Growing mushrooms at home allows you to pick them all year round and earn extra income. These plants can be grown in any room where you can create the optimal microclimate. To get a good harvest, it is necessary to prepare the mycelium and substrate for oyster mushrooms and other types of mushrooms.
Oyster mushroom cultivation
For the optimal development of mycelium, certain conditions must be created. Oyster mushrooms need a room temperature of 24 degrees, humidity - about 85%. The basement does not include light and ventilation, as this slows down the growth of mycelium.
Subject to all requirements for the substrate for oyster mushrooms, growing conditions, mycelium grows in the third week. During this period, it is necessary to ensure that the mycelial crust does not form on the surface. It germinates if there are too many fungal spores in the soil and the temperature is too high.
In the cultivation of any mushroom, the substrate plays a special role. It should be balanced, properly composed and nutritious, and also suitable for the growth and development of the selected type of mushroom.
Substrate for tunnels
The preparation of the substrate for oyster mushrooms when grown by the tunnel method involves the use of soil containing cellulose, lignin, as well as fats and proteins. The main element is cereal straw. It is harvested in clear weather in ecologically clean areas. Stocks of material for the preparation of the substrate for oyster mushrooms are prepared a year in advance, but experienced mushroom growers recommend storing straw for two years in advance. This is due to the fact that in it the amount of nitrogen increases, hygroscopicity increases.
The second component is sunflower husk, which should contain at least 15% moisture and at least 3% fat. The highest quality raw materials are harvested at the beginning of the harvest season.
Also sawdust without softwood is introduced into the soil.
Mineral and nutritional supplements are used as additional elements of the substrate for oyster mushrooms. They help optimize the nitrogen content in the finished feed. Typically, the mass of nutrient solids does not exceed 10% of the total soil mass.
To improve the structure of the nutrient mixture and maintain acidity at the right level, mineral additives are used in the form of alabaster, slaked lime, soda ash.
Soil preparation
The substrate for the cultivation of oyster mushrooms in the tunnels involves its preliminary preparation, which consists in carrying out such work:
- Shredding. The smaller the particles of the substrate, the easier it will grow. This is especially important if fresh straw is used - it must be crushed.
- Mixing. If you plan to grow mushrooms on a complex compost, which consists of several elements, it is important to mix all the components until a homogeneous mass is obtained.
- Moisturizing. Mushrooms grow on a substrate with a sufficiently high level of humidity - productivity depends on this. The prepared compost is soaked in water until it absorbs as much moisture as is required for the complete cultivation of mushrooms.
Before applying the substrate, excess water is squeezed from it, achieving a moisture level of 70-80%. With this indicator, you can achieve the maximum yield.
Hydrothermal technique
To prepare the substrate for oyster mushrooms at home, hydrothermal processing technology is used. This is an important stage during which spores of parasitic fungi are removed. For this, high temperatures, microwave irradiation, chemicals are used - the latter are used in large enterprises: hydrogen peroxide, sodium hypochlorite.
At home, with small areas, the soil can be treated in a microwave oven or simply poured with boiling water over the substrate, allowing it to cool. After this, the excess liquid is drained and proceed to the transfer of the mycelium.
Substrate in the tunnel
The technology for preparing the substrate for oyster mushrooms at home in the tunnel allows you to get environmentally friendly raw materials, completely devoid of pests, extraneous microorganisms. In this case, to reproduce such compost, a mixture of straw with manure is used (10 kg of manure per ton of straw).
Cooking rules
Prepare the substrate according to the following rules:
- The straw is crushed so that its particles are not larger than 8 cm.
- The prepared straw is laid out on a flat surface, where humidification will be carried out for several days, to a moisture level of 70–80%.
- Then the straw is laid in the tunnels so that it forms a flat surface.
- The tunnel is closed, include ventilation. Gradually add fresh air to increase the microbial activity in the mixture.
As soon as the temperature of the substrate reaches 60-65 degrees, pasteurization begins. Processing with high temperatures takes about 12-24 hours.
Steam treatment
And how to prepare a substrate for oyster mushroom, what other technologies are used? Soil can be treated with steam. Moreover, this technology can be unsterile and sterile. In the latter case, the substrate is exposed to high temperatures - up to 130 degrees - due to which all microflora in the soil dies. However, this method is expensive and practically not used.
Non-sterile steam treatment is carried out not only on large farms, but also at home. The substrate is poured with boiling water and allowed to cool for 3-4 hours. Then form briquettes for planting mycelium.
Growing technology
The entire cultivation technology can be divided into four stages. The first is the preparation of the substrate and its processing. At home, soil disinfection is carried out with hot water. Some mushroom growers recommend boiling the substrate for two hours.
It is possible to process the substrate in this way in plastic bags, after making holes in them for free circulation of water. After draining the liquid, the soil is left to wrap around for a day so that all excess moisture is gone. If disinfection was carried out in briquettes, then the removal of excess liquid is carried out by placing soil under a press.
Planting mycelium is performed under sterile conditions. The substrate is laid out evenly on the table and mixed with mycelium of fungi (2% of mycelium per 10 kg of soil). Then the mixture is laid out in bags, rammed tightly. On the one hand, cuts are made on the bags at an angle of 45 degrees and a length of about 5 cm.
At a temperature of 25 degrees, mushrooms sprout. During this period, it is necessary to ensure that the temperature does not rise above 30, otherwise the oyster mushroom will experience heat shock and the mushroom will die.
Harvesting occurs after 1.5-2 months. After removing the first crop, the second will appear in two weeks. To speed up this process, the legs are cut off completely, and the substrate is sorted.