I see that I failed to realize how Otis precomposts: and how he uses grains. So his strategies are copied here :

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" I collect kitchen scraps in a sealed plastic bag (to bar flying critters). Depending on ambient temp. it could be a few days or a week, w/o new stuff being added to the bag, the bag will start to bulge from gas build-up as material start to decompose. So I thought, aha! This must be what caused SOP.
It is not necessarily protein as such to cause SOP but I think protein is more acute, maybe because of the nature of protein that will attract more/faster bacteria to cause gas(es).
I have mentioned several times on this web-site that I fed "gruel" to my herds. Old cereal, oatmeal nobody wants to eat, old flour cooked into a gruel. I keep it in ice-cream containers (with lid) and after 10 days or so it will form bubbles and rise. I guess that could/would happen in a worm's gut. I do not feed the gruel until past the bubbling stage. "

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I want a bin dominated by fungi so that the tea I make from it will prevent mildew and blackspot on roses. The experiment is based on reading "sources" --

Instead of a big outdoor bin, I have to eat the sherbet so I can use the container.

""Instead of a big outdoor bin, I have to eat the sherbet so I can use the container.""
That's when I started out buying/eating ice cream (strawberry) sold in plastic (1/2 gal) containers. Now I have way too many containers than needed. I got hooked on strawberry ice cream, taste superb soaked in brandy.

For top layer of the precompost (food scraps underneath), I'd use shredded cardboard, paper, straw, whatever - browns in short.

My impression is that the type of fungus you're talking about grows mostly on wood-type and paper scraps - i.e. cellulose and lignin.

I only know "SOP" as "standard operating procedures". A standard operating procedure of scientific writing is to not use an acronym in a document until the written out version has been used and the acronym identified. That always seemed both reasonable and helpful, to me.

That said: It has NEVER bothered me to ask what acronyms mean. I feel absolutely no "shame", "embarrassment", or "newbyness" for not knowing some "jargon/secret code". However, writing out whole words once, then identifying acronyms that follow, would at least prevent posts like this one.

So what does "SOP" mean in this context?

Paul

String of Pearls.

"A standard operating procedure of scientific writing is to not use an acronym in a document until the written out version has been used and the acronym identified." Yes.

Barbararose I'm in same boat as you I'm trying to start a fungal comp pile as well. I just bought some mushroom compost in the mean time and use it as bedding in some of my bins also in my compost tea.. My veggies were destroyed by black spot and fungus it was so depressing. I'm spraying neem oil every few days. I tried copper fungicides, baking soda and safflower oil and nothing works... I feel your pain.

I got half a yard of mushroom compost from a supply company.
(It's an AMAZING place, but not pertinent to this forum.)
AND learned I can get it free from Ostrums if I make an appointment.

We've had little rain this summer (Oly WA) and record breaking temperatures. The squash leaves have mildew but it doesn't seem to interfere with the fruiting.

I'm grateful for company in the composting-with-worms-for-fungi project.

I was cautioned that the mushroom compost "should" be watered to leach out some kind of salts. And I'm planning to let it sit all winter to do whatever doing nothing does.

If you don't mind, let's put our exchanges on the worms for fungi project in the mold/fungi thread in case we can get more
interest.

I'm thinking, hoping, to buy or get access to a microscope.