F.I.G.
Factory Industries Group
Mycelium
I started with a hobbyist grow kit at home using coffee grounds which I "decontaminated" by boiling them in water (dumb). They quickly molded. Using the autoclave to sterilize the coffee grounds improved my results (no shit). I tried heat-pressing some of my home-grown fruiting oyster mushroom bodies with a touch of glycerol as a material test (felt like this could add a fun decorative element to mycelium leather).
I switched to a SPORELESS Mycelium Pure Culture of Pleurotus ostreatus from HomeGreen NL. This culture was better for material experiments since it was fast-growing and non-fruiting. I inoculated it in different pure substrates (rye soaked in water, coffee grounds, wood shavings, and straw). I forgot to autoclave the wood and straw so it's no surprise these didn't work (the mold in my apartment was getting to me :P).
I'm curious how they would compare with added moisture, although I've heard the best substrate is usually a composite - straw mixed with coffee grounds or rye, etc.
Mycelium needs a nutrient base with a carbohydrate source (malt extract, dextrose/glucose, or corn syrup/honey) and a nitrogen source (yeast extract/peptone). So 1. (PYA w/ no carb source) and 2. (honey & water - no nitrogen source) are both inept, but I wanted to see how they'd compare. 1 grew evenly but thin. Despite honey's antimicrobial properties, honey and water alone wasn't enough to support fungal dominance in 2. 3. worked well, but 10g of MSG was too high (should be 1-2g per liter of water), and probably unnecessary since the PYA was already a nitrogen source. I realized I was way off on my water ratio, which should've been 500ml-1 liter to balance the amount of nutrients. 4. had carbs from the malt and MSG as a nitrogen source.
I learned MSG can assist with protein synthesis to some degree, but on its own it doesn't provide the diversity of nitrogen compounds you want. There are smarter alternatives.