Growing Mushrooms: oyster mushroom spawn

Making your own mushroom spawn is not difficult. You just need a few key ingredients and accessories and you’ll be on your way. We have outlined the required materials below and then detailed the step-by-step instructions.

Required Materials

Mushroom Piece – a small piece of the mushroom variety you’d like to spawn
Autoclave or Pressure Cooker – an autoclave is a high pressure device used to sterilize equipment it runs anywhere from $30 to $2000 depending on the size and quality of unit you are looking for. Pressure cookers can also be used and are widely available and cost between $50 - $100.
Agar Plate Petri Dishes – yes, the things you used in science class. This is a Petri dish that contains the growth medium agar. Agar is gelatin substance that is made from seaweed cells and aids in encouraging culture growth. These can be found on Amazon.com for about $30.
HEPA Filter Air Purifier – these can be found on Amazon.com for about $50.
Sterilized Grain – this can be found on Amazon.com for about $5 for
Jars – there can be found on Fungi.com for about $15 for 4.

5 Steps To Make Mushroom Spawn

Step 1:
Set up your workspace. You need a closed in area. A small shed or closet works well. Be sure you can enclose the space with either a door or a tarp. Once your space has been selected, you need to disinfect the entire area. This is accomplished by wiping it down with 10% bleach to water solution. Every surface must be sterilized. Then clean the air with the HEPA Filter Air Purifier.

Step 2:
Sterilize all your equipment that will be used for the spawn production. You can either buy materials already sterilized or you must sterilize yourself. You can sterilize equipment with an autoclave or pressure cooker. Remember not to bring anything into your work area that is not sterilized. Be sure to use the sterilization equipment as recommended by the product instructions. In general, sterilization generally takes place at over 200-degrees Fahrenheit with about 15 PSI of pressure for about 45 minutes.

Step 3:
Place the small piece of mushroom on an agar plate Petri dish. Cover and let it sit undisturbed in your workspace. Keep it moist. And be sure to monitor the temperature in the room as each variety of mushrooms has different ideal temperatures. This step usually takes about 2 weeks.

Step 4:
Once the Petri dish is filled with long, healthy strands it is time to transfer. At this phase the material is called mycelium. Do not let the mycelium grow too long in the small dishes. Transfer to the sterilized grain in jars. Allow it to colonize for about 2 – 4 weeks under the correct temperature for the mushroom variety.

Step 5:
Keep an eye on your jars. You are looking for white filaments. This is your grain spawn and will now produce mushrooms.

Mushroom Growing Kits

Another way to go is to just buy a kit. They are packed with all the materials you need and are reasonably priced. Check out this Mushroom Growing Kit. For under $100, you have all the equipment as well as the grain.

Growing Oyster Mushrooms is one of the easiest, and tastiest, mushrooms that you can grow! It is the perfect choice for the novice mushroom grower. They have a delicate, meaty flavour and cook very quickly, making them perfect for a wide variety of meals.

There are many varieties of Oyster Mushrooms out there – yellow, pink, blue, white. In this tutorial, I will be teaching you how to grow the Blue Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus Ostreatus var. Columbinus), one of the hardiest and easiest Oyster varieties to grow.

Learning how to grow mushrooms is not only good for your taste buds, but for your wallet as well. Oyster mushrooms are generally difficult to find and if found, can get pricey at supermarkets, going for $4-$6 a pound. Growing them at home is extremely cost-effective and make a great gift for your foodie friend.

Follow the step-by-step to get your first batch going today.

Important Note: Make sure you wash your hands thoroughly when following the instructions below so as not to contaminate your Oyster Mushroom medium.

Where to grow them

Oyster Mushrooms are great because they can pretty much grow anywhere. Unlike other mushrooms, they enjoy a little bit of light, so placing them in a shady area near a window is best. The area in which you are growing your Oyster Mushrooms should stay between 18-24 degrees Celsius (65-75 degrees Fahrenheit).

Materials

Oyster Mushroom Spawn

I recommend buying your Oyster Spawn from Amazon or Ebay. I bought my first spawn online and was very happy with the results.
Used Coffee Grounds

Yes, you can grow Oyster Mushrooms in used coffee grounds! Finally, something to do with those loads of grounds. My recommendation is to visit your local barista and ask for their coffee grounds. You’ll want to collect enough coffee grounds so that your coffee grounds to spawn ratio is around 5:1. So if you are buying 10 grams of Oyster Mushroom spawn from eBay above, then you’ll want to have 500 grams of coffee grounds (around 3 cups of coffee grounds). You’ll want to keep your coffee grounds from getting into contact with anything else; the brewing process rendered these grounds sterile and you need to keep them that way for your Oyster mycelium to succeed.
A 2 litre freezer bag

Make sure it is very clean; don’t use a used freezer bag.
A spray bottle

To keep those puppies moist.

Instructions

Take your 2 litre bag and cut four 5mm holes into it
Mix your spawn and coffee grounds together into the bag.

Make sure that the coffee grounds are moist but not waterlogged before you proceed with this step. If they are a bit dry, make sure you spray with water.
Seal the bag

You will need to wait 3 weeks until the spawn grows mycelium. Leave the bag undisturbed and when the weeks pass (and if all has gone well) you should see the whole thing turned white.
Slit the bag open

Lay the bag down in a box and grab a knife. Slit a 2×2 inches cross into the bag. Spray the opening with water around twice a day, make sure that things are staying moist, which is very important. After a week or so, you will see baby oysters bursting out to greet you. They will double in size over the next week.

Harvesting

When the edge of the caps begin to turn upwards, it’s time to harvest by cutting at the base of the stems. Be sure to harvest quickly to promote cluster formation. Stems are edible.

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Making Mushroom Spawns In 5 Steps