3 ways to help the author that COST YOU ABSOLUTE ZERO ! see the bottom of the page.

Growing oyster mushrooms on logs

Growing oyster mushrooms on logs requires only a simple recipe, but the ingredients must be just right. This album is based on what we learned at a Guerilla House workshop called "Low Tech Shrooms" which I highly recommend. The workshop untangled some of my misunderstandings about growing mushrooms, set me off on a steep learning curve and also has changed my whole approach to gardening and soil creation.

Oyster mushrooms are primary saprophytes, that means their food is dead plant material that has not been decomposed by other micro organisms. They like straw and wood products like logs, and chip, so you can find suitable unspoiled logs and buy spawn or grow it at home. In this case commercially grown dowel spawn was used. You can see a bag of it in the album on spawn. If you are growing another primary saprophyte (Guerilla House provides lists of mushrooms and their favourite media to workshop attendees) choose a wood that it 'likes'.

drill a hole in the logdrill holes in a log
at regular distancesso far apart
plug the holeplug the holes
with dowel spawnwith dowel spawn
insert plugsinsert plugs
andand
hammer homehammer home
seal the drill area with a thin wax layerprotect the drill area from infection with a thin wax layer
by melting candle waxby melting candle wax
painting it onpainting it over
each and every plugeach and every plug

Set off on a journey of discovery that is thrilling, rewarding and full of show stopping moments as you stalk the fungus in lonely woods and forest trails........

but be warned there is a lot to learnbut be warned there is a lot to learn
mycology opens up a new universemycology opens up a new universe

and its definitely expanding......

and we give thanks for this and the delicious spin offsand we give thanks for this and the delicious spin offs like the oyster mushroom stir fry we are just about to receive !

but
Growing oyster mushrooms is not like falling off a log !

Growing oyster mushrooms is simple, but not as easy as growing some other foods. We need teaching, reading and exchange to make it happen.... and most of all we need practice, and to make mistakes. In honour of this principle I've included mine, post workshop. We went home with a little parcel wrapped in pasteurized cardboard, an oyster mushroom. Here is a list of my little faux pas, I hope they are instructive !

1) I took the parcel home in an old plastic shopping bag, which was highly likely far from sterile. 

2) Instead of waiting till the oyster mushroom had thoroughly colonized the cardboard parcel, I whipped on my gloves, tore up the cardboard, which already had a few white threads of mycelium the next day, and placed pieces of torn cardboard in boiled rice. 

3) I did not seal the jars with micropore until several days later

Soon the jars were showing a gray green growth in addition to the snowy white mycelium of the oyster mushroom. Once the jars were filled with mycelium, I put on gloves again and opened them up. I spread them on a pasteurized plastic sheet, cut out all the gray-green growth I could see, mixed them with fermented straw and put them in a pasteurized bag.

4) The straw was not fully fermented yet

5) There seem not to have been enough puncture holes in the bag.

6) It was impossible to remove the gray-green mold completely from the rice medium

Within days we were back to the situation where the gray green mold was thriving. Though the oyster mycelium is also expanding at this stage, we will see what happens when the waves of expanding mycelium meet. There is dew, a lot of it, on the inside of the bag, which is supposed to be bad, as it can promote rotting.

After the workshop I began reading the downloads Guerilla House sent, such as Paul Stamets book Mycelium Running. When I have money I am going to buy everything he has written. I look back and realize I've made a huge leap forward, because even last week I was getting everything wrong. I've spent decades growing things and it takes time to acquire this combination of new information and experience that build the skill. I am not dismayed by my failures, I'm so glad I went to the workshop and I look forward to new horizons and ways of growing. 

sitemap

------

home page with links to useful articles on natural gardening

------

Vegetable growing and information on easy vegetables 

------

Introduction to growing mushrooms

------

growing mushroom spawn with simple technology

------

growing mushrooms on straw

THREE WAYS TO REWARD MY WORK THAT WILL COST YOU NOTHING AT ALL. Dear Reader, in this age of AI created content, please support my human-made content. It requires a lot of research and garden experimentation, aka blood sweat and tears, the last ten years. You pay me back by signing up for the free newsletter (once a month, no spamming) at the top of the lefthand column or below. Please use the response form at the bottom of the page to respond directly to its content. If you find what I give you useful I would appreciate a share to the social media platform of your choice, the buttons are on the extreme right of your screen, Just click them ! 

Restore Nature Newsletter 

I've been writing for four years now and I would love to hear from you

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or stories to share on gardening, permaculture, regenerative agriculture, food forests, natural gardening, do nothing gardening, observations about pests and diseases, foraging, dealing with and using weeds constructively, composting and going offgrid.

[ ? ]

Upload 1-4 Pictures or Graphics (optional)[ ? ]

 

Click here to upload more images (optional)

Author Information (optional)

To receive credit as the author, enter your information below.

(first or full name)

(e.g., City, State, Country)

Submit Your Contribution

  •  submission guidelines.


(You can preview and edit on the next page)

Show / Hide