Can anyone tell me if this is something normal? I have been growing my first mushrooms on my own and everything is going quite well. Just yesterday I saw this strange mushroom between the two jars, growing from the perlite... Is this a bad sign of contamination or should I not worry? You can see it right in the middle of the picture.

Picture

I dont believe that is supposed to happen, I have never heard of it. I have not grown myself though, but it seems there are two little pinners growing near it as well out of the perlite? They seem to be somewhat blue near the tops, at least the larger of the three. Doesnt really tell us much but it could be an indication of it being active.

Maybe Jamie can chime in on this, he is very knowledged in this area.

Are those jars OVER cakes atop perlite? A bigger picture may help folks to help you

yeah I cant really tell what I'm looking at...

is it two cakes... colonizing? Is that why there are jars there? If so, why are there two jars colonizing while sitting in soupy perlite?
Or are they... fruiting stage? If so, why are they in the jars?
Please explain what stage of the process this is.
the renegade shrooms all the way look like skinny P. cubensis, but I cannot imagine how on earth they would have colonized your perlite unless you have already gotten a flush and let some open their caps to spore... and there was some nutritive substrate IN the perlite for them to colonize... IDK if miracle grow perlite's synth nutrients alone would be enough to feed mycelium, but that could account for their splindly-ness.

To answer yr question, no this isn't "normal" but then I dunno really as I have only pulled off like 6 cakes, don't have those years of experience to say. And if I was backed into a corner, I'd say those shrooms are 90% likely the same ones you are growing, but like I said I have no clue how they could have colonized that perlite soup, esp. if its the first flush and none have spored.

Oh and btw you should invest in one of those squeeze-suckers... like for oil or even the little ones for cleaning out ears, it will allow you to suck out that nasty soup which can easily grow some bacterium (if you smell a funky smell coming from the perlite, it is this)

Here is what I see in the picture and my assessment of what may be going on here:

In the picture I see two fully colonized jars, with their lids off upside down in perlite, if that's the case I have no idea what gave you that idea.... moving on. Pick up on of those jars in the picture, is there mycelium growing from the jar into the perlite? If so, here's my idea: your cakes wanted to fruit, but were confined, so the mycelium took a detour in the perlite to pop up in air to fruit.

Ok sorry guys, should have given more info.

Yes this is the fruiting stage

The two jars are indeed fully colonized and I have already had one flush out of them. One of the mushrooms did indeed drop its spores before I was able to pick it, making the whole jar purple. I was thinking this might have been the reason for the other mushroom to grow out of the jars, but the little mushroom looks a lot different, less fat and longer. As far as I know the perlite did not contain any nutrients... So I have no idea how those shrooms are getting there.

I attended a workshop a while ago on how to do this and the person giving it told us to put perlite on top of the jars as well. He said this extra layer would reduce contamination risks. I have just added some water to the perlite as I was instructed hence the messy soup. By the way, I tried getting the cakes out of the jars, but they just wouldn't come out, plus the guy at the workshop told us it would also work fine from within the jar. This is something I will definitely do different next time as I have seen mushrooms grow at the sides as well which I am unable to pick.

I will post more pics as soon as I am back home.

Edit: Here are some more pics:

Pic 1
Pic 2
In between the two jars

Ok.

The reason you cant get the cakes out is because you used the wrong jars. You want "wide mouth" mason jars. They are tapered the opposite direction as yours which allows the cakes to be removed.

Second, its not perlite but vermiculite that you can place on top. Look up "dunk and roll" on google.



I would say the reason the mushroom looks different is because it isnt getting what it needs. How it got there or why its growing at all confuses me. I also see more than just one mushroom growing in the perlite, also looks like a little bit of mycelium. growing around in the perlite. Is that perlite clean?

Obviously you wouldn't be able to dunk and roll in your situation. Personally if you could break that glass without getting glass all over the cake thats what I would do. Then follow the dunk and roll procedure. Of course doing this after removing what mushrooms are already good to pick.

Then get yourself some wide mouth mason jars and try those out instead. I wouldn't leave cakes inside the jar when placing in your fruiting chamber personally.

From those photos...

1) Is there standing water in the jars? There shouldn't be if there is.

2) The fruiting chamber isn't groovy... the perlite should be as moist as it will get, but not in a pool of water ALSO the fruiting chamber need holes to allow FAE (fresh air exchange)... check out how to build a proper Shotgun Fruiting Chamber (which is what it looks like you were shooting for) here http://www.mushroomvideos.com/Terrarium-Tek

This site also has EVERYTHING you need to know to successfully cultivate mushrooms.

3) The jar on the right (with all the purple (spores)) looks contaminated. Not 100% sure but those greyish/greenish patches are seldom good and don't look like bruising (someone else can weigh in on that too)

4) Those mushrooms in the perlite had to come from mycellium... did you drop chunks of cake in there? Were the jars upside down with the cake sitting directly on the perlite? How long were cakes in there before you saw fruits start to form?

My advice: read, read, read. There's a number of things going on here that are simple to fix. The website above will get you to good shroomy places...

Good luck and let us know how things progress... I love to see folks succeed at this sport

So you got a few mushies this way... by tweaking these few things... you should get more.

What you're trying to do should look a little more like this...

Thanks for the advice guys.

I have removed the right jar from the box just in case and have replaced the perlite with new moist one without it being a pool of water. There is no water in the jars...

I'll try to still make the fruiting chamber like in that video. (Great site by the way).
Concerning the dunk & roll tek, I will keep that for next time as I don't have any vermiculite at the moment.

And yes it could be that some pieces of mycelium have dropped into the perlite now that you mention it. I think this happened when I tried to get the cakes out of the jars...

I will keep you upated. In the meantime I can tell you that there are 3 mushrooms in the jar at the momen. That makes me pretty happy in any case.

Here is a pic of how they looked yesterday morning. By evening the caps were open and I picked them:

Pic

Well it looks like other than the above listed your doing good.

Practice makes perfect

Congratz on your first harvest!

ohp, late congrats,

live and learn, and at least you pulled off a few princes!