10 Easiest Ways for Oyster Mushroom Log Cultivation

Oyster mushrooms are one of the simplest to cultivate. They are delicious and healthy and can be a great addition to your backyard and garden. Here are some of the ways to cultivate them.

Ways of oyster mushroom cultivation

1) Culture on logs: This is the most favored method. Though it may take about 6 to 12 months, the taste of log-grown oysters is much better than those which grow on other substrates. During late winter or early spring, a live deciduous tree (oak, maple, alder, and cottonwood) are cut down which are about 4 to 8 inches in thickness and left for about 3 to 4 weeks. Meanwhile, other species of fungus that prevent mushrooms from inoculating declines. Then holes are drilled on the surface of the Oyster mushroom Log keeping a gap of about 4 inches, plug spawns are hammered in the holes and then sealed with beeswax. After 6 months of inoculation, oysters will show up on the logs.

2) Straw logs: Using straw logs to grow mushrooms is one of the easiest and most rewarding ways of cultivating mushrooms in your home garden. You can either use mushroom kits supplied by reputed companies or grow Oyster mushroom Log on your own requiring fewer equipment. In this process, pasteurized straw is inoculated with mushroom grain spawn to enable the mushrooms to colonize the straw. Then the logs are placed in the right environmental conditions for fruiting to take place.

3) Stump cultivation method I: Stumps are also excellent substrates because their roots remain undamaged and can get moisture from the soil. However, stumps should be located in a shady place.

4) The topmost surface of the stumps: It is drilled and plugged and using cheese wax the inoculation sites are sealed.

5) Stump cultivation method II: In this method wedges are cut from the sides of stump and then sawdust spawn is applied on the surface that gets exposed. After that wedges are fastened back to the inoculated site with the help of nails and the cracks are also sealed with wax.

6) Stump cultivation method III: The stumps are cut into sections and then a ring of spawn around the edges is applied. After that, the sections are fastened back in layers on top of the stump.

7) Indoor cultivation: This form of log cultivation involves inoculating 6-inch diameter discs and then the discs are put together with nails. After that, the discs are kept in large plastic bags so that it retains humidity and moisture.

8) Spore: Producing mushrooms from spores is said to be almost similar to growing plants from seeds and is the most difficult and time consuming one. Growing them requires Petri dishes, a clean room, and a laminar flow hood.

9) Wood chip: The wood chip method is an easier process and one requires putting fewer efforts. One needs to get the mycelium from a commercial producer.

10) The mycelium: It is supplied in a mixture of wood chips and deciduous tree sawdust.

Final words

Oyster mushrooms grow very quickly. Since these are resistant to other competing fungus, they grow on a wide variety of substrates. So you can grow these mushrooms in your homestead and reap their culinary and health benefits.