shiitake substrate

[RushWayne]

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"