I had a bit of grain left during my last run, so I mixed the bits I had left.
This is interesting, actually. Over the next few months, I’ll continue this experiment to see what grain mixes might work better for spawn.
While this wasn’t a “proper” test, I had still hypothesized that the higher starch content in the popcorn would do better. I guess not.
I’ll try and separate testing into different categories like starch content, moisture content, mycelium strain, etc. There is probably a ton more conditions to isolate as well.
Interesting. What spawn was it ?
I have quite a bit of popcorn kicking about. Did you pressure cook it first ?
Mixed cubensis genetics.
Popcorn is great when used alone without rice. I pre-cook it to ~60-80% hydration’ish, or when I can bite into it easily and the center has just started getting hydrated and isn’t crunchy. I’ll fill my spawn jars and load it in my pressure canner for about 90mins or so, depending on how many jars I have.
There are methods on YouTube for no pressure canner popcorn, so you can get away with a quick pasteurize it seems. Popcorn is obviously food-grade, so it’s going to be fairly clean out of the bag.
So far, popcorn is also working awesome for pink and golden oyster spawn. Once Shiitake and Lions Mane get started, which takes a bit anyway, they do fairly well. I do want to experiment with adding peptone to the water when I pre-cook it to see if I can give it a little more “kick”.
Price is variable and is only really cost effective with +50lb bags, if that is a concern. That is just about pinching pennies.
That’s class. So I’ll need to boil them to give plenty hydration. I’ll need to give this a shot. I’m looking at oysters if I can get an easy enough substrate
The goal is to hydrate them “just enough” but not so much that the kernels split. Honestly, about 20% of the kernels split in my last run and the mycelium loves the easy access to the starches.
I am doing a masters mix (50/50 hardwood saw dust, soy hulls) as well as some straight-up Aspen shavings as a test. Animal bedding is dirt cheap, so if my yield is similar to the masters mix, I’ll save some more cash that way.
Also, I’ll keep this community updated then. I have already purchased several types of substrates and additives to experiment with. Learning how to chase total yields when I was growing cannabis was fun, and it seems easy enough to continue doing that.
Next stop for the near future is spore collecting and strain isolation. I really want to start a business from this and develop some productive strains.
I haven’t tested/verified this myself but I’ve heard that mycelium grows particularly well on millet and rye berries. Might be a couple to add into your experimenting.
Rye is the go-to and millet has a massive amount of surface area. I know rye will work but since it is a very well established grain to use, I want to explore other options as well. TBH, brown rice has been performing very well for me in all cases as well.
I have 10lbs of millet (split into 4 bags) that is getting close to 20 days or so. It started extremely slow, but once it took hold, the colonization has increased speed exponentially. I also have to break it apart more often to get more colonies established.
Interesting. If you’ll be trying a bunch of stuff, have you thought about hominy?
The shell of the popcorn might be an issue, and hominy has no shell.
I haven’t tried with hominy, but I do have 10lbs of millet in spawn now.
Just speculation, but hominy may need to be pH adjusted and might be prone to getting too sticky and breaking down a little too fast. This might be an issue if you are spawning a bunch and need to shake the grains for even propagation.
Other than that, I just read on another forum that it spawns very quick.
Not really into mushroom growing, but my guess is that since popcorn has a thick hull (which is why it pops when heated) it offers more of a barrier to the growing mycelium. I bet if the corn were cracked or flaked beforehand the fungus would be much more inclined to grow on the popcorn.
You are very much correct. The mycelium loves cracked kernels as it has easy access to the starch. Since the kernels are hydrated, the shells aren’t as much of a barrier in a 100% popcorn jar.
What I find curious is that the mycelium is actively avoiding kernels in a more preferential manner. Since the nutrition value is lower, a slower propagation on the kernels is expected. However, it’s just nope’ing around the popcorn until it absolutely has no other place to jump to. It’s cool to see that the preference is so distinct.
This begs another question though, and someone else pointed it out: How long do you need to store the spawn for? Slowing down mycelium growth could have its benefits.
Edit: Derp. I completely forgot why the shells can be preferred. If you have to shake or stir your spawn jar to distribute the mycelium, the shells keep the kernels from sticking together as hard.
What species is this? Can you get the popcorn kernel soft enough?
Mixed genetics cubensis. (It’s of PE/JMF lineage; I don’t want to get distracted in those details since it’s not quite appropriate for this community.)
I wrote up more details in another comment, but yep, you just pre-boil the popcorn before sterilization. It’s not cost effective in low quantities, btw.
