Fungi Ally

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• What are Oyster Mushrooms? A Mushroom Gaining Popularity
• Oyster Mushroom Cultivation with Straw for Growers of Any Size 
• 3 Methods for How to Cultivate Oyster Mushrooms at Home
• What is the Most Profitable Mushroom to Grow? Commercial Mushroom Info

What are Oyster Mushrooms? A Mushroom Gaining Popularity Posted: 29 Apr 2020 12:14 PM PDT What are oyster mushrooms? Learn all about these popular edible, gourmet mushrooms, including their life cycle in this article now What are oyster mushrooms? Oyster mushrooms are native to the Northeastern US, the most common being the species Pleurotus ostreatus. The common name oyster refers to multiple species of mushrooms including but not limited to Pleurotus pulmonarius, Pleurotus salmonostraminus, Pleurotus djamor, Pluerotus citrinopileatus, Pleurotus ostreatus, Hypsizgus ulmarius, and others. These mushrooms cover a range of sizes, colors, and textures. Oyster mushrooms can come in brown, pink, yellow, blue, white or other colors. This allows the small scale grower to offer four or five different products while only growing oyster mushrooms. What are oyster mushrooms: Fast, aggressively growing options for farmers Oyster mushrooms grow extremely fast and aggressively and most of the strains and species of oyster mushrooms can be cultivated. This makes oysters suitable to beginners and mushroom farmers with low-tech equipment. Oyster mushroom spawn is readily available as grain or sawdust throughout the United States. This is a valuable resource because the mushroom farmer does not have to dedicate the time and resources necessary to create a sterile lab. What are oyster mushrooms in terms of fruiters? Certain strains of oyster mushrooms are abundant fruiters giving a good yield compared to labor input. They fruit in clusters making it easy to harvest and store. Oyster mushrooms tend to be fragile which can create some difficulty in packaging. What are oyster mushrooms? Understanding the oyster mushroom life cycle Mushrooms are basidiomycetes, which refers to their means of sexual reproduction. The gills of the oyster mushroom contain basidia, a microscopic structure resembling a tower with a ball on the top. Attached to the basidia are four haploid spores that are released at maturity into air currents.These spores germinate mycelium. The mycelium grows through its food source and eventually fruits a mushroom. The mushroom is the fruiting body of the larger fungal organism. The entire point of the mushroom is to provide a platform for sexual reproduction and dissemination of off- spring. They are a temple of copulation with an intricate and flamboyant design. Humans, insects, and animals are part of the chain that spreads the spores of the mushroom. Millions of these microscopic spores leave the mushroom. Oyster mushrooms in particular are known for their heavy spore load. This necessitates routine equipment cleaning and use of a mask in the fruiting room. The mycelium continually exudes enzymes into its growing medium to break down food, create barriers, claim territory, and communicate with its surroundings. The mycelium is readily available physically to attack. The chemical enzymes contain antimicrobial compounds to create a protective barrier around the mycelial network. Fungi digest externally and then absorb the nutrients that have been broken down into their body. The enzymes exuded around the mycelium break down food like lignin and cellulose into simpler building blocks. These sugars are used for continued mycelial growth. It is important to be familiar with mycelium because this is what mushrooms fruit from. Without a healthy vibrant mycelium, fruiting bodies will not occur. A mushroom grower first grows mycelium and then needs to create and maintain the right conditions for a mushroom to form. Paying close attention to the health and growth of the mycelium will help to increase yields. It is also important to understand strain selection. Mycelium with identical DNA and traits can be cultured from a mushroom.. From there the mycelium can be expanded by vast quantities. A single petri plate can be the starting point for the production of 1000's of pounds of mushrooms. Culturing allows the grower to select the correct strain for their situation and have predictable results. Consistent genetic information is expressed by culturing the mushroom rather than going through sexual reproduction. Consistency is the key to success. What are oyster mushrooms in relation to strain? The strain used and spawn source is crucial to the success of any grower. Strains are different individuals of a certain species. Similar to how all people are Homo sapiens but each of us has a unique set of genetic information, which results in a unique expression of traits. In a mushroom the expression of different traits can mean a variety of things important to the cultivator. Morphology, yield, preference and ability to grow on certain substrates, storability, speed of colonization, environmental parameters for fruiting and ability to withstand competing organisms all can be determined by strain. Strains can be discovered or developed through two approaches. The first is through finding and isolating a fruiting body in the wild. These strains need to be trialed and observed to learn their particular expression of different traits. Some of these traits can be observed when the wild mushroom is found. Recording data like the substrate found on, fruiting temperature, region, fruit body shape and color, size of fruiting is very valuable. Strains can also be developed and selected for certain traits through sexual reproduction in a laboratory. Certain desired traits like high yield and wide fruiting temperature can be encouraged through breeding. Strains with a history of use and distinct recorded traits are highly valuable to every grower. Visit this article to learn about the oyster mushroom strains we love.  The post What are Oyster Mushrooms? A Mushroom Gaining Popularity appeared first on Fungi Ally.

Oyster Mushroom Cultivation with Straw for Growers of Any Size  Posted: 25 Apr 2020 12:02 PM PDT Discover a method for oyster mushroom cultivation that uses straw and you can begin growing your own oyster mushrooms at home or commercially Today we are going over some information for oyster mushroom cultivation on straw. This is a popular method that many growers use. We break down this process into six steps, and then discuss four different ways of treating the straw to be ready for inoculation. If you want to grow your own oyster mushrooms at home or commercially using straw, you will need a few materials. Obviously, straw is one of them. Oyster mushroom grain spawn is another. You can check out our selection on our grain spawn page. The information below also shares some other materials you will need. Oyster mushroom cultivation using straw Oyster mushroom cultivation on straw can be broken into four parts: treatment of the straw, inoculation, incubation, and fruiting. Each step is crucial to the next and affects the overall yield. The step-by-step process of growing oyster mushrooms on straw is outlined below. Chop straw: By chopping the straw the cell walls of the straw are broken making it easier for the oyster mycelium to access the nutrients in the straw. Chopping the straw makes the particle size smaller allowing a more compact substrate. A relatively small gap of 1-2 inches between pieces of straw is like the Grand Canyon for mycelium to grow over. Energy and time is wasted as the mycelium tries to grow over these sorts of gaps. Air pockets can be minimized and yield increased by chopping the straw and firmly packing the bags with it. Treat straw: Using the method which best meets the needs of the grower the straw is prepared for the oyster mycelium. By treating the straw microorganisms are killed and competition for the available nutrients is limited. Inoculate: Add spawn into the treated straw. This is the material used to introduce the mushroom mycelium to the new substrate. Incubate: Incubation should ideally occur at 75 degrees F for about three weeks depending on the inoculation rate. By placing bags at least a palm's distance from one another you can limit overheating. Fruit: There are 4 parameters to be aware of when fruiting. They are light, humidity, temperature, and CO2 level. For most oyster mushrooms a well-lit room at 85-90% humidity, 65 degrees, and CO2 below 800 PPM is ideal. Harvest: Harvesting typically occurs about 5-10 days after the substrate is moved into fruiting conditions. Mushrooms should be harvested before the caps completely flatten out. Four ways of treating straw for oyster mushroom cultivation Hot water pasteurization: Using a 55 gallon drum raised up on cinder blocks and a turkey burner below about 30 gallons of water is brought up to 180 degrees F. Two burlap sacks of straw are then submerged in the barrel and the heat is turned off. A top is placed on top of the barrel and the water is maintained above 145 for two hours. We did not need to turn the heat on after submerging the straw in 180 degree F water. (figure 10) Hydrated lime: Soak 2-3 burlap sacks of straw are placed in a 55 gallon barrel. 1 Gallon of hydrated lime is mixed with water in a 5 gallon bucket, the lime is dissolved and slowly added to the 55 gallon drum as it is filled with water. The barrel is filled until the straw is completely under water and the solution is at a pH of 12-13. The straw is left to soak for 16 hours. It is critical to use hydrated lime with magnesium content below 10% Cold fermentation: The straw is submerged in a 55 gallon barrel of water for 5-8 days until the smell of fermentation is apparent. Wood ash soak: This method is the same as the hydrated lime soak but instead of using lime wood ashes are used. We found it difficult to bring the pH to the necessary level using wood ashes. Close to 4 gallons of ashes was used for a 55 gallon barrel raising the pH to about 11. The straw was allowed to soak for 16 hours. In pasteurization, which is the standard for straw treatment, the temperature is raised to kill all of the mesophilic organisms but not reach temperatures to activate the thermophilic organisms. By killing the mesophilic organisms the mushroom mycelium has a clean substrate to grow onto. With the lime soak and wood ash treatment the pH spikes and bursts the cell walls of the microorganisms. Once the straw is drained the pH lowers back to 7, which is a suitable place for mycelial growth. Interested in oyster mushroom cultivation but don't want to use straw? We have some ideas for you You can also use woodchips, coffee grounds, or even toilet paper to cultivate oyster mushrooms. Remember, oysters are some of the easiest mushrooms to grow. Take a look at this article that discusses using coffee grounds and toilet paper for oyster mushroom cultivation at home on a small scale. Another great way to do it is with our oyster mushroom growing kits, which come ready-to-fruit and typically produce a flush of fresh mushrooms within two weeks of starting the kit. The post Oyster Mushroom Cultivation with Straw for Growers of Any Size  appeared first on Fungi Ally.

3 Methods for How to Cultivate Oyster Mushrooms at Home Posted: 23 Apr 2020 11:49 AM PDT Learn how to cultivate oyster mushrooms at home using coffee grounds, toilet, paper, and our ready-to-fruit mushroom growing kits Many people ask about how to cultivate oyster mushrooms at home. Oyster mushrooms are some of the easiest mushrooms to grow, so trying them at home is a great option for beginners who are new to the world of mushroom cultivation. Today I will be going through three ways you can grow oyster mushrooms at home. Two of these methods involve common household goods, like coffee grounds and toilet paper. The other method is even easier and focuses on a ready-to-fruit mushroom growing kit, which you can order from us. Also, please note that you can grow a variety of mushroom species with our kits. Take a look at the selection here. How to cultivate oyster mushrooms at home using coffee grounds One of the easier methods to start growing mushrooms at home is with oyster mushrooms on coffee grounds. Coffee is a common staple in many homes and it can be easily used to grow oyster mushrooms. This process is fairly straightforward and simplistic, with only four steps to follow. The materials you need include a plastic container with a lid and several holes poked in the bottom of the container, oyster mushroom spawn, and a household of coffee drinkers. Let's dive into the process now: First, brew the coffee. Once the boiling water has run through the grounds and filter, place the coffee grounds into the small plastic bucket/container. Next, add your oyster spawn spawn on top of the freshly brewed coffee and filter. Close the lid. Repeat daily or throughout the day, layering oyster mushroom spawn and spent coffee grounds. Keep the mushroom spawn in the fridge between uses. Once the container is full, allow it to sit for 2-3 weeks. Poke 4-5 holes in the side of the container and mist once daily. Mushrooms will begin fruiting within a week of misting. Not a coffee drinker? That's alright! We have a few other great methods for how to grow oyster mushrooms at home. The next we are going over is with another household staple: toilet paper. A step-by-step process for how to grow oyster mushrooms at home with toilet paper For this, we recommend using oyster mushroom sawdust spawn Begin by breaking up the sawdust spawn. You can do this by hitting the bag a few times with your hands. Once the spawn is broken up, open the bag. I love the smell of a newly-opened bag of mushroom spawn. It's a sweet, earthy scent that reminds me of the forest floor. A wonderful aroma! Then, take the plastic bag and place a handful of spawn in it so it. You will only need enough for the toilet paper to cover. Next, grab your tongs and pick up the toilet paper. Dip the toilet paper into the boiling water. I flip the toilet paper roll over to ensure that it gets completely wet. Once you've dipped and rotated the roll, you can pull it out of the boiling water and let the excess water drain off. It's important to drain off as much of the excess water as possible because you do not want to have the mushroom substrate sitting in a puddle of runoff. Once your roll is fully drained, bring it over to the plastic bag with the spawn and place the toilet paper roll right on top of the spawn. The oyster mushroom mycelium will eventually grow up from the bottom of the bag. Now you can begin to add more spawn into the toilet paper roll tube. Fill it with as much spawn as you can, and also put spawn on top of the roll itself. You can see me do this all in this video. Now that the top of the roll is covered, place some additional spawn on the sides going around the toilet paper roll. One of our sawdust spawn bags will probably allow you to inoculate up to 10 rolls of toilet paper if you want a big yield while growing oyster mushrooms. Once you've covered the roll and surrounded it with spawn, you can then close up the plastic bag by tying it together. Allow the bag to sit as it is for about two weeks. The mycelium will colonize and after about two weeks the bag will begin to fruit mushrooms. At that time all you have to do is open the bag up and mist it a couple of times each day. The oyster mushrooms will grow directly out of the toilet paper roll. How to grow oyster mushrooms at home with one of our ready-to-fruit kits If these methods involving toilet paper or coffee grounds sound too intensive, you can always grow your own mushrooms at home with the help of our mushroom growing kits. Our mushroom growing kits are ready-to-fruit, so you can begin using them as soon as they arrive, and you typically will have your first harvest within two weeks. All you need to do is cut holes in the kit and mist the kit with a spray bottle a few times each day. We have videos on the process that you can watch here. The post 3 Methods for How to Cultivate Oyster Mushrooms at Home appeared first on Fungi Ally.

What is the Most Profitable Mushroom to Grow? Commercial Mushroom Info Posted: 21 Apr 2020 10:30 AM PDT Considering the most profitable mushroom to grow involves a variety of elements, including what can be grown easily, consistently, and legally What is the most profitable mushroom to grow and sell? Some mushrooms listed below have an extremely high value and can be sold very profitably. Most people are familiar with button mushrooms which cost $4/lb in the grocery store but amazingly some mushroom species are sold for over 100X this. Cultivating these mushrooms is a little more difficult but it can be done if you want to find a more profitable mushroom to grow. Four highly priced mushrooms are: Morels 16 oz: $40 Cordyceps 16 oz: $400 Truffles 16 oz: $800 Psilocybe 16 oz: $1600 Some easier to cultivate and sell but high value mushrooms are maitake, lion's mane, and depending where you are shiitakes. The mushrooms that are the most profitable tend to be mushrooms going for the supplement or health field rather than culinary. The only exception to this is truffles, a very difficult mushroom to grow truffles are primarily foraged and sold from Italy, France, Spain, and throughout the middle east, although this truffle is considerably less money. What generally makes these mushrooms so expensive is they are difficult to cultivate or are illegal to sell in some countries. Psilocybin mushrooms have been banned in the United States since the 1960's. Although they are an extremely easy mushroom to grow, easily producing pounds and pounds of mushrooms with low tech techniques, their illegal status creates inflated prices. They are a schedule 1 drug so getting caught in a country where psilocybin is illegal can mean jail time. Certainly a more profitable mushroom to grow but the risk probably isn't worth the reward. An example of mushroom business profitability  Scenario: We are using straw to produce 150 lbs of oyster mushrooms. We make 20 lb bags of substrate that yield 3 lbs of mushrooms over the course of 4 weeks, consisting of 2 flushes. We need to create 50 bags per week to meet our quota and add 5-10 additional bags. In total we are producing 60 bags per week. The cost for these 60 bags will be: Substrate: 1200 lbs of substrate @ 55% moisture content = 540 pounds of dry straw divided by 40 lbs per bale = 13.5 bales of straw X $6/bale= Cost for substrate is $81 Spawn: using a 6 lb bag of spawn which costs $15 to inoculate 5 bags, we will need 12 bags of spawn a week. Cost for spawn is $180 Miscellaneous: THe bags, zip ties, other misc materials will cost $.25 per bag for a total of $15 Total material costs: $276 A shelf unit that is 2'x3'x8' can hold 15 bags total. There will be 4 weeks of 60 bags in the grow room at once so 240 bags at least need to fit in the grow room.The grow room needs to have space for 16 shelves and aisles, so should be at least 200 square feet with 9 ft ceilings. All of the mushrooms are sold at $11/lb in a CSA so the income is 11*150= $1650 per week. This will need to cover labor, business expenses, taxes, and delivery. Let’s say these add up to 40% of the income. So a weekly margin at this scale would look like Income – material expenses – labor = margin $1650-276-660= $714 or a profit margin of $4.76/pound of mushrooms. If you are interested in learning more about commercial mushroom farming, consider joining our online commercial mushroom cultivation course. If you would like to work with us in a consultation role we are happy to help co-develop a project that meets your goals and vision. Price per pound and at what quantity Looking at the price that will be paid for the mushrooms is important. Oyster mushrooms are sold anywhere from $5-$15/lb for retail. Shiitake are sold anywhere from $8-$15/lb for retail. Depending where on this scale the accessible markets are purchasing mushrooms will determine what is profitable to grow. Do some research in grocery stores and other buyers near the prospective farm to see which mushroom can be grown in quantity with the best price. Cost of production for growing edible mushrooms  A final factor that impacts the profitability of a mushroom farm is the production cost. It is important to look for local sources of substrate media, like sawdust, soybean hulls, wheat bran, and spawn. It is critical to determine the cost of each unit produced and how much it will yield. Factor in the cost of rent, labor, substrate, spawn, bags, and other pieces for each species of mushroom you plan on growing and compare this to the yield and price received by pound to determine the potential profitability for your farm. The post What is the Most Profitable Mushroom to Grow? Commercial Mushroom Info appeared first on Fungi Ally.