Has anyone other than me thought about the possibility of using Muscle beards in place of peat or coco?
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This is a neat question and idea. I HAVE NO IDEA as the first thing that popped into my head was a laughable:
I then look up the scientific term for a “muscle beard” and finding it out to be called a " byssus"
and then found this as a fascinating thing to learn about today:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-79253-7
Learning for the sake of learning is fun 
, I hope you find your answer!
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Thanks. And thanks for the link
It’s ridiculous but that was the first thing I thought of too. Great minds and all 
never heard of em til now honestly but that makes sense as I’ve been in the Midwest my whole life
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People get very creative about using anything other than no-till soil… which has worked for millions of years and doesn’t really cost anything. It’s fascinating. Reinventing the wheel over and over. 
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Odd. I’ve heard of no till farming but never no till soil. Another wannabe know it all proving they don’t know shit.
Now now this is OG not Reddit.
Mayhap the term “no till soil” was a slip of the finger-words due to bong hits or dabs? 
We are in a thread about “muscle beards” which was funny as hell to me all while I knew it wasn’t about whey chugging bro’s with beards 
I do see @Rogue’s point but didn’t read it as a negative thing. I experiment with so many ways to fail all while knowing if I do what my grandfather and father taught me in the first place it would just work… (but where is the fun in that!?!)
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He didn’t have anything constructive to say. It was clear to me that he just wanted to sound smart. Passive aggressive type stuff.
So I have no problem calling those type people what they are.
MOST OG members are chilled out and helpful. I don’t think @Rogue meant any harm in his post.
Whoever first figured out that Coco coir grows stuff well deserves a medal.
My input on the muscle beards is it would take a hell of a lot of muscles to fill a pot. I’ll eat them and I’ll pass you the beards 
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I’ve thought about trying wood pellets for a pellet stove. I’ve left bags outside and they swell up pretty good. Apparently they use them for mushroom cultivation. I can’t find where anyone has tried to grow weed in it tho.
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The type of wood that makes the pellet would determine if you could grow with it. If it has spruce, pine or fir the oils in these would make it near impossible to grow in. Hardwood pellets might work, if thats a thing.
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Fuck if you can grow in bales of hay why not anything else. If it’s got good moisture holding capabilities and enough aeration 
@Esrgood4u that was my first thought after my initial picturing of a muscle bound bearded guy spitting Bro science was just how many muscles I’d actually need to get the 1/3 of my soil mix that I need to replace coir or peat @Qtip hardwood pellets are a thing, that’s what people are using to grow mushrooms cause as you said the oils in the others makes it impossible albeit more likely in that scenario it’s because of their anti-fungal/bacterial properties. Not trying to sound too smart, just pretty toasted and overthinking things as I tend to do
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Where you gonna get byssal threads by the cubic foot? There’s a LOT of waste coconut fiber compared to bivalve threads.
IDK about one’s grow smelling like low tide. How inert is it really?
Doesn’t seem practical.
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I thought about that. And a muscle farm was all I could think of. I’d imagine they’d have plenty. Honestly tho don’t get me lying about the logistics. Lol .
It was just a thought.
I guess I’ll try it myself on a small scale one day. @vernal
Lots of industries have waste products. I imagine most are unsuitable as growing media for one reason or another. Even coco fiber requires some work-arounds. Peat is only used because there’s just so much of it.
Try crushed walnut shell or corn cob media…available by the pallet for I guess sandblasting?
You can buy peanut hulls (doesn’t seem that much different than coco tbh) in various grades.
One of my favorite mediums is tree fern fiber (for epiphytes, terrariums etc) is difficult to find and too expensive to grow in.
One guy messaged on me saying he was using construction rockwool (stupid cheap) vs hydro store rockwool and said it worked fine (at least for cloning). I need to try it out someday because rockwool croutons are my favorite but so expensive.
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