Substrates for saprotrophic species
Utilizing a recipe adapted from an article on The Third Wave and gleaning information from GroCycle on saprotrophic substrates, I have created a basic recipe for Coco Coir and one for Coco Coir mixed with horse manure, that is modified from my previous attempt:
Coco Coir/Vermiculite (9 lbs)
1 block (650 gram) coco coir
8 cups vermiculite
2 cups peat moss
.5 cups worm castings
.25 cups calcium carbonate
17 cups water
Manure/Coir/Vermiculite (15 lbs) (50%/25%/25%)
1 block (650 gram) coco coir
8 cups vermiculite
2 cups peat moss
.5 cups worm castings
.25 cups calcium carbonate
16 cups horse manure
.5 cups Gypsum
21 cups water
To create this substrate, first I hydrated the coco coir with 8 cups of water. I mixed the vermiculite, peat moss, worm castings, and calcium carbonate in a separate container. After the coco coir was hydrated, I mixed the two containers together to create my substrate. For the manure based substrate, I hydrated the horse manure mixed with gypsum with 4 cups of water before mixing it with the coco/coir vermiculite substrate.
To pasteurize, I placed 2 to 2.5 lbs of each substrate into 30" tin cooking dishes. I covered the dishes with tin foil and placed them in the oven for 6 hours. After turning off the oven I ended up leaving them there overnight.
Recommendations for spawn ratios I have found for these mushrooms are between 20% and 50%.