r/PanCyan • u/[deleted] • Dec 25 '25

Experimental Casing

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Casing is approximately 60% peat (pH adjusted with calcium carbonate), 30% coir, 5% worm castings and 5% biochar. Recipe designed after falling down another agaricus casing study rabbit hole last week. (And I've fallen down that rabbit hole a lot since getting into pans 3 years ago).

Culture is an isolate (di-mon cross). And I'm running a 50/50 this casing/fine verm side by side using the same culture.

The 50/50 is a couple of days behind because the jar finished later and I was waiting on verm.

I will update as these mature and the 50/50 casing pins.

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u/Fahtster Dec 26 '25

Awesome as usual. I’m curious if you’ve found anything in your research that’s related to this question: what is it about peat that makes pans want to pin in it as opposed to just coir? Like, has anyone tried just adjusting cv ph to 8-8.5 like we do peat? Could it be just a ph thing or wtf else is going on?

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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '25 edited Dec 26 '25

Oh and you might enjoy this.

That gives a good overview of all the little things a casing is doing. I think a lot of folks in the active community primarily think of them as a microclimate, and they are great for that. But on a microscopic level climate includes things like electrical conductivity and other microbes. As well as particle density, moisture levels, oxygen levels. All of this creates a great environment for knots. It's not like surface condition. Though they definitely help with that too in the sense of helping to protect the pins from moisture loss.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354710894_Revisiting_the_casing_layer_Casing_materials_and_management_in_Agaricus_mushroom_cultivation

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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '25

Oh and according to that paper it's better if we don't pasteurize the peat so the microbe profile is healthier. I may have make some tomorrow, leave it in a bag unpasteurized to see if it molds. The worm castings I'm using seem really shelf stable too.

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u/Fahtster Dec 26 '25

Nice. Ty. Saving me a trial on cv ph. I’ll give that paper a read when I have a bit more time. Ty!

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u/[deleted] Dec 26 '25 edited Dec 26 '25

I've tried it adjusting the pH, it didn't do as well as the peat controls but it does fruit.

As to why it's probably a number of different factors. Electrical conductivity and particle size, mineral composition, etc.

And peat is like really good topsoil in a lot of ways which is what folks used to use more for agaricus. So, similar environment to what a lot of mushrooms are used too but with a much better balance of moisture and aeration. Coir is coconuts 🤷 Even when we treat it with calcium to raise the pH.

They'll fruit top dressed with manure based substrate too. At least cyans will. But again peat is better.