Oyster mushrooms on coffee grounds-Little experiment

In my opinion coffee grounds are perfect for making oyster spawn when using non-sterile techniques. However, in my experience, using them as a fruiting substrate never produced satisfactory results. They didn't fruit at all or produced nothing but crippled mushrooms. Usually the mycelium starts pinning but only produces some strange clumps that never develop into mushrooms.

Wheat straw however always works like a charm. Wheat straw works quick and provides perfectly normal fruits. Its only disadvantage is that it's very light. Meaning, by weight, one cannot get much substrate into small containers. So I decided to start a small experiment using coffee grounds as the major fruiting substrate, but topping it with a thin layer (about 1 inch thick) of wheat straw. The idea was that the wheat straw would produce normal oyster pins that then could profit from the heavier and nutrient rich coffee grounds. For fast results I used a relatively small jar with a capacity of only 500 ml. To compare the yields I also used a larger jar with a capacity of 1500 ml.

1st: Small jar experiment.

In order to get a evenly formed surface I only used the finer particles of my straw.

About 3 weeks later the first primordia appeared. Although still not perfect, part of the clump showed normal primordia.

2nd day:

3rd day: The majority of the pins have aborted. Only 4 of them had survived. Probably due to the small amount of substrate used.

4th day:

5th day: At this point the mushrooms were ready to harvest.The yield was rather disappointing. For a substantial amount of mushrooms one needs to make a lot of these jars.

2nd flush: The jars second flush. This time only 2 but larger and more healthy looking mushrooms.

3rd flush: Even though this flush started with more than 10 pins only 2 mushrooms made it to maturity. Obviously this small amount of substrate cannot support more than two mushrooms at a time.

2nd: Large jar experiment

This jar has a capacity of 1500 ml (still a rather low amount of substrate for growing oyster mushrooms) and isn't only wider but also a lot deeper. To provide the mycelium with enough air I applied three thin layers of wheat straw.

With this jar I used less spawn (about 20% of the substrate) and it took nearly 5 weeks for the first primordia to appear.

1st day:

2nd day:

3rd day:

4th day:

At this point I harvested the mushrooms. On the one part to prevent them from dropping spores and on the other part because it's winter and, as a result of the heating, the air in the room is rather dry. Resulting in cracked edges on the larger mushrooms. Nevertheless, in relation, this jar produced a higher yield, meaning that larger amounts of substrate always work better.

 

Conclusion: Although still not perfect, topping the coffee grounds with wheat straw produced quite normal mushrooms and can be a viable alternative for using wheat straw only. Nevertheless, as a fruiting substrate, I still prefer wheat straw. Wheat straw is more airy, holds more water and, in comparison, contains more lignin and cellulose, resulting in larger and better looking mushrooms. Although with straw it's better to use larger containers, it produces better results, causes less problems and is, especially for beginners, a better and fool proof alternative for coffee grounds or even sawdust.

It all depends on your goals. For sheer yields and ease of cultivation straw is always the better choice. But there are also people with a green lifestyle that want to recycle their coffee waste. No matter what the yields are. Adding a little wheat straw on top and into the substrate can prevent the problems occuring when using coffee grounds only.

Lost ways

The Lost Ways

The Lost Ways is an essential guide for surviving disasters, calamities and life-threatening situations of all kinds. It's aimed at making you entirely independent and self-sufficient in case disaster strikes, leaving you without electricity, water, food and healthcare.

The Lost Ways contains 338 pages, making it the most complete guide available. A look at its table of contents:

1. Disclaimer
2.  The Most Important Thing 
3. Making Your Own Beverages: Beer to Stronger Stuff 
4. Ginger Beer: Making Soda the Old Fashioned Way 
5. How North American Indians and Early Pioneers Made Pemmican 
6. Spycraft: Military Correspondence During The 1700’s to 1900’s 
7. Wild West Guns for SHTF and a Guide to Rolling Your Own Ammo 
8. How Our Forefathers Built Their Sawmills, Grain Mills,and Stamping Mills 
9. How Our Ancestors Made Herbal Poultice to Heal Their Wounds 
10. What Our Ancestors Were Foraging For? or How to Wildcraft Your Table
11.  How Our AncestorsNavigated Without Using a GPS System 
12. How Our Forefathers Made Knives 
13. How Our Forefathers Made Snow shoes for Survival 
14. How North California Native Americans Built Their Semi-subterranean Roundhouses 
15. Our Ancestors’Guide to Root Cellars 
16. Good Old Fashioned Cooking on an Open Flame
17.  Learning from Our Ancestors How to Preserve Water 
18. Learning from Our Ancestors How to Take Care of Our Hygiene When There Isn’t Anything to Buy 
19. How and Why I Prefer to Make Soap with Modern Ingredients 
20. Temporarily Installing a Wood-Burning Stove during Emergencies 
21. Making Traditional and Survival Bark Bread……. 
22. Trapping in Winter for Beaver and Muskrat Just like Our Forefathers Did 
23. How to Make a Smokehouse and Smoke Fish 
24. Survival Lessons From The Donner Party

Pick up your copy now at: www.TheLostWays.com

 

How to grow oyster mushrooms

If you like mushrooms and want to grow your own, oyster mushrooms may be your best choice. Knowing how to grow them can bring you an almost unlimited supply and, although they grow on trees by nature, oyster mushrooms thrive on nearly all kinds of agricultural waste.

Oyster mushrooms have a rich culinary and medicinal history and, when grown by yourselves, are free of pesticides and other chemicals used to make them presentable and improve their shelf life. They are high in potassium, iron, zinc, vitamin C, calcium, niacin, phosphorus, vitamins B1 and B2, and folic acid, improve the body's immune system, lower cholesterol levels and are one of the very few organisms containing ergothioneine which is a powerful antioxidant.

The easiest way to grow oystermushrooms is by buying a ready to use mushroom kit. Another way is to use a small mushroom kit as spawn and mix it with a considerably larger amount of straw or sawdust, thereby multiplying your harvest several times. The third method is the cheapest and involves producing your own oyster spawn. This can be easily done by laying a few pieces of stem tissue from store bought mushrooms on sterilized cardboard. Within a few days the tissue clones will start growing again and will quickly colonize the cardboard.

Once the cardboard has been fully colonized with the oyster mycelium it's time to apply a thin layer of used coffee grounds onto the cardboard. The coffee grounds should be as fresh as possible and have to be squeezed out to field capacity. The applied layer of coffee grounds shouldn't be thicker than 1 inch at the most. A thin layer will be colonized faster and will minimize the risk of contaminations by mold spores from the surrounding air. Once the coffee grounds are colonized a second layer can be applied. Keep applying new layers until the jar is filled to about 1 inch below the rim. The spawn can then be used to inoculate bulk substrates like straw or sawdust.

Oyster mushrooms thrive on a wide variety of substrates. Straw and sawdust are most common but they can also grow an coffee gounds, coffee filters (see picture of a 1 gallon bag with a mix of spawn and used coffee filters) or even cardboard (be careful-cardboard might contain poisonous constituents). Mix the spawn in a ratio of 1 part spawn to 1-4 parts of bulk substrate. More spawn means quicker colonization and a lesser risk of contaminations. Use any container you like and that is not to small. Containers with a capacity of 1 gallon or more are fine. Containers deeper than 8 inches need a few holes in the sides, so that the mycelium gets enough air to breathe.

It's a simple as that. Make sure not to use up all spawn, but multiply it and use it for your next mushroom kit. Eventually, after a few months or longer, the mycelium will get old, will start to degenerate and produce lower yields of mushrooms. If that happens you have to buy new oyster mushrooms and start all over again.