Oyster Mushroom Growing Instructions

Nutrition

8 Sept

What’s inside your grow at home kit:

Inside your canvas bag you’ll find a substrate block in a recyclable plastic grow bag. We have already colonized it with Grey, Pink or Yellow Oyster mushroom mycelium.

The mycelium is the white stuff bonding all the ingredients together and what your Oyster mushrooms will grow from.

How to get it started:

To induce fruiting, cut along the black ‘X’ marked on the plastic bag.

If growing Grey Oyster Mushrooms (for Pink and Yellow Oyster Mushrooms, skip this stage), hydrate your kit by submerging your grow bag with the opening face down in a large bowl of fresh, cold, water. You’ll need to weigh it down with something heavy and leave for 8-12 hours.

Place your substrate block back into the canvas bag and cut an opening in the canvas bag. It’ll need to be in the same place as the ‘X’ you’ve made in the plastic bag, this is where your Oyster mushrooms will grow.

Spray the opening twice a day, and more often in warmer weather.

This keeps the opening humid and will encourage growth.

Once you start to see your Oyster mushrooms appear, they will need to be sprayed twice a day to keep them hydrated and to stop them from drying out.

Growing tips:

Keep your mushroom kit indoors in a well-ventilated and bright location, out of direct sunlight.

Your Oyster mushrooms will prefer a steady temperature between 16-22° and will appear in about 2 weeks.

When to harvest:

Your mushrooms should be ready to harvest 5-7 days after they first appear. Harvest all your mushrooms at once.

Some will be larger than others, the smaller mushrooms are unlikely to continue to grow.

To remove either snip at the base with scissors or pinch and twist close to the base of your cluster.

For the perfect pick think about harvesting your Oyster mushrooms when their caps start flattening out – like the illustration on the front of this leaflet.

Storage:

Once you’ve harvested your Oyster mushrooms, they’ll keep well wrapped inside a paper bag and stored in the fridge. If your mushrooms begin to dry out, don’t worry, they’ll still be perfectly delicious. When you choose to cook them the cooking process will help rehydrate them - they’re great as part of a soup, stew, or risotto.

How to get more mushrooms from your kit:

You could try for another flush from your Grow Your Own kit. If your kit has healthy white mycelium, by letting the bag rest after a flush, this allows your mycelium to recharge. With each flush there will be less nutrients to nourish mycelium so you may get fewer mushrooms. Subsequent flushes will take a little longer to appear. If all’s well, you can keep going until there’s no more output.

After you have harvested your first flush of mushrooms, remove the canvas bag, let it dry and keep it safe. Place your kit in a dark cupboard with a stable temperature. You’ll need to tape closed the original opening during the rest phase to minimise your risk of contamination. You can start again by reopening, then soaking your substrate block for 4-6 hours in clean, cold water. Remove any standing water from your kit and repeat the growing process. Each cycle will increase the risk of contamination, so look out for any green spots within the bag.

When you have finished growing:

Remove your substrate from the plastic bag. You can recycle the plastic at any large supermarket facility. Your fruiting block and the canvas bag are suitable to be crumbled into your garden or put into your compost bin.

Other kits you can get growing at home. All freshly hand made and ready to grow…