http://www.redwormcomposting.com/reader-photos/worm-bin-mushrooms/ Red Wiggler Worms, European Nightcrawlers and loads of helpful Worm Composting Information Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:40:02 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.redwormcomposting.com/reader-photos/worm-bin-mushrooms/comment-page-1/#comment-7615 Daniel Herrington Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:00:40 +0000 http://www.redwormcomposting.com/?p=183#comment-7615 Hi Bentley, interesting inquiry regarding the Mushroom growth. I think I can address the last part since I work with fungi. Essentially the mushroom runs out, rather than being eaten. Like the worms if unfed in a bin would eventually starve, a similar process happens with the mushroom. However, the mycelium strands which are technically vegetative would tend to bind to the soil underneath as the mushroom collapses for lack of nutrition. I can, for instance, grow Oyster mushrooms in a 27 pound bag of newspapers and within 25 days break all the material down to a virtual topsoil. If I kept the supply of papers coming then the Oysters would continue to be like a crop on a farm and could be harvested and even eaten. The topsoil material is then like our compost from Vermi. That said, the mycelium stays in the soils and like a network of strands will help to bind it. Very much as mycelium does in the wild. When we walk on that soft fungal soil, that is what we are walking on. I hope that helps. Http://www.fungi.com can also shed some light on this topic. For my part, I do both the Vermi and use Fungal material as well. Hi Bentley, interesting inquiry regarding the Mushroom growth. I think I can address the last part since I work with fungi. Essentially the mushroom runs out, rather than being eaten. Like the worms if unfed in a bin would eventually starve, a similar process happens with the mushroom. However, the mycelium strands which are technically vegetative would tend to bind to the soil underneath as the mushroom collapses for lack of nutrition. I can, for instance, grow Oyster mushrooms in a 27 pound bag of newspapers and within 25 days break all the material down to a virtual topsoil. If I kept the supply of papers coming then the Oysters would continue to be like a crop on a farm and could be harvested and even eaten. The topsoil material is then like our compost from Vermi. That said, the mycelium stays in the soils and like a network of strands will help to bind it. Very much as mycelium does in the wild. When we walk on that soft fungal soil, that is what we are walking on. I hope that helps. Http://www.fungi.com can also shed some light on this topic. For my part, I do both the Vermi and use Fungal material as well.

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