My sister worked as an intern on mycelium as fertilizer. Basically, using cover crops create a small mycelium layer that helps plant grow and reduce fertilizer use (by fixing nitrogen probably). Her job was to find molecules that would make the mycelium, and only the mycelium, grow quicker.
That's a very interesting field to study, and it seems promising.
Just a side note. I started growing mushrooms a couple of years ago.
Very interesting and fulfilling hobby, they are incredibly interesting critters. Takes a little bit of dedication to get started but once you start seeing them fruit and making your own substrate it's quite inexpensive and a lot of fun. I have a feeling lots of folks in this community would really like it.
Basic starter package is a 'monotub', selection of spores, grain for spawning, substrate for fruiting and miscellaneous bits and bobs for handling, hydrating, maintaining temps and cultivating. North Spore and Midwest Grow Kits are both reputable and reliable suppliers.
Looks really cool, though I don't know if the name is conducive to business. With just the URL I would not have clicked to see that the business is about.
Ironically I only came to this HN post and clicked on the URL because of the name. At first I misunderstood the description and thought they were doing industrial-scale packaging of magical mushroom mycelium.
That's a URL bait!
Years ago I ran an ecommerce site for gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. We certainly had nothing to do with illegal mushrooms, but I liberally sprinkled the word 'magic' where ever possible. Also the words 'Ann+Arbor'... It seemed to drive some traffic.
Any PR is good PR, I guess?
> Mushroom® Packaging, grown from natural mushroom mycelium and agricultural by-products …
Does anyone know the agricultural byproducts are?
Certainly dung. A common substrate for growing mushroom is a straw or shredded wood depending on the species plus manure.
It says it is the woody core of hemp.
There are already companies that use packaging made from formed paper and sugarcane. I would be interested to see what mycelium packaging offers over this.
In the old days, wood shaving and even popcorn were the packing material of choice.
The reason styrofoam is used is because it's cheaper (main) and it doesn't decompose when wet.
I believe the mushroom packaging is more like a foam, so it may be able to better protect products. Additionally, it may have a more "premium" feeling/appearance vs. pulp packaging.
Looking at the images, it looks less premium to me than the smoother mouled paper inserts I've seen on electronic products. You could be right on with the foam aspect though.
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Not sure if they were the first, or whatever, but this really seems like a breakthrough technology / methodology. How many cardboard boxes do we use a day? The mind boggles.
Totally cool stuff.
This seems more like a replacement for Styrofoam rather than cardboard boxes, though it could certainly be used in places we already use cardboard inserts. But probably still need a cardboard box on the outside. Thankfully we can grow those too!!
> This seems more like a replacement for Styrofoam rather than cardboard boxes
It seems rigid though, more akin to cardboard than soft styrofoam. I don't see anything about how dampening it is, but from the pictures I also assumed it was more like cardboard than styrofoam. Maybe the color is deceiving me though.
Under "Features" it explicitly calls out polystyrene as what it is meant to replace, and under "Performance" they claim to provide for clients "that demand the same technical performance as the polystyrene we replace"
Under Features, it lists polystyrene products as what it replaces, not cardboard.
Dell have been using mycelium packaging for a while now - 2014 maybe? created in the US. Very interested to see this space go.
Dell (and IKEA, and others) source from Ecovative who have been working on this for a while: https://ecovative.com/
I don't think this is better for the environment than cardboard (if anything it is probably worse as a direct replacement for cardboard because cardboard already has a robust recycling supplychain). Rather, it is a replacement for plastic foam.
Cardboard is mostly renewable, it's the applications where we combine it with plastic where alternatives are needed.
This isn't different from cardboard. This is made from mushrooms, cardboard is made from trees. The real problem is plastics.
I like the web site. Using on mobile. Not as bland as most. I normally don't like animation but this one is done nicely.
how's this Europe's given factories (and all likeliness all else) is in UK?
geographically, perhaps, not EU though. and not relevant to EU where there are at least several similar companies such as
Grown.bio - Netherlands
PermaFungi - Brussels (New 1,400 m² factory)
RongoDesign - Romania
Biomyc - Bulgaria
perhaps more. So this title is super misleading - not first, not Europe's, but perhaps UK's
Thanks for the links ! Good to have an overview of the current crop turns out there is a factory near me
> geographically, perhaps, not EU though
I figure that's why they said Europe's first industrial scale; not the EU's first industrial scale...
EU <> Europe
The UK is still in Europe, even if it's left the EU.
> how's this Europe's given factories (and all likeliness all else) is in UK?
You know that a company can own factories in other countries, yes?
It’s written in the linked page:
“Europe's first industrial-scale mycelium packaging producer”.
Sounds like a great product, but a tough name in a business messaging context. The Customer Acquisition Cost for people that missed business culture fit rules can be extraordinarily high.
Maybe some sort of additional corporate alias name with "Biocomposite" or "Sustainable" packaging related messaging. Also, one may want to contact Uline with a set of product sku that already fit generic shipping boxes for high-value items like wine bottles and laptop screens.
Have a great day =3
Going on a little PR adventure today are we?
This site is run by venture capitalists, I think it's part of the package as long as they don't pretend otherwise.
Is it edible?
Maybe not by humans, but definitely by the various things living in your compost pile.
My sister worked as an intern on mycelium as fertilizer. Basically, using cover crops create a small mycelium layer that helps plant grow and reduce fertilizer use (by fixing nitrogen probably). Her job was to find molecules that would make the mycelium, and only the mycelium, grow quicker.
That's a very interesting field to study, and it seems promising.
Just a side note. I started growing mushrooms a couple of years ago.
Very interesting and fulfilling hobby, they are incredibly interesting critters. Takes a little bit of dedication to get started but once you start seeing them fruit and making your own substrate it's quite inexpensive and a lot of fun. I have a feeling lots of folks in this community would really like it.
Basic starter package is a 'monotub', selection of spores, grain for spawning, substrate for fruiting and miscellaneous bits and bobs for handling, hydrating, maintaining temps and cultivating. North Spore and Midwest Grow Kits are both reputable and reliable suppliers.
Tons of resources on YouTube as you might expect. One of my favorites is Southwest Mushrooms - https://www.youtube.com/@SouthwestMushrooms
Looks really cool, though I don't know if the name is conducive to business. With just the URL I would not have clicked to see that the business is about.
Ironically I only came to this HN post and clicked on the URL because of the name. At first I misunderstood the description and thought they were doing industrial-scale packaging of magical mushroom mycelium.
That's a URL bait!
Years ago I ran an ecommerce site for gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. We certainly had nothing to do with illegal mushrooms, but I liberally sprinkled the word 'magic' where ever possible. Also the words 'Ann+Arbor'... It seemed to drive some traffic.
Any PR is good PR, I guess?
Certainly dung. A common substrate for growing mushroom is a straw or shredded wood depending on the species plus manure.
It says it is the woody core of hemp.
There are already companies that use packaging made from formed paper and sugarcane. I would be interested to see what mycelium packaging offers over this.
E.g. https://www.jishan-group.com/pulp-products.
In the old days, wood shaving and even popcorn were the packing material of choice.
The reason styrofoam is used is because it's cheaper (main) and it doesn't decompose when wet.
I believe the mushroom packaging is more like a foam, so it may be able to better protect products. Additionally, it may have a more "premium" feeling/appearance vs. pulp packaging.
Looking at the images, it looks less premium to me than the smoother mouled paper inserts I've seen on electronic products. You could be right on with the foam aspect though.
Not sure if they were the first, or whatever, but this really seems like a breakthrough technology / methodology. How many cardboard boxes do we use a day? The mind boggles.
Totally cool stuff.
This seems more like a replacement for Styrofoam rather than cardboard boxes, though it could certainly be used in places we already use cardboard inserts. But probably still need a cardboard box on the outside. Thankfully we can grow those too!!
> This seems more like a replacement for Styrofoam rather than cardboard boxes
It seems rigid though, more akin to cardboard than soft styrofoam. I don't see anything about how dampening it is, but from the pictures I also assumed it was more like cardboard than styrofoam. Maybe the color is deceiving me though.
https://magicalmushroom.com/mushroom-packaging
Under "Features" it explicitly calls out polystyrene as what it is meant to replace, and under "Performance" they claim to provide for clients "that demand the same technical performance as the polystyrene we replace"
https://magicalmushroom.com/mushroom-packaging
Under Features, it lists polystyrene products as what it replaces, not cardboard.
Dell have been using mycelium packaging for a while now - 2014 maybe? created in the US. Very interested to see this space go.
Dell (and IKEA, and others) source from Ecovative who have been working on this for a while: https://ecovative.com/
I don't think this is better for the environment than cardboard (if anything it is probably worse as a direct replacement for cardboard because cardboard already has a robust recycling supplychain). Rather, it is a replacement for plastic foam.
Cardboard is mostly renewable, it's the applications where we combine it with plastic where alternatives are needed.
This isn't different from cardboard. This is made from mushrooms, cardboard is made from trees. The real problem is plastics.
I like the web site. Using on mobile. Not as bland as most. I normally don't like animation but this one is done nicely.
how's this Europe's given factories (and all likeliness all else) is in UK?
https://magicalmushroom.com/manufacturing/the-factories
geographically, perhaps, not EU though. and not relevant to EU where there are at least several similar companies such as
Grown.bio - Netherlands PermaFungi - Brussels (New 1,400 m² factory) RongoDesign - Romania Biomyc - Bulgaria
perhaps more. So this title is super misleading - not first, not Europe's, but perhaps UK's
Thanks for the links ! Good to have an overview of the current crop turns out there is a factory near me
> geographically, perhaps, not EU though
I figure that's why they said Europe's first industrial scale; not the EU's first industrial scale...
EU <> Europe
The UK is still in Europe, even if it's left the EU.
> how's this Europe's given factories (and all likeliness all else) is in UK?
You know that a company can own factories in other countries, yes?
It’s written in the linked page:
“Europe's first industrial-scale mycelium packaging producer”.
Sounds like a great product, but a tough name in a business messaging context. The Customer Acquisition Cost for people that missed business culture fit rules can be extraordinarily high.
Maybe some sort of additional corporate alias name with "Biocomposite" or "Sustainable" packaging related messaging. Also, one may want to contact Uline with a set of product sku that already fit generic shipping boxes for high-value items like wine bottles and laptop screens.
Have a great day =3
Going on a little PR adventure today are we?
This site is run by venture capitalists, I think it's part of the package as long as they don't pretend otherwise.
Is it edible?
Maybe not by humans, but definitely by the various things living in your compost pile.