Wheatgrass juicing is considered one of the prominent cornerstones of a healthy plant blended diet. Juice extracted from wheatgrass is considered a power house of amazing nutrients and enzymes essential to your health.
I love potatoes. You are here most probably because you do to. Your problem could be space, and know-how. How do you go about growing potatoes at home as a first timer and with possibly little space.
Now you have your fresh lettuce microgreens out of your microgarden, what next? Make a pilchards wrap like this one and bring your lettuce microgreens into the mix to give some nice flavor along side other greens.
Takes: 10 minutes
Serves: 4
Get ThisÂ
4 Wholemeal wraps (homemade or shop bought)
2 x 125 g Pilchards in tomato sauce
2 Handfuls of lettuce microgreens
1/2 small pineapple, cubed
Handful of macadamia nuts, chopped
1/2 medium cucumber, julienned
1 large carrot, julienned
1 cup purple cabbage, finely shredded (optional)
Mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste
Do this
1.Place your wrap on the dinner plate or board. Put half to 1 tbsp mayonnaise on the centre of the wrap and spread it evenly using a table knife.
2.Put some 2-3 pilchards (without the sauce) near the centre of the the wrap in a line, horizontally.
3. Add the lettuce microgreens, pineapple, nuts, carrots, cucumber and cabbage (if using). Sprinkle a little salt and ground black pepper to taste.
4. Begin folding your wrap. To do this, fold the left and right sides of the wrap over into the middle. Starting from the bottom end, fold the wrap tightly to the other end.
5. Cut the wrap in half and your wrap is ready! Repeat process for the remaining wraps
Takes: 20 minutes
Serves: 4-5
Serving Suggestion: Enjoy as a light meal with a salad on the side or as is.
These chicken wraps utilize lettuce microgreens and will double up as a light meal or a lunch box idea. To prepare for the lunch box, simply wrap in cling wrap so it remains in tact. I love the crispiness of the meal, the freshness of the lettuce microgreens and cucumber, the smoothness and tanginess of the mayonnaise and lastly, the sweet contrast the pineapple adds to the whole mix! Enjoy!
Get This
4-5 homemade or shop bought wraps
250 g chicken breast
1 egg
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp oil
4 lettuce leaves
2 handfuls lettuce microgreens
1/2 medium cucumber sliced
1 medium tomato, sliced
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
Do This
1. Get your ingredients together. Cut your chicken into medium sized pieces and place in a bowl. Place the egg in a separate bowl and the breadcrumbs in another separate bowl.
2. Season the chicken pieces with salt. Dip each chicken piece into the egg, shake off the excess egg then roll the piece in the breadcrumbs until evenly coated. Repeat process until all chicken pieces are coated.
3. Heat oil in pan, shallow fry the coated chicken for about 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Set aside.
4. Take the wrap and spread a tablespoon of mayonnaise in the centre. Next add your lettuce microgreens, the meat, cucumber, tomato and pineapple. Add an extra dollop of mayonnaise if you wish and sprinkle a little bit of salt on the tomato and cucumber.
5. Fold the bottom part of the wrap over to the middle. Fold the left side over to the middle and the right side over to the middle. Secure with a toothpick. Repeat process with remaining wraps. Enjoy!
I love lettuce in general, it wasn’t hard for me to appreciate the microgreen version when I first learned about microgreens. Lettuce microgreens are my go to microgreens not only because they are extremely easy and fun to grow but also because they introduce a particular flavor which is just great in a salad mix.
Since I started growing microgreens, I struggled with this delicate stage of container gardening – watering the crop. I am probably not alone, this I strongly suspect.
Because when planting microgreens seeds, the seed is not covered at all but sitting on top of the soil, or if it is covered the soil is a very thin layer, there is always a real risk of washing away the seeds if you water the tray with direct high pressure water.
The watering process can easily push the seeds to one side of the tray reversing your nice spread of the seeds across the tray. The real challenge I faced was that it was never easy to get the correct spray of water that wouldn’t displace the soil and seeds in the tray.
I even went as far as buying a very handy spray gun with adjustable nozzles/spray output as shown above. I still recommend getting one like this and setting it to mist when watering microgreens. I just consider it second best to the method I will showing you below.
Since I discovered what I would Ioosly call the reverse osmosis method, this has been my go to technique of watering microgreens. If you find yourself without a spray gun, simply use this neat and highly effective method.
STEP 1
So, first get your tray. As you have probably seen on this blog already, I use punnets very often to do my microgreen projects.
Take your punnet and turn it upside down. Perforate the entire bottom of the tray/punnet with a generous amount of needle size holes trying as much as possible to have them evenly spread.
You only need to perform this step once or each time you have a new punnet/tray to use for this purpose.
STEP 2
Take another container which must necessarily be bigger, which I am calling container B here. Your container A is your microgreens growing punnet/tray with a perforated bottom.
Container B must have a bigger surface area than container A, such that container A can sit inside of it.
STEP 3
First fill container B with water and then place container A to sit in water filled B. Due to the displacement pressure caused by soil filled contained A, in typical fashion similar to reverse osmosis water in container B will find its way into container A by utilizing needle sized holes at the bottom.
This process is very neat and leaves soil in container A fully permeated and saturated with water. As shown above, the soil in the microgreens container is well watered.
The whole process takes at most 3 minutes to complete depending on your container size. You can water your microgreens this way from planting stage to harvest stage.
This has since become my go to watering method because of the very neat results which do not negatively affect the integrity of the microgreens.
One thing I didn’t mention earlier on is that I incidentally discovered this watering method.
I must have ran out of working space and decided to place a punnet with soil in a bigger punnet with water. To my bemusement, in a very short time, the soil which was dry became wet and thoroughly soaked with water.
In an instant I knew this would be my new way of watering microgreens going forward!
Let me know how this goes down with you in your own microgardening efforts.
Sunflower microgreens should be everyone’s easy go to mini crop. I, for one, have been growing sunflower microgreens without soil or media for a long time.
I affirmatively recommend starting out by growing sunflower microgreens without media if you are new to microgreens. Not only does sunflower microgreens (depending on variety of course) give you some amazing flavor; I would say they are virtually fail safe for would be hesitant new growers.
Growing this mini crop will be so easy. Get ready to kick yourself why you haven’t been doing this sooner.
The magic 3 when growing sunflower microgreens without soil or media
You can do sunflower microgreens soil-free without any media. Yes, that’s been an absolute winner for me. Key factors that influence your soil-free success with sunflower microgreens, in my experience, are
Water
Light
Air
Water
No water, the crop will be slow to grow, too much water you run the risk of molds developing. Water must just be right at about once or twice per day watering. If you are struggling with moulding make sure you are not excessively watering your plants.
Light
No light, the crop will struggle to green because no photosynthesis could take place. If you are using artificial light and it’s placed too high above the crop, the crop will spend much of its energy growing tall attempting to rich for the light. In turn you will struggle to get any green micro leaves which is really what you are after. Look for a balance.
Air
Little air circulation, and you are creating just the right environment for molds to develop. Once molds develop I feel my crop is contaminated. Even if I could take some measures to recover, such as pulling out the bad parts, it’s not looking as nice anymore and takes away the fun too. So I just through away everything. If you are struggling with molds if your water levels are just right make sure your plants have good air circulation.
So that’s it. That’s the magic 3 for me. If you get these three correct which is really not a big deal, you will be having a boat load of sunflower microgreens to eat and give away as often as you did like.
Some regular but useful stuff about sunflower microgreens
While what I am about to say about sunflower microgreens seem regular, it should be the reason why you would want to grow them and eat them just about always. At least in my case, apart from the fun of having a microgarden, I grow and eat sunflower microgreens for the following reasons…
- they are high in vitamin B
- they contain vitamin C and are good for circulatory system including blood pressure and heart disease
- they are a good source of protein (which makes them ideal for vegetarian dishes)
- they offer Increased resistance to disease and illness
- they boost energy
- and much more benefits associated with microgreen nutrient-dense characteristics.
I will mention thought that microgreens represent a new and emerging research frontier among nutritionists. Early studies indicate unparalleled benefits compared to fully mature plants. I suspect we are in for further pleasant findings over and above what is already known.
General microgreens growing equipment & material
Before I go on to explain what you will need to grow sunflower microgreens in particular, here is a list of some equipment and materials commonly used when growing microgreens in general. Also see how to grow microgreens indoors here.
- Seeds (supplier)
- Two trays, one with holes one without (supplier)
- Soil sifter (supplier)
- Soil
- Watering spray (supplier)
- Grow light (supplier)
- Grow room/shelf/stand (supplier)
What you need to grow sunflower microgreens without soil im particular
We are now getting in into the meat of it. You will need a couple of things to start growing sunflower microgreens. I will run through each one of the requirements before I talk about how to actually grow them. You will need…
Dried sunflower seed
Shown above are dried sunflower seeds which are not chemically treated. This is intentional. When growing microgreens in general it is important to use seeds that have not been chemically treated. This is a health precaution.
To grow sunflower microgreens I use dried sunflower seeds. To the sunflower plant, sunflower seeds are its fruit. This is were we get sunflower oil and other products and by-products. There are types of sunflower seeds. The three main types are NuSun, Linoleic, and High-oleic.
While I am not particularly bothered by this and virtually see no need to do it, some microgardners go a step further as to use only seeds that have been grown organically. That’s alright too, but shouldn’t stop you from getting started if you have no access to organic seeds.
So depending on the amount you want to grow of sunflower microgreens, which is also determined by your container size, I recommend you start by getting just two handfuls of the seed.
Another factor to take into account when deciding on how much crop to grow is that sunflower microgreens have a best-by-date. The closer your consumption is to harvest date the better the flavor. I therefore find it best to grow a bit at a time according to my consumption patterns.
Now that you have your seed, you will also need a…
Growing Container
This is a grocery store punnet above, which became available after a grocery run. As part of conscious household re-purposing and for convenience, I use a simple punnets as shown here to grow not only sunflower microgreens but just about all the other microgreens that I grow. In it’s own right I would say this is container growing!
A common question is how big, wide and deep should a container for growing sunflower microgreens without soil be…
As shown above, I am most concerned about the depth of the punnet more than anything else. At 3 cm/1.8 inch deep, it has proven to work just fine.
You want to avoid containers that are too deep. The goal is to have air circulating easily and for the stems to soon grow tall enough to clear the punnet 1.8 inch sides.
While some microgarderners would prefer to punch a few holes beneath the punnet or container for drainage, I grow my sunflower greens without holes beneath. However, I do punch holes for other microgreens such as when growing lettuce.
If you follow this method, any water that you water the sunflower crop with, get to sit at the base of the punnet because without drainage holes there is no way for the water to escape. This is a good thing. I do this because sunflower microgreens are very thirsty. Modestly watering at once per day, this amount of water does no harm to the plants and in my experience does not increase the risk of molds forming.
With the growing container ready, also get a…
Kitchen bowel
You will need a simple kitchen bowl like this one shown here to soak your seeds first. It need not exactly be a kitchen bowl. Any cut out container that could hold water will do.You could even use a bottle cut in half for this purpose. It doesn’t really matter, all that matters is having somewhere to soak your seeds!
Not everyone soak their seeds first, some go ahead to sprout their sunflower microgreens in soil without water soaking. I soak my sunflower seeds to speed up germination by weakening the tough shell, and also to allow the seeds to take in some moisture. All this is good for speedy germination.
Finally you will also need a…
Colander
You can get a colander as a borrowed item from your kitchen. It is necessary for rinsing out the seeds repeatedly. This will be for the next two to three days.
In my early days I discovered that sunflower seeds tend to bleach out a purple color. This could permanently stain you colander or any container the seeds and water draining out from the seeds may come into contact with.
For this reason you may want to set aside a special colander for this purpose. What you see above is my already stained colander which I use all the time. Again a cut out old container which you punch out holes all around it should be a sufficient work about colander.
With these items in place, it’s time to take concrete steps to grow our sunflower microgreens without need for any soil.
Step-by-step guide to growing your sunflower microgreens without soil
Step 1 – Soak your sunflower seeds overnight
Take your handful or two (or desired amount) of dried sunflower seeds and soak in a container overnight as shown above. Initially, your sunflower seeds, because they are dry, will float. Using your hands ensure all seeds are in contact with water. The bulk of the seeds should immediately sink and sit below the water.
An eight hour soak will also do just fine, if you opt not to soak overnight.
You want to soak the seeds to allow them to absorb some water/moisture which will be needed to kick-start the germination process. Whether or not you soak them exposed to some light or in a dark place or covered doesn’t matter. I always soak my seeds exposed to light with no problems.
Step 2 – Transfer your sunflower seeds to Colander
Following overnight soaking (or 8 hours of soaking) as in Step 1, transfer your sunflower seeds to a colander as shown above.
This process will allow the seeds to drain off any excess water. The colander will be their home for the next 48 hours to 72 hours.
Twice to thrice per day, using your kitchen sink, run some water over the seeds (which is the rinsing process) whilst still in the colander. This ensures that the seeds do not become slimy and go bad.
This also prevents dehydration of your sunflower seeds. When left in the open air as is the case in the colander, the seeds tend to loose a good deal of moisture.
24 hours later…
Within 24 hours following putting of the sunflower seeds into the colander, there are clear and exciting signs of your sunflower seeds sprouting. Interestingly, and so don’t be fooled, these are actually roots coming out first. Many people tend to think these are leaves.
This sprouting will increase and become more apparent as hours pass by. We are talking of changes in hours now. In response to this increased sprouting, to protect the emerging delicate roots, increase your water rinsing frequency to prevent them from drying up. We want the sprouts to grow significantly before we move on to Step 3.
Here is a closer look of the sprouting sunflower microgreens…
You may have come across before (or later will) some approaches were the sprouting seeds are covered. I usually just allow them to sprout whilst uncovered as shown here. One thing I do, though, is avoiding exposing them to direct sunlight so they are not scorched and dry up.
Step 3 – Transfer seeds to growing container
Some 48 hours to 72 hours later, the final step is to move your sprouting sunflower seeds from the colander to your growing container as shown here. Our quest to grow sunflower microgreens without soil is taking some really good shape!
In this case, to mention again, the container is a simple grocery store re-purposed punnet with no holes beneath. Don’t think too hard about it, any decent container satisfying the depth measurements given earlier above will do just fine.
Spread the sprouting seeds in the punnet in a crowded fashion as shown above. Some seeds can be on top of each other, that’s okay, they will sort themselves out as the root network develops. This will also ensure dense growth and support for each other as they grow. Remember we are growing the sunflower microgreens without soil which would anchor the plants.
Root network development…
Once your sunflower seeds are in the container, watered at least once per day, the sprouting roots will work had to anchor the crop. This tend to happen in a very aggressive manner.
When I first saw the root network as pictured below I was totally blown away! You will witness this development beginning day 2 of the transfer of the sprouting seeds from the colander to punnet/container.
The sunflower seeds will rapidly create an intricate root network covering the entire floor of the punnet or container. What you see here is the base of the sprouted sunflower seeds well developed, well networked.
This root network apart from anchoring the sprouts as they grow into stems and green leaves, also works as a thirsty sponge that sucks up a lot of water (the reason I don’t find a need to put holes beneath my growing container).
This calls for watering once per day by simply pouring water into the bottom of punnet. Avoid drowning or covering the seeds with water. Remember they need air and exposure to light.
Many people are surprised that sunflower microgreens can grow and be ready for harvest without any soil. This is indeed amazing. The science behind this is that the sunflower microgreens very much rely on nutrients contained in the seed itself. They do not need any soil nutrients as one would initially assume.
Step 4 – When to harvest your sunflower microgreens
Some 5 to 7 days later following step 3, you will have something as shown above. These sunflower microgreens look just great for a salad. However, when to harvest them is a frequently asked question.
The most frequent answer is that the best time to harvest is just as the true leaves start to emerge. This is what I also follow. Usually, true leaves are the third leaf that appears following the maturity of cotyledons.
Take a look below. Cotyledons are the “leaf” like growth, green in color in our case, that follows the sprouting. So as shown below, we have two cotyledons that came out of the seed as the shell fell off.
In the middle we have the true leaves coming out. Around this occurrence is when many people go for the harvest, me also included.
Overall, I did say it’s really up to you when you want to harvest. Follow the recommended timing first, but do not be afraid to let your sunflower microgreens go a little further so you determine for yourself if you did like the taste and flavor when the leaves are a little older. In other words, feel free to curve out your own path!
How to harvest your soil-free sunflower microgreens
When harvesting my sunflower microgreens, I use a kitchen scissors to graze them off. These ones shown above are soon after harvest as I prepared this guide.
The actual level at which I cut them is towards the upper end of the stem and not close to the floor of the punnet. This is deliberate and a precaution against possible contamination. I recommend this approach.
Contamination may come from the rotting seeds that may have failed to sprout to full life or which just failed for one reason or another.
How to remove seed shells from your harvested sunflower microgreens
One unique characteristic of sunflower microgreens are the seed shells which tend to be carried along by sprouting leaves remaing on top as the sprout matures into microgreens.
What happens is that the sprouting root lifts up the seed as the stem emerges rising towards the light and the shell gradually opens up to let out the cotyledons. So there is often a lot of hangers on! This means, in many cases, the entire top of the microgreens becomes densely covered with inedible shells.
One trick is to gently run an open palm of your hand over the canopy of the microgreens before harvest. This will cause the shells to come off or drop off. Some of the shells you will need to pick by hand to ensure they are not harvested together with your edible crop.
Try as much as possible never to allow them to find their way into a dish. This would be very unpleasant in your mouth.
How to store your sunflower microgreens
The harvest is complete, now what to do with the harvest?. Storage of your harvested sunflower microgreens is not something to ignore. Sunflower microgreens have a relatively longer shelf live provided they are properly stored and refrigerated.
At harvest, rinse them preferably under running water and then put them in a zip lock bag.
I make sure to label them (because there are other microgreens that I grow) and store them away in the fridge. Microgreens tend to look alike and my easily confuse the grower when its time for recipes.
It is possible to keep your sunflower microgreens for up to two weeks in the refrigerator in conditions not too cold. In other words, store them in the warmest part inside the fridge. Generally, I would say sunflower microgreens are at their best in terms of flavor the closer they are to harvest date.
It is for this reason that I prefer to run a growing cycle of a few of them at a time to ensure I eat them fresh as much as possible. There are roughly some 7 days between Step 1 and harvest. So it’s fairly easy to develop a cyclic routine.
So this is it. This is how I grow sunflower microgreens without soil. I hope you will jump into it and put them into all sorts of salads or simply enjoy as is, as is the case with my kids!
Even though I am now growing oyster mushroom successfully every single time, when I first began I failed a bit, mostly because I was self taught relying on scattered resources gracefully shared by others all over the internet and social media.
The pain that I had figuring it all out and filling the gaps mostly due to explanation assumptions from well meaning people, naturally led me to want to put this guide together.
By simplifying things, this guide will hopefully close the gaps for you that I encountered myself when it all began for me. The goal here is really to make you grow oyster mushroom and less of a mushroom scientist!
While at first what I am sharing with you may look intimidating, if you look beyond the false intimidation and apply yourself you will gain an invaluable skill that will become a life long reward.
Some Regular Stuff about Oyster Mushroom
Oyster mushroom is edible fungi whose scientific name is Pleurotus ostreatus (I really find no need to memorize this burdensome name…just keep calling it oyster, a light name for us commoners 🙂 ).
You sure recognize what’s in the image above. You can get oyster mushroom in just about any good grocery shop and prices will range depending on your source. Compared to oyster mushroom, white button mushroom tends to cost more at retail level where most people source it for day-to-day use.
Of the two, white button mushroom is complex to grow, calling for rather sophisticated set-ups such as climate control and some properly built up facilities. This, for the most part, leaves button mushroom production in the hands of well oiled operations, inevitably impacting it’s shelf price for the consumer.
Oyster mushroom is relatively more resilient and can fight off contamination which is any grower’s nightmare. This makes oyster mushroom attractive for micro gardeners or home growers, the reason why I am showing you here how to grow it at home.
Here is a collection of what I use to grow Oyster Mushroom successfully at home
There are a few basic requirements that I use to grow oyster mushroom DIY. The good part is they are not hard to find. You probably have a good number of them lying around somewhere. I will start by showing them to you before turning to step-by-step practical steps I actually follow to successfully produce oyster mushroom….
Oyster Mushroom Spawn
What you see here is spawn. You probably don’t have this lying around somewhere! This is because it’s specially produced in a sterile lab. Unless when ready for use, spawn must be kept refrigerated in a cold room.
Spawn can be loosely understood as mushroom seed. It is in reality a collection of living cells known as Mycelium.
Mycelium which is yellowish to white in color, attaches and grows on any suitable substance called media or substrate. Without spawn you can’t grow mushroom.
 What Substrate to use
Trying to grow oyster mushroom without substrate is like trying to drive a car which needs fuel without fuel. Substrate refers to your mushroom growing medium such as dried grass, wheat straw, rice straw, sawdust, cottonseed hull and so on. It is essentially the food for your mushroom when it starts fruiting.
Substrate is just an essential part of oyster mushroom growing. Your spawn will need growing media to start what is refereed to as the colonisation process (more on this a little later).
The list is endless. It’s a whole world out there of possible mushroom growing substrates. People continue to dedicate their research lives to understanding how best to increase oyster mushroom quality or yield by focusing on improving substrate.
The type of substrate you settle for will influence your yield positively or negatively
I use slightly crushed peanut shells which works just fine for home production. I would probably use cottonseed hulls if I was doing this at a commercial scale for higher yield purposes.
In the last number of years, I have consistently used partially crushed peanut shells. In this guide I am using the same even though you are free to explore other options mentioned or not mentioned here.
It’s always a good idea, though, that as you grow confident to try out other substrate types so you are satisfied with your yield potential and settle for your favorite substrate.
You will need Baler bags
You will need a baler bag (one or more depending on amount of mushroom you intend on producing) as shown here to pack your substrate mixed with spawn. Mixing your substrate with spawn is a process called inoculation (more on this a little later).
If you don’t have proper baler bags, you could use a plain plastic bag preferably one that is transparent so you can monitor what’s going on inside during incubation. Incubation refers to a period of time when the inoculated bag is set aside for spawn to colonise the substrate.
Pasteurizing bag
If you thought your old pillow case was no good, here is some good. What you see here is a simple good old pillow case that I pulled out from somewhere around the house. You will be using this to pasteurize your substrate using hot water.
When we pasteurize we are killing the bad competing microbes that will most certainly overwhelm our spawn and cause Mycelium that is contained in the spawn to fail to spread in its effort to colonize the substrate.
I recommend use of a plain white pillow case that won’t bleach when introduced in hot water. We don’t want dyes used in cloths to drain and contaminate the substrate.
You will need heated water
You will need a water heater to produce heated water. Substrate pasteurizing water should not reach 100 degrees Celsius (212 Fahrenheit). This is to avoid destroying beneficial microbes that naturally reside in your substrate.
While a kitchen electric jug or kettle could work, you need something with a higher capacity to heat water to about 85 degrees (185 Fahrenheit). This could be a bucket heater that can be inserted into a bucket full of water. I use a simple good capacity bucket with a heating element affixed as shown.
Prepare an empty bucket
An empty good sized bucket say of 20L (6 gallons) capacity will be needed at a particular stage of the pasteurization process.
Thermometer & Hygrometer
This is optional but good to have. A thermometer and hygrometer combo will measure your atmospheric temperature and humidity respectively.
Depending on variety, most oyster mushroom will do well between 10 to 25 degrees Celsius (50 to 77 Fahrenheit) and between 70% and 90% of atmospheric humidity.
One of the reasons oyster mushroom is great growing in cool climates is that no sophisticated infrastructure is required as would be the case in very warm climates. This makes DIY home mushroom growing exciting. In my own story, since I have quite warm summers, I have been growing mushroom every winter.
However, I would still be able to grow oyster mushroom in winter if I invested in a fruiting chamber with climate control.
You will need some Methylated Spirit or Alcohol
Denatured alcohol, also called methylated spirit will be needed to sterilize your working space, which can be a counter, table or floor space. It kills any potentially contaminating microbes. You will also apply it to your hands before handling spawn and mixing it with your substrate.
If you don’t have methylated spirit you may simply use soap to wash your hands and also washing any surfaces clean that will come into contact with your spawn and substrate.
A good rule of thumb is that when preparing your bags for inoculation, put on clean clothes just to reduce risk of contaminating things.
Get a good sized box
You will need a good sized box although this will not be needed immediately.
You will need it down the road at the time of fruiting when you are ready to have the mushroom flashing (coming out) all over the place.
The cardboard box will act as a convenient zero cost fruiting chamber with controlled humidity. Alternatively, if you can achieve 85% to 90% humidity in open air, you will not need the box.
By the way, no need to buy this. Most local grocery shops would have some to give away after unpacking shelf products.
Summary of Requirements
So now that we have gone over all the basic requirements of growing oyster mushroom in terms of equipment, accessories and aids, here is a summary of it all before I take you through the practical steps necessary to produce oyster mushrooms…
Spawn, Substrate, Baler bags, Pasteurizing case, Water heater, Empty bucket, Thermometer & Hygrometer, Methylated spirit, Good sized box (optional)
Get your Substrate ready
As mentioned, the substrate or growing media that I use is partially crushed peanut shells. I partially grind it so that it can be able to absorb moisture better and remain coherent.
Take your substrate and fill it into a pillow case and tie the top tightly. Set aside.
Inoculation
Inoculation refers to the stage at which our spawn is introduced to the substrate. This is were we are setting off the acts of nature to begin. The amount of spawn that you introduce determines, generally, the speed with which you will get the whole bag colonised by mycelium.
Because spawn is a cost, commercial operations would put just enough well measured spawn to get the colonization of the substrate going. However, at home level production you can afford to be generous allowing you to cut the incubation period significantly.
Here I introduced a generous amount of spawn to my substrate my mixing the two before filling my baler bag.
Another approach would be alternating layer by layer whereby you sparingly put a layer of spawn at the bottom of the baler bag followed by a layer of substrate followed by another sparingly put layer of spawn until you fill the bag up.
Closing your Bag
Once your bag is filled to the top. Tie it with suitable thread or seal it using sellotape or packaging tape.
Proceed to pock tiny holes all over the bag using a sterilized needle (wiped using meth spirit) to allow air in and out of the bag.
Incubation
After you seal your bag and put holes in it, it’s now ready for incubation. Incubation is when we put the inoculated bag away in a dark room or place to allow the colonization to occur.
This is usually over a period of 10 to 14 days by which time everything turns whitish in color. Your incubation space should be dark. This could be under a sink, in the pantry etc.
Some people use black bags for this reason but as mentioned earlier I find it prevents you from effectively inspecting your bag as required.
Check your bag after every two days to ensure there is no contamination. When contamination has occurred, it is usually in the form of greenish or blackish mold. The bag is good for nothing when this happens and I just through away to the compost. It is also important to remove the bag from among others immediately, to prevent contamination of the other good bags.
Steps to Fruiting
Here comes the exciting part when your hard work is on the verge of being rewarded.
Fruiting is when the inoculated bag is fully colonized as shown here and ready to produce mushroom. You determine this through regular inspection of your bag.
The way to fruit is simple.
So, take your colonised bag and make out big holes in the plastic. Do not remove whole plastic, the colonized substrate will disintegrate. After making holes soak your bag in a bucket with ordinary tape water overnight (put weights to ensure the bag goes under water)
Next day take it out of the water. Oyster mushroom will start to fruit when exposed to light (not direct sunlight). Just putting it out in the open is enough even under your home lighting. It will also need correct humidity levels. For this let’s turn to our good size box that I mentioned earlier.
Fruiting Chamber set-up
We are going to use a simple cardboard box as your fruiting chamber. Get this from any grocery store or supermarket. They usually throw these away after unpacking products.
Regular brown cardboard boxes are thick and corrugated in design. This makes them absorb and keep moisture which is good for our purposes here.
Put your overnight soaked bag in the box and gently pour water in the box wetting the insides of the open box. This will start creating a localized high humidity atmosphere. You may close part of the top of the box but allowing light to get in.
If you have a hygrometer you can measure and continue to monitor your humidity in the box.
I have fruited oyster mushroom in winter relying on between 70% and 85% humidity (vs often advertised 90% humidity). Water the inside of the box splashing part of the water on the bag itself at least once a day (set a phone reminder if need be so you don’t forget this routine).
When to harvest your Oyster Mushroom
In some 2 to 3 days you will be a witness to tiny outgrowths out of your bag usually starting with the under sides as this is usually where humidity is highest.You will see these little buttons like growths known as primordia. The games have began!.
From here on you will further witness changes almost on an hourly basis. This simply means growth of the mushroom will be rapid.
You can decide when to harvest especially when your mushrooms reach a reasonable size. I won’t burden you with the science and timing of when to harvest. If your mushroom looks good to you, go ahead and harvest.
This will be your first flash. There will be two more flashes the yield going down with every harvest as mycelium runs out of food supply from your increasingly exhausted substrate.
Data collection
Using a kitchen scale, if you have one, for the fun of it you can record the weight of your yield.
On a valuable note, this is useful data in telling your production parameters. It will also inform you of how much you are saving vs grocery bought mushroom.
Furthermore, it will allow you to understand the dollar value of your mushroom viz prevailing market prices. Extend this to recording temperatures and humidity levels that work for you for future application. Data is always good to collect even if it may mean nothing today.
Compositing
Your used bags after the third flash are ready to be thrown away. Apparently, they form a good candidate for composting. You can break them and spread directly in your vegetable garden or on a compost hip for good future organic manure.
Summary Infographic
In summary all that I have shown you in this session can be understood in this simple work flow.
If you have read through everything above, you will find it easy to find were it fits in this infographic summary. Keep it safely, this is your key to understanding simple DIY home operation mushroom growing stages.
Ready made kits
In case you love mushroom but not ready to get started following these stages, you may also opt for ready made bags which are usually known as kits. When you get such kits you will be starting from the FRUITING STAGE. Everything else remains the same.
Here are some sellers of oyster mushroom kits.
