Mushroom Cultivation Guide, From Benefits to How to Do It

Oyster mushroom cultivation is one of the business opportunities that you can take. Its cultivation is not too difficult, and the high interest in this type of mushroom are two of the reasons.

If you are interested in cultivating oyster mushrooms, this article can serve as a reference. This article will provide a guide on how to cultivate oyster mushrooms. 

Starting from the benefits that can be gained, to how to carry out the cultivation of this type of mushroom. The following is the guide that is meant!

Benefits of Oyster Mushroom Cultivation

There are various benefits that you can gain if you successfully cultivate oyster mushrooms. These benefits include:

Relatively Easy

The first benefit is the ease of the cultivation process for oyster mushrooms. It is said to be easy because oyster mushrooms do not require complicated care. You only need to consistently maintain the humidity of the place where the oyster mushrooms are grown, and diligently water them.

Can Be Grown Anywhere

Unlike common plants, oyster mushrooms do not need a special growing place. You can grow them anywhere, including in your backyard. As long as you can maintain the humidity of the place where the oyster mushrooms are grown. Humidity is a key factor for the growth of oyster mushrooms.

Oyster mushroom cultivation also does not require complicated tools. You can use simple tools that are available in your home, such as a garden fork and a hoe.

The growing media is also more flexible. In other words, you can use any growing media if you want to cultivate oyster mushrooms. However, people generally use bran and sawdust as the main growing media.

More Productive and Adaptive

Oyster mushrooms can grow at any time without having to wait for certain seasons. This makes this type of mushroom relatively productive compared to other plants.

Oyster mushrooms are also considered more adaptive compared to other plants. This mushroom can thrive in various weather conditions, whether hot or rainy.

Tips for Cultivating Oyster Mushrooms

To ensure you can gain benefits from oyster mushroom cultivation, we will provide special tips for you. These tips are:

Ensure Oyster Mushrooms Get Enough Humidity

As mentioned earlier, humidity is the key to the success of oyster mushroom cultivation. Therefore, humidity is the first thing you should pay attention to when cultivating oyster mushrooms.

For oyster mushrooms that are still in the growth phase, ensure they receive humidity of 60 to 70 percent. If the oyster mushrooms have been transferred to polybags, make sure the humidity is at 90 to 100 percent.

Ensure Growing Oyster Mushrooms Receive Sunlight

In addition to humidity, lighting is another important factor to consider, especially for oyster mushrooms that have entered the growth phase. Mushrooms in this phase require optimal lighting, primarily from sunlight. Ensure that the growing oyster mushrooms receive sunlight of 60 to 70 percent.

Sterilize the Growing Media

Whatever growing media you plan to use, you must sterilize it. This is done to ensure that the cultivated oyster mushrooms are free from diseases and pests.

You can sterilize the growing media by boiling it. Specifically for polybag growing media, you can sterilize it by steaming at a temperature of 120 degrees Celsius.

Make sure not to use any chemicals during the sterilization process. Using chemicals will only damage the quality of the oyster mushrooms.

Don't Hesitate to Ask Experts

If you are truly a beginner, do not hesitate to ask those who are experienced and knowledgeable in oyster mushroom cultivation. Through them, you can obtain important information, from where to buy oyster mushroom seeds to how to sell the harvested mushrooms. They can also assist you during the oyster mushroom cultivation process.

How to Cultivate Oyster Mushrooms

Now we come to the end of this article's guide, which is how to cultivate oyster mushrooms. The methods we will share can be done anywhere, including in your own home. So, what are the methods for cultivating oyster mushrooms that we mean?

Choose Oyster Mushroom Seeds

The first step is to choose the oyster mushroom seeds themselves. Make sure the seeds you choose are of high quality. You can obtain such seeds from experienced oyster mushroom seed sellers.

Prepare a Mushroom House

After successfully obtaining oyster mushroom seeds, you need to hurry to create a mushroom house. For those who do not know, a mushroom house is a container made of wood. This container serves as a place for oyster mushrooms to grow and as a care area for the oyster mushroom growing media.

The construction of the mushroom house begins with making the walls first. After that, create shelves equipped with tiered grids. The shelves are used for storing oyster mushrooms along with their growing media.

Create Oyster Mushroom Growing Media

Oyster mushrooms cannot grow optimally without the presence of growing media. Generally, the commonly used growing media for oyster mushroom cultivation is bran combined with sawdust. Some people also use a growing media mixture of sawdust, rice bran, and lime.

Whatever it is, make sure the materials used as growing media are well mixed. Then, add water to about 60 percent and cover it with plastic. If you do not have plastic, you can use a tarpaulin as a cover for the growing media.

Let the growing media sit for 5 to 10 days. Ensure that the air around the growing media can increase to 70 percent. When the growing media has turned dark brown, you can use it immediately. However, before that, you must sterilize the growing media first.

Perform Inoculation and Incubation

The next step is to inoculate the growing media. To do this, store the growing media for 24 hours in a closed special place. While stored, ensure that the air circulation remains smooth, so that the growing media is not attacked by bacteria.

While waiting for the growing media, you can prepare the oyster mushroom seeds in the F3 seed bottle. Spray the seed bottle with alcohol, then spray it again with spirit flame. Do this until the cotton on the bottle cap catches fire. Once done, you can extinguish the flame.

Open the cotton, then stir the seeds in the bottle with a specially sterilized object. Transfer the seeds to the growing media. Store the growing media that has been seeded in the mushroom house at a temperature of 22 to 28 degrees Celsius.

Harvesting

Once the mushrooms have grown well, you can harvest them. The method of harvesting is to cut the base of the mushroom stem, then store the mushrooms in a basket.

Clean the mushrooms in a place far from the mushroom cultivation area. If you want to store the mushrooms, you can keep them in a transparent plastic bag. Make sure the bag does not have too much air, so the mushrooms do not release gas.

That is our guide to oyster mushroom cultivation. We hope it can serve as a guide for those of you interested in cultivating oyster mushrooms.

Author: Anggie Warsito