A wide variety of mushrooms that are edible can be grown both indoors and on hardwood logs outdoors. When it comes to oyster mushrooms, it can be a wonderful addition to a garden. Whether you want them to grow indoors or outdoors, you need to know beforehand how to take good care of your oyster mushroom logs so that they produce fruits for more than 5 years. Here are some instructions about how to take care of your logs.
- Procuring the stumps
You can either prepare the substrate yourself or get a pre-plugged one from one of the most reliable companies offering Oyster mushroom Log to customers across the globe. The pre-plugged logs are already colonized and give a good harvest with minimal effort. After procuring your substrate, it needs to be submerged in cold water before deciding where to cultivate the mushrooms. All it needs is a shady place with dappled sunlight and enough hydration. If you are growing them outdoors, rainwater is the most preferred option. If grown indoors, you can take the help of sprinklers.
- Positioning the stumps
The stumps can be positioned in a number of ways. A portion of the log, say about 1/3, can be buried in the ground along the length. When the logs are partially buried, the moisture remains intact and helps the log from getting detached which is common with some softwood logs meant for cultivating oysters. Instead, the stumps can also be buried vertically keeping it 2/3 portion above the surface of the ground which resembles a post. The logs can be kept directly on the ground or supported with an object. When a number of Oyster mushroom Log is placed in this manner, it acts as a boundary for your garden as well. However, positioning and stacking depend on the volume of logs. If you have very few of them, you can place them anywhere. But if there are more, you should keep all of them in one place.
- Hydration
After the logs have been placed appropriately it is very important to keep oyster-mushroom logs hydrated. You need not do anything if there is regular rainfall. Otherwise, you can take the help of a hosepipe to soak them. If the logs are supported with an object, make sure to flip them once a week. Next, keep checking if healthy white mycelium is appearing especially white patches around the inoculation points. When you notice the endpoint of logs you will see mycelium growth. The process may take about 6 to 24 months. You should check the mushrooms regularly and save them from squirrels and slugs. In addition, you should make sure that the logs always remain hydrated because oyster mushroom thrives best in cool weather conditions. If the logs get for any reason, this could kill the fungi. That is why it is advisable to soak the logs at the beginning and end of every season though this is not applicable for logs that are buried.
Once the available food present in the log is used up, the mushrooms are ready to bloom. This phase is known as “Flush” and it happens suddenly and thereafter the mushrooms grow quite fast. Within a week, you can pick them up.