Basic Mushroom Growing 101 -by Woodsman Dave

Mushroom growing.

First you start by buying a bag of clean oats. You put a half jar of oats 1/8 cup of vermiculite and 2/3 cup water. Let it sit for an hour. While sitting, take the lid and punch a hole in the middle with a hammer and nail. Put the lid on top. Put Tyvec house wrap over it, then put ring on it. I usually cut the Tyvec out to the size of the lid. Then put aluminum foil over that so no water gets in or out when pressure cooking. Pressure cook for two hours at 15 pounds to sterilize. Then (use Glovebox that you can make for about thirty bucks) to do a culture from a mushroom you want to grow. After the jar is sterile, put it in the glovebox and clean everything with alcohol. Take the mushroom, rip it open, take a small piece out of the middle, and put it in the jar. Put the lid back on and let it sit for two to three weeks while the Mycelium Colinizes then grains.

Step two: put hardwood fuel pellets for a pellet stove in bowl. 5.5 cups, add 2 cups of bran, and 6 cups boiling water. The pellets will turn to sawdust almost right away. Then pack those into jars with normal lids pressure. Cook for two hours. Now, go back to your glovebox to sanitize a bucket. I like ice cream buckets and coffee cans- the plastic ones. Then use alcohol to clean the bucket. Dump your sawdust in and your mycelium mix, put the lids on. Poke a hole in the top and tap a Tyvec piece over it. In 14 days, they will start popping. I usually drill 3/8 inch hole in the side of the bucket and tap plastic over it —to see if it turn white and push on the plastic. Then I take it off and let the mushrooms grow out.