State of Suspension: A Mushroom Mystery

A couple of weeks ago, I caved and purchased an at-home grow kit of pioppino mushrooms. Eager to begin, I perused several videos created by the owners of the mycology supply, as well as comparison videos made by competitors (because research is not limited to a single source, yo).

Two weeks later, after purchasing a spray bottle and carefully misting the substrate daily, even going so far as to use a repurposed styrofoam cooler to insulate the bag from both the excess heat of the kitchen oven and the cool air from my front door (because they’re less than five feet away from one another, go figure)…

Nothing. No change. I could still see the fuzzy white stuff (which is good) on top of the substrate, but of baby mushrooms pinning along the top there lacked any sign (which is bad).

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Crestfallen, I sought the advice of my friendly neighborhood M.D. of mycelium… a.k.a. the nice guy who sold me the thing in the first place. He gave me the following advice once he gave my pictures a once-over:

• Mist the inside of the bag heavily, and then put it into the fridge overnight. This will basically give the spores a “reset” and hopefully get them more ready to pin as they warm back up on the countertop. Sometimes “stalls” happen in growth, and a cooling off period (in the most literal sense) can give them a jump start.

• Mist 2-3 times a day to encourage growth. I was only doing so once per day as the videos suggested, but Colorado is a dry state… mea culpa on that one.

So, into the fridge went the bag that night, and out it came the next morning. This week, I’m trying to mist before I go to work each day and around the time I get home. We’ll see if there’s any change in the next few days?

I’ll continue to attend to some of my other projects in the interim. Thursday’s wine challenge post will be a double/comparison, since I got my second COVID-19 shot last week and it threw me through a complete loop for the second half of the week.

(Yeah, okay, that’s putting it rather lightly. But seriously, did anyone happen to catch the license plate of the truck that hit me??? Drinking during that period — so not a good plan. Therefore, it doesn’t count as skipping a week because health reasons. So there.)

Here’s hoping the mushrooms persevere and bring forth delicious things! I’ve already begun the search for appropriate recipes. Know of any great ones which feature pioppino? Let me know in the comments!