Fermenting wood/leaves

I've had the most success with pearl oysters (Pleurotus ostreatus). They colonize fairly quickly. I believe "Shade of Eclipse" was the one who told me about them.

Cheers

 
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Thanks!
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I just realized after internet searching that mushrooms are better suited to making kinshi than decomposition!

 
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What I meant to say was how to get wood/leaves to rot.

I have a box of spongy white wood from a log and dead oak leaf flakes in a deli cup inside the box, and despite the box being damp at all times the wood has the texture/appearance of soggy, spongy wood chips
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Spongy white wood is characteristic of white rot. It has already gone through the process of being broken down and is sufficiently decayed for most stag beetle larvae. It's not longer as nutritient-rich as wood that hasn't gone through decomposition and is mostly cellulose. In order to break it down further, you will need organisms that are capable of breaking cellulose down like fungi that produce brown rot.

If you're feeding stag beetle larvae, white rot is preferrable for most species. If you're feeding rhinoceros beetle larvae, you'll want to break it into fine pieces and compost it with a large volume of fallen leaves. Composting may take a relatively long period of time depending on how good you are at maintaining temperature, moisture levels, and the level of decomposition that suits the beetles you wish to raise.

You will achieve much faster results through fermentation of wood using additions such as sugar, flour, or various types of grain bran, but you will need to know what you're doing or you risk producing a poor quality substrate that starves or kills your larvae. I do not recommend adding leaves in fermentation as you do not know what kinds of things you'll be introducing into a nutrient-rich situation. Leaves should be composted separately or decayed leaves should be collected and processed to eliminate potentially harmful organisms prior to mixing with the finished product of fermentation.

 
Thanks everyone for the help, however I have one more question (still learning the basics
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)!

My entire cup of oak leaf flakes was tossed out due to mold today, but it was still hard and crunchy despite all the humidity. How can leaves be made mulchy, "decomposed", and soft like the leaflitter under logs? Perhaps I could place a piece of the latter in the container to spread the microorganisms across?

 
The mold is responsible for breaking it down into the soft, mulch-like substrate you want. Decomposition takes multiple steps and it's usually the more complex organisms such as fungi that start the process and microbes that finish it.

 
so yesterday i collected some white spongy oak wood, and the stags didnt seem interested in it. and i cant seem to cut the wood in small particles either

 
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