Easy Recipe to Grow Mushrooms in Sawdust

This is a basic recipe to grow mushrooms in sawdust. Mushroom cultivation in sawdust is pretty easy if you just follow the directions.

Please see the update at the bottom for my latest thoughts on this method.

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Grow Mushrooms in Sawdust

Here is my Block Recipe

6 cups of hardwood pellets and 5-6 cups of water, distilled preferred

Put hardwood pellets into 8″ gusseted bag with filter patch.

Boil water, once boiling pour it into the bag. Use gloves and mix water into the pellets until there are no solid pellets left.

It is HOT, be careful.

Seal the bag by tieing it closed and let sit till it is cool. Anything over 106 degrees will kill your inoculation cultures.

If you are concerned about contamination or are growing out a less than vigorous strain, you can put the sealed bags in an ice chest surrounded by towels.

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This should keep the substrate temperature over 140 degrees for several hours, long enough to kill most bacterial contaminants.

Once they have sat for several hours above 140 degrees, set them out to cool. You now have pasteurized sawdust substrate to inoculate.

Once cooled you can add in the grain spawn. Use 1 pint of grain spawn per 5 lb bag of sawdust. Mix in thoroughly and compact the mixture. This makes sure there is solid contact between the grain spawn and the sawdust.

Seal the bag and put in your spawning area. It should take about 6 weeks for them to completely fill with mushroom mycelia and begin to fruit.

When they are ready to fruit cut 1 or 2 slits in the bag, the oxygen at the slit will cause the bag to begin to fruit in that area.

These bags can fruit several times. Keep them moist by spraying with a gentle mist of water at least twice a day.

Be sure to not spray the fruiting bodies, this will cause them to develop bacteria.

After the first fruiting is done, soak the block in distilled water overnight.

Drain completely and set out to fruit again.

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I have gotten 3 flushes from one bag in the past. Each will be smaller than the one before.

Once you have gotten all the flushes you think you will from the bag, it can be broken up and spread out into an outdoor bed as compost or used to innoculate other bags.

Be very careful if you innoculate other bags with it, the risk of contamination is much higher when it is used in this way. I don’t recommend it.

Watch it carefully.

Spent sawdustblocks can be fed to chickens and/or worms, added to compost piles, or broken up into garden beds and dug into the soil. The mycelium will enhance your plant growth greatly.

I use a lot of mushroom compost in my garden and it makes a huge difference. The plants require less water and are much healthier.

This technique works for all wood-loving species. Some types like Lion’s Mane might require supplementation with rice or wheatbran.

You can add that in at 1 – 1 1/4 cups per bag. Just remember to reduce your hardwood pellets by the same amount.

Update:

As the summer months started warming up this method began having issues with contamination. I am switching to the same method as I use for straw and/or pressure sterilization of the sawdust. With us beginning commercial production we can’t afford contamination in our grow room. Once I have enough bagsfruited out to be able to report back I will update this page. The lime process works so well on straw I am expecting the same results with hardwood. I had zero contamination in my straw blocks using lime.

Source: https://gardencourte.com
Categories: Recipe