in my country



sorry, i never grew this mushroom.

----------


## oldest swinger

It all appears way too complicated. Why not just do what the commercial growers in Korat do?

1.Just build a hut - best from bamboo and thatch - in a shady spot.
2.Order from a supplier polythene bags filled with sawdust, already spored, and plugged.
3. Stack in your hut
4. Hose the roof with water to keep down the temperature as required.
5. Wait for the produce and harvest.

----------


## keekwai

^ Or grow tomatoes.

----------


## mc2

its not easy to grow, but if your are clean and careful you can do it.

----------


## oldest swinger

They are actually dead easy to grow

----------


## mc2

Doing it by using a kit / bag where all the hard work has already been done doesn't count. 

Its like buying rolls of grass and dumping it on your back yard and saying how easy it is to grow grass.

----------


## keekwai

So the kits have "pre-grown" mushies? So does Lotus.

----------


## mc2

there is actually 2 stages. the mycellium growth which is the tricky part, then the actual shrooms.

the kits have stage 1 done already.

----------

