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In summer and autumn, avid mushroom pickers have a hot time. The forest beckons with a scattering of mushrooms. Mushrooms, boletus, boletus, volnushki, milk mushrooms and mushrooms just ask for a basket. A great success for a mushroom picker is to find a family of oyster mushrooms – mushrooms that are very useful for humans. You won’t leave the forest with an empty basket. But it is not necessary to go to the forest for these mushrooms. It is very easy to grow oyster mushrooms in the country.
Description of oyster mushroom
This agaric mushroom belongs to the pleuritic or oyster mushroom family, which is very numerous – about 100 species. All of these fungi, with rare exceptions, grow on dead or dying wood because they feed on cellulose. Often oyster mushrooms can be found on stumps. Mushrooms are saprophytes, they do not need symbiosis with tree roots.
The cap of oyster mushrooms is shaped like an ear, in adult mushrooms it can reach a diameter of up to 30 cm. The leg is short, sometimes it is completely absent – the mushroom is attached to the tree directly with a hat. The color of the plates and pulp is white. Mushroom caps are colored differently. In oyster oyster mushrooms they are dark brown, in later ones they are lighter and completely light in pulmonary. There are very elegant oyster mushrooms with lemon yellow, hot pink and orange caps. The photo shows an oyster mushroom growing wild in the Far East.
Not all types of these mushrooms are suitable for home or industrial cultivation.
A bit about the history of mushroom growing
Mushrooms have been artificially grown for more than a century. The first experiments on growing oyster mushrooms date back to the 40s of the last century. They turned out to be successful. In the 60s, this mushroom began to be grown under industrial conditions. Oyster mushroom production is growing every year. Now in Our Country they are harvesting a considerable harvest of artificially grown oyster mushrooms – 3,8 thousand tons.
Everyone can grow oyster mushrooms at home. You can also do this in your backyard. Oyster mushrooms in the country can be grown on stumps or on an artificial substrate.
What you need to grow oyster mushrooms in the country
This requires quite a bit:
- healthy hardwood;
- mushroom mycelium.
What oyster mushrooms can be bred in a summer cottage
Initially, oyster mushrooms or oyster mushrooms growing in nature were grown. Thanks to the efforts of scientists, special hybrids of these mushrooms have been developed, which are distinguished by higher yields. They are better suited for cultivation in artificial conditions.
These mushrooms grow well both on artificial substrate and on stumps.
If you are going to grow mushrooms in a small volume, it is better to buy ready-made mycelium. When laying a large plantation, it is more economical to grow it yourself. Unfortunately, manufacturers do not always sell high-quality mushroom mycelium. Therefore, there is a risk of wasting money and labor and, as a result, being left without a harvest.
What should be a quality mycelium
The color of the mycelium should be white or light cream. The only exceptions are oyster mushrooms with a bright color of hats. Their mycelium may be of a different color. The contents of the package must not include ungrown spots. They say that the mycelium is weak. It is clear that there will be no good harvest from such a mycelium.
They indicate infection with mold. You cannot get a mushroom harvest from such a mycelium, and the sown wood material will become unusable.
Often packages with mycelium are supplied with a special gas exchange filter, which not only improves its quality, but also allows you to control the smell of the product. It should be intensely mushroomy and by no means sour.
Recently, more and more often sell special wood sticks overgrown with mycelium. There are also criteria for checking their quality. The sticks in the package should be a single whole due to the white threads of the mycelium, completely entangling them. The color of the mycelium is white, without green or gray inclusions. The smell is rich mushroom.
How to grow oyster mushrooms in the country on stumps? This process is simple. Let’s consider it in more detail.
Stages of growing oyster mushrooms
To get a good harvest when growing oyster mushrooms in the country, already in the year of planting, you need to plant the mycelium on time.
Terms of planting
All mushroom breeding operations should be carried out in April or May, as a last resort, in early June. During the summer, the mycelium will have time to take root and grow well.
Site Selection
Any piece of free space in the garden is suitable for laying a mushroom plantation. But it must meet certain conditions. For growing, you need to choose a shady place. Without access to direct sunlight, the moisture in the wood is retained much better. This will not only increase the yield of the plantation, but also reduce labor costs – it will be possible to water the wood less often. With an excess of carbon dioxide, mushrooms will grow poorly. Therefore, mushrooms should not be grown next to rotting manure or compost heaps – there is always an increased concentration of carbon dioxide. The place where mushrooms will grow should be well ventilated.
Wood preparation
If your yard has stumps from recently felled hardwood trees, you’re in luck. Mushrooms grow very well on such stumps. If they are not there, you will have to take care of suitable wood. The diameter of the log should not be less than 18 cm and not more than 40. The wood must be fairly fresh. Trees that have been cut down for a long time will not work. Logs should be cut into pieces about 40 cm long.
The side surface of each prepared log must be covered with holes into which the mushroom planting material will be placed. They are made up to 10 cm deep and up to 1,5 cm in diameter. They are located at a distance of 12 to 15 cm from each other.
Prepared trimmings of logs need to be soaked. Suitable for this soft well or rain water. Soaking time 2-3 days.
Installation of churbachkov and planting mycelium
At the chosen place, we dig holes with a depth of about 20 cm. Their diameter should be slightly larger than the diameter of the logs dug in. The distance between the logs should be at least a third of a meter. We put a layer of moistened material in the hole. Sawdust, straw, shavings are best suited. It should not be thick, 1,5 cm is enough. We pour a layer of mushroom mycelium. Its thickness is 1 cm. We place logs on it.
Drilled holes also need to be filled with mycelium or wood sticks with mycelium should be inserted there.
After placing the mycelium in it, we must close each hole with raw sawdust or seal it with wax. This is necessary so that moisture does not evaporate from them. We also close the upper cut of the wood.
We pour the soil and compact it. We cover each log individually or all together with a clean perforated plastic wrap. It needs to be well pressed so that it is not blown away by the wind. You can remove it after 3 weeks.
In conditions of constant humidity, the mycelium will take root faster, and the mushroom crop can be harvested earlier.
plantation care
It is necessary to ensure that the earth next to the logs is in a wet state. Irrigate if necessary. If the weather is dry, you need to water up to 3 times a week.
When to expect the harvest
If everything is done correctly, mushrooms can be harvested in the first year, starting in September. Plantings bear fruit for 3-4 years. Mushrooms appear in waves.
Conclusion
Mushroom growing is an exciting activity and a tangible help to the family budget. If you decide to breed mushrooms in your summer cottage, it is better to start with oyster mushrooms. A simple technology that requires a minimum of material costs, and a guaranteed result, subject to all the rules of planting and care, will allow you to enjoy delicious and healthy dishes from mushrooms grown by yourself.