I guess mushrooms have always been kinda cool, but ive never really felt fascinated about them per se, but about a year ago i found a thread on permies.com about growing Oyster Mushrooms on an old phone book i think it was. Seeing those Oyster pins fascinated me, so i decided at that point to look into growing some of my own. Research ensued of course, as it always does for me, hours on the internet looking into ways to grow mushrooms, different kinds of mushrooms, recipes, health benefits etc. and I'm still learning, slowly retaining a little bit here and there. After the research began, but FAR before it was over (still learning lol) I received a response from someone on where to learn more about mushrooms and began an account at shroomotopia.net, a forum I recommend as the owner is more religious than one might expect and "shroomers" would be the ones to ask about any sorta mushroom growing, after all, Paul Stamets was once a shroomer, and he is now the worlds leading expert on mushrooms.
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| Blue Oyster Mushrooms: spawn, pinheads and fruitbodies. Photos: Devon Olsen |
For the two Blue Oyster jars i did i simply injected about 3cc's of spores into the injection port, for the shiitake i opened up two jar lids and used sanitized pliers to reach into the small plastic baggie that the agar came in and grabbed a pinch, then knocking the pinch off into the jar for each jar i first sanitized my work area by wiping it down with a napkin soaked in rubbing alcohol, the table, all tools, the jars and the jar lids twice for the agar i sanitized the pliers via alcohol and the syringe i sanitized via a candle flame until it turned red hot, then i let it cool completely with the tip suspended in air before inoculation i did all of this in a cool basement room with carpet but no drafts or fans blowing and the only one window closed i then labeled the jars and placed them in a cardboard box in the closet, a closet that never gets any substantial amount of light leaving the box open i covered the jars with two sweatshirts that i don't wear and a heavy winter coat as this was early summer when the jars were entirely colonized (the Blue Oysters were far more aggressive and colonized much faster than the shiitake did). I opened them up after washing my hands and prepared my newspaper substrate i soaked the newspaper in a weak bleach water solution before wringing them out and laying them out on a sanitized tote lid for soaking i used a tin container that i think originally had a Sams club casserole or something i then scooped into the jars and sprinkled colonized grain between the layers of newspaper for the first two newspaper logs i did i used one jar on two "logs" and pretty much did a 1 layer of grain to one layer of newspaper ratio while doing this i collected the poplar plugs i had in the jars and sat them aside on the newspaper logs that came from the second round of Blue Oysters and the first of shiitake. I spread out spawn a bit more to see how many i could realistically get from one old "log" or one jar of spawn i got ten "logs" from 1/2 of an older "log" of Blue Oyster and 6 "logs" from one jar of shiitake spawn results from this vary a bit but i HIGHLY recommend that when working with anything less aggressive than oysters, you are VERY ANAL about being sanitary and going at a one to one ration on spawn to newspaper, and being very generous with the spawn as it appears that every one of my six shiitake bags got contams and even a couple of the blue oysters so far (however the blue oysters are known to be more aggressive than most contams and will eat them from what i understand).
When newspaper "logs" were completed then i put them in a plastic grocery bag, with the shiitake, one should certainly sanitize the bags, with the oysters, i sanatized most but not all, the bags did not have holes and if they did i doubled them up so there wasn't a direct hole to the substrate during colonization. i used the plugs, which again were poplar and were also a diameter of 3/8 inches after they had been colonized in the grain jars, to inoculate real logs for outdoor cultivation for the first jar of blue oyster i colonized one log, approx 5 inches in diameter, and oddly shaped, just thought it would provide more edge for fruiting and that it looked better sitting there than a plain ol' straight log would.
I drilled holes in a log with a 3/8 bit in an electric drill that plugged into the wall and then pounded the plugs into hte log with a framing hammer, i neglected to seal the holes and i also neglected to cold pasteurize the log by soaking for 24 hours prior, we will see how well this works. i dug this log into the ground about a foot or so and then covered the hole or what was left of it after back filling with straw and this is under the windbreak which is comprised of junipers, keeping it in shade year round, we get average of 14in precip here every year so that's preferable for one jar i made newspaper logs with the shiitake but the other shiitake and other oyster were both emptied outside in a bin filled iwth straw and cow manure that was soaked in well water for 24 hours, the plugs for the blue oyster were put on the ground in a pile while i emptied the grain and the shitake were put on an old window screen while i emptied the grain, both of these plugs contaminated so i buried them in a few locations around the yard under wood hcips and straw mulches, hopefully some of them may come up given the right opportunity for fruiting indoors.
I started the two newspaper "logs" on a windowsill in the same room they were noticed up in, the window had a plastic sheet over it from when the room was built (last year) and i think this helped to maintain about the right humidity for the mushrooms on top of them still being in the bags the newspapers were kept in, poking holes for pins that popped up. i had a small spray bottle next to them and still do to spritz them when necessary during fruiting of the first flush i switched rooms, into another room and sat the bags directly on a dresser top that had a smooth finish on it, this gave me problems and the mushrooms aborted before they were ready to harvest. i picked the aborted mushrooms off by grabbing low and just twisting them off the substrate and i am now on the second flush. This time i have a different set up going i got a tote and a plastic trash bag and put the bags in the tote with the plastic bag covering the top (this was before picking to try and save the mushrooms) to allow light in but keep humidity up problems with this set up is that the humidity was too high and the mushrooms got a funky smell, also it would be too humid but the cakes were still too dry so my solution was to poke holes in the plastic bag, just a few that are finger width and most a little bit smaller. I dint poke them too often nor very uniform then i pointed a fan at it running on low then i had to leave town for a couple of deaths in the family and left the tote there but i sprayed it down before leaving, and filled a mason jar about 1/4 of the way with water ( this had a bit of leftover spawn from when i originally nocced up jar, i just left those in there) and left i got back and the cakes were a little dry so i sprayed them down and they appear to be growing back fortunately enough, now they are sitting there and beginning to form pins again, which means i am on my way to a second flush, hopefully this one is more successful. i occasionally update progress pics on shroomotopia, if you can find my thread, or on permies.
Learn more about Oyster mushroom cultivation reading How To Grow Oyster Mushrooms on Logs or the simple plastic bag cultivation of oyster mushrooms by checking my post How To Transform Paper Into Food there you'll find links to a more detailed cultivation method of oyster mushrooms.
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