Mushroom Mini Farm

What I took to be only mildly interesting mycelial growth turned out to be the humble beginnings of fruiting mushrooms!

A more recent picture of them:

And a super-recent picture of them:

There are actually already visible gills running down the stems (oyster mushroom gills being decurrent). It's really cool.

The mycelium growing on the cardboard in the pie tin is spreading nicely (although, again, it's unclear whether it's oyster or mold), so in a week or so I'm going to transfer it to a larger substrate. I'm thinking mostly shredded paper and some spent coffee grounds.

If it seems worth doing, I'll also take some tissue from the mushroom-farm mushrooms and try to clone it, too. Looks like I'll need to come up with more empty pie tins somehow. Darn - no rest for the wicked!

Mycelial Growth

There she is:

There's some interesting growth around the edges, where I didn't scrape any mycelium away. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it's the only sign of life thus far. It's been there for a few days now, and is slowly getting bigger. I hope that means there'll be more activity soon - we'll find out.

Fuzz

I recently bought a little boxed mini mushroom farm. It cost me fifteen dollars, and if it works and I get to watch oyster mushrooms grow, it'll be well worth it. I'm on day four or five, and I can see mycelium slowly growing beneath the surface of the substrate. I'll be posting pictures when it gets interesting.

Part of preparing the little mushroom farm was scraping a layer of mycelium off of part of the surface of the soil. I'm not sure if this mycelium was still active and capable of spreading, but I figure this is an excellent opportunity to find out.

I'm using cardboard strips (soaked in hot water and sealed in a pie tin) as a starter, and, sure enough, after a few days of warmth and darkness, there are patches of white fuzz sprouting up on the cardboard. It's hard to tell if this is oyster mushroom mycelium or just a common mold (not unlikely, considering the age of our house), but I'd like to try to transfer it to a more substantial substrate and see what happens.


I got a copy of Pontiak's "Echo Ono" for Christmas, and I really like it. Eventually I'll post a review.

Of Transcendence and Index Funds

...or maybe just index funds.

I've just begun dabbling in stock market investing, after having done plenty of reading on the subject. I figure passive index-based investing is the way to go, so here's what I'd like my asset allocation to look like once I've started making some real money.

About a third (or a bit more) in a small-cap index, like NAESX.
About a third in a large-cap index, like VFINX.
About a third in an international stock index, like VEURX or VGTSX.

Since I'm getting a pretty early start on investing, I don't want anything in bonds for a good long while. I figure it would also make sense to have more funds in a small-cap than in a large-cap or international index - since I'm playing the long game, I don't mind some added volatility.

For the time being, I'm only invested in Vanguard's STAR fund (VGTSX). It's actively managed, which I don't like, and it's about 40% bonds, which I definitely don't like. But it was the only halfway decent fund for which I could afford the minimum investment (being a college student and all), so I figured I'd go for it. It's doing phenomenally well, too; it's earned about 6.5% over the last four months. I know it's just been a good four months for the market, but I can't help but be encouraged.

I also really like the idea of paying as little in taxes as possible. My holdings are in a Roth IRA, but the more I think about it the less certain I am that I should stay with the Roth. I hope to be retired when I withdraw most of this money, which means I'll likely be in a lowish tax bracket. So the Roth makes sense right now, when I'm making very little money, but for most of my working life it might make more sense to be contributing to a traditional IRA.

Obviously I'm pretty new to most of this stuff, so if anyone thinks I'm being an idiot, please do let me know where my thinking is wrong.

Introductions

This post is going to be a little overview - who I am, what I want from this blog, etc.

I'm a college student studying Psychology, Philosophy, and Political Science. I play guitar (not very well) and I do a lot of reading. I also like writing, but I've fallen out of the habit. I'm interested in mycology, investing, and politics (I lean to the right on economic issues and to the left on social issues. I tend to vote libertarian.), among other things.

My plan is to use this space to do some writing for myself. I'll likely be discussing music and investing, maybe occasionally religion and spirituality, and I'll also be keeping track of any mycological experiments I may undergo (I have one in progress now).

This blog is primarily for me. I won't be updating frequently, and I'm going to be as boring as I want - fair warning, there will be pictures of mushrooms.