Transcript
You asked me about my thoughts about All-in-one grow bags. If you have not heard about them, let me bring us all on the same page by talking first about the standard process of cultivating mushrooms. I then will talk about ready-to-grow blocks and then go into the all-in-one bags.
The standard process of mushroom cultivation starts with transferring a mushroom tissue or spore sample onto a culture media. After the culture media is fully colonized you can transfer a piece of it onto another culture media to expand it further or, for example, onto grains.
If the mycelium thoroughly colonized the grains, you can transfer a certain percentage of it into another grain bag to expand again even further or onto your primary substrates, such as sawdust or straw. This primary substrate is usually supplemented with, for example, wheat bran.
After the mycelium thoroughly colonized the primary substrate, these bags are sold depending on the size as Ready-to-grow blocks to mushroom farms or as mushroom kits to the consumers.
Here is an example of a mushroom kit. Disclaimer: I am not sponsored, nor do I have bought one of their product or have any affiliation with this company!
To grow mushrooms using these bags you just have to cut the bag and maintain temperature and, importantly, the humidity during the growth phase.
Depending on the mushroom species, you can harvest your first mushrooms within a short period. I harvested my first mushrooms after only 4 days.
Using ready-to-grow blocks has the advantage of reducing the upfront cost for starting a mushroom business. Second, as mentioned in my video about the 3-step-approach, ready-to-grow blocks helping you to focus on two things only.
Growing and selling the mushrooms.
Which is at the beginning enough to master.
Therefore, is nothing wrong with starting and running your business using ready-to-grow blocks.
Quite the opposite.
Now, what is an All-in-One Grow bag?
All-in-One Grow Bags are a kind of crossover. They contain on the one side grains and on the other side, for example, as the primary substrate straw and compost. To use them, you have to buy a syringe containing a liquid culture of the mushroom you want to grow. To cultivate this mushroom you have to inject the liquid through the port in the picture the black patch onto the grains.
The mycelium then starts to colonize the grains and afterward the primary substrate. If everything is fully colonized, you cut the bag on the substrate’s side to initiate the fruiting as you would do with ready-to-grow blocks.
With this approach, you, thus, start one step earlier in the process of producing your own mushrooms.
But do you need an All-in-one grow bags?
If you want to experiment with liquid culture, then an all-in-one grow bag makes sense. Especially if you do not have access to a clean and sterilized area.
But if you think you need these bags because you do not have access to a sterilizer or a clean room, you are wrong.
You do not need these kinds of equipment if you have access to ready-to-grow blocks.
As I mentioned earlier, you can build a mushroom company just using ready-to-grow blocks. Which is not guaranteed if you use all-in-one grow bags.
Why?
The price of using all-in-one grow bags is, in my opinion, not in your favor. Second, you are responsible for a clean culture media the syringe and maintaining the right environment for a longer period.
If you are serious about growing mushrooms, meaning you want to build a company around selling them, I would focus on ready-to-grow blocks and follow the 3-step approach.
Talk to you in the following video.
Recommended
