Grow a Medley of Oyster Mushrooms at Home
With the Mushroom Table Oyster Mushroom Medley Kit you can be picking your own home grown oyster mushrooms in under two weeks.Medley Kit Instructions:
Download Instructions pdf
Outdoors: Place the kit in a sheltered spot protected from wind and direct sun.
Indoors: Place the kit in a light, airy room that is not centrally heated and away from drafts.
The kit has two blocks of mushroom substrate wrapped in brown paper. The blocks of mushroom substrate are made from beech sawdust and have been myceliated by our own local strains of Gourmet Oyster Mushrooms.
Cut the smooth face of each block with a craft knife with a diagonal “H” but do not remove the plastic. The plastic keeps the substrate from drying out before the mushrooms begin to develop. This cut triggers your mushroom to fruit by creating a dramatic change in humidity / evaporation and also a sudden drop in carbon dioxide at the substrate surface.
Place the kit in it’s growing position. Oyster mushrooms grow horizontally so stand the kit as pictured. A good site for outdoor growing is under a tree or shrubs.
After harvesting a crop of mushrooms from each block submerge the cut face of the kit in a shallow bowl of water for about an hour to replenish the moisture in the compost. Return the kit to its growing position and in another eight days or so you should start to get a second crop. Note: Most of the mushrooms will be produced on the first crop. The kit can produce about 500g of mushrooms over two crops if the growing conditions are suitable. The spent compost can be used in the garden or to rejuvenate your house plants.
If the exposed substrate becomes too dry the mushrooms may then form behind the plastic on the side of the kit. If this happens, carefully cut the plastic to free the mushrooms. In dry conditions you can raise the humidity by watering the area around the kit outdoors or wrapping the kit in a wet cloth or paper indoors. You can also mist the developing mushrooms with clean water.
A few guidelines to help with successful mushroom growing
Do not remove the brown paper wrapped around the blocks of substrate. Mushrooms respond to light and the paper helps to ensure that your mushrooms will form where you want them to.
Do not remove the plastic from each substrate block. The plastic stops the substrate from drying out and protects it from pests and moulds.
Do not place the kit in direct sunlight. The mushrooms will shrivel up as they can grow.
Do not place the kit in the dark. The mushrooms are stimulated to grow by light. If there is not enough light the mushrooms will be misshapen and pale.
Pick the mushrooms when they are ready, while the edge of the caps are still curled down. Keep them in the fridge if you are not ready to use them. If you leave the mushrooms to grow bigger you will end up with poorer quality mushrooms and will reduce the yield of the later flushes.
In very cold weather you can start the kit indoors until you see the mushroom “pins” forming and then put the kit outside to finish growing.
If rain is expected when the mushrooms are nearly ready to pick, put a cover over the kit or bring it indoors to finish growing so that the mushrooms are not waterlogged when you want to pick them. Soggy mushrooms lose their flavour and do not keep.
Growing outdoors:
Slugs and Snails
Slugs and snails are very fond of mushrooms. If this is a problem in your garden here are a couple of remedies that could help. These animals will not be a problem until the mushrooms start to appear at the cut surface of the kit, about five to seven days after you start the kit working. If slugs or snails track it down at this time you could simply move the kit somewhere else. Check that slugs are not hiding inside the kit before you move it. Another remedy is to sprinkle used coffee grounds on the ground around the kit forming a barrier that slugs and snails will not be able to cross.
Oyster Mushroom Growing Kit Cold Weather Supplement
Cold weather (ie. below 8 ºC) will slow the mushroom kit and picking can be weeks away. If an excessively long wait is expected then it is a good idea to bring the kit indoors to a cool room 15-18 ºC to help the mushrooms to start pinning. When the cushions of pinning mushroom have reached about thumb-nail size move the whole mushroom kit outside to a sheltered spot and let them get on with it. Oyster mushrooms can survive being frozen by overnight frosts and continue growing.