Biochar Soak with Mycology in mind

[Mukrakiish]

I'm hoping to do some experimenting with Biochar's bio-oil concentrations (especially the glucose increase) in conjunction with the amazing surface area from charcoals aspects. I'm thinking that maybe one could use water soluble nutrients in a char soak specifically aimed at mushrooms. Such as compost tea, soybean meal, flax oil/meal & coffee grinds in the soak. Perhaps if there is a low glucose level, one could even incorporate some dark molasses, kelp meal and possibly hydrolyzed fish liquid (apparently fish emulsion is not suitable for mycology use). I hope to try this in the next few days with some Phoenix Oysters (Pleurotus pulmonarius) & some Reishi (Gandoderma Lucidum). It might be worth trying this soak with woodchips mixed with biochar for outdoor specific species like Wine Cap/Garden King Mushrooms (Stropharia rugoso-annulata) or Blewits (Lepista Nuda). I'll do some experimenting with my Wine Caps and if I get some Blewits going, I will try those as well.

Although having a nutrient soak such as soybean meal or flax meal I don't think that would penetrate the wood like glucose/molasses or cereal seed oils...perhaps someone here can help me out in that aspect. I'm not terrible science minded...been a while since I was in school I think any soak in that regard is isolated to biochar/charcoal. I hope to get experiments with both ends, wood char and bio char.

Does anyone know the nutritional value that remains after converting Biochar? I suppose ideally you'd like to keep your sweet spot at 500C when your doing your conversion as to not lose excessive amounts of your work. I'd like to make some char out of horsemanure since its consistency and nutritional value is incredible mycology wise...is substantial amounts lost? I wonder if anyone within this board has the necessary equipment to run tests on converted biochar to know for sure. That'd certainly be interesting beyond "If I put in pine needle char, I get x weight from mushroom A but I only get x weight from mushroom B but if I use manure char I get x weight from Mushroom C while A & B don't grow at all". Time for experimenting.

[freeztar]

Your last sentence sums it up.

The lack of reply here is not reflective of interests on the subject. My guess is that most people viewing this thread, like myself, do not have the answers you are looking for. Nonetheless, we're all sitting on the sidelines waiting for the results.

FWIW, I urge you to check out Paul Stamets if you have not done so already. His company, Fungi Perfecti, offers many different species for growing.

Intuitively, it would seem to me that fungi would love char. Hence, we've had discussions here about introducing fungi and char to compost bins (along with all the goodies you've mentioned). I don't recall how that experiment turned out, or if the member even came back to give results. I'll try to find the thread...

EDIT: Well, I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, but there's some good info in this thread.

Garden Soil

[maikeru]

In the pot where I grow my little Meyer Lemon tree, I found surprising little guests: white mushrooms of an unidentified variety. (I have no plans to eat these. If I don't know what they are, I'm not running the risks. ) I have a biochar mix in there (topsoil, biochar, and coffee grounds), and the mushrooms seem to be popping up all over, especially after I watered the lemon tree with a dilute mixture of blackstrap molasses. I think you'll find fungi love the stuff. Biochar seems to accelerate the spread and growth of them.

[Mukrakiish]

I suspected as much. The science of it really shows it should...I just wonder at what ratio's I can figure out to maximize on its effectiveness (including soaks to increase its effectiveness).

Oh yes, I know much about Stamets. His books are what got me into the hobby, got 18 species in my library actually.

maikeru if you want to take a picture, I can get them identified for you if your curious. You'd have to take a picture of the underside as well as the tops and stems. Definitely they would be enjoying the water retention from the char along with the nitro boost from the coffee and then a huge glucose boost from your molasses (in small quantities fungus go crazy over it)

freeztar: I'll see what I can do. I've got some time now this weekend to make some biochar and charcoal (finally) and my spawn is ready...so I can start making some experiments soon. Then hopefully I can give a breakdown on what I find. This is also very new territory in the mycology places I frequent as well, so were all pretty curious of some answers about what is to come of this. Biochar especially. Usage of activated charcoal in limited amounts in agar is particularly useful for things like getting stubborn spores to germinate and it shows to make the mycelium very healthy.

Some folks have reported that it improves the flavour of the mushroom. So we'll see...I'll be doing many experiments, hopefully posting some beautiful pictures for you guys to see

Now if anyone has suggestions here...I am suspecting that I should let my soak evaporate some within the charcoal. Now, if I left the char/biochar as a whole...it would retain its shape as described in the gardening faq which I have no link for. So it wouldn't necessary have to evaporate to a dry pan and I would make use of the water in hydrating the substrates for the mushrooms...but if it was powdered charcoal, it'd have to evaporate completely. Which would be time consuming...but would one retain the most nutrients? I may set aside a small tray to let it evaporate completely and see if it makes a difference.

Interesting stuff...interesting interesting stuff. Thanks for the replies though, I was starting to wonder

[freeztar]

I, for one, look forward to your results. It is indeed new territory, vastly unexplored.

Go forward, young pioneer!

[maikeru]

Originally Posted by Mukrakiish

I suspected as much. The science of it really shows it should...I just wonder at what ratio's I can figure out to maximize on its effectiveness (including soaks to increase its effectiveness).

Oh yes, I know much about Stamets. His books are what got me into the hobby, got 18 species in my library actually.

maikeru if you want to take a picture, I can get them identified for you if your curious. You'd have to take a picture of the underside as well as the tops and stems. Definitely they would be enjoying the water retention from the char along with the nitro boost from the coffee and then a huge glucose boost from your molasses (in small quantities fungus go crazy over it)

My little shrooms got fried by too much heat and not enough water because I missed a watering on accident, so the first crop died, but I did snap two pics of the second wave of them coming up tonight. (I keep the recuperating Meyer's Lemon in a very warm room which functions as our indoor garden area. It dried out during shipping to me and the whole tree looked dead for 2-3 weeks until it sprouted new leaves... Lots of sunlight during spring and summer mean temps of 80-95 F in there. Perfect for plants, but not for people.) So tiny. White-capped dots among the white clover seedlings are the mushrooms. As they grow larger, I'll snap better pics and pick a few for samples. The Meyer's Lemon is in a topsoil, biochar, and coffee ground mix. Don't know the exact % of biochar, but there's quite a bit.

I overshot my attachment limit, so I've added two pics to an album.

Science Forums - maikeru's Album: Funny little white mushrooms

Let's see if this works.

[Mukrakiish]

Interesting! Boy am I glad I jumped into the forum with you guys...this is great.

As for your primordia (mushroom seedlings)...we'll have to let them grow out some before we can get an identification. Though I suspect they will be a 'nuisance' mushroom. They're the weed form in the fungus world. But we'll see yet...interesting stuff.

[Michaelangelica]

Using the ordinary to cultivate the mysterious power of beneficial indigenous microorganisms | Rodale Institute