Open Air Grain Spawn? Attempting Lactic Acid Ferment Pasteurization with Corn for Growing Mushrooms 

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@@OneEarthMushrooms ...be careful with enoki. It breeds salmonella. It should never be eaten raw. If not extremely fresh it shouldn't be eaten at all.

So cool! I found your video because I’m experimenting with something similar. I fermented far more feed than my birds could eat, so I wanted to see if I could spawn oyster mushrooms on it. I strained it off and added saw dust spawn. I know people grow on spent brewing grains, so I think it should be possible. With the ground, fermented game bird food, it absorbed so much water that I think gas exchange may be a limiting factor. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Hey man. I just put some spores into unsterile grain used for chickens. It's been 3 days now and Im hoping the Spores will still colonize it

Good deal

Thanks! As I've learned more about fermenting I think I'll give this a try again. Theres a lot I'll change next try. Experimenting is half the fun!

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Thanks, James! Hoping to get more videos out soon!

Thats a really good idea, I'm going to try this. My goal is to figure out a method that anyone can use at home without a pressure cooker, and eventually find a reliable way to not use a grow bag. Were you boiling the jars? Or boiling the grain over three days before you put it in the jars?

So much good info! I think trying these steps would really help with this. Kinda bummed I haven't gotten a lacto process to work yet, but I'll get there eventually!

I'm making syringes today! Going to use some of the water from prepping rye spawn, and adding some honey for more nutrients. Hopefully it turns out. I haven't done a hydrated lime pasteurization yet, but I'd definitely love to try it for straw. It may work for grain, I guess I won't know until I try!

You're talking about a soak/rinse post-fermentation?

@@OneEarthMushrooms I'm guessing post-fermentation, since that's when you need the acidity washed away.

Thanks for watching!

I'm prepping rye grain today for attempt #2 of this, I'll give it a shot! I'll do two lacto ferment jars, and two jars where I prepare like normal, but don't PC. It'll take a while for me to get results out, but we'll see how it goes! Thanks for the idea!

@@OneEarthMushrooms o

Yeah, I'm going to need to do some more experimenting with this. The varieties I've tried didn't do so great, so I think you may be right. Hopefully someday soon I can get some time in the garage to do some work!

Ooh good idea! I'll give that a shot.

Off the top of my head...I don't. I'll have to do some research on this.

I've heard that too! I need to do some more research on this, because it sounds a lot easier than this lacto project!

@Anna Meredith just straight peroxide? 3% ... or diluted??

If I gave my 2cents... there are 3 major ways we sterilise a given object.... 1. Heat/steam 2. Radiation 3. Chemical So, by doing this "lacto ferment" tek you are attempting a chemical sterilization using naturally produced lactic acid to kill off unwanted pathogens, is that correct?... Wud it not be possible to use an artificial pure lactic acid soln (or different chemical) instead of using "natural" unreliable yeast generators?... Then after leaving to soak in said chemical for X amount of time... then boiling it off/neutralising afterwards (& then if necessary use a pH buffer/alkali to bring back to ideal conditions)? A 12% H202 Peroxide Soln is a bit unstable and within days at room temp turns into water & O2 .... this might be a suggestion??...then boil substrate afterwards to remove any remaining chemical from the substrate.... im not a chemist..... so my apologies if I sound silly. I think if you're gonna go for a chemical sterilization tek.... u need to find a suitable chemical that's cheap, non toxic to humans... can be easily boiled off/neutralized .... and doesn't destroy substrate.... And god only knows what that magic chemical would be without a lot of experimenting!! Lol .... peace mush love x (P.S im sorry if I make no sense... its been busy days at work and my brain is mush lol.... also that Enoki is voracious!)

@@zannxking4128 I like the way your brain works.

It's a journey, brother! Just have to keep trying, I'm sure it can be done and it's just a matter of nailing the tek down!

@@zannxking4128 Yeah, absolutely correct, a chemical pasteurization. I'm sure there's still tons of bacteria in there, so we can't call it sterilization. That makes total sense! My goal with this tek is to keep it as simple as possible. Literally, just grain and water. But the idea to use another compound to achieve the same result more reliably is a great idea. People have been using hydrated lime-Ca(OH)2 - to pasteurize straw for a long time. I think the difference with straw is it's pretty low on nutrients, whereas grains tend to be a little more nutritious. Maybe I'm way off on this, but it seems like in a chemical pasteurization, you need to be able to change the pH of the entire grain, not just the shell and outside layer of the grain. So if the compound used to lower pH is too short acting, maybe it wouldn't be able to "soak" through the whole grain, and potentially leave dormant spores/bacteria deep inside the grain? I don't know, maybe I'm over thinking this! I'm thinking I'll have the enoki video up soon, I have a bunch of jars ready to fruit but no space to fruit! I also need to find a better solution for fruiting, I'm only fruiting in monotubs at the moment, and don't have a good spot to build a large, greenhouse style fruiting chamber, but I'm out of space in the monotubs. Wait until you see the crazy stuff this enoki is doing in the jars though, I swear that mycelium is sentient, it's trying to unscrew the lids and escape.

@@btaylor1264 Zan is freekin smart, they have pretty cool ideas every time!

Oh! Cool experiment! Thank you for sharing your results.

I'm going to give it a shot! If it works, I'll let you know! Thanks for the great idea...

So the lid doesn't stick to the rim of the jar.

@@OneEarthMushrooms thank you for the explanation.

@@tjw2469 it's common to put them that way to allow gas exchange for mycelium, if you dont have a filter patch.. if it seals entirely, mycelium growth will stall out once the co2 level is too high inside the jar

Not everyone can afford a pressure cooker. Access to reliable electricity across the world isn't as great as we have it in the U.S., so having a method that requires no pressure cooking may be helpful for people that find themselves in these situations.

Fermentation experimentation is always valuable. We don't yet know what benefits we may be missing from mycelium interacting with certain types of yeast and bacteria. These organisms are constantly cooperating in nature in order to break down food for one another. Nature's mushrooms don't grow in sterilized environments.

Haha! I like the name for this tek! It's true, and also "doesn't really work" tek!

Thanks!

You could have wasted 2 weeks doing the same experiment yourself