Tomatos, grass, and... shrooms?

Happy Thursday Everyone~

Last week I found a gigantic mushroom growing in the backyard on the side of my house and decided it would be best to remove it and bring into the lab. Matt could not identify it so he suggested I reproduce it and see what happens (oh how I love science!). I basically took a piece of the shroom and wedged it between 2 layered cardboard pancakes and put it in a container with holes in the lid. I checked on them yesterday and I am pretty sure they are reproducing. Here are some pics :

This is what I found on the side of my house. Its huge!

Up CLOSE! This is the piece I broke in two for reproduction.

Cardboard soaking in some h2o.

Mushroom now live in a container free to reproduce in the absence of my fury friends (my weenie pups).

 

I will update next week with pictures of inside the container to show you what they look like before the stem and shroom out.

As far as my wicking project goes, I m pleased to report that I have sprouted grass seeds in the larger fish tank just after 4 days of placing seeds in the clay media. Here is a pic:

I also had time yesterday to build 2 more systems: 1 system that is more commonly used for wicking on a larger scale using a reservoir and different layers while the other system uses wicking in the literal term meaning fabric soaks up from a reservoir beneath grow media and is imbedded in the grow media allowing to feed the plant as needed. Here are some pics:

Here we have a traditional wicking system: the bottom layer consists of clay media and the reservoir fill tube
which is simply pvc, then there is a permeable barrier (I used burlap) to keep the top layer separated from the bottom, and the top layer is soil. I used this system to transplant that tomato I got from the garden club.

The other system was a little tricky. I used soil as well but instead of the bamboo destroyed bag as wicks I found some old t-shirts that I think will work better. Here are some pics:

These wicks will be intertwined with the soil media. 

 

wicks coming of bottom and will sit in reservoir

 I plan on paying close attention to which system works the best and will keep all of you updated. Have a great weekend

Peace,

Jenni