Oyster mushrooms are one of the easiest varieties of mushrooms to grow and knowing how to plant mushrooms can bring you almost unlimited supply of the mushrooms at your dinner table. Although oyster mushrooms grow in woods, there are other growing media that you can use in raising them. Consider straw and sawdust, they are easier to gather than logs.
Oyster mushroom resembles oysters, and amanita muscaria they have a rich culinary and medicinal history to boast. Chinese medicine, from some three thousand years ago, uses oyster mushrooms as a tonic to enhance immune system. It has ergothioneine which is an exceptional antioxidant that can protect the cell. Even if oyster mushrooms are cooked, the antioxidant level remains the same. The mushrooms have been proven to possess anti-bacterial properties as well. Oyster mushrooms have significant levels of potassium, iron, zinc, vitamin C, calcium, niacin, phosphorus, vitamins B1 and B2, and folic acid. The study revealed that eating oyster mushrooms contributes to suggested dietary requirements.
Commercially prepared mushrooms have pesticides and other chemicals in them to make them presentable and their shelf life longer. Although mushrooms can contribute a lot in making you healthy, the presence of harmful chemicals in them might make your life shorter. The solution? Learn how to plant mushrooms and enjoy its many wonderful benefits.
For this project, you will need two small cardboard boxes or milk cartons for sawdust to fill them in; two cups coffee grounds or whole grain flour; spawn of oyster mushrooms. If sawdust is not available or if you find it hard to gather sawdust, then you can always use straw as a substitute (although sawdust is much better).
You can begin with a kit if you want, but if you want to start from scratch, then oyster mushrooms can give you a great margin to succeed in your endeavor over other mushroom varieties. Oyster mushrooms have dozens of varieties to choose from and you can consult your supplier for the best variety that is appropriate for your location. Most oyster mushrooms grow in places where the temperature ranges from 55 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
The steps to follow in how to plant mushrooms are not complicated, in fact they are easy to understand and follow. It does not require you to be a genius in order to grow some mushrooms.
You need to cut the boxes that you are going to use to even height or same size. In the sides of the two boxes or cartons, punch several holes (small in sizes but not as small as a pin).
If you opt to use sawdust that is pre-inoculated with spawn, then don’t sterilize the sawdust because it will kill the spawn. If you are using fresh sawdust, then you might want to sterilize it first. You can steam, boil, or microwave the sawdust. You can steam or boil the sawdust for few minutes, and after sterilizing you can turn off the heat and keep it covered. Let it cool at room temperature before proceeding to the next step. If you opt to microwave, then you need to get a microwave-safe bowl and put the sawdust in together with the flour or coffee grounds. Fill it with enough water until the mixture looks like a wet sponge. When the water begins to boil, it will kill the organisms that you want to eliminate. You might need to repeat the procedure in microwave to finish all of your sawdust.