Growing Mushrooms on Coffee Grounds

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DJR
Posts: 486
Joined: 14 years ago

#1: Post by DJR »

I'm starting some experiments with oyster and reishi mushroom spawn on coffee grounds. There is quite a bit of info on the web on this. I'm curious if anyone has done it on this forum. I have some experience in this area, but not using coffee as a substrate.

If anyone is interested, I have a surplus of spawn plugs -- let me know.

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TomC
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Joined: 13 years ago

#2: Post by TomC »

It's funny, I was taking my girlfriend and her family to the Ferry Building here in SF, mainly to take them to Blue Bottle, and to just wander around. I showed my GF's father the mushroom store there, and that they had a home mushroom growing kit. He ended up buying it for me as a thank you gift for buying lunch.

I took it home and was eager to start harvesting mushrooms, since it said that they will start appearing in a matter of days. A week later, I had to toss the whole thing out, as it quickly was covered in slimly mold. I wasn't going to go thru the hassle of trying to carve away affected areas and spraying diluted bleach everywhere.

After reading all the directions, I had to laugh. I was going to buy one for myself thinking it was a decent deal, then I noticed the comment that stated that the block will produce about one pound of mushrooms, under ideal conditions. $25 for a pound of mushrooms I have to grow. Ha! I should have paid more attention in economics class! :oops:
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ex trahere
Posts: 130
Joined: 13 years ago

#3: Post by ex trahere »

I am also starting some trials soon. Kind of been slacking, but hopefully this thread will inspire me to pick up the pace.

I've saving my grounds for that past month or two in my freezer-- almost ready the bulk pasteurization/inoculation phase(plus my freezer is running of room).

If you don't already have a copy of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets-- I highly recommend picking on up.

One piece of advice I read is that if one is going to use an agricultural waste product as a substrate, that it is possible to supplement it with bran and a few other things to maximize yield. However, full sterilization needs to occur in this case, which I am personally not capable of at the moment.
So unless you have an autoclave-- don't supplement (it sounds like you were not planning on it), and pasteurize rather than sterilize.

Great project! I really believe it is the best use of spent grounds.
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