Gray Pearl Oyster Mushrooms (Pleurotus Ostreatus) that are dried in a carefully controlled environment to preserve the viability of the spawn. Instructions to extract spores are included. (Kit includes a metal tin of dried spawn, and instructions for creating the appropriate substrate and for growing indoors or in the woods.) Rocky Ridge strain.
Another EASY mushroom for beginners!
Oyster mushrooms may be cultivated throughout much of the world, in easy conditions to replicate in most of the US. Prefers hardwoods (literally ANY kind of hardwood) - either sawdust or logs, and even on processed paper products and other surfaces. We recommend that you start with sawdust, as it is easier to get the spawn started, and then to propagate it into logs or more sawdust.
Now... This mushroom will grow on almost anything, including many types of industrial waste, coffee grounds, toilet paper rolls, etc. But we are NOT fans of growing mushrooms on processed products which have chemicals and bleach in them, and we are not fans of growing them on industrial waste products. So we ONLY provide instructions for growing them on logs, sawdust, and woodchips.
Oyster mushrooms are GREAT to grow in the garden if you are using a no-till woodchip mulch method. Do some reading ahead of time though, because they may compete for nutrients with SOME plants, but not all. They actually help the growth of about half the plants in a vegetable garden, have no effect on about another third, and only negatively affect a smaller portion. Eventually we'll have completed research on this but do not yet. They are also a good choice to throw into a container garden when using deep mulch on your potted plants (helps save water too!), but they require containers of about 12" diameter, and about a 2-3 inch mulch depth to fruit.
They naturalize easily on fallen logs, stumps, firewood remnants, and sawdust piles, and will bear spring and fall after heavy or sustained rains. This variety of Oyster Mushroom prefers hardwood.
May be used to culture into sawdust or onto logs using several simple non-sterile methods.
Each order of dried spawning mushroom contains enough to create two batches of active spores, which may be cultured and expanded, and then sown into the desired substrates.
Dried Spawn is EASY to use! Just reconstitute in water, and either finely chop or use a blender, and pour the resulting spore and mushroom mixture over your substrate or onto the ground where they need to be sown.
Packaged in metal tins for longest storage and viability. We do not use plastic in handling this product (plastic leaches chlorides, which are fungicidal in effect), and our products are not exposed to chlorine or other harmful chemicals during growth, processing, or handling on our property. You may be assured of the highest quality and maximum growth potential.
NOTE: Dried spawning mushrooms must be selected and handled correctly to produce viable spores. They must also be used correctly to extract spores, and then to culture the spores into the receiving medium. Our proprietary methods ensure viable spores, and we give you instructions for culturing them in a non-sterile environment. (If cultured improperly in a non-sterile environment, things go terribly wrong.) You are not only paying for the mushroom spores, you are paying for our expertise in both the processes we carry out before you see the product, and the instructions we give you for using the spawning mushroom.
Cross contaminations DO occur with non-sterile mushroom spawn (they seem to occur with alarming frequency with supposed sterile spawn as well!). In general, these contaminations are harmless, they may produce other non-edible, or other edible mushrooms, but for the most part, the mushroom you paid for will outnumber the contaminations by many times, and will not establish ahead of the desired mushroom.
Additionally, when using non-sterile methods to culture in natural materials, prior colonizations of unwanted fungus may occur, resulting in the fruiting of unexpected, random mushroom types. This is not at all a disaster, and normally does not cause problems. These mushrooms will typically be inedible, and may be ignored - in our experience, the cultured mushroom still establishes well and will produce well in spite of the interlopers! The chance that a poisonous look-alike would grow instead is virtually non-existent - because dangerous look-alikes don't grow in the same environment as visually similar edible species.
We do advise that you KNOW YOUR MUSHROOM - and that you know what it looks like, so you correctly identify anything coming up. This is wise in every instance, because even when you are using "sterile" kits or materials, rogue mushrooms may grow.
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