On cultivating blue oyster mushrooms for CO2 production.

Hello all. This is my first post so I hope this is in the right section. I recently procured a nice 2x2 grow tent for the winter as I don't have space for anything else. I've decided to get a really nice quantum board with it and seeing how It's going to be pumping out more than enough light for my single plant I had the idea of growing blue oyster mushrooms (the kind they use in rapid release mushroom bags) under the canopy of my cannabis plant.

A few factors led me to this idea. I'll be using a really nice, efficient grow light that will barely produce any heat, giving me the option to shut my ventilation fan off most of the time so CO2 can accumulate and be utilized by the plant. The quantum boards are also efficient enough that I believe the extra CO2 will definitely benefit the plant. And I plan on doing one single plant with a large canopy above it, which would give me plenty of space to work with under it for a space for mushrooms.

Do any of you do anything like this? Are there any resources I could learn from to help me achieve this? If you have anything to say about the concept then please do share. I'm more than willing to soak up information =)

grow your shrooms above not below the plant.

rkymtnman said:

grow your shrooms above not below the plant.

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Because CO2 sinks?

Ropeplay said:

Hello all. This is my first post so I hope this is in the right section. I recently procured a nice 2x2 grow tent for the winter as I don't have space for anything else. I've decided to get a really nice quantum board with it and seeing how It's going to be pumping out more than enough light for my single plant I had the idea of growing blue oyster mushrooms (the kind they use in rapid release mushroom bags) under the canopy of my cannabis plant.

A few factors led me to this idea. I'll be using a really nice, efficient grow light that will barely produce any heat, giving me the option to shut my ventilation fan off most of the time so CO2 can accumulate and be utilized by the plant. The quantum boards are also efficient enough that I believe the extra CO2 will definitely benefit the plant. And I plan on doing one single plant with a large canopy above it, which would give me plenty of space to work with under it for a space for mushrooms.

Do any of you do anything like this? Are there any resources I could learn from to help me achieve this? If you have anything to say about the concept then please do share. I'm more than willing to soak up information =)

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Unless you are already an experienced mycologist or cultivating mushrooms already, it wouldn’t be worth the effort. A lot of set-up for CO2 you could more easily produce via a bottle or a fermentation.

Ropeplay said:

Because CO2 sinks?

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exactly.

JayBio420 said:

Unless you are already an experienced mycologist or cultivating mushrooms already, it wouldn’t be worth the effort. A lot of set-up for CO2 you could more easily produce via a bottle or a fermentation.

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True, but it would be infinitely cheaper and give me another hobby over the winter.

grow some psychedelic shrooms instead. win/win.

go for it, I have had yellow mushrooms in the past that seemed to do no harm and if anything helped with the plant food web and broke down dead materials quickly

Ropeplay said:

True, but it would be infinitely cheaper and give me another hobby over the winter.

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Growing mushrooms is not cheaper or easier than fermentation, and depending how far you take it is a lot more hassle than a bottle. Just my advice, from a guy who’s grown mushrooms, brewed beer/fermented reactor and used a bottle before. You asked for advice.

JayBio420 said:

Growing mushrooms is not cheaper or easier than fermentation, and depending how far you take it is a lot more hassle than a bottle. Just my advice, from a guy who’s grown mushrooms, brewed beer/fermented reactor and used a bottle before. You asked for advice.

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Still sounds fun to me. Two questions though. What do you use for the yeast fermenter, a sugar wash? and how do all the different methods of CO2 production stack up to each other in terms of how much CO2 they can make?

Ropeplay said:

Still sounds fun to me. Two questions though. What do you use for the yeast fermenter, a sugar wash? and how do all the different methods of CO2 production stack up to each other in terms of how much CO2 they can make?

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In order of CO2 production: CO2 bottle, propane catalytic heater, fungi biomass growing and yeast fermentation.

In the yeast fermentation it’s just a sugar wash you start, and then add sugar to or replace every 10-14 days. The problem with anything that’s not a bottle with a regulator and flow meter, is inconsistancy. And I have a feeling having CO2 jumping from ambient, to 1300 ppm, to 800 and all around, isn’t giving an all round tonic to your growth..

Mycelium incubating In a medium will put out a steady amount over 2 weeks... but a small amount. So now you’re looking at keeping 3 lb bags of substrate in your grow area, replacing every two weeks... I mean, if you’re going to grow Oyster mushrooms anyway the. Use the CO2.

If you’re trying to provide a consistent high level of CO2 during daytime photosynthesis, use consistent methods I would say!

I was not happy enough with fermentation and definately wouldn’t cultivate mushrooms as my CO2 source, due to the above reasons

Fun or TMM (Time, Money, Materials)

Sorry I'm a business owner. I dont do too much for free.

And I grow using co2!

I Grow Blue Oyster Mushrooms last year with success... It's fun but not worth the work you put in.

as one who works at an indoor mushroom farm, oyster mushrooms in particular have the heaviest spore load of easily cultivated mushrooms. i would strongly suggest that you do not grow these mushrooms in/around your cannabis. if you want to try and clean and transfer the air from your mushroom grow room to your cannabis room, you have to have the ability to wash ALL spores from the air or you will coat your plants in fungal spores... and i mean a lot of them. and believe me... no matter how good your filtration seems... they manage to get out and all over everything. i mean everything. it's actually quite incredible lol

edit: if you wanted to incubate them in your grow room, that would be a different story, and you would get CO2 production from incubating sawdust blocks of oyster in your flowering room.

plus if you were thinking about trying to fruit them as well, the humidity (besides the spores) would be a major issue, as they require >90% humidity.

You'll get some tasty mushrooms to eat but the Co2 production will be negligible.