Growing Mushrooms!

Step 5 Oyster Mushrooms (Toilet Paper as Growing Media)

According to the directions that accompany the "TeePee Oyster Kit" you'll need:

• - the spores, bags, and rubber bands that come in the kit
• - a roll of toilet paper (preferably without any inks or dyes involved)
• - a large pot to boil water in
• - kitchen tongs
• - a cooling rack or other surface to allow the roll to cool and drain slightly
• - that other stuff mentioned in step one

note: the kit comes with enough bags and spores for 15 rolls. This seems like a bit much to me, so I'll only be inoculating one roll at a time.

Preparing the roll and growing 'shroomies:

1. Fill the pot with water and bring it to a boil.
2. Remove the cardboard tube from the center of the roll. This will help to speed up the inoculation of the spores.
3. Once the water is boiling, remove the pot from the heat and dip the roll into the water, holding it with the tongs - you'll want it to get fully saturated.
4. Remove the roll from the water and place them on the rack or other surface to cool slightly and drain a bit.
5. When steam no longer rises, with clean hands, feel the inside the center of the roll. If it is not too hot to the touch, transfer the roll to the plastic bag that came with the kit.
6. Pour enough of the provided oyster mushroom spores into the center of the roll to fill it.
7. Close the bag around the roll and seal with the rubber band, making sure that the closure is above the filter patch.
8. Place the bagged roll on the dish and into the prepared plexiglass box. Put the box in a cool (65-75 degrees F), dim/dark area - this mimics the conditions under the bark of trees where oyster mushrooms usually grow.
9. Within three weeks, the roll will be covered in white mushroom mycelium. At this point, you can let them sit a bit longer, or put the bagged, incubated roll into the fridge for 48 hours to stimulate the fugus to fruit. If you've inoculated extra rolls that you don't want to fruit yet, you can keep them in the fridge at this point for up to 6 months.
10. Remove the rolls from the fridge and place in a well lit area at room temperature. Take the rubber band off of the bag and fluff the bag to increase airflow.
11. Within a week, mushrooms should be growing from the roll and may be ready for harvesting. To harvest them, either grab and twist or cut them at the base.If the roll starts to seem dried out, mist it with non-chlorinated water to dampen it.
12. After harvesting, you can close the bag and place it in the dark again and repeat 9-12 until the roll won't fruit again.

Comments

[antonc81]

Spores are the microscopic reproductive structure that falls from the gills of mature mushrooms. Individual spores are not visible to the naked eye and spores can either be seen as very fine smoky dust falling off mushrooms or as spore prints taken from a mushroom cap. What you are referring to as "spores" in this article are definitely not spores. These are actually a grain based spawn. Probably rye grain inoculated with mushroom mycelium.

[shesparticular]

In the package that they came in, they were labeled as "spores" - I do understand that there is quite a big difference though. Thanks for pointing that out.

[jobergy]

do you have any idea what morals grow on? is it oak? 

[eerebus]

Morels don't grow ON trees, but rather with trees. They are famously allusive and mysterious. They like burn sites, low ph, old orchards. I've tried growing them on burned apple wood mixed with wood chips, saw dust, gypsum and perhaps some other things. I think they have not grown because I didn't give them enough shade, but it is possible that the morels i found for the first time about 50 feet away was the patch a started last year. (they tend to move around)

[shesparticular]

I don't have any experience with morels, but according to this, I'd guess yes, but oak chips not logs it seems.

[jobergy]

wow that was a fast reply lol. hey thank you! OH! I dont know if your interested or not but i  have a recipe for Stuffed Portabella's! all you have to do is scrape out gills (obviously you want the BIG mushrooms), put cream cheese in the lil bowl u now created, put pieces of bacon in and diced green peppers on it (or mix it with the cream cheese before you put it in the cap) and pop it in the oven at ....well i guessed about 350 for 15 to 20 minutes and WALAH! ...AMAZINGNESS! i made mine too big so i had to eat it with  a fork but still SOOOO GOOD!....and as i said before whether or not you care idk but i thought id share it : ) take care and thanks!
Jobergy

[shesparticular]

Thanks! That sounds really good - though I'd have to find a way to replace the bacon. I've made stuffed button mushrooms baked with cream cheese and jalepenos - also really good!

[jobergy]

OOOO that sounds good too!, oh i am guessing your a vejasaurus? (vegitarian), are you completely Vegan or ...idk the others besides vegitarian but ya you get my point : )   the only thing i can think of is tofu then..or turkey bacon but thats still meat lol, idk if there is such thing as tofu bacon so ya lol good luck on that one! lol

[antonc81]

No probs. Maybe they meant that the grain was inoculated with spores collected from print.. I'm guessing that makes the most sense.. if youre interested in mycology you should check out the shroomery.org forums* and/or some of Paul Stamets' books... if you get into growing your own mushrooms on a regular basis you can collect your own spores or liquid culture and save yourself a bit of money :)

*(just ignore the fact that the majority of posters there are interested mainly in psychoactives! lol)

[shesparticular]

Thanks for the book suggestions! I had seen shroomery.org (and waded through the psychoactives) - not sure that I'm ready quite yet though to collect my own cultures - soon I hope!

[Raziel7]

instead of misting dry cakes you can dunk them in cold water for 24 hours. This leads to a bigger flush and induces cold shocking which is required for some species (not all) of mushrooms to pin.