Ok so here’s the story: A local brewery had a special “dinner with beer pairing” event. Small, 30 to 40 people. We bought tickets and went, it was delicious. All the meals were mushroom based.

There’s a local company that provides mushrooms for local business only, no consumers. The owner of the company came to this dinner.

In a moment of gratitude and charitable giving, he offered to give everyone present a bag of spores. Just cut slots in the bag and let it go. He emphasized that they don’t normally offer this, but that it’s not too hard.

Months went by, we never heard from him. Then finally the email comes, come pick up your bags from the brewery.

We were out of town. We coordinated someone to go get ours but it was a week or two later than it was supposed to be, and it was several days more before we could pick them up from the friends.

Now here’s my question: do these look ok? What do I do with them? An acquaintance of mine got theirs earlier, cooked up some straw, broke up the brick and put it in baskets with holes, a whole process. They aren’t keen on helping me as they aren’t sure if my bags are ok, they are learning as they go.

My bags look like they are fruiting already?

My wife is afraid of them. I have a feeling they’re probably safe? But I would love some advice and direction.

I’m sorry I haven’t done more research, I waited too long and now everything is happening so fast, it’s quite overwhelming.

Thanks in advance

  • BillibusMaximus
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    4 days ago

    Do you know what species? I’ve definitely had oysters I’ve left too long look like that and then still fruited fine. Certain other species I might be worried about.

    How to do they smell? Earthy and/or mushroomy? That’s good. If it’s yeasty, sour, or otherwise bad smelling, then maybe I’d be worried.

    But otherwise, get to it. They’re ready to go.

    The first time I grew oysters, I drilled holes in a 5 gallon bucket, and used aspen shavings from the pet store. But straw and a basket would work too.

    I don’t remember exactly what instructions I followed, but it might have been https://freshcap.com/blogs/growing/bucket-grow or https://northspore.com/blogs/the-black-trumpet/growing-mushrooms-in-buckets-containers

    Good luck! I’m not an expert by any means, but I do have several grows under my belt. Feel free to ping me if you have questions along the way.

    • beastlykingsOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      4 days ago

      It says BB on the side, maybe I’ll open it up and take a picture for you. It’s definitely already fruiting inside, and the instructions from the other guy said that it can choke on its own CO2 if you don’t open the bag soon enough 🤔