Our oyster mushroom kit options include blue oyster, pink oyster, and yellow oyster, so you can have big, beautiful yields that are delicious too
Oyster mushrooms are one of the easiest edible mushrooms to grow, which is great news for first-time mushroom farmers because oysters are growing in popularity. Oyster mushrooms can be grown in a variety of ways, including the use of our oyster mushroom kit. We share some of the popular methods below for cultivating oyster mushrooms. These examples include some easy-to-do methods for home cultivation, as well as some professional-grade methods if you are hoping to grow larger amounts of mushrooms for a commercial environment.
First, let’s take a look at our oyster mushroom kit options
Our oyster mushroom kits are popular with mushroom farmers and consumers alike, especially because many people do not realize how beautiful these mushrooms can be.
As you can see, the pink colors of the pink oyster mushrooms are vibrant and eye-catching. The yellow oyster mushroom is like a little patch of sunshine. The blue oyster produces a range of hues, from a light blue to a deeper grey-blue. We have an oyster mushroom kit so you can grow each color of oyster mushroom for a beautiful bouquet of color.
Each kit will produce up to five pounds of fresh mushrooms over the course of multiple months and flushes. Every mushroom kit option comes ready-to-fruit, so you can begin your mushroom farm as soon as the kits arrive. All you need to do to begin is to make several cuts in the bag. We often use an ‘X’ shape for these cuts. The oyster mushrooms will be able to fruit out of these holes once ready.
Once each kit has finished its fruiting, the block will begin to crumble apart. However, there is still plenty of usable mycelium in the crumbling block, so you can add it to your compost, or use it to inoculate paper waste or used coffee grounds.
Each oyster mushroom kit performs its best between 50 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and cultivation can be done inside or out as long as the temperature is appropriate. Mushrooms love oxygen and humidity, so you will need to keep the kits moist by spraying them with water daily. Note that our pink oyster mushroom kit among the more delicate in the bunch. The pink oyster will die if it is exposed to prolonged temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. For this reason, we only ship the pink oyster kit between the months of March and October.
Aren’t these mushroom kits beautiful? Head over to our online store to order yours today. They make wonderful gifts for those who enjoy growing their own fresh, local food.
A professional-grade is built into each kit
These kits are the same quality as the ones we used to produce thousands of pounds of fresh mushrooms each year. You get to benefit from the superior quality, the contaminant-free mycelium, and mushroom strain-substrate combinations that have been tested for success. Some of the low-quality kits out there cannot boast those same characteristics.
Other methods for growing oysters at home or commercial without using an oyster mushroom kit
Toilet paper: Yes, it’s true, you can use toilet paper as a substrate for growing oyster mushrooms are home. It will be pretty hard to get massive yields like if you were using straw (mentioned below), but you will still have a lot of fun with the process.
Willie, the founder, head grower and lead instructor at Fungi Ally, made a video in the past showing his process for growing oysters at home on toilet paper. He used sawdust spawn in the video to inoculate the toilet paper substrate, but you can also use grain spawn or the stem butts of oysters for the process. The additional tools he used includes a pair of tongs, a plastic bag, and boiled water. If you want to see the step-by-step process and check out the video at the same time, then visit this article for all of the info.
Steps for cultivation oyster mushroom spawn on straw
Oyster mushroom cultivation on straw can be broken into four parts:- Treatment of the straw
- Inoculation
- Incubation
- Fruiting
Each step is crucial to the next and impacts the overall oyster mushroom yield.
First, chop the straw and firmly pack your plastic bags with it. Make sure there are no air pockets in the bag or the mycelium will have a harder time colonizing. Then treat the straw. This can be done by how water pasteurization, hydrated lime soak, or cold fermentation (download our free eBook on oyster cultivation for details on each of these methods for treating the straw). Once the straw is treated it is time to inoculate it. You can do this by adding the oyster mushroom spawn to the straw.
Incubation comes next, and should ideally occur for three weeks at 75°F, depending on the inoculation rate. Position bags at least palm distance from each other to avoid overheating.
The fruiting stage is next and there are four important parameters to be aware of when fruiting. These include: Light, Humidity, Temperature, and CO2 level. For most oyster mushrooms, a well-lit room at 85-90% humidity, 65 – 75°F, and CO2 below 800 PPM is best. Harvesting is the last step once the fruiting stage is complete. Harvest typically happens 5-10 days after the substrate is removed from the fruiting conditions. The mushrooms should be harvested before the caps become completely flat.