Growing Oyster Mushrooms: A Step-by-Step Guide to Growing Mushrooms at Home

Oyster mushrooms: beneficial properties

Oyster mushrooms are valued for their nutritional and beneficial properties. These mushrooms are 70 percent protein, which is why they are sometimes called “mushroom meat.”

Oyster mushrooms contain fiber (chitin), which is useful for normalizing microflora, improving the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and facilitating the process of removing digestive products and toxins.

The presence of sugar and sugar alcohols gives oyster mushroom dishes a special taste, and the ability to break down fats allows mushrooms to be included in dietary foods.

Methods of growing oyster mushrooms: extensive and intensive

Oyster mushrooms at home can be grown naturally in open ground (extensive method) and in a room specially equipped for this (intensive method).

To grow a small amount of mushrooms, a simple and affordable method of growing them in open ground in a garden or summer cottage is suitable. The extensive method does not require special equipment, significant financial costs and time.

Oyster mushrooms can be grown on stumps or wooden blocks. You will also need mycelium, which you can buy or make yourself.
The area of land for cultivation should be protected from direct sunlight. Planting should begin in the spring, when the threat of frost is minimal.
The stumps on which mushrooms will grow must be moist. To do this, you should soak them for several days.
In the stumps prepared in this way, you need to drill a hole about 8 cm deep, fill it with mycelium and cover it with clay.
The stumps should be kept in a warm room, making sure to maintain moisture until the mycelium germinates. It looks as if the stumps are covered with white fluff.
Now you need to dig small holes about 15 cm deep on a piece of land and “plant” hemp in them, then cover them with last year’s leaves and sawdust.

When grown extensively, mushrooms grow more slowly; harvest time is August-October. Under natural conditions, oyster mushrooms grow more slowly and are harvested from August to October.

Growing oyster mushrooms in an intensive way allows you to get the harvest much faster and without seasonal restrictions. You need to start with choosing a room and preparing equipment to create the desired microclimate. The room can be equipped in a basement, cellar or in a free outbuilding.

Preparation

The photo of homemade oyster mushrooms shows that the mushrooms grow in bags with substrate. As already mentioned, you can buy ready-made mixtures in bags. But it is much more profitable to purchase mycelium and make the substrate yourself. For this you will need:

Husks of any product, be it sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, buckwheat, onions.
Straw.
Shredded corn cobs.

The material for planting mycelium must be clean and not contaminated with mold fungi. Otherwise the oyster mushrooms will die. 10 kg of raw materials crushed to 4 cm is enough. Before starting work with mycelium, it is important to carry out disinfection by thermally treating the substrate.

To do this, the material should be poured into a large metal container and filled with water. Next, boil for a couple of hours and cool, draining the liquid. There should be no water left in the substrate, but only a little moisture.

Detailed technology for growing oyster mushrooms

What you will need to do:

Select and prepare the premises;
Install equipment;
Get substrate;
Buy ready-made mycelium;
Create the desired microclimate;
Sowing;
Caring for oyster mushrooms;
Harvest.

The technology for growing oyster mushrooms intensively is quite simple. The main criterion by which you need to choose a room is the ability to create the necessary microclimate in it. And then it will be possible to grow oyster mushrooms in an apartment or on a balcony, in a basement or cellar, in a greenhouse or barn.

The conditions necessary to create and maintain the correct microclimate are as follows:

Constant ventilation of the room;
High humidity;
Correct lighting;
Certain temperature.

There should be constant air circulation in the room. If it is difficult to create natural ventilation for some reason, you need to install a fan.

Humidity should be maintained at 80-90 percent. To do this, you need to spray the mycelium daily or install an automatic humidity regulator.

The lighting should not be too bright.

The optimal temperature range is between 10-25 degrees. To comply with it, you need to install a heating source.
Be sure to sanitize the room. To prevent mycelium from becoming infected and mold from appearing, you need to treat the room with a special compound that can be bought at hardware stores. You also need to carry out disinfection, then rodents and pests will not appear. Cover the ventilation hole with an insect net.
To place myceliums, prepare racks, boxes or hanging mounts.

Sowing of mycelium is carried out in a separate room. If this is not possible, a place for sowing is fenced off in the main room.

Substrate preparation

The substrate can be bought in special stores or made at home. It can be prepared from barley or wheat straw, sunflower husks, buckwheat husks, and husked corn cobs.

Raw materials should not be rotten or moldy. It needs to be crushed, the particle size after that should not be more than 5-10 cm.
The substrate must be treated with hot steam or boiled well (this will help get rid of insects and avoid infection). This is done with hot steam or boiling.
You need to boil the substrate for about 2 hours, then strain and dry a little.
The humidity of the finished raw material should be approximately 70 percent, the temperature 20-24 degrees.
You can add fresh yeast to the prepared substrate immediately before planting. Yeast is added at the rate of 50g per 15 kg of substrate.

Care

The most important thing when caring for oyster mushrooms is to adhere to a certain temperature regime.

It is also undesirable to ventilate the room during germination. Carbon dioxide, which is released during the maturation of the mycelium, creates the necessary atmosphere and maintains humidity at a vital, optimal level.

The incubation period takes on average about 16-23 days. After this, the bags are placed vertically and the ripening of the crop begins.

At this stage, the main features of care are:

maintaining the temperature at a level not lower than +10°…+20°C;
humidity up to 95%;
light intensity - 5 W per square meter.

Watering

Oyster mushrooms require regular watering once a day using an irrigation system. You can also use a spray bottle, but in this case the number of waterings increases to 2-3 per day. Use only water at room temperature.

Top dressing

With the correct selection of substrate, it is possible to grow oyster mushrooms without additional feeding. However, nutritional supplements are used to increase yield. They are mainly of protein or protein-fat nature. They are characterized by low levels of cellulose but high nitrogen content.

Fertilizing is carried out together with watering with a solution of nitrogen fertilizers or using special granules. The granules contain flour from clover hay, grass, and malt.

However, fertilizing is carried out no more than once a week. The optimal solution would be a combination of 1 kg of fertilizer per 10 liters of water.

Mycelium. Where to buy, how to grow it yourself

You can buy mycelium in special stores or contact an organization that grows mushrooms.

When purchasing mycelium for the first time, it is worth taking a small amount for testing.
A good mycelium should be yellow or orange in color, without the smell of ammonia and without dark spots (these are signs of mold).
The mycelium is stored at a temperature of +2 degrees, and during transportation the temperature should not exceed 20 degrees.

If the storage rules are followed, the shelf life of the mycelium is 6-9 months

Substrate processing

The substrate is processed in several ways:

hot water;
blow steam onto the wet substrate;
blow steam over the dry substrate.

The substrate is treated to increase its looseness and enrich it with oxygen. The roots of the mushrooms will live in comfortable conditions, so this will help speed up their cultivation and have several decent harvests per year.

To avoid mold, the substrate must be dried very well after washing. Dry it in a warm place for 2 days until all excess liquid is gone. Then it needs to be crushed and mixed. This will help the substrate retain water better. Now the material is completely prepared for planting oyster mushrooms.

If you want to purchase “mycelium”, then carefully consider the supplier. Don’t take a lot at once, but take a small batch for testing. Study the information about the mycelium in the certificate. Especially such items as resistance to diseases and fungi, germination rate, shelf life.

The mycelium is healthy if it does not smell of ammonia and does not show signs of mold (black, gray spots). When healthy, it is yellowish in color.

How to grow oyster mushroom mycelium yourself

The basis can be grain or wood. Raw materials, instruments and premises must be sterile.

The first thing you need to get is the royal mycelium. It is taken from a fresh, healthy mushroom.
Several pieces are taken out from the area near the cap with tweezers and treated with hydrogen peroxide.
Place them in a container with ground grain, close tightly and store in a dark place for 14 days.
A constant temperature of 20-22 degrees and average humidity are maintained. When the mycelium germinates, a white fluff appears on the planting material.

Next, you need to take grains of oats or wheat, boil for 30 minutes, strain and cool. Then fill the bags with grains halfway and sterilize. Add some royal mycelium there and close.

The intermediate mycelium germinates in about 3 weeks. The product should be stored in the refrigerator at a temperature of +2 degrees.

Landing

The mycelium should be removed from the refrigerator and kept for one day at room temperature. Next, you need to carefully knead the mycelium in a closed bag and leave it in the room for growing mushrooms for a day for acclimatization.

Then it must be carefully crushed by hand directly in a closed bag and transferred to the room in which the mushrooms will be grown, leaving for a day to acclimatize.

Planting should be done with a mask and gloves to avoid fungal spores getting into the lungs and to prevent infection of the mycelium by microbes. It is good to use a quartz lamp.

Growing oyster mushrooms in bags: disinfect the bags, add 5 cm of substrate, apply mycelium along the edges of the bag with a layer of half a centimeter.
Alternate layers until the bags are completely filled, adding the substrate as the last layer.
The volume of bags must be at least 5 kg. The filled bags are tied and 2 cm cuts are made.
Ventilation and germination of oyster mushrooms will occur through them.
Place the cuts in a checkerboard pattern at a distance of about 10 cm. You can add mycelium through the cuts.
Bags are placed on racks, in boxes or suspended from ceiling mounts.

Correct climatic conditions

The optimal temperature for crop growth is 18-24 degrees. At lower temperatures, growth slows down, and when it rises to 30 degrees, the mycelium dies. Humidity should be kept at 70 percent. Mycelium germination occurs faster in the dark.

When mushrooms appear, climatic conditions need to be changed. Increase humidity to 90 percent and lower air temperature to 10-12 degrees. The temperature should be lowered gradually, without sudden changes.

Caring for oyster mushrooms

The first mushroom shoots appear 12 days after sowing. Now it is necessary to illuminate the room for 8-10 hours every day. The light should be dim and diffused.

Spray the bags regularly with water to maintain high humidity. The room needs to be ventilated.
Mushrooms grow for 2 weeks. The bags are sprayed with water to maintain high humidity.
Crops are inspected for diseases.

If the mushrooms have thin and long legs, it means the room is not ventilated enough; if they are weak and small, it means there is too much light. The substrate contaminated with mold is completely removed.

Harvesting

As soon as the mushroom caps lighten and the edges are aligned, you can begin harvesting.

The size of the caps should not exceed 30 cm, height - 10 cm. Overgrown oyster mushrooms become tasteless and tough.
Oyster mushrooms grow in clumps; you need to cut off the entire clump, otherwise the remaining mushrooms will interfere with the growth of the next harvest.
The first harvest is usually the largest. Further, the growth of mushrooms begins to occur faster, a new harvest can be obtained after 8 days, but its volume decreases.