Not a veg but mushroom advice please???

[Guzzik]

Ok, we got this box for growing mushroooms from Wilkinsons back in early Feb, did exactly what was written on the box and................Nothing has happened other than everything turning white and it smelling of.....well.....fungus I suppose. We did the misting, the constant temps and it still keeps drying out every day, the cardboard box is nice and wet but the horse or cow manure base and the mushroom stuff on top just will not stay damp and, as I said, no mushrooms after a monthish of this............Do we have to wait longer? Have we done something wrong? Is it a bad batch? Should I give up growing fungus?

Answers on a seed packet toooooo.............

[Capsid]

Sounds like it didn't work and it dried out too much. Perhaps it needed a piece of glass to keep it moist until the mushrooms appeared?

What temperature did you keep it at?

[Bigmallly]

I tried one of those boxes last year & it was a waste of time, I got 3 mushrooms.....will stick to buying them.

[Janek]

I haven't tried it Down Under so can't give any advice. But, I know a number of other grapes here have done the 'mushroom thing' so I'm sure they will chime in with their experiences.

Janek

[bevanbawb]

Don't worry Guzzik, I've had similar experiences with my one attempt at growing mushrooms too, they can be fussy little bleeders.
I followed the instructions provided with my box to the word and after a month only managed to grow a funny coloured fuzz that subsequently died off, nothing at all after that so it went in the bin.
That's just my own experience but I'm sure there are probably others here that may have had more success, wait about I'm sure they'll pop up.

[Pumpy]

I've had 2 of those exact kits.
First one was great, think three flushes and at the end one giant mushroom. Bored one colleague stupid with it but impressed the others!

Second one, nothing, total pants.

Tried recently with some very old mushroom spawn and again nothing, but think it was too cold.

Thre is plenty on the net about growing mushrooms, have spent hours reading it, but be warned a lot of what you'll read is about the sort of mushrooms you DON'T want for breakfast.

From what I can gather, with the spawn anyway, its planted like seed and covered with newspaper which is wet to keep them moist, when you see the white threads growing, put well rotted manure or top soil on it, this actually shocks the threads into fruiting as they think Autumn is coming.
Best temp is 15C, but 10 - 20C is fine.

Am going to try the dowel things later in the year, as soon as my divvy mate remembers to bring a cut down tree over and not take it to the dump!

P

[Nicos]

We did this many years ago- and kept the box near the boiler, in total darkness. I sprayed it 3 times a day.
Lots of little flies- but also thousands of mushrooms!!!

Next time I tried it , I onlky watered it 2x per day cos I was out at work.
Very poor results.
Don't know if it was the watering regularly or the fact that the first time the boiler was on 24/7 , and the 2nd time only on in the mornings and evenings, causing a bit of a temperature variation?

Is it too wet?

We had absolutely no sucess with the plugs. Tried 3 varieties and did absolutely everythig we were supposed too. Very disappointing- esp after all the hastle of finding freshly cut oak, doing the drilling and waxing- and of course the expense of it all!
Good luck though- you may just have the winning touch!