A question about low-tech humidity control

My first oyster pins appeared today and I’ve been thinking about humidity control. I have this big tub I made my still air box from and I’ve been wondering about using it to hold the two fruiting bags I have. I was concerned that maybe the X slices wouldn’t get enough fresh air if I covered them, but then I’ve been worried about keeping up the humidity. Now that I’m seeing some pinning though I’m feeling like the humidity is more important? I live in Colorado, which isn’t quite desert but the humidity in the house typically drops below 40% during the day (it’s high right now because we’ve been getting some rain showers).

For reference, my SAB is a typical DIY, made from a large tub with just a couple hand-sized holes cut out. There’s not a lot of airflow in that room anyway, and I’m not sure how much fresh air the mushrooms need once they start growing. Of course I realize they won’t be able to stay in the SAB too long, I know they’ll outgrow the available space, but I’m just thinking for the next few days, or however long it takes them to really fill in.

So, any thought on this? Should I close them up in the box or just leave them in open air?

vardogor,
@vardogor@mander.xyz avatar

they’re both important of course but, i’d worry more about the fresh air there. oysters need a decent amount, so personally i wouldn’t put it in an SAB. air exchange and evaporation encourages pinning too. humidity should be fine as long as the initial conditions were right, and they look like they’re sweatin properly, just wait to make your cuts until the pins get to a decent size

Shdwdrgn,

Do you mean waiting to make the cuts in the fruiting bags? I didn’t realize I was supposed to wait until there were pins? I thought it was the other way around, that cutting the holes is what induced the pins?

vardogor,
@vardogor@mander.xyz avatar

generally that’s what the filter is for, so you don’t have to make cuts–but it’ll be fine. my bad, i skipped over that you’d made them already

Shdwdrgn,

I thought the patch was to help bleed off excess moisture from the bag? I’ve definitely had a lot of pinning behind the patches though and have been considering if I should also just open up the top of the bag. I it possible to have TOO many openings for fruiting?

vardogor,
@vardogor@mander.xyz avatar

right, the moisture bleeding off is evaporation, which is a result of fresh air exchange. cutting holes and that patch are really the same thing, the filter is just so it’s safe from contams while colonizing

Is it possible to have TOO many openings for fruiting?

theoretically no, the surface humidity will just be harder to maintain with each one

Shdwdrgn,

Well I think the pinks are doing fantastic, the pins seem to be doubling in size every 12 hours. Still no sign of any blue pins though, I guess they just grow a little slower, but the bag has very solid lumps of mycelium through, unlike the pinks which don’t even look like there’s any mycelium on the straw. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, spraying them a couple times a day, and see what I get.

Sagethefolxhero,

You got em growing in unicorn bags? You could try just getting a small home size humidifier and some distilled water and set that up near your grow area, idk if i would enclose them like that personally but theyd probably be fine

Shdwdrgn,

Not sure if unicorn is a brand name? They’re just bags I got from ebay, think they’re 8x10? Not sure if we have a humidifier but I’ll check around.

And yeah, I figured they would be fine in open air as long as I keep spraying them, I’m just trying to think of ideas that might help.

Sagethefolxhero,

Yeah sorry meant filter bag I was half asleep lol. Sounds like youre doing right id just keep at it

Shdwdrgn,

Well the pinks are certainly happy at least. Still no sign of any pins in the bag of blues, except for the ones that started behind the filter.

It’s really weird, the pinks don’t have hardly any visible mycelium and yet there’s signs of pins trying to start all over inside the bag. Both of the bags have pasteurized straw as the base, and the blues have strong mycelium showing everywhere, so the actual fruiting I am seeing is completely opposite of what I expected. Oh well, I know the blues will pop eventually.

Sagethefolxhero,

Any pictures? Ive never used straw before do you know what type of straw you have? Thanks for sharing!

Shdwdrgn,

Not many pics, but basically I got a compressed block of chopped straw from the farm supply place which is used for bedding (I guess for rabbits or chicks?). The pasteurization process was just soaking it in a lime bath for a day and then letting that dry for a couple hours. I put the bags together on a table outside under the tree, wiping down the surfaces with alcohol. I have a small amount of contamination in each of the bags, but the mycelium was growing nice and strong before the mold really got started so it’s never been able to grow beyond about a 1" circle so I just ignored it.

Overall it’s been quite a process. The spawn I got from ebay was way smaller than expected, I guess 10g isn’t as much as I thought, so I’ve spent a lot of time learning about prepping grain jars and then growing out my spawn on that before having enough to transfer to the fruiting bags. For these I split one quart jar between two bags. I wasn’t sure if it would be enough, but apparently it was plenty. I still have two more jars of blue and one jar of pink in the basement, plus I have the other two fruiting bags that I haven’t cut holes in yet. I’m taking everything real slowly because once I get a harvest from these first bags I still have to figure out dehydrating and storing the extra mushrooms to use later, plus I need to prep some more grain jars that I can use to get a new batch of mycelium started.

https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/6e6e5ac1-9fb9-4ab2-abf0-4754dae7bacb.jpeg

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