Part # 3,June 20 ,2013. Making substrate for oyster Mushrooms Assalamualaikum,Here I am once again.I hope now you will not complain about the slow pace at which we were moving and so we will meet twice a week from now onwards. Today we will share the process of making substrate for oyster mushrooms. Substrate ,which we will be referring to quite often is in simplest words is the medium on which mushrooms are grown. The plants accumulate and gathers nutrients from the soil to grow. On the other hand mushrroms ,i.e.the fungi group disintegrates and decomposes the nutrients to grow and in this way returns the nutrients to the soil in forests for new vegetation.That is why the used or spent substrate is one of the best fertilizers for the plants.Different type of substrates support different species of mushrooms like wheat straw,cotton waste,paddy straw,woodchippings,logs etc.For Oyster mushrooms the best results are seen on wheat straw.So firstly you have to choose the type of substrate.Now the second part is to prepare it for growing mushrooms. The methods used in making the substrate are pasteurization and sterilization.I am sure most of you are familiar with these terms.Even then just to elaborate a bit,pasteurization means to reduce the amount of harmful organisms,whereas sterilization means the complete removal of living organism.For me it makes sense to have a little micro activity for growing mushrooms, therefore I always go for pasteurization.I do not boil the wheat straw for long hours in a drum.I simply soak it in hot water for 30 -45 minutes and drain it.After roughly 2 hours it is ready to spawn.We require the water to be 60C-65C.Since we are not boiling it a bit higher temperature is better as it will drop with soaking of straw.You can also do that.Take a washing tub or if you have a drum or other such bigger container,fill it with very hot water from the geyser and put the wheat straw in it.Remember it will keep on floating unless you put some heavy wooden piece or any lid or plastic sheet.Always put straw first and then add water.in this way you will not spill anything and the place wont be such a mess.You can also do it in smaller batches for convenience.Take out the straw after 30-45 minutes and let drain and cool off for nearly 2 hours.Its ready to spawn.Make all the arrangements for Spawn,plastic bags,rubber bands and the room/place where you will grow them before pasteurizing the straw.You will not leave it for another day or else the whole effort goes in vain.You may start with 30 kg straw or even 15 kg.,that’s upto you .Your comments and querries are not only awaited but appreciated as well.So keep in touch.Allah Hafiz,Seema Khuled.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 07:32:02 +0000