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There are several ways to grow oyster mushrooms: the most acceptable of them is on the stumps at the summer cottage. Using this method of breeding oyster mushrooms, you can provide your family with delicious mushrooms. But if you are thinking about how to grow oyster mushrooms for sale, you will have to get a greenhouse or a special room. Well, first, of course, study the technology of the process.

The technology of growing oyster mushrooms in an extensive way: breeding on stumps

To grow oyster mushrooms on stumps, logs infected with mushrooms can be picturesquely installed or dug in the garden. The first fruits on thick logs can be expected no earlier than in a year. The thickness of the logs for breeding oyster mushrooms on stumps should be at least 10 cm, and the length from 40 cm. On segments of thick logs, fruiting lasts 5-7 years.

Before growing oyster mushrooms, you need to prepare logs. Trees are cut down to harvest logs during the dormant period, which begins in the fall after leaf fall and continues until the tree sap begins to move in the spring. Suitable for extensive use birch and other hardwoods, except oak and stone fruits. Logs can be stored in late autumn and winter, but not in summer. Dead wood and trees infected with stem rot are not suitable for growing oyster mushrooms in the country on stumps! The logs are cut into pieces of shape and length that are convenient for placement in the garden. Further operations - drilling holes and seeding logs - are performed on clean plastic wrap! Having retreated 20 cm from the upper end of the stump, a cutter with a diameter of 20 mm is made around the circumference of a hole 6 cm deep.The distance between the holes is 4-7 cm.

In preparation for growing oyster mushrooms in an extensive way, holes are drilled in the stumps in a circle. If the stump is cut down near the ground, holes are drilled obliquely from the end, starting drilling near the bark. The mycelium spreads rapidly along the wood fibers, and slowly in other directions. With clean hands, the holes are filled with mycelium and compacted so that 1 cm remains to the edges. To prevent the mycelium from spilling out, the holes are sealed with garden pitch. This is necessary to create a high concentration of carbon dioxide inside the wood. For better development of wood by the mycelium of the fungus, it is advisable to place the sown log in a plastic bag with small slots for six months.

Another option for growing oyster mushrooms on stumps is to immediately dig the block into the ground. Mushrooms on logs dug into the ground are better able to tolerate periods without rain. Choose a place shaded by plants on three sides and open from the west or east. It is better to choose a place in a ravine, a lowland, where the humidity of the earth and air is higher. If necessary, plant additional plants to provide protection from the wind.

Of all the oyster mushrooms that grow in Russia in deciduous forests at a latitude south of Moscow, the most delicious is common oyster mushroom. The natural forms of this fungus require a cold shock for fruiting. Therefore, they bear fruit in late autumn. Hybrid varieties bear fruit more often. Hybrid oyster mushroom variety NK-35 is frost-resistant, tasty and does not require refrigeration to start fruiting. Mushrooms of the NK-35 variety, which are extensively grown outdoors, have brown caps, light at high temperatures and completely dark at low temperatures. The more light, the more intense the brown color of the hat of this variety.

To decorate the garden when growing oyster mushrooms on stumps, you can settle exotic varieties on logs or stumps:lemon yellowNS (Pleurotus citrinopileatus) and pink (Pleurotus djamor). They are very beautiful, but less delicious.

How to prepare mushroom blocks for growing oyster mushrooms in the country on stumps

To prepare one substrate block for growing oyster mushrooms with a volume of 6 liters, take 6 liters of wood chips from ground fresh branches or dried wood chips. Instead of wood chips, you can take 6-7 liters of chopped straw or hulls from sunflower seeds. Add 200 g of barley, oats or pearl barley. Bring the mass of the substrate to 3000 g with water. Add a teaspoon of slaked lime - Ca (OH) g to the substrate.

For the manufacture of small blocks with a volume of 3 liters when growing oyster mushrooms in the country, it is necessary to reduce the amount of all ingredients by 2 times.

Before growing oyster mushrooms from mushroom blocks weighing 10-20 kg, after thorough mixing, fill the substrate into polypropylene bags with a volume of 8 liters or 4 liters. Then insert it into the throat of the bag and tie it with twine made of cotton wool or pure padding polyester plugs with a diameter of 2-3 cm.

Sterilize or pasteurize the substrate directly in the bag using one of the following methods. Then, making sure that the substrate has cooled down to a temperature below +30 ° C, pour 50 to 100 g of oyster mushroom grain mycelium into the neck of the bag. Place the bags vertically with the stopper upwards in a room with a temperature of +16 ° C to +26 ° C to incubate the mycelium in the substrate. After 3-4 weeks, the substrate will be overgrown with mycelium and will turn white. The overgrowth time depends on the temperature: at +24 ᵒС it is minimal, and at +16 ° С it can significantly increase. Make 6-8 cuts 3-4 cm long in the bag for growing oyster mushrooms with a chisel. Place the bag in the fruiting room.

You can prepare the substrate for oyster mushrooms in a more economical, so-called "Chinese" way. For a block weighing 1.5 kg, take 3 liters of substrate base, add 100 g of grain or cereals. Bring the weight of the substrate to 1500 g with water. Add a teaspoon of hydrated lime -Ca (OH) 2 to the substrate. Fill the substrate into a 4 L polypropylene bag. Sterilize or pasteurize the substrate directly in an unsealed bag using one of the following methods. After cooling the substrate below +30 ° C, tie the bag with twine perfectly tightly. On a clean table, mash the grain mycelium with clean hands.

Use a chisel or knife to make 6 vertical, equally spaced 4 cm slots in the side of the substrate bag. Place 1 teaspoon of grain mycelium in each slot. Seal the slots in the bag with duct tape. To incubate mycelium in the substrate, place the bags vertically at room temperature 16-26 ° C. After 4-7 days, check that the mycelium has formed white patches of overgrowth around the sealed slots. Then make a 2 x 2 cm cross-cut in the tape where they were and place the bags back in the incubation room. After 20-40 days, depending on the amount of mycelium applied and on the air temperature, the substrate block for oyster mushrooms will turn white and will be ready for fruiting.

How to grow oyster mushrooms from mushroom blocks and forcing videos

Before growing oyster mushrooms, place the bags vertically on the shelves or on the ground in the garden. The fruiting bodies of the mushrooms will bear fruit from the incisions in the lateral surface. The optimum air temperature during this period is + 13 ... + 17 ° С, air humidity is 70-90%. Such conditions in nature occur only in autumn or rainy summer. Especially little moisture is contained in the air in winter in a heated room. To increase the air humidity, mushroom blocks for growing oyster mushrooms cannot be simply covered with a bag: due to the high concentration of carbon dioxide, an irregular mushroom will grow under the bag. A small cultivation chamber with ventilation can be made of polyethylene. Commercially available ultrasonic humidifiers ("cold steam") can blow fresh, moist air into the fruiting chamber with their fan. It is also necessary to purchase an electric timer, which will turn on the humidifier for 5 minutes every hour.With such a humidifier in the autumn-winter period, you can grow a good oyster mushroom on a glazed loggia.

In summer, at elevated temperatures, the appearance of the rudiments of fruiting bodies during the extensive cultivation of oyster mushrooms can be delayed. In this case, it is necessary to arrange a "cold shock" for the mycelium. Place the bag with mycelium for 3 days in a refrigerator or in a cellar with a temperature of 0 to +10 ° C, and then return the substrate blocks to the place of their future fruiting. Most likely, numerous rudiments of fruiting bodies inside the perforated bag will quickly appear there. Now the main condition for growing oyster mushrooms is high air humidity with a low concentration of carbon dioxide. Such a microclimate occurs among dense vegetation in the shade. For fruiting oyster mushrooms, you need to choose a place protected from wind and direct sunlight. To increase air humidity, you can water the surrounding plants and soil. And after the appearance of fruit bodies, watering is needed over the mushrooms.

In the garden, you can place the mycelium in a greenhouse shaded on the south side and humidify the air with regular watering. If there are green plants in the greenhouse, and there are few substratum blocks with oyster mushrooms, high quality mushrooms will grow. With a large number of blocks, a lot of carbon dioxide is released, and the mushrooms will be ugly, sluggish, with an elongated leg. To create the necessary conditions for growing oyster mushrooms, you need to remove carbon dioxide from the room, for this I regularly ventilate the room or install a ventilation system.

Harvest as soon as they appear, while the edges of the cap are still folded down, not fully straightened. Gently break the mushrooms out of the slots of the substrate block by swinging them up and down.

Watch the video "Conditions for growing oyster mushrooms and forcing mushroom blocks" to better understand the technology of the process:

How to grow oyster mushrooms from blocks using non-sterile technology

Oyster mushroom has a set of active enzymes that allows it to capture the substrate in the bag and create a high concentration of carbon dioxide there before mold and anaerobic bacteria develop. Non-sterile technology can be implemented if the substrate is not heavily contaminated with mold. Such a substrate can be ground fresh branches of a willow or birch.

The technology for growing oyster mushrooms in a non-sterile way is quite simple. Place 6 liters of wood chips from fresh willow twigs, ground in a garden shredder, into a bowl. Scatter slaked lime (1 teaspoon) over the chips. Using this method of growing oyster mushrooms, grind 200 g of grain mycelium in your hands and add it to the wood chips while stirring. Pour in the substrate mixture with enough water to bring the substrate mass to 3 kg.

Prepare a polyethylene bag for 7 liters of content. Make a synthetic winterizer plug for him. Stoppers are needed to protect the mycelium from mushroom mosquitoes and so that the oyster mushroom does not begin to bear fruit earlier than you want it.

To make a synthetic winterizer cork, it is enough to cut off a piece of synthetic winterizer and twist it in the form of a cylinder with a diameter of 4 cm and a length of 6 cm.

Fill the mixture into a plastic bag. It is better if the height of the package is greater than its width. Lower the stopper so that the bag is tightly packed with the substrate. Pull the neck of the bag with twine.

As you can see in the photo, when growing oyster mushrooms, you need to give the substrate block a rectangular shape by gluing the "ears" of the bag to its bottom with tape, so that it stands firmly on the shelf with the cork up:

For incubation, place the unit in a room with a temperature of + 20 ... + 24 ° C. A week later, white stars of mycelium will appear inside the bag, which grows near the particles of the grain mycelium. First, at the top of the block, where there is more oxygen, and then white spots will appear at the bottom. After 3-4 weeks, the entire substrate block will turn white.From this point on, it can be assumed that the substrate block has been absorbed by the mycelium and that the substrate itself has already turned into a full-fledged substrate mycelium. It can be used for forcing mushrooms or for seeding new batches of substrate.

To grow oyster mushrooms from the resulting blocks with mycelium, you need to make six vertical 3-cm cuts in the side wall of the bag with a knife and place the block in a shady place in the garden for fruiting. Mushrooms will grow from these cuts.

You can do it easier - cut off the throat of the bag along with the cork, then the mushrooms will grow from above. Place the bags vertically on the shelves or on the ground in the garden. Optimal conditions for this stage of mushroom cultivation are air temperature + 13 ... + 17 ° С, air humidity 70-90%.

Now watch the video "Growing oyster mushrooms using non-sterile technology":

Forcing oyster mushroom mycelium when growing mushrooms

The mycelium for growing oyster mushrooms in an amount of 2 to 5% of the substrate mass is introduced into the substrate in a clean room: poured into plastic bags and compacted. The optimum substrate density is 0.4-0.5 kg / l. You can use plastic bags pre-punched with round holes. The optimum mass of the substrate block is 15 kg. The bag is tightly tied on top with twine. Prepared substrate blocks are placed on transport trolleys and transported in small batches to the incubation site.

With a multi-chamber oyster mushroom growing system, all development phases take place in climate-controlled chambers. For the first 20 days in a chamber with equipment for growing oyster mushrooms, the air temperature is kept at + 24 ° C, which is optimal for incubation of mycelium in the substrate, and ventilation with fresh air is turned off. Then the air temperature is sharply lowered to +15 ° C and fresh air is supplied in full to initiate the onset of fruiting. After 10 days, the mushrooms of the first wave of fruiting are harvested, then the conditions are adjusted so as to accelerate the appearance of the second wave. In order for the mushrooms to grow evenly on the days of the week, there must be a lot of cameras.

A two-zone or two-chamber growing system has become more widespread. One third of the cultivation area is allocated for the incubation chamber, where the mycelium assimilates the substrate. The rest of the area is under the fruiting chamber, where fresh air is supplied and where the temperature of +15 ° C and the relative humidity of 80% are constantly maintained, which are optimal for oyster mushroom fruiting.

After inoculation and preparation of the substrate blocks, they are transferred to the incubation chamber. The vertical arrangement of the units provides better air convection inside the unit, but more often they are placed horizontally to save space. For the initial acceleration of the development of the substrate by the mycelium, sometimes the blocks are perforated with a chisel only 2-3 days after they are placed in the incubation chamber. This technique allows you to increase the carbon dioxide content in the substrate at the beginning of incubation.

The optimum temperature of the substrate in the center of the substrate block during incubation is + 25 ... + 27 ° C. Limit values ​​from +16 to +35 ° С. Air temperature + 20 ... + 24 ° С.

Depending on the chosen technology for growing oyster mushrooms, the relative humidity of the air should be 70-95%, the concentration of carbon dioxide is high (more than 2000 ppm). During the incubation phase, fresh air is not supplied to the cultivation chamber. It is necessary to arrange the substrate blocks in such a way that they are all in the same conditions and can freely give off their biological heat in order to avoid overheating of the substrate. In case of a multi-tiered arrangement of blocks, a system for blowing the blocks with recirculated air flows may be required for their cooling. Light is not required, but acceptable. After the appearance of mushroom rudiments on some blocks with the same production date, the entire batch of blocks is transferred to the fruiting chamber.

Growing oyster mushrooms indoors with laminar air flow

When growing oyster mushrooms in a room with a laminar air flow, the racks for placing blocks must be made so that the blocks stand vertically in one row in the form of one solid wall. The distance between the walls is 1 m. The height between the tiers is 70 cm. To prevent the blocks from falling out towards the passage at the level of the middle of the blocks, a removable reinforcing bar is placed on the hooks. Vertical racks must be installed every one and a half meters along the length of the rack. When growing oyster mushrooms in a room with a laminar air flow, each rack is fixed with at least two metal dowels to the floor and two to the ceiling. On one side of the rack, reinforcing bars are welded to the supports, on the other, they are placed on hooks welded to the supports. During the placement of the substrate blocks, the corresponding bar is removed and placed temporarily on another tier.

For the constant removal of carbon dioxide from the oyster mushroom aggregates and to activate the evaporation of water from the surface of the fruit bodies, it is necessary to ensure the movement of air near the fruit bodies at a speed of at least 0.05 m / s. Under the condition of high relative air humidity, a high blowing speed of the mushrooms is permissible (up to 5 m / s).

To obtain high-quality fruit bodies, at least 200 m3 / h of fresh air should be constantly supplied to the cultivation chamber per one ton of substrate in the chamber. In winter, the outside air must be heated and humidified, which requires a lot of heat energy. Heating with electricity is particularly expensive.

The quality of the mushrooms and the yield also depend on the way the mushrooms are blown with air in the chamber, on the way the air is recirculated. The worst solution is the supply of heated and humidified air to the chamber, which, after a single passage through the chamber, is removed into the exhaust window using an exhaust fan. It is necessary that the air first repeatedly passes through the mushroom growth zone and only after that, "collecting" carbon dioxide from the mushrooms and blocks, it goes out into the street.

One such air recirculation system is laminar air flow to blow mushrooms.

Walls with blocks are placed along the long side of the chamber at a distance of 1 m from one another. An unoccupied corridor (passage) is left parallel to the stands with mushrooms and fenced off from them by a light partition. Large capacity axial fans, heaters and air humidifiers are installed in the corridor. Such a corridor is called a "climatic corridor". Fresh air is also served there. The air of the chamber is driven by fans along the corridor, it is humidified and heated there, and returns through the zone of placement of walls with substrate blocks. The air circulates repeatedly, blowing over the mushrooms. Only when saturated with carbon dioxide, it is removed into the exhaust window under the action of the pressure created by the fresh air supply fan, the performance of which is much lower than that of the axial fans in the corridor.

Here you can watch a video of growing oyster mushrooms indoors with a laminar air flow:

Growing oyster mushrooms indoors with a vortex air recirculation system

The bags with the substrate in the chamber are placed in the form of high vertical solid walls perpendicular to the long side of the cultivation chamber. The distance between adjacent shelves is 1 m. The area with mushrooms is separated from the walls on all sides by aisles. The width of one passage is 2 m, the other three - 1 m. The climatic corridor is a longitudinal two-meter passage, not fenced off from the zone with mushrooms. A jet fan is installed in it. Above the air stream created by the jet fan, the required number of finely dispersed humidifiers (aerosol generators of the AG-1 type) are suspended. Fresh air is supplied to the chamber through the window. It displaces the exhaust air together with the carbon dioxide released by the fungi through the exhaust window in the ceiling of the chamber.At moderate outdoor temperatures, it can be supplied by a separate fan directly from the street. But in winter, the air must be preheated. The fresh air pretreatment system includes a medium-pressure radial fan in an amount of at least 200 m3 / h per each ton of substrate.

Air is taken from the street through a mosquito net, passes through the air pre-heater until positive temperatures are reached, then enters the mixing box, where it can mix with the air in the chamber. The control valve in the mixing box allows you to adjust the amount of air in relation to the air from the chamber. A main electric air heater or a heating heat exchanger is installed between the mixing box and the fan. In the ventilation system, fresh air is heated to the required temperature and enters the “climatic corridor” through the window. The total heat output of the two heaters can be roughly estimated at the rate of 2-3 kW for every 200 m3 / h of fresh air supplied. The heating of fresh air and the time of turning on the aerosol generators are regulated so that the air temperature in the chamber is + 15 ° C with a humidity of 80%. In the absence of outdoor air coolers, fresh air can have a higher temperature in summer, but aerosol generators reduce it by a few degrees.

The powerful and narrow air jet generated by the jet fan circulates the air around the mushroom shelves. The jet itself and these flows, in accordance with Bernoulli's law, create a pressure gradient in the chamber, which ensures the movement of air along the aisles between the racks, washing the mushrooms. In the passages closest to the fan, the air moves to the "climatic corridor", and in the distant passages - away from it.

The circular movement of air around the mushroom shelves also leads to air circulation around the mushrooms. This vortex air recirculation system improves the removal of carbon dioxide from the mushrooms and from the slots in the bags.

The air jet in the central passage also serves as a good mixing of the chamber air with warm air from the fan, with steam and with water aerosol.

Watch a video on how to grow oyster mushrooms indoors with a vortex air recirculation system:

Growing oyster mushrooms on substrate briquettes

At large industries, equipment is used for growing oyster mushrooms in the form of Italian-made automatic briquetting machines with a capacity of about 360 briquettes per hour. After cooling the substrate in the tunnel, it is unloaded by an electric winch onto the conveyor belt of the briquetting machine, where a mycelium dispenser is installed and the substrate is sown. Then the inoculated substrate enters the press chamber, where the briquette is formed and packed in aperforated film.

Parameters of the finished substrate for oyster mushrooms: moisture = 70-74%, pH = 7.5-8.5, total nitrogen (1 \ 1total) = 0.7-1.0%, uniformly brown color, substrate density 0.45 -0.50 kg / l. Overall dimensions of oyster mushroom substrate briquettes 35 x 55 x 22 cm, weight 20-22 kg.

Below is an example of a simple, practical option for distilling mushrooms from briquettes. The substrate in briquettes is placed on four four-tier racks. The chamber contains 20 tons of substrate. The specific load of the substrate is 180 kg per 1 m2 of the chamber floor. In winter, the air is heated by steam heating batteries. Fresh air enters the fruiting chamber through the vents. The volume of fresh air intake and the air temperature are regulated by the degree of opening of the vents. The air flow passes through the mushroom racks and is removed by an exhaust fan. The air in the chamber is humidified by one aerosol generator of the AG-1 type, which is suspended from the ceiling of the chamber in the central passage. An axial fan with a capacity of 1700 m3 / h is suspended in front of the aerosol generator.It creates a jet of air that captures the "fog" from the generator and mixes the air in the chamber. The finely dispersed AG-1 atomizer and the fan are switched on together by a timer.

An exhaust fan with a capacity of 5000 m3 / h is installed in the wall of the chamber opposite from the window. The fans are turned on by timer every half hour for 5 minutes. During the summer, the system works perfectly and allows you to get good quality mushrooms. In winter, it is necessary to restrict the air supply due to the insufficient capacity of the heating system. In winter, during the operation of the exhaust fans, frosty fresh air enters through the window. However, the mushrooms do not have time to freeze and grow quite well. During the incubation of the mycelium, the windows are closed, the exhaust fans do not work. They slightly open the windows and turn on the exhaust fans for a short time only if the temperature in the center of the block rises above +35 ° С. After that, the temperature in the chamber is maintained from +13 to +20 ° С. Productivity for two waves of fruiting reaches 20% of the mass of the substrate.

Preparing a substrate for growing oyster mushrooms in a tunnel

In the mushroom complexes, a huge amount of substrate for oyster mushrooms is produced in the same tunnels as the mushroom compost. The good quality of the oyster mushroom substrate made in the tunnel on the farm where the mushroom compost is made is due to the use of recycled water from the mushroom shop with aerobic microorganisms. On farms where champignons are not produced, the substrate for oyster mushrooms is improved by adding manure to the circulating water in an amount of up to 10 kg per ton of straw.

The standard technology for preparing a substrate for growing oyster mushrooms begins with chopping the straw. Shredding the straw to particles 3-8 cm in size is necessary in order to make it easier to fill the substrate into bags in the future. The straw is moistened with circulating water on a concrete site for 1-5 days, periodically turning it over. The moisture content of the straw when loading the tunnel should be at 78%. The tunnel is filled with straw with a layer of up to 2.5 m, so that its surface is even. After pasteurization, the straw layer settles significantly. To accommodate 1 ton of substrate straw, about 1.5 m2 of tunnel floor area is required.

After loading, the tunnel is closed and recirculation ventilation is turned on to equalize the temperature in the substrate mass. Then add 1% fresh air. In winter, steam is supplied from the bottom together with air for the initial heating of the substrate for growing oyster mushrooms. After some time, an increase in microbiological activity begins in the substrate. The substrate begins to heat up on its own, and less steam and more (up to 5%) fresh air are required to maintain the pasteurization temperature. The temperature is raised slowly, the heating of the substrate takes 12 hours in summer and up to 24 hours in winter. The steam generator should be capable of delivering 25 kg of steam per hour for each ton of substrate.

Upon reaching the temperature of +65 ° C, the pasteurization process begins. During pasteurization, the volume of fresh air supplied is 5% of the total recirculation volume, or 10 m3 / h per ton of substrate. After a twelve-hour pasteurization for subsequent fermentation, the substrate is cooled to +50 ° C (within 8-10 hours) by increasing the volume of fresh outside air to 30%. Then carry out the fermentation of the substrate at + 45 ... + 50 ° C from 24 to 48 hours with a large volume of fresh air (20%). At the end of pasteurization or fermentation, they try to quickly cool the mass of the substrate with fresh air, which at this moment is admitted in volume up to 100%. When preparing the substrate for oyster mushrooms, it is cooled to +28 ° C in winter, and in summer to +24 ° C. The cooling process takes 12 to 24 hours, depending on the season and the ambient temperature.

When preparing the substrate for oyster mushrooms, it is unloaded with a conveyor, a winch with a system of moving floors (nets), other mechanisms, or manually. The mycelium is introduced into the substrate in a proportion of 2 to 5% by weight of the substrate.Inoculation is carried out in a clean room located next to the heat treatment chamber. The mycelium is evenly distributed in the substrate and the resulting mixture is packed in polyethylene bags.

How to make a substrate for oyster mushrooms using hydrothermal technology

The most accessible technology for low-volume production of oyster mushrooms is the substrate heat treatment technology - soaking the substrate in bags in hot water. The hydrothermal treatment tank is a metal tank with electric water heaters in the lower part and with a horizontal grate above the heaters.

Before preparing the substrate for oyster mushrooms using hydrothermal technology, dry shredded straw is loaded into new or used woven polypropylene bags, which are usually packed with sugar. You can also make a substrate from sunflower husk without additives or from equal parts of wood chips and cotton wool. The bags with the substrate are placed vertically, closed on top with spacers from floating up and covered with a lid. The tank is filled with water. The substrate in the bags should be completely covered with water. Heating continues for 12-13 hours. The water temperature should not rise above 82-85 ° С. After the temperature is reached, the heaters are turned off and the substrate is kept in water for 4 hours. Then the water is drained. Or you can unload hot bags from the tank onto a slatted floor, where you can leave it overnight. In the morning, begin inoculation of the substrate with mycelium in a separate clean room. The substrate is taken from the box in separate bags and shaken out onto the inoculation table. The substrate temperature during inoculation should not exceed +

30 ° C.

Along with the above, there is another option for the hydrothermal treatment of the substrate. Dry straw or sunflower husk is preliminarily placed in a container and covered with a heavy shield that will not allow it to float. Water heated by boilers or in special tanks up to a temperature of +80 ° C is poured into a container so as to completely cover the substrate. The water temperature after heat exchange with the substrate is + 70 ° С. The substrate is left under water overnight. In the morning, the water is drained. After a few hours, the inoculation and the preparation of the substrate blocks are started.

Sunflower husk substrate allows accelerated hydrothermal treatment by boiling in water. Sunflower husks are packed in woven polypropylene bags, kept for 4 hours in a tank with warm water at a temperature of about +30 ° C. Then a rope of sufficient length is tied to the bags and immersed in a tank of boiling water. After 30 minutes, the bags are removed from the boiling water and hung on ropes. Water drains from the bags, and they dry until the next morning. After the substrate has cooled to +30 ° C, inoculation with mycelium is performed. Through one portion of water, you can pass up to 5 portions of the substrate.

The main disadvantage of the hydrothermal technology is the strong waterlogging of the substrate. With an excess of water in the substrate, anaerobic zones arise. Dark spots appear on the substrate block, mold develops, water accumulates in the lower part of the bag, mushroom flies breed faster.

The least moisture is obtained by cooking the substrate, followed by drying the bags in a suspended state. It should be noted that excessive waterlogging of the substrate manifests itself less when used as a basis for cotton wool.

Preparation and treatment of oyster mushroom substrate with water vapor

The substrate is first moistened in one way or another to the desired moisture content (W = 60%), then it is placed on the mesh in the tank and treated with steam under an unsealed lid for 4 hours, counting from the moment the substrate warms up to +90 ° C. The steam supply is stopped and the substrate is left to cool overnight. In the morning, transfer the substrate to a clean room for inoculation. This technology has proven itself well in the treatment of cotton fleece substrates. It is convenient to use a small tank with internal dimensions of 1.0 x 1.0 x 1.0 m, which has a water drain connection and a steam supply system for the substrate.Inside the tank, corners are welded onto which they install mesh reinforced with a corner for the substrate. Nets with handles measuring 100 x 33 cm are installed three on each floor. A pre-soaked substrate is laid out on the grid with a layer of 20 cm. Each grid has a weight of 30-35 kg. After heat treatment, such a mesh is easily lifted by two workers and carried to the table for inoculation.

In the middle climatic zone of Russia, it is more rational to use birch and aspen firewood. On a mushroom farm in the Volokolamsk region, oyster mushrooms are successfully grown on aspen chips treated with steam. Wood trunks with a diameter of not more than 20 cm are crushed in a crusher to small chips of 10-30 mm in size. Thicker wood must be chopped into several pieces before grinding. The natural moisture content of the wood is 40-50%. The nitrogen content in wood is only about 0.1%. Therefore, oat or barley grain is additionally added to the substrate in an amount of 20% of the wood mass. Heat treatment and mixing are done in a substrate machine, which is a barrel rotating on an axis. You can conveniently load chips and grain into it, pour water, steam and mix everything.

The wood chips are loaded pneumatically with a dust fan into the substrate machine. Since the chips are quite heavy, loading is quick. Then add grain of oats or barley at the rate of 20% by weight of chips and water. The amount of water is calculated based on the initial and desired substrate moisture content. The optimum moisture content of the substrate mixture is from 65 to 70% - in this case, there will be no free water in the substrate. Then, while stirring this mixture, steam is supplied for heating. The mixture is heated to + 90 ° C and kept at this temperature for 2 hours. The supply of steam does not greatly increase the moisture content of the substrate, but nevertheless, when working out the technology, it is necessary to measure the moisture content of the finished substrate and adjust the amount of added water.

Instead of a substrate machine, you can use a steaming tank, but in this case, the chips are pre-mixed with the grain and the required amount of water on a clean concrete floor.

After cooling, the mycelium is added to the substrate, mixed thoroughly and packaged. The bag weight is 16-18 kg.

The duration of incubation when processing a substrate for oyster mushrooms on a wood substrate mixed with grain is 25 days. The yield of mushrooms on the first wave is from 15 to 18% of the block weight. Oyster mushrooms are beautiful, dense and fragrant.

How to prepare oyster mushroom substrate in economical ways

To make a substrate for oyster mushrooms, you can use one of the following economical methods.

Xerothermal treatment of the substrate. When using this technology, less energy is consumed for heating the steam, since the heat capacity of dry straw is less than the heat capacity of wet straw. Dry straw is steamed, then cold clean water is added to the substrate on a clean floor. The chopped straw is fed through a conveyor or pneumatic conveyor to the heat treatment hopper, where its temperature is brought with steam to + 95 ... + 100 ° С. Processing at this temperature lasts 1-2 hours. Straw for xerothermal technology must be mold-free. After xerothermal treatment, dry areas of straws always remain, and a temperature of +160 ° C is needed to destroy dry mold spores.

Anaerobic fermentation of substrate in water - this is keeping the substrate in water without air access at temperatures from room temperature to +60 ° C. The substrate is kept for up to three days. At the same time, it develops its protection against mold. Qualitative indicators of the readiness of the substrate are the unpleasant odor of anaerobic processes and the presence of a bacterial film on the water surface. A decrease in temperature to + 30 ... + 40 ° С leads to the fact that the smell becomes unbearable and the properties of the substrate deteriorate.At low temperatures, fermentation takes from one to two weeks, but low-temperature anaerobic processing, despite its economic efficiency, is not widespread. All the disadvantages of hydrothermia are also characteristic of anaerobic fermentation (except for high energy consumption).

How else can you prepare a substrate for oyster mushrooms

You can also prepare the substrate for oyster mushrooms by processing in sealed barrels without air access and without heat treatment.

Treatment of the substrate in sealed drums without air access. The substrate soaked to the desired moisture content is processed in an air environment, but without access to fresh air during heat treatment. Pasteurization without air access is carried out at a temperature of + 60 ... + 70 ° C in sealed containers. The difference from hydrothermia and from anaerobic fermentation is the absence of free water in the spaces between the substrate particles. The substrate is processed in a heat chamber in hermetically sealed barrels. The oxygen in the air is consumed by the useful microflora of the substrate, so the barrel lids stick to the barrels due to the pressure difference. The result of the technology is quite good with a substrate moisture content of 65%. An accurate calculation of the amount of added water is needed.

Manufacturing of a substrate without heat treatment. Sunflower husks, heated in an oil mill, not exposed to rain, can give good results without heat treatment. The husk is soaked for 2 days at room temperature in water with slaked lime, which does not dissolve and mainly remains at the bottom of the container. Then it is left overnight on a grid to drain the water. In the morning, add mycelium in an amount of 1-3% and put it in perforated polyethylene bags, designed for 10 kg of substrate. The harvest on the first wave reaches 18% of the wet mass.

Growing oyster mushrooms on shelves

In some farms, intended for growing mushrooms, oyster mushrooms are successfully grown on shelves. The substrate briquettes seeded with mycelium are tightly stacked on racks 140 cm wide in the form of a bed 20 cm thick. Perforation is done only from the top. When using a loose, oyster mushroom substrate seeded with mycelium, it is poured onto the rack in an even layer, compacted and covered with perforated plastic wrap on top. When growing oyster mushrooms on racks, the mushrooms will grow vertically upward, and their shape will be almost symmetrical, like mushrooms growing on the ground.

The climate parameters in the chamber are controlled in accordance with a predetermined cultivation schedule. Consider, for example, a typical champignon chamber. The width of the chamber with racks for oyster mushrooms is 6.0 m. With a chamber height of 2.8 m, 4-tier racks can be placed in it. The width of the middle aisle is exactly 1 m. The length of the shelves is 17.5 m, the width is 140 cm. The distance from the floor to the shelf of the 1st tier is 20 cm, between the shelves (along the height of the tier) is 60 cm. For the bulk substrate, a shelf in the form of a trough with sides is needed 20 cm. On the shelf there is a substrate 20 cm thick, above it there is an air gap of 35-40 cm. The substrate briquettes are placed close to each other in the form of four lines 35 cm wide. The width of the bed is 140 cm. The full load of the chamber is 20 tons of substrate. For the normal development of oyster mushrooms during fruiting, ventilation with fresh air should be at least 200 m3 / h per ton of substrate. To push air through an air conditioning system with a polyethylene air duct, a pressure of 400 Pa is required. In this case, a radial

fan with a capacity of 4000 m3 / h at an operating pressure of 400 Pa. The polyethylene air duct in the chamber is an air-inflated polyethylene sleeve with a diameter of about 50 cm, equipped with 6 cm diameter nozzles directed downward. The air duct is suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the central passage so that the air flow from the nozzles is directed vertically downward. The length of the duct is 17 m. The end of the duct farthest from the air conditioner is plugged.The air duct is made of a polyethylene sleeve 80 cm wide with a film thickness of 100 microns. The distance between the nozzle holes is 50cm, and the number of nozzles in the duct is 33.

At a sufficiently high speed of air outflow from the nozzles, a circular movement of air begins around the racks - the air descends in the passage with the air duct and rises in the aisles where there are no air ducts. When growing oyster mushrooms on racks, air jets from nozzles create a reduced pressure in the upper half of the passage, and increased pressure in the lower half. The pressure difference forces the air to move over the surface of the beds. Such an air distribution system mixes well the air in the chamber and equalizes the air temperature throughout the room. Oyster mushroom yield is about 20% in relation to the mass of the substrate. Dense, heavy mushrooms of excellent quality grow.

Oyster mushroom growing technology: how to grow mushrooms in bags in greenhouses

There is another technology for growing oyster mushrooms - in bags placed in greenhouses. It is used in some farms in the autumn-winter period, in between the turnover of vegetable crops. Agrokombinat "Moskovsky" for a long time successfully practiced growing oyster mushrooms in greenhouses free of vegetables in winter. Empty glass greenhouses cannot keep snow on the roof, so the air in them is heated throughout the winter. The heat for growing mushrooms is free.

The technology of forcing mushrooms at the Moskovsky AGK was extremely simple. The substrate prepared in the pasteurization tunnels was mixed with mycelium (3%) and poured into polyethylene bags, 20 kg of substrate each. The bags for growing oyster mushrooms were tied up, their lateral surface was perforated with knives and taken for incubation in a free concrete vegetable store or in a warehouse with an area of ​​up to 800 m2. The bags were placed on the floor at short intervals, and the air temperature was raised to + 5 ... + 10 ° C with portable heaters. After that, the substrate blocks, by heating themselves, help the heaters. The air temperature in greenhouses for oyster mushrooms was maintained in the range of + 20 ... + 28 ° C, depending on the temperature of the substrate inside the blocks, which should not exceed 35 ° C. After 20-25 days, those blocks that were overgrown with mycelium were transported to the greenhouse for forcing mushrooms.

In greenhouses with an area of ​​more than 1000 m2, equipment is used for growing oyster mushrooms with heating registers on the periphery, a sprinkler (irrigation) system and openable transoms for ventilation. A layer of pine chips 5 cm thick was poured on the ground. There are no fans, no air humidity sensors, no CO2 meters. On frosty days, fresh air ventilation was carried out only due to the slots in the gates, which were sometimes opened for the removal of carts with collected mushrooms and for placing new bags with the substrate. To moisten the soil and air, two waterings were carried out per day. To grow oyster mushrooms in a greenhouse, irrigation (intensive sprinkling over the entire surface of the greenhouse) was switched on for 10 minutes at noon and at 3 pm. To avoid yellowing of mushrooms (their bacteriosis), it is necessary to ensure that by the evening the mushrooms dry out from the water. The only parameter that was automatically maintained was the air temperature + 12 ... + 15 ° С. Ventilation windows when growing oyster mushrooms in a greenhouse were opened only occasionally, in spring or autumn. Due to the low density of the substrate (less than 50 kg / m2 of the ground surface) and the large volume of air in the greenhouse, the mushrooms grew of high quality. The yield reached 17% for a cultivation cycle of 90 days (3 waves).

A layer of chips or sawdust with a thickness of 4-6 cm is poured onto the greenhouse soil. In the future, this coating is constantly kept moist during the fruiting period. Evaporation of water from wood chips provides a normal mode of air humidity for the formation of high-quality mushrooms.