Solved: How to Use Spent Mushroom Substrate as Eco-Friendly Soil in Your Garden
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of 'Just Grow with the Podcast,' host Big City Gardener explores the benefits and various applications of spent mushroom substrate (SMS). He explains how SMS, a byproduct of mushroom cultivation, can enrich garden soil, serve as compost, mulch, animal feed, and even has potential in biogas production and bioremediation. The host encourages listeners to connect with local mushroom growers to obtain this valuable resource and creatively repurpose it in their gardens and farms.
Takeaways
- 🍄 The podcast episode discusses the use of spent mushroom substrate (SMS) in various gardening applications.
- 🌱 Spent mushroom substrate is a byproduct of indoor mushroom cultivation, which can be repurposed in gardening.
- 📈 The medicinal and gourmet mushroom industry has significantly grown in the past five years, partly due to online content creators.
- 🏡 Mushroom blocks are used for indoor mushroom cultivation, and common substrates include oats, straw, wheat, and soybean hulls.
- 🌳 These substrates have garden benefits, making SMS a powerful resource for enriching garden soil.
- 🚮 Indoor mushroom growers often discard the bags after one use to prevent contamination in their growing facilities.
- 🌱 Listeners are encouraged to collect spent mushroom waste from local growers for gardening purposes.
- 🍄 SMS can be used as a fungal-dominated compost to improve garden soil and plant growth.
- 🌳 It can also serve as a mulch, providing organic benefits and potentially growing additional mushrooms in the garden bed.
- 🐔 The substrate can be repurposed as animal feed, particularly for livestock that naturally consume the components like oats or soy.
- 🔁 The concept of using SMS for biogas production or energy is introduced, though not detailed in the podcast.
- ♻️ SMS has potential use in bioremediation, helping to absorb and break down pollutants in soil, improving the quality of farmland.
Q & A
What is the main topic of discussion in this podcast episode?
-The main topic of discussion in this podcast episode is the various uses of spent mushroom substrate (SMS) in gardening and other applications.
What is spent mushroom substrate (SMS)?
-Spent mushroom substrate (SMS) is the material left over after the mycelium has colonized and mushrooms have been harvested from it. It is rich in nutrients and beneficial microbes.
Why is the medicinal and gourmet mushroom industry growing rapidly?
-The medicinal and gourmet mushroom industry is growing rapidly due to increased awareness and the ease of cultivation, often promoted by YouTube content creators.
What is a mushroom block and what is its purpose?
-A mushroom block is a substrate-filled plastic bag used for indoor mushroom cultivation. It is sterilized and inoculated with mycelium to grow mushrooms.
What are some common substrates used for growing mushrooms?
-Common substrates used for growing mushrooms include oats, straw, wheat, soybean hulls, and hardwood pellets.
Why do mushroom growers typically discard the spent mushroom substrate after one use?
-Mushroom growers discard the spent mushroom substrate after one use to prevent the introduction of pests like fungus gnats and diseases like trichoderma into their growing environment.
What are five ways to repurpose spent mushroom substrate mentioned in the podcast?
-The five ways mentioned are: 1) Adding it to a compost pile, 2) Using it as a mulch, 3) Feeding it to livestock, 4) Potentially using it for biogas production, and 5) Utilizing it for bioremediation.
How can spent mushroom substrate improve garden soil?
-Spent mushroom substrate can improve garden soil by increasing the fungal content, which is beneficial for plant growth and overall soil health.
Why is fungal-dominated compost or soil considered beneficial for gardening?
-Fungal-dominated compost or soil is beneficial for gardening because fungi help break down organic matter, improve soil structure, and promote nutrient uptake by plants.
What is the potential use of spent mushroom substrate in bioremediation?
-In bioremediation, spent mushroom substrate can absorb organic and inorganic pollutants, and the microbes within it can break down these pollutants, helping to restore life to polluted areas.
How can listeners get their hands on spent mushroom substrate according to the podcast host?
-Listeners can get spent mushroom substrate by contacting local mushroom growers at farmers markets or through online searches, offering to take their spent blocks for free.
Outlines
🍄 Introduction to Spent Mushroom Substrate
The host, Big City Gardener, introduces the topic of spent mushroom substrate (SMS), explaining it as the material left over after mushrooms have been harvested. He shares his personal experience with mushroom cultivation and the various substrates used, such as oats, straw, and soybean hulls, which are beneficial in gardens. The host encourages listeners to collect spent mushroom substrate from local growers, as it's typically discarded after one use to prevent contamination. He promises to reveal five different ways to utilize this material in the subsequent parts of the episode.
🌱 Utilizing Spent Mushroom Substrate in Gardening
The host discusses five innovative uses for spent mushroom substrate (SMS) in gardening and composting. The first use is adding SMS to the compost pile to create a fungal-dominated compost, beneficial for garden health. The second is as a mulch, which can also produce additional mushrooms. Thirdly, SMS can serve as animal feed due to its components like oat husk and soybean hulls, suitable for livestock. The fourth idea is converting SMS into biogas or energy through bacterial digestion, a concept the host has not personally witnessed but finds plausible. Lastly, SMS can be used for bio-remediation, absorbing and breaking down organic and inorganic pollutants in the soil, potentially restoring life to over-fertilized or chemically treated farmlands. The host emphasizes the importance of thinking creatively about mushroom cultivation by-products and encourages listeners to explore local resources.
📣 Engaging with the Podcast Community
In the closing paragraph, the host invites listeners to engage with the 'Just Grow with the Podcast' community. He asks for comments on the episode's content and thoughts on the podcast itself. The host provides his contact information through his website and social media platforms for further interaction. He also encourages listeners to like, comment, subscribe, and share the podcast with friends. Additionally, he opens up the floor for suggestions on potential interviewees, asking listeners to submit names via email or comments. The host signs off with a reminder of the podcast's mission to grow and improve, both literally and metaphorically.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Mushroom Substrate
💡Spent Mushroom Substrate (SMS)
💡Mycelium
💡Fruiting
💡Fungal Dominated Compost
💡Mulch
💡Animal Feed
💡Biogas
💡Bioremediation
💡Medicinal and Gourmet Mushrooms
💡Fungus Gnats
💡Trichoderma
Highlights
Introduction to the concept of spent mushroom substrate (SMS) and its potential uses in gardening.
The mushroom industry's growth in recent years, attributed to the influence of YouTube content creators.
Explanation of what a mushroom block is and its role in indoor mushroom gardening.
Types of substrates used for mushroom growth, including oats, straw, and soybean hulls, and their garden benefits.
The process of fruiting mushrooms and the common practice of discarding the substrate after one use to prevent contamination.
Encouragement to connect with local mushroom growers to obtain spent mushroom substrate for free.
First use of SMS: Incorporating it into the compost pile to create a fungal-dominated compost.
Second use of SMS: Using it as a mulch, providing organic benefits and potentially growing more mushrooms.
Third use of SMS: Feeding it to livestock as a natural part of their diet.
Theoretical fourth use of SMS: Potential conversion into biogas or energy through bacterial digestion.
Fifth and final use of SMS: Bioremediation to absorb and break down organic and inorganic pollutants in soil.
The potential of SMS to improve farmland health by absorbing pollutants from overly fertilized or chemically treated soils.
The accessibility of mushroom growers at farmer's markets for obtaining spent mushroom substrate.
A call to action for listeners to leave comments and share their thoughts on the podcast.
Invitation for listeners to subscribe to the podcast and share it with friends.
Contact information for the host and social media presence under the name 'Big City Gardener'.
Final reminder to 'just grow it' as the podcast's motto.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
what's up world welcome back to another
episode of just grow with the podcast
i'm your host big city gardener and
today we're talking about different ways
you can use mushroom substrate
spent mushroom substrate or sms so when
you hear me say sms in this episode i'm
not talking about old school text
messaging okay so before we can get into
how to use
sms or spent mushroom substrate let's go
over what it is i've known this for a
while i've been lucky enough to meet
some dope individuals throughout my life
and they've all told me and taught me
different things
a good friend of mine used to be a big
time
medicinal and gourmet mushroom grower
yeah used to grow them on logs used to
grow them on coffee grounds he used to
grow them on soybean holes i mean this
dude has grown mushrooms on everything
so luckily i was able to see this and
learn a lot of this first hand because
i've also grown my fair share of gourmet
and medicinal mushrooms and i'm not
talking about the mushrooms that you pop
that have you tripping and have your
couch talking to you or anything like
that okay i'm talking lions manes
reishi's oysters things like that if you
don't know the medicinal and gourmet
mushroom industry has probably 10xed in
the past five years or so a lot of it
probably has to do with youtube content
creators just showing you how dope and
how easy it is to grow your own
mushrooms now
most mushrooms are grown on mushroom
blocks what is a mushroom block a
mushroom block is what you grow your
mushrooms on and i'm talking indoor
mushroom gardening
so with indoor mushroom gardening you
get these plastic bags you fill these
bags with a carbon rich source this is
your substrate you then sterilize the
substrate and then you
introduce your mycelium into the
substrate and allow it to colonize so
different examples of substrate that
people use include things like oats
straw wheat
soybean holes uh and even things like
hardwood pellets now as a gardener we
know that everything i just named from
the soybean holes to the oak to the oat
husk to the straw to the wheat to all of
that good stuff we all know that those
have benefits in our garden as well and
that's one thing that makes the sms or
the spent mushroom substrate so powerful
and so amazing a lot of indoor mushroom
growers after the mycelium has had time
to colonize these bags now your mushroom
grower he will introduce these bags into
an environment that will make the bags
produce fruit or produce mushrooms this
is called fruiting your mushrooms right
you put it into your fruiting chamber
that's usually a place with extremely
low temperatures in the 50s or so
depending on the strain that you're
growing and it has extremely high
humidity that's why mushrooms usually
pop up and appear after rainstorms
because it's the right combination of
the humidity and the moisture most of
these indoor farmers they will fruit
these bags one time they will throw it
into their chamber they will allow it to
produce or get one flush of mushrooms
off of it and then they will often times
throw out the bag why do they throw out
the bag well because if you leave the
bag in your mushroom garden you're
introducing or you're inviting things
like fungus gnats into your mushroom
garden or you're inviting something
called trichoderma
which is probably the worst thing that
you can have in
any sort of mushroom growing facility so
in order to keep their facility clean
they will often fruit the bags one time
and then get rid of them so what i need
every gardener to do
is to go and locate their local mushroom
grower and tell him that you will gladly
take all of his spent mushroom waste
i guarantee you he will thank you he
will be happy and he probably won't
charge you for it you're doing him a
favor now once you have this sms or
these spent mushroom blocks in your
possession i'm gonna tell you five
different ways that you can use them the
first thing we can do is we can get all
of these bags and throw them into our
compost pile we can allow them to break
down
since mushrooms are a fungus what we
will end up with is a fungally dominated
compost
and if you know anything about gardening
and if you don't let me tell you you
want fungal dominated soil and fungal
dominated compost you will have a much
better garden and get much better
results
if you have high fungus levels or high
fungal levels of soil or compost in your
garden another way the second way that
you could use
the sms the spent mushroom substrate is
by simply using it as a mulch
so get the bags cut them open and just
spread the one to two inch layer on top
of your soil not only will it give you
all of the benefits of organic mulch you
will probably end up getting a flush or
two of mushrooms out of your garden bed
so not only are we protecting our
tomatoes or our broccoli whatever it is
that we're growing we're also gonna get
mushrooms as well the third way that we
could use these mushroom blocks or this
spent mushroom substrate is as a form of
animal feed think about it if we have
things like oat husk or soybean holes in
our substrate
well a lot of animals whether it's
chickens whether it's pigs whether it's
goats or
yeah probably not cows whether it's
chickens pigs or goats these are all
things that are part of their natural
diet so we could easily take these spent
mushroom bags and feed them to any sort
of livestock that we have now i have no
first hand experience with using sms or
spent mushroom substrate as bio gas or
energy but the idea and the concept just
makes sense we could grow certain types
of bacteria that could ingest this
substrate and then convert it into
methane gas
so potentially you may be able to use
this as some sort of energy form i don't
know but like i said
i've never seen it done but like i said
the idea and the concept makes sense so
that means it probably could be done and
i'm sure there are universities that are
out there right now working on things
like this now the fifth and final way
that we can use this sms is in bio
remediation okay so
bringing back life
to an area that is
currently dead or by helping improve an
area that may be polluted or something
so the substrate if we were to apply it
into a polluted area this substrate this
sms has the ability
to absorb organic and inorganic
pollutants
now our microbes can eat the substrate
break down the substrate and in turn
they would be breaking down any sort of
organic or inorganic pollutants that may
have come in contact with that substrate
so let's say for overly fertilized row
crop farms and also for farms that have
used a lot of synthetic
chemical fertilizers and pest control
methods in theory we could take hundreds
and thousands of yards of this mushroom
substrate we should be able to lay it on
top of this soil the mushroom substrate
should be able to absorb the inorganic
and organic pollutants that are in the
soil the microbes should be able to
break down this substrate and we should
be left with farmland that is no longer
polluted again
i've never seen this done but i don't
see why it wouldn't work so
hopefully you listen to this episode and
has you thinking about mushrooms more
importantly it has you thinking about
how can i get my hands on some of these
mushroom blocks or this mushroom compost
with the explosion of farmers markets
all across america and all across the
world i guarantee you if you were to
spend one hour looking online or just
going to your farmer's market and
speaking to your local mushroom grower
he would be more than happy to give you
his spent blocks his sms that's it for
today folks i'm out of here but before i
go you know what i need i need you to
leave me a comment man let me know what
you think about these episodes let me
know what you think about just grow with
the podcast if you need to get in touch
with me for any reason check me out at
i grow at
bigcitygardener.com that's how you can
email me or you can find me at big city
gardener across all social media
platforms that's it for today don't
forget to do this one thing
and that is to just grow it we out
before i let you go i need you to do
more than one thing first i need you to
like comment subscribe to the podcast
second i need you to tell a friend or
two about the show if you enjoyed it and
if you have anybody you think i need to
talk to i should interview send the name
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check me out man on instagram and on all
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we out oh almost forgot just grow it
[Music]
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