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Here are some pictures of the peroxide method and the steps involved in mushroom growing as taught in the manual. You can click on the first link to get started through the slideshow, or you can view individual pictures from the list by clicking that link.
Pouring agar plates
Cutting agar to transfer mycelium
Inoculating mushroom spawn
Jars of Ten Minute Spawn on a bookshelf
Some mushroom growing equipment
Balloon test for peroxide concentration
Inoculating a bucket of substrate
Filling a bag with inoculated substrate
The substrate sealed in a bag, inside a box
The results
About the author
Here I'm pouring melted nutrient agar containing peroxide into a set of reusable plastic petri dishes. This is taken in my kitchen, with no air filtration in use. After the agar solidifies and the plates are dried for a few days, they are used for maintaining mushroom tissue cultures. Virtually any commonly cultivated mushroom species can be grown on peroxide-treated nutrient agar.
Here I am using a metal X-acto knife, already sterilized in the flame of the alcohol lamp nearby, for cutting a chunk of agar culture from a peroxide plate to transfer the mushroom tissue (mycelium) to a jar of "10-minute spawn" medium, all in the open air of my kitchen. You can see the halo of white mushroom tissue on the plate, although the photograph exaggerates the size of it relative to the size of the plate. The organism is Hericium erinaceus (Lions Mane), a wood decomposer, but other mushroom species can be handled exactly the same way.
Here I'm inoculating a jar "Ten-minute spawn" medium in the open air with a chunk of mycelium from an agar culture of Hericium erinaceus, using a flame-sterilized X-acto knife for the transfer. A stack of peroxide-treated agar Petri dish cultures sits to the left, inside a plastic food storage bag.
Spawn is essentially a mushroom "starter" culture used to inoculate the final mushroom-producing cultures. The Ten-minute spawn is so-named because it takes only 10 minutes to steam it, compared to at least 45 minutes to sterilize ordinary spawn in a pressure cooker. The medium contains materials chosen to be compatible with peroxide, in this case wood pellet fuel and paper fiber pellets, suitable for cultivation of wood decomposing mushrooms.
Here's the bookshelf where I grow my peroxide-treated "Ten Minute Spawn," which will be used to inoculate the final bulk substrate for mushroom production. As always, there is no air filtration in use. The Ten Minute Spawn is a sawdust based medium. Some species are better grown on sterilized grain spawn, which can also be treated with peroxide after pressure-cooking to destroy the peroxide-decomposing enzymes present in the raw grain. There are even forms of grain that can be prepared with a brief steaming much like the Ten Minute Spawn, but these tend to be much more expensive than raw grain.
Here's some of my basic equipment for the peroxide method: a bag of pellet fuel (in this case oak, from Pennington Seed), a 5-gallon bucket with lid for mixing substrate, a bottle of 3% peroxide solution, and a 500 ml graduated cylinder with a 10 ml measuring pipette inside, for measuring peroxide.
If you are just a beginner at mushroom growing, whether or not you use the peroxide method, you will probably want a pressure cooker for making agar plates (although they can be made, less reliably, without it), jars with lids, a couple of pots for boiling water, an alcohol lamp, a small scale or balance for weighing, some petri dishes, some small boxes, some fresh trash bags, a hand mister, and a cool space. Later you may want a fan and an automatic misting system.
To measure the peroxide concentration in the bottles you get from the store, you will also need a small test tube with a lip, and a balloon. You will NOT need a glove box, HEPA filters, ultraviolet lights, a sterile laboratory, laminar flow hoods, air locks, foot washes, etc. etc.
For some suggestions on obtaining the supplies used in the peroxide manual if you live in the US or the UK, visit my Sources page.
This shows my simple test for peroxide concentration---necessary because stock solutions can lose their punch. The test tube received a few milliliters of hydrogen peroxide solution, which has now decomposed to release oxygen, filling the balloon. Although you can't see it in this picture, my fingers are holding in place a fat rubber band wrapped around the mouth of the balloon to keep a tight seal on the tube. Once all the peroxide has broken down, the balloon is carefully removed and the oxygen is measured by releasing it into an inverted graduated cylinder filled with water.
Here I am, headless, inoculating a 5 gallon bucket of peroxide-treated oak pellet fuel substrate with a jar of elm oyster "Ten minute spawn." As usual, this is taken in my kitchen, with all the action performed in the open air.
Pellet fuel is an ideal substrate for the peroxide method, because it is completely peroxide-compatible, free of enzymes that break down hydrogen peroxide. But pellet fuel is far from being the only substrate that works. You can use straw and similar drainable materials (details in Volume II of the manual), or certain peroxide-compatible porous woody materials such as sawdust-based cat litter (in the UK, Fussy Puss™ litter), additive-free composite logs (in the UK, Clean Heat™ logs), the sawdust derived from milling of kiln-dried lumber, paper fiber pellets (in the US, Crown™ Animal Bedding or Good Mews™ Cat litter), paper pulp, and clean cardboard. Any other porous substrate commonly used for mushroom growth, such as raw sawdust, will work with peroxide if you first pressure-sterilize the substrate, or bake it for several hours at 275-300 degrees F (150 degrees C), or steam it 24 hours, to destroy the peroxide-decomposing enzymes present in it.
Some mushrooms, such as white buttons and their relatives, grow best on compost, which can generally be prepared without peroxide, although I am investigating ways to improve compost making with the help of peroxide.
Here I'm pouring inoculated, peroxide-treated pellet fuel substrate from a 5 gallon bucket into a fresh plastic "tall kitchen bag" supported by a cardboard box. In some cases, it may be more convenient to add spawn to the bags after filling, rather than before. And there are various alternatives to using bags, such as plastic buckets with loose fitting lids. Of course, some mushrooms may be grown in beds rather than in bags.
This is taken in my kitchen. No HEPA filters or glove box in sight. Jars of "Ten Minute Spawn" in the background.
This is what my wood-decomposing mushroom cultures look like after the trash bag is filled with inoculated, peroxide-treated substrate and sealed with a twist tie. I leave the bag in the cardboard box until the mycelium knits the substrate together. There is no filter on the bag for gas exchange, as the thin plastic allows enough oxygen to diffuse through to the culture.
When the culture is ready to form mushrooms, I put a small slit in the side of the bag, and the mushrooms grow out the slit
This is what it is all about!