Mycelium Project

For my sustainable systems group project, I was assigned to grow mycelium to study and learn the possible uses of that material. Mycelium is an eco-friendly alternative to using plastic or styrofoam for packaging. The mycelium kit was purchased at Making Center Store with almost all the materials needed. The protocol was easy to read and very straightforward. My group partners and I all took turns performing different steps of the experiment and I stored the mycelium under my kitchen table in my dorm since it is a clean area with no sunlight. We decided to use two molds in case we encountered a problem and luckily, we did. For our molds, we used plastic bottles. When we were storing the molds full of mycelium, we left the caps on the bottles on, therefore there was no access to oxygen for the mycelium. I discovered this when, after one week, I opened the caps to the bottles and there was a loud hissing sound. I also tried cutting open one bottle and all the mycelium fell out of the bottle, as it did not take the form of the mold. We learned from our mistakes and let the other bottle with the cap open grow mycelium for a week. The mycelium successfully grew after another week, in the proper conditions.