Top 10 Steps to Start a Successful Small Oyster Mushroom Farm in 2019

Oyster mushrooms belong to the Agaricaceae family and class Basidiomycetes, and they grow in tropical as well as temperate forests. However, you need to grow them on decaying or dead and sometimes even drying trunks of coniferous and deciduous woods. So, do you want to have your mushroom farm? Learning to grow mushrooms for any specific reason can be engaging and regarding. The journey can be a long one because there is a tremendous variety of experiments and new techniques, but you must along. Here is how you can have your fully operational mushroom farm.

A business plan for the farm

A business plan for the edible fungi farm needs detailed planning and considerable attention. Keeping aside strategies of farming, on the one hand, you need to understand how you can build a growing house for mushrooms. Specific requirements for an Oyster mushroom Log for sale involve the presence of proper shelves in the house, cultivation place, and the shelves. Make cost estimates to begin farming.

Gathering suitable logs 

As you may have seen Oyster mushrooms come in a variety of tastes and colors. They can commercially grow on substrates like coffee grounds, straw, but naturally, they thrive on trees. Hence, you most definitely require an Oyster mushroom Log. These logs can be hardwood logs, especially something like beech. This kind of edible fungi has a shorter period of incubation.

 A growing shed 

Small-scale farming requires constructing fungi shed. This shed must have a greenhouse design comprising of a heater, dehumidifier, and humidifier. These help to regulate the temperature because farming requires humidity but a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius to 15 degrees Celsius.

Spawn to farm 

You cannot begin without spawn. Therefore, get hold of the nearest suppliers in your locality so that you can get uninterrupted supplies. While there is readymade inoculate spawn available, you can make your own at your farm. 

Raw materials 

Among raw materials, you need cellulose and a mycelium bag that a few companies provide with. Spawn of the mushrooms is mixed with substrate material that involves wood chips of maple, oak, cottonwood or alder. Companies provide you with this bag that has a growing medium. 

Process of cultivation 

The cultivation process is a combination of incubation and fruiting. You need to place the mycelium bags comprising of the growing medium in a dark room within the warm temperature. But, because you are growing on logs, you need to inoculate it. Drill holes of four inches throughout the log’s surface in the pattern of a diamond. Later, take the mycelium dowels or plug spawn and hammer them within the holes. You need to plug the holes, exposed end of the wood with beeswax. Later, stack the logs inside the shed you made. Within a year or six months, post-injection, logs will begin fruiting mushrooms. Make sure the woods are cold and moist at all times. 

Harvesting 

Harvesting mushrooms is an essential step because the correct time to harvest is when the fungi have uncurled completely. Such a characteristic marks their maturity and makes them ready for packing, harvesting, and selling them in markets. You must harvest before they start dropping spores. 

Packaging 

An essential aspect of cultivating this edible fungus is packaging. Packaging prepares mushrooms for various other procedures. 

Price the mushrooms

You must price the edible fungi in a manner that helps you gain the profit you deserve. After all, they are your fruits of labor, thus decide on having contracts with grocery markets, hotels, supermarkets, and local shopkeepers. 

Sell your mushrooms fast

As and when you harvest your mushrooms, try selling them off quickly. That is because the earlier you sell them, people will buy the fresher stuff. During this time, nutritive content shall be high as well. 

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Can We Grow More Than One Kind of Mushroom on a Single Mushroom Log

Yes, why not as nowadays some tips and tricks make you get a variety of mushrooms from just a single log. You can buy the mushroom logs from renowned sources that grow their trunks in healthy conditions that are environmental-friendly. With assistance from experts, you can obtain the highest quality products. Go for buying sources that have successfully proved their worth with growing edible fungi in some of the leading mediums and the spawn kinds reflected extensive growth. So, what are you waiting for, go ahead and being, even if you make a few mistakes, try correcting them and improve your errors in the process?

Diversify the products 

If you are an owner of a small woodland or a farm forest, then there are several reasons you could be looking for reasons to cultivate a wide variety of mushrooms. After you purchase a Mushroom Log for sale from trustworthy sources, you can begin production. That is because the composts/logs contain the growing substrate/media inoculated with the spawn of mushrooms. Usually, the companies provide you with brown/white material inside bags which is called “mycelium.” This Mycelium colonizes the growing substrate/media. These bags are kept in spawn rooms usually until they have fully colonized and ready to be shipped to the customers. Here are a few reasons as to why you should be making the most of these stumps.

Wide assortment 

Growing on billets diversifies the product types that they offer besides you can also expand your streams of revenue. When you purchase stumps from Mushroom Log suppliers, not only can you harvest the first crop/flush within eleven to seven days but add value to the species of wood. The same stump otherwise would have been undesirable if you did not grow edible fungus on them. If you have employees under you, then the growth of these fungi extends their work period. Also, you can choose to grow a broad category of edible and medicinal mushrooms in the forest undergrowth. Growth of edible fungi on billets is one of the most cost-effective ways of producing nutritious, healthy, and fresh mushrooms.

The kind of mushrooms that can thrive on a billet 

Shiitakes 

Lentinus Edodes or shiitakes are one of the most exotic forms of mushroom. Also, these fungi are the most cultivated ones after the button and oysters. The incubation period for them is more extended than the oysters. They can take two years to nine months to fruit. Shiitakes add excellent flavor to dishes, especially in the Asian cuisines. Furthermore, they have medicinal properties that include stimulation of your immune system and lowering levels of cholesterol. 

Oysters (Pleurotus Ostreatus)

The oysters come in the most excellent range of tastes and colors. While they can grow commercially on the substrates like coffee grounds or straw beds, naturally they can be found on trees. Hence, stumps are the best choice. They have a shorter period of incubation, which means you can harvest oysters from billets within the same year of immunization. They are collected during fall, and the same logs have the capability of producing the edible fungi till fall from spring. Go for already inoculated logs of beech or any other kind of hardwood. 

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