Journal June 12, 2016 - Growing mushrooms on coffee grounds continued

The oyster mushroom kit shown in my May 21, 2016 post got moldy, so I threw it away.  It really was not worth the purchase price, as we did not even get enough mushrooms for a single meal from it.  

Coffee grounds with some of the mycellium from the culture vessels also became contaminated.  It may be that using corrugated may not be the way to go, even if it is autoclaved.

That said, I purchased a 10 gram bag of natural organic grain colonized with oyster mushroom mycellium on eBay for $2.95.  The grain was placed in used coffee grounds on May 18, 2016, and yesterday I found a tiny oyster mushroom cluster beginning to form.  By clicking the photo to enlarge it, the mushroom is visible above the letter d in the watermark.

Today I filled a quart jar with sterilized coffee grounds and placed a single piece of mycellium covered corrugated in the jar.  A coffee filter, sterilized with alcohol, was placed over the jar to allow air exchange.

This whole process is beginning to be more trouble than it is worth, but it has been a learning experience.

ps The photo below was taken 24 hours after the photo above.  Now the mushrooms are growing as quickly as I expected mushrooms to grow!

Journal June 2, 2016 - Tropic tomatoes

The tropic tomatoes are almost at the top of the supports, so soon I will have to terminate the growing tips.  As a comparison, the garden tomatoes, planted the same day, are a little over a foot tall.

While the garden tomatoes have golf ball sized fruit, the tropics have pretty good sized fruit.  

Even the red bell pepper plant in the greenhouse is much larger and more advanced than the plants outdoors.  

Protected growing working its magic.