The local oyster mushroom or oyster mushroom is a typical winter mushroom: It only really feels at home at low temperatures of less than 11 °C. The tasty edible mushroom is easy to grow at home - for example in a shady corner of the garden. But you can also expect a rich harvest in the cellar or on the balcony. In addition to ready-made cultures, you can also get grain spawn and so-called inoculation dowels that are driven into the wood.

Oyster mushrooms can be grown on wood shavings, for example

Particularly uncomplicated: ready-made culture sets for house and garden

Unlike the inoculation of logs for growing in the garden, the ready-made culture kits allow for a quick harvest. The mushroom spawn is delivered together with the substrate material such as straw pellets, wood shavings, etc. for self-mixing. Instructions are included with each. With appropriate moisture, the fruiting bodies appear within a few weeks.

Growing oyster mushrooms indoors

Like indoor plants, mushroom cultures take up little space. They can be kept on the balcony, in the garden or in the basement in a shady place with temperatures around 10°C. Harvesting in your own four walls works without any problems, as long as it is dark and humid enough. In addition, it only takes a few minutes from the harvest to the cooking pot. You can't get fresher mushrooms!

Create oyster mushroom cultivation in the garden yourself

Mushrooms cultivated on wood bear fruiting bodies for several years. Oyster mushrooms only grow on hardwood, and only wood that is no older than four to twelve weeks after felling is suitable for inoculation with mushroom spawn. Just like seasoned wood, fresh wood is unsuitable for cultivation because the fungal mycelium is not able to grow through healthy wood. The tree's defenses counteract this. It is also important that the bark of the wood is still intact. In trunks and branches that have dried out and become cracked, the mycelium no longer has the moisture it needs.

Which woods are suitable for oyster mushrooms?

When it comes to wood, a distinction is made between hardwood and softwood. Hardwood includes, for example, oak, beech, hornbeam, ash, maple, apple and pear trees, while birch, lime, willow, alder and poplar are considered softwood. Mushrooms cultivated on softwoods usually produce fruiting bodies more quickly than those on hardwoods. You can often harvest on softwood in the same year, but certainly the following year after inoculation; the culture remains active for about three years. Hardwood, on the other hand, can often only be harvested after a year, while the culture then produces fruiting bodies for five to seven years.

Particularly suitable woods for oyster mushroom cultivation are:

  • European beech
  • birch
  • ash
  • alder
  • poplar
  • pasture
  • as well as fruit trees

tips

Oyster mushrooms in particular not only grow on wood, but also thrive in straw mixed with coffee grounds.

Category:

Vegetable garden