6. Biofabricating¶

Living organism¶

You will need

Ganoderma Mycelium expanded on a substratum (1kg)

Sawdust (1500 g)

Used Coffee powder(100 g)

Corn bran (400g)

Water 2lts

A big pot (over 15 lts. capacity)

Polyfan bags (3 or 4)

Portions

75% Sawdust

5% coffee

20 Corn bran

Process

Mix the sawdust, corn bran, used coffee powder and chalk all together. Weight it and add the same amount of water to the mix (2 lts. of water in this case)

Pack it all in a thick plastic bag. Close the bag an put it in a big pot

I put it on fire for 4 hours. These process will kill other living organisms that are already spreading and colonizing the mixture we just made. We do not want any strong competitor to fight again our Ganoderma.
Let’s cool down the mixture. I waited for another hour.
In the meantime, I cleaned everything with a bactericide after cleaning all working surfaces with alcohol. Alcohol is not enough. A bactericide is recommended
After an hour, I mixed 1kg of the expanded ganoderma I bought form a local provider with the 2kg mixture I just pasteurized. In lab conditions, you can use as little as 2% of expanded ganoderma mycelium. Yet, as our lab does not have proper isolation nor fungicide control filters, I am using a lot more of ganoderma expansion. This will help the mushroom to colonize all remaining biomass

NOTE. Use globes and a mask so you can manipulate the mixture without introducing many other organisms. Have in mind that our skins, hair, saliva… our body is a huge substratum where many bacteria, yeast, spores rest and live. Try to do everything as neat as possible

I put the mixture in a sterilized bag and in a dark cabinet. Let it there for 2 weeks. This is the result

I cut some holes in the walls of my “waffle” mannequin, this will help the mycelium to bond altogether through the layers of the mannequin.
I also sprayed some alcohol over the cadboard surface and let it dry for 5 minutes

carefully put the mycelium around the waffle layers
wrap everything with cotton sterilized bandages. I am not using mask as the biomass is already colonized by the mycelium.

Another 2 weeks in a dark bag, and here is the result

NOTE 2. Have in mind that mushrooms bread oxygen, they need some air to grow. Therefore, when we put them in bags so they can grow in dark areas, it is important to have a small entrance of air. I used a cotton filter so other organisms could not get in the bag