I have been researching a bunch about making my own substrate, and I am particularly interested in making my own Kinshi. Anyways, I looked online and it seems that coffee grounds are popular with oyster mushroom growers. The mycelium seems to take root on coffee grounds particularly quickly, so it seems to be that they should be fairly high in nutritional content. Has anyone tried raising stag beetles with coffee grounds? To be clear I don't intend to use coffee grounds in the place of sawdust, rather as a supplement kinda like how you would add wheat germ to your substrate. Any thoughts?
Coffee grounds?
- Thread starter Bruh
- Start date
JKim
Mecynorrhina
If you inoculate mycelium to coffee grounds, and colonize it, you must inouclate that colony to the substrate afterward to feed colonized substrate, a kinishi to your beetle larvae. You don't feed the coffee grounds directly to the larvae. That is simply an extra step, which may be safer and better way to inoculate your substrate depending on the species of mushroom. If the mushroom species just don't do good with certain type of wood, inoculate it first on something that works well. Then do the job. Don't add it as supplementary. Add it to inoculate and remove the coffee beans, if left over.
Also, a bit off topic, but in my attempts at kinshi making, I am experiencing issues with mold. For now I am mostly content to remove it manually, but in some cultures it has been so severe that I have had to salvage small amounts of the mycelium, re-sterilise the substrate and try again. Will this have an adverse effect on the health/size of the larvae?
Briareo
L2
I have much less knowledge on the beetles than I do for mushrooms. But, I think that if you are to sterilize your oak and bran mixture. Then after colonizing the substrate with mycelium, you should just put the larvae in there and let it do it's thing. Actually let me make a full post on how i'd go about it.
Briareo
L2
Id think the mold is not preferable by any means as with kinshi being mushrooms, and when the mold begins grow on a fungus it means the fungus is weak or contaminated generally speaking.
As the longer a mushroom culture is in fruiting/the more times you harvest from it, the less nutrients it will have and the weaker its immune system will be, leading to mold overtaking it.
Id scoop the mold out if you need to keep the mycelium/has a larvae in it, but if its just something you are growing at the moment, toss it. No need to let the mold sporulate everywhere and raise contamination chances further.
Mold sporulating inside your house is different than outside, as it wont just be blown away with the wind, it will coat your clothing, your walls and get into crevices that will all be further contamination vector, so its good practice to minimize and mold growth and dispose of it quickly
As the longer a mushroom culture is in fruiting/the more times you harvest from it, the less nutrients it will have and the weaker its immune system will be, leading to mold overtaking it.
Id scoop the mold out if you need to keep the mycelium/has a larvae in it, but if its just something you are growing at the moment, toss it. No need to let the mold sporulate everywhere and raise contamination chances further.
Mold sporulating inside your house is different than outside, as it wont just be blown away with the wind, it will coat your clothing, your walls and get into crevices that will all be further contamination vector, so its good practice to minimize and mold growth and dispose of it quickly