Any beginner gardener asks the question: "How to grow mushrooms in the home?" The easiest to master the variety at the moment are oyster mushrooms. For their cultivation, it will not be necessary to create specific conditions or to study deeply questions of mycology.
To begin with, you need to find the right raw material for making the substrate necessary for the development of the mycelium. This is best suited for straw barley or wheat, as well as finely chopped corn stalks. Raw materials must be clean, dry and without the slightest signs of rot. Anyone who is interested in how to grow mushrooms at home should know that the mold will simply kill the mycelium. After selecting raw materials, it must be crushed to ensure a good moistening of the substrate and create favorable conditions.
The ground substrate must be properly heat treated. To do this, it is placed in a saucepan and boiled for one and a half to two hours. After the procedure, the water must be drained and the contents cooled to 25-30 degrees. Everyone who asks the question of how to grow mushrooms properly, it should be noted that the liquid must be drained completely. For testing, it is necessary to strongly compress the substrate in the fist, while water should not flow through the fingers.
Most mushrooms grow oyster mushrooms in conventional plastic bags. The size of them depends on the purposes, but for home-growing is best not suitable for very large. Before the beginning of the process, the packets should be thoroughly rinsed and held for several hours in a 2% solution of lime. After this procedure, they can begin to be filled with prepared substrate and mycelium. Those who are interested in how to grow mushrooms at home, it is useful to know that the contents of the bag should be placed in layers. The first and last should be the substrate. This is done to protect the mycelium from temperature changes. After this, it is necessary to tie a packet at the neck and perforate. In staggered order on the entire outer surface of the bag, you need to make small holes at a distance of 10 to 15 centimeters from each other. The resulting package, together with the contents of the experienced mushroom growers, is called a mushroom block.
Those who know how to grow mushrooms at home, will always say that after the preparation of the blocks they will need to be placed in a warm, well-ventilated room for a period of 10 to 12 days. It is very important at this stage not to allow any insects to reach the mycelium. They can destroy all works elementary. In the first few days, the temperature inside the blocks will increase. At this time, it is extremely important to ensure that they do not overheat above 30 degrees. To reduce the temperature, you can ventilate the room or install a fan or other cooling device.
Mushrooms develop very quickly, and if everything is done correctly, after 10-12 days the block will be completely covered with mycelium. At this time, the first fruit bodies begin to appear in the places of perforation of the package. At this time, you must carefully monitor the temperature: it should not exceed 15 degrees, and turn on the lighting for 8-10 hours a day. In addition, those who ask the question "how to grow mushrooms at home", it will be useful to know that fungi need a high humidity for growth. This can be achieved by spraying the walls of the room from the spray gun.
Only two weeks after the appearance of the first rudiments of the fruiting bodies, it will be possible to shoot the first crop. To do this, oyster mushrooms are either unscrewed or neatly cut to the base of the package. After collection, the room needs to be ventilated and wait for the next wave, which usually comes in 12-14 days. In total, you can expect up to 4 harvest waves, after which the block should be simply discarded or used as a fertilizer.