Content
Growing mushrooms at home is a rather unusual activity. However, many mushroom growers succeed very well. They manage to minimize costs by growing mycelium themselves. It happens that suppliers cannot give a 100% guarantee about the quality of the product, and this cannot be determined by appearance. As a result, the substrate may simply turn green over time and the mushrooms will never grow.
Growing mycelium yourself allows you to save money and also give you confidence in the future harvest. In this article we will try to reveal all the secrets of this process. You will learn how to make oyster mushroom mycelium at home.
What is mycelium
Oyster mushroom mycelium is a mycelium that must be planted in the substrate. In suitable conditions, it will begin to germinate and produce its harvest. There are two options for how you can get mushroom mycelium at home. For this you can use grain or wood. Most often, mushroom growers make grain mycelium. To do this, it is necessary to apply mother cultures to the cereal substrate.
For the second option, you will need to prepare wooden sticks. This method is practiced in cases where mushrooms will be grown on stumps or logs.Mycelium grown on wood sticks has strong immunity and is rarely susceptible to various diseases. In addition, when propagated in this way, the material has a longer shelf life.
How to grow mycelium
Growing mycelium occurs in 3 stages:
- The mycelium is uterine. Such material is multiplied in specially equipped laboratories. This requires spores that are stored in test tubes. Abroad, this process is strictly controlled and checked for compliance with the strain. But in Russia they take a simpler approach to this and do not carry out selection work. Not only spores, but also pieces of tissue from the fungus itself can be used as starting material. This method is practiced less frequently, but is no less effective.
- Mycelium is intermediate. This is the name given to the material that is transferred from test tubes to a specially prepared nutrient base. More specifically, the intermediate material is a ready-made culture that is used to make mycelium.
- Seed mycelium. At this stage, the material is transferred to the substrate for further growth of fungi. It can also be used as a mother culture. This means that mycelium can be grown again from seed material. For this purpose, a cereal substrate is used.
Preparation
Of course, to grow oyster mushrooms at home, you need to create the right conditions. The highest quality product can be grown in a special laboratory. But if you do everything according to the instructions, then you can get pretty good mycelium at home. Few people have a specially equipped laboratory at home. But its presence is not at all necessary. The main thing is that the premises have gas, electricity and running water.
Then you will need the necessary equipment and devices. Be sure to purchase a thermometer, several pipettes, glass test tubes, agar and tweezers. As you can see, most devices will serve you for a long time. So you will need to make a one-time investment, and then simply buy materials as needed.
It’s hard to imagine, but there are at least 5,000 microorganisms per square meter of room. Often this number can rise to 20,000. Therefore, it is very important to take care of sterility and disinfection. The workplace must simply sparkle, otherwise all efforts may go down the drain.
There are 2 options for growing oyster mushroom mycelium at home:
- Full growth cycle. The first method involves following all the steps described above. To begin with, take spores or a piece of the body of the mushroom. Then a mother culture is removed from it, from which intermediate and then seed material is subsequently obtained.
- Shortcut. In this case, you purchase ready-made mycelium and grow your own mushrooms.
The first stage is growing a mother culture
To grow royal mycelium, you need to prepare fresh oyster mushrooms. As mentioned above, the material can be obtained from part of the mushroom itself. So, you need to cut the oyster mushroom in half, and then cut out a small piece at the top of the leg. Next, you need to place a piece of oyster mushroom in a special nutrient medium. However, the mushroom must be completely sterile. Therefore, it should be placed in peroxide for a couple of seconds. Then the test tube with the nutrient medium is held over the flame and the prepared piece of mushroom is lowered into it.The stopper for the test tube is fired over a fire and the glass container is tightly closed.
After this has been done, the test tubes with the material should be placed in a dark place. The air temperature in it should be about =24 °C. After just a few weeks, the finished material can be planted in the substrate.
The question may also arise, how to make a suitable nutrient base for growing a mother culture? So, it is also very easy to do with your own hands. To prepare a special medium, different types of agar are suitable:
- oat;
- potato-glucose;
- carrot;
- wort-agar.
This medium is poured into test tubes that will need to be sterilized. Next, they are installed slightly tilting. This is done so that the growing medium has more space. When the medium has cooled completely, you can add the prepared piece of mushroom.
The second stage is the cultivation of intermediate mycelium
Next they move on to breeding mycelium. Intermediate mycelium is most often grown using cereal grains. Tested and high-quality grains are poured with water in a ratio of ½. Then they are boiled for about a quarter of an hour. After this, the grain must be dried and combined with calcium carbonate and gypsum.
Then fill the glass container 2/3 full with the resulting mixture.Next, it is sterilized and a nutrient medium (a couple of pieces) is added. The intermediate mycelium can grow in a couple of weeks. This mycelium can be stored for quite a long time. In suitable conditions it will last up to three months. In the room for oyster mushrooms, the temperature should not be lower than 0 °C and not higher than +20 °C.
Now we have come to the most important stage - the production of seed mycelium. The intermediate material, which is an active culture, can be used immediately or divided into several times. It all depends on the purpose for which oyster mushrooms are grown. If for yourself, it is better to gradually grow young fresh mushrooms.
The last stage is the production of seed mycelium
At this stage, oyster mushroom mycelium looks like a white, lush coating. It already has a rather pleasant smell of fresh mushrooms. The cultivation of seed material occurs in the same way as the production of intermediate mycelium. The prepared white coating is placed in a jar with a substrate and wait for the mycelium to grow. Only one spoon (tablespoon) of intermediate material is added to a liter container.
Conclusion
Growing oyster mushroom mycelium at home is a rather painstaking task that requires a lot of time and patience. However, you will receive high-quality material made by yourself, and you will not worry whether your mushrooms will grow or not. As you can see, anyone can grow oyster mushrooms at home. The production technology does not require expensive materials and equipment.The growing process occurs with virtually no human intervention. And you can plant mycelium on ordinary stumps or logs.
