Growing Oyster mushrooms

I'm surprised that google did not turn up our conversation here about the toilet roll method. ;-)

Take two unbleached toilet paper rolls and seal each one in a plastic ziplock. Pour enough boiling water over each one to just get it nice and wet.

Let cool, then puree the mushrooms in a sanitized food processor or blender, (I used bleach to clean mine) and stuff that into the holes of the toilet rolls.

Keep sealed and in the dark for 6 weeks, then take them out into the light and punch some holes in the bags.

I used a similar method to this, only I used an ice chest. I got one flush from that, but later lost my culture to the heat. I had them out in the greenhouse. This is better done indoors as they fruit best at between 70 and 80 degrees.

Good luck and keep us posted! :-)

K.

I'd forgotten about that. Yeah, very cool. I wonder if anyone has tried this with other species? Gary Williams

exract "APAP" to reply

Well, with cardboard, a similar method is supposed to work with Wavy caps...... ;-) (P. cyanescens)

K.

Katra wrote on Monday 20 Sep 2004 5:59 pm:

Warning:- Oyster mushrooms produce a vast quantity of spores. It is recommended that growing them is *not* done indoors as inhaling the spores could result in a nasty fungus infection in your lungs (even producing mushrooms there!?).

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 19:23:17 +0100 in , "e.hutton" graced the world with this thought:

sort of like those worms in your teeth from eating at Taco Bell?

you might check out an article in the most recent Mother Earth News. It's like

You can grow the dam' things on newspaper, or rather in newspaper- stuffed cardboard boxes . . . .

Then IIRC you induce fruiting by tossing the boxes in water for a day or so, and allowing them to drain.

They're (wonderfully) meaty, so I imagine the yield in terms of caps per pound of newspaper is probably pretty low.

-- .sigzip*

Can you point me at any links? I got some oyster mushrooms at a local (Hudson Valley, NY) garlic festival, and want very much to grow my own. I'll likely start with a kit from mushroompeople, but would like to do it "from scratch."

Peace,

Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

I'm starting mine using toilet paper rolls inside of an ice chest after eating the mushroom caps and grinding up the stems and bases in the food processor. :-) As soon as the paper is colinized, I will introduce hardwood chips and shavings and surround the paper rolls with that.

I have mycelia starting from the ground tissue already.

I did this this spring and got one flush before losing my cultures to the heat, so am re-starting. :-)

K.

Well, I lost my library in a housefire several years ago, and only replaced the basics (Orson K. Miller's _Mushrooms of North America_ and Paul Stamets' _The Psilocybe Mushrooms and Their Allies_), and I don't remember where the newspaper cultivation was described.

There's a nice collection of messages by some highly respectable types (eg, Stamets) at

There's also a fairly dense page at

About how big was this flush? in other words, did it look like a worthwhile initial yield?

-- .sigzip*

No... but it was my first try. ;-) I anticipate a better yield now that I finally got my hands on some decene hardwood shavings!

At least they flushed, so the "science project" has some hope if I feed them right this time.

I'll be sure to report in a couple of months once things get going better, if they do.

If all else fails, go here:

I hope anyway!

k.

I realize that the hanging festoons of weird shrooms in the movie "Men With Brooms" were likely oysters. And that it's time to call my local power company and see when they're doing line maintenance. They're more that willing to dump truckloads of wood chips close to where they're working. I've used them for mulch in the past, but new horizons open...

Cheers!

Gary Woods AKA K2AHC- PGP key on request, or at home.earthlink.net/~garygarlic Zone 5/6 in upstate New York, 1420' elevation. NY WO G

I suspect you're talking about tree- trimmings here, since I don't think anything'd do very well on used telephone or power poles or railroad ties but _Armillariella_.

Or maybe a polypore of some kind or other.

(I wonder if it would taste like creosote? or whether anyone allergic to creosote would notice?)

-- .sigzip*

Mmmm... perfect. ;-) I had to go out of my way to find clean hardwood shavings locally. Had two woodworkers willing to share as they did not want their stuff to end up in the landfill. They were environmentally motivated. Same here. ;-) I talked to one of them about growing the Oysters and gave him a bag of fresh mushrooms from Central Market in trade for the stuff, so _he_ kept a bag of shavings back so he can play with it as well!

Gotta love it.

Be sure to report your results! I want to "seed" some dead oak stumps with spawn once I can get it going again.

K.

Gills from a specimen too weathered to collect work just fine.

-- .sigzip*

I didn't use Gills, I ate the caps. I use the tissue from just the stems and bases. :-)

Would I need to use Gills to "seed" logs? I thought I could use spawn/mycelia?

K.

Can you mail me some? ;-)

Trees available in my area include Mesquite, Cedar, Privett ash, Post oak, Elm, and Hackberry.

Which do you think would work best?

K.