photon7 at webtv.net wrote:
<<recently I saw a web page that was for
a seminar on growing shiitake on a straw
substrate and also for a book about substrate
prep using hydrogen peroxide as a sterilant.
Has anyone out there heard or know about
this?>>
Shiitake can definitely be grown on straw.
Whether the people offering the seminar
have any special expertise in it, I can't say.
Since I am the person who invented the
peroxide method, and I imagine you want an
independent opinion, I won't comment on
that except to say that I don't really use
peroxide as a sterilant in most of my
protocols. Instead, I use it either as a
kind of preservative (keeping the substrate
free of contaminants after it has already
been pasteurized or sterilized), or as a
pasteurizing agent (for instance with straw,
where it helps select for a favorable mix
of organisms rather than killing off everything).
I do use it more or less like a sterilant in
one procedure, but this requires a substrate
such as wood pellet fuel or kiln dried sawdust
which has already been treated in a way that
destroys the peroxide-decomposing enzymes
in the raw material.
Anyway, you will probably get more
response to your inquiry if you post it in
alt.nature.mushrooms.
--Rush
http://www.mycomasters.com/
"Growing Mushrooms with Hydrgoen Peroxide"
