We Grow Oyster Mushrooms In The Basement

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Photo: Irina Loginova

Recently, food prices have been biting, and sometimes you want to pamper yourself with delicious. I really love mushrooms, but the price of 200 rubles per kilogram does not suit me, since you need to buy at least 2-2.5 kg to feed a family with fried oyster mushrooms. In this regard, I decided to try growing mushrooms in the basement.

Initially, it seemed that this business is not easy and requires a lot of time and labor. In fact, it turned out to be quite simple. In the article below, my experience in growing oyster mushrooms, that is, I did everything described below myself. As a result, 4 harvests were taken from one package at 1, 5-2, 2 kg per one harvest.

Materials (edit)

To grow oyster mushrooms, we need: a dense plastic bag, the denser the better, mycelium (sold in seed stores on the market in the same place, in the departments with seeds, often this is grain infected with fungal spores, husk from seeds, it can be found in a pet store, where they sell feed for cattle, poultry and other farm animals. The cost of mycelium is about 200 rubles per kg, the cost of husks is about 200 rubles per cubic meter. We will need 300 grams of mycelium and 10 kg of husks per 1 package, in monetary terms this is less RUB 100

Training

During the preparation of the mycelium, so that it does not disappear, it must be placed either in the refrigerator, in the coldest place, or in the freezer. He does not like heat and can simply dry out and die. Now we turn to the preparation of the husk. In order to prevent oyster mushroom spores from dying from various "viruses", we need to carry out high-temperature processing of the husk. It can be carried out in two ways: it is good to heat it in the oven, but personally I did not really like this method, the second way is to pour boiling water. After testing both options, I settled on the second one, since in parallel, in addition to disinfection, the husk is well hydrated.

So, let's take a closer look at both options. In order to roast in the oven, we need a baking sheet several centimeters deep. Preheat the oven, pour the husks into a baking sheet and put in the oven for 10 minutes, periodically stirring up the husks so that it warms up evenly. Thus, we process the amount we need. After that, we take a container of a suitable size, pour the husk there and fill it with water so that the husk is well wet. We leave for a day or two. Then we throw it back on the canvas and let it lie for about an hour so that the excess water gets off.

If boiling water was poured as disinfection, then in the same way, in a day, we throw it back onto the canvas. Then everything is done the same way.

We take the prepared package and make holes in it, about 15 cm apart, both in width and height. The diameter of the holes is 1-1.5 cm. I just cut it out with scissors.

Infection and landing

Now we turn directly to the infection of the husk with mycelium and scattering into bags. Pour the wet, slightly drained husk into a container of a suitable size, in which it will be convenient to mix it. Then we take the mycelium (contaminated grain) out of the refrigerator, knead it gently and mix it with the wet husk, stir well, but carefully, and sprinkle it into bags. We close the package from above in such a way that, if necessary, it can be easily opened, for example, for watering, if required.

Care

We put the bags in the basement and do not touch them for a week. Be sure to put a bucket (buckets) of water next to the bags, since mushrooms need high humidity. The air temperature should be between 17 and 25 degrees. Then we just watch, for a week the husk should be covered with a white fluffy bloom - mushroom mushrooms. After that, small bumpy growths will appear in the area of / u200b / u200bthe holes. These are our future mushrooms.

If you like oyster mushrooms to be dark in color, then from the moment the bumps appeared, turn on the light in the basement for the day, I just hung up a camping LED lamp. If you like white oyster mushrooms, then additional lighting is not required. After about a week and a half from the moment the bumps appear, it will be possible to harvest.

Important! It is advisable not to cut the mushrooms, but to twist them so that no pieces of legs remain, which will prevent the further growth of new mushrooms from the hole

By the way, if you don't want to bother, you can simply purchase a special block package with husks already infected with spores in a specialized store, it costs about 200 rubles.