Infestation, updates, and Rudimentary Fungiculture

For the past couple of weeks now I have had yet another infestation of spider-mites.  This time they took over my strawberry plants which had been doing very well otherwise.  Because my strawberries are perennial and I intend to have them for a while I looked into ways which I could fix the problem.  Apparently these little buggers like it to be dry, which it has gotten very much so as of late.  One solution I found was to spray a mixture of alcohol and water onto the leaves to kill the mites, then spray with water  frequently in order to prevent new spreading of the mites.  Unfortunately this didn't seem to work, so I got a product called liquid ladybugs which is also sprayed on.  As well I cut back the majority of the leaves with substantial necrotic portions to open up the space and try to remove the most affected parts.  And since I seem to have controlled the problem, so fingers crossed.  Though I did notice that some other plants in the room (just foliage house plants) the mites had spread, so I removed that as well to hopefully prevent further outbreaks.  One strange thing is that for the last month I had been growing basil in the other bucket on the table, and that never had a problem (I unfortunately didn't take any pictures before chopping it, but I did get quite a lot for only a month in the winter).

Here is a pic of it post cut back, with a couple underdeveloped strawberries. 

And a little rosemary plant to the right.

Also, I found just the right board in my shop for a table extension I have been meaning to do.  Really simple, plywood of the right dimensions, two legs that rest on another table to the left, and screwed to the top of the main table, with a hole cut for the pineapple DWC bucket.  Here are some pictures of the add-on profile, and the whole DWC table under HPS.  During the day (if it is sunny) this is the most sun-kissed area of the house, the south west corner.  With the low slung sun, these plants get decent light until about 4ish.

Simple but effective tables for my indoor sunken DWC systems.

Pineapple is doing awesome! Hopefully even better now that it is closer to the light!

Along the back you can see my alga-culture jars.  

And that big jar is a green house to increase humidity for the sage it covers.

And another little foray I am getting into is fungiculture! This time around we went simple and ordered a premade organic mushroom patch from Fungi Perfecti.  We are trying out the Shiitake (right) and Lion's Mane (left) varieties.  The Shiitake is 'open' to the air under a humidity tent mushroom caps forming across the surface, while the lion's mane remains inside of a plastic bag emerging out of holes cut in the side.  The only thing that I really have to do since a few simple initial steps is spraying with water a couple of times per day.  Though they are growing sloowwwllyyy relative to what the instructions say to expect, my guess is the dryness of the room has something to do with it.  None the less they finally seem to be forming some noticeable parts, so I snapped a picture.  We are super excited about the shiitakes with how outrageous prices are, and how delicious and nutritious they are.  Be back with results... sometime.