As I've been doing a bit of experimenting I figure I'd report back.
My typical sub is coir/verm but straw is a LOT cheaper ($4 per tub vs 10 cents per tub) , so I wanted to give it a shot.
What I learned:
Straw is a BITCH to cut to correct size. Smaller is better. A weed wacker is a really strong plus here.
Pure straw is really dry. Even after doing a light soap rinse to strip the natural anti-water coating. So you need a lot of it, compressed, to get any real base.
Pure straw seems to grow faster than coir/verm to start, but then it slows down due to (assumed) dry spots.
Pure straw does not pin well directly, due to spaces between pieces causing long flat myc areas. It NEEDs (or REALLY wants) to be cased, even if your myc does not typically demand it.
Pure straw is light on nutrition as compared to most other subs.
Pure straw wants to be correctly pasteurized, not damoin5050 bucket tek (my usual coir process). But maybe not.
Straw subs are STRONG. Those interlinked pieces of straw are TOUGH to tear apart, and when hydrating it is easy to deal with, as opposed to crumbly coir mix. On the other hand, it is filled with air and floats like a cork so you need to really press it down when running water.
With the various downsides of pure straw, I figured I'd try some variations.
#1: I need more moisture.
#2: I want (don't know if I need)more nutrition.
#3: I want individual micro bumps everywhere (like coir/verm) for pinning microclimate.
#4: I wanted bucket tek for pasteurization.
#5: I want to keep the full sub cost under a dollar.
I filled a bucket of well shredded straw, large amounts of floss.
Into which I added:
2 cups of bagged store bought dehydrated cow manure. It was NOT dry (yuck).
3 quarts of fine vermiculite (I prefer large grained, but that is all I had around).
1 quart of gypsum (finely smashed wall board, it dissolves better than garden gypsum).
1 cup of oyster/coral shell.
1 pot of weak coffee into the boil water.
1 filter of used coffee grounds. Kept out the filter.
I poured about 3 gallons of boiling water into it, mixed it up, and closed it up for 12 hours.
I then drained it, pressed out what water I could, and then laid it out with 5 quarts of PE corn spawn.
I did a pure straw bin to be used as a control. Also simply bucket tek (I HATE pasteurizing).
Those were done 2 days ago. Both recovered well, but the mixed tub is obviously doing better.
I had a large amount of wet straw left over since I had no idea how much I'd be using when done, and I prefer to have extra. It sat in a wet closed bucket for 2 days. I drained it, mixed up the same as above, but NO manure, poured more hot water in it, let it sit overnight, drained it, and laid it out.
We'll see.
My typical sub is coir/verm but straw is a LOT cheaper ($4 per tub vs 10 cents per tub) , so I wanted to give it a shot.
What I learned:
Straw is a BITCH to cut to correct size. Smaller is better. A weed wacker is a really strong plus here.
Pure straw is really dry. Even after doing a light soap rinse to strip the natural anti-water coating. So you need a lot of it, compressed, to get any real base.
Pure straw seems to grow faster than coir/verm to start, but then it slows down due to (assumed) dry spots.
Pure straw does not pin well directly, due to spaces between pieces causing long flat myc areas. It NEEDs (or REALLY wants) to be cased, even if your myc does not typically demand it.
Pure straw is light on nutrition as compared to most other subs.
Pure straw wants to be correctly pasteurized, not damoin5050 bucket tek (my usual coir process). But maybe not.
Straw subs are STRONG. Those interlinked pieces of straw are TOUGH to tear apart, and when hydrating it is easy to deal with, as opposed to crumbly coir mix. On the other hand, it is filled with air and floats like a cork so you need to really press it down when running water.
With the various downsides of pure straw, I figured I'd try some variations.
#1: I need more moisture.
#2: I want (don't know if I need)more nutrition.
#3: I want individual micro bumps everywhere (like coir/verm) for pinning microclimate.
#4: I wanted bucket tek for pasteurization.
#5: I want to keep the full sub cost under a dollar.
I filled a bucket of well shredded straw, large amounts of floss.
Into which I added:
2 cups of bagged store bought dehydrated cow manure. It was NOT dry (yuck).
3 quarts of fine vermiculite (I prefer large grained, but that is all I had around).
1 quart of gypsum (finely smashed wall board, it dissolves better than garden gypsum).
1 cup of oyster/coral shell.
1 pot of weak coffee into the boil water.
1 filter of used coffee grounds. Kept out the filter.
I poured about 3 gallons of boiling water into it, mixed it up, and closed it up for 12 hours.
I then drained it, pressed out what water I could, and then laid it out with 5 quarts of PE corn spawn.
I did a pure straw bin to be used as a control. Also simply bucket tek (I HATE pasteurizing).
Those were done 2 days ago. Both recovered well, but the mixed tub is obviously doing better.
I had a large amount of wet straw left over since I had no idea how much I'd be using when done, and I prefer to have extra. It sat in a wet closed bucket for 2 days. I drained it, mixed up the same as above, but NO manure, poured more hot water in it, let it sit overnight, drained it, and laid it out.
We'll see.