I have oyster mushroom spawn and a bale of straw. I need to sterilize/pasteurize the straw before I inoculate it. I don’t really have a good way of doing it with heat, but I’ve been reading about “cold pasteurization” with lime. I went to the garden store to get some, but the mushroom blogs all say it’s supposed to be mostly Ca(OH)2, without magnesium, and the garden store had a bunch of quicklime that was calcium carbonate with a lot of magnesium. Does anyone know a brand I could look for or a way to get “hydrated lime?” Or maybe @brute knows an easier way to pasteurize the straw?
ETA: It looks like pickling lime is also usable (although probably more expensive than the agricultural stuff), but I can still only find one brand and only on Amazon.
Look at Richard Perkins technique for growing oysters. IIRC uses wood pellets as the base because they’re close enough to sterile to be fine for production. I have his book on the shelf if you need more detailed info than he gives in the videos.
Building supply store, with the concrete. For example:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/QUIKRETE-50-lb-Hydrated-Lime/3567274
I read that aspen shavings and wood pellets were an easier substrate to sterilize but I couldn’t figure out how to buy a reasonable amount of them. I’m doing this as a hobby in 5 gallon buckets, I didn’t want to buy 50 lbs of pellets and then store them.
Not in stock at any of the Lowe’s near me, but it’s good to remember that just because it isn’t in the garden section doesn’t mean it’s not the right chemical.
Do check for other building supply stores near you - HD also carries it, but there are probably smaller local places.
PTF because I am slowly working on getting this garden going.
Planted more potatoes today because one I’d been leaving on the counter hoping it would sprout finally did.
1 pepper seedling has poked its head up, but no more so far. New tomatoes are doing better and I’ll probably plant out the first set on Thursday after tomorrow’s heavy rain.
More baby turnips and rutabagas today. If the deer leave those alone we’ll have a decent crop for winter, and I do plan a fall crop as well.
Very little sign of kale, spinach, or chard yet. If I don’t see some action from them in another week, I’ll put in more blackeyed peas in their spot. We can eat those greens too.
We did a lot today, but I’m traumatized by killing my first plant baby! The pole beans weren’t sprouting after two weeks, so I scratched around in the dirt to look for sprouts. Found that it had germinated when I knocked it in half. 
We made food.
Accomplished yesterday:
- HTbF finished building a raised bed
- I put my grocery store bok choy in the ground
- I hilled potatoes! This was very exciting
- We transplanted 3 potatoes into a bed
- Planted 3 snow peas and 1 pole bean to replace my murdered sprout
- Weeding so much weeding
- Planted so many seeds
- Grocery store tomatoes
- Spaghetti squash from buy nothing
- Kale
- Catgrass
- Cantaloupe
- Thai basil
- Germinating corn seeds
- Onion top planted
- Bell pepper start went in a bed
Using an egg carton for the first time. Going to try only potting up the seedlings that sprout, before transplanting.
The extra leggy cabbages are growing more leaves. HTbF doesn’t want to give up on them, so we’re gonna plant deep.
Almost gave up on a pepper that hadn’t sprouted, but dug down without killing it! It’s getting more water, warmth, and potting soil.
Today:
- 4 indoor corns sprouted - I planted only the seeds that germinated in a wet paper towel
- 2 cabbages sprouted indoors
- More weeding
- Soaking dried black beans and pinto beans from a grocery store mix to see if any gemrinate
- Went down a companion planting rabbit hole, now rethinking entire garden - most exciting is the prospect of using cornstalks as bean trellises!
- Maybe plant a row of bush beans next to the potatoes once I get the dingdang blackberry roots out - and maybe some next to the tomatoes?
Ah yes, the most important part of being a gardener: constantly rethinking what you’ve done and wondering whether it’s the right time to redesign everything.
Tomatoes and peppers are a mixed bag so far this year. Not sure what’s causing the leaf curl on the peppers but I’m hoping they perk up after up potting tomorrow. If anyone has thoughts on the peppers all ears, given it’s combined with the purple I’m guessing not enough fertility because they should be plenty warm (cold is the other main cause of purple foliage I know of).
Oh, and transplanted broccoli
So. Many. Plants.
This is tame for me (but much smaller garden this year compared to having extra 1/8 acre a couple years ago)
Jobs for today:
- Sowing a heap of Bok Choy seeds
- Thinning my beetroot
- Snipping off and potting up strawberry runners
- Checking over the front yard citrus trees AGAIN for gall wasp because I am very concerned about it
Writing it out here might help with accountability, maybe?
Next door neighbours have told me they’re going to find kipfler seed potatoes and give them to me so I can grow potatoes for them. Well, okay then.
I went to the garden store today to get strawberries and I found the right kind of lime for the mushrooms!
The strawberries were a miss though: I want to build a strawberry tower with ~24 plants and these were $9 a piece. I had originally planned to get strawberries from FedCo, but didn’t get my order in before they slowed down/sold out of everything. Does anyone know another catalogue or online store that I could order from? Or a brick and mortar store in Massachusetts?
Jung Seeds has good prices on strawberry plants. They come bareroot in increments of 25 and grew very well for me until I decided to take a break from strawberries because of critters.
I’ll try it too, see if it helps.
Tasks for weekend:
- dig up olives and pot them up
- follow up garden store about my tree order
- order more trees
- prune various plants along fences
- create pile of Green waste on verge for the pickup next week
Bonus: - attach hose to wall
- attach outdoor shelving to wall
What time of year is good to repot blueberries? I’m really amazing at killing blueberries, last time I repotted it just keeled over dead for no reason.
Those look great thank you!