In my last post, Growing Mushrooms on a Homestead: Perfect for Beginners and Intermediate- 3 Ingredient Guide, we talked about how to grow from a pre-purchased grow kit and how to use grain spawn with pasteurized substrate. This is where I started, but the combination of wanting to learn, purchase less overall, and of course save money, I moved quickly to what I call the advanced version of growing mushrooms.
These techniques will require you to have a pressure canner or autoclave, but if you are looking to save money, have a lot of mushrooms, or potentially use them as an enterprise to sell, this is a good way to go.
Guide
What are the Advanced Techniques:
While there is more advanced techniques than what I will list here, I have no plans to explore getting augur plates and testing spores, and I think that is beyond most homesteader’s vision. If this is something that interests you, great! Please explore and comment about your journey here!
What I deem advanced is creating your own grain spawn. It did not take long for me to jump into these waters as it is the most cost efficient method. A syringe of culture can cost about $10-$15, but can make you 15-20 lbs of grain spawn, easy. With that being the most expensive part, aside from your multi-tasker canner, it ends up being much cheaper in the long run.
Step 1: Making Your Own Grain Spawn
As cost effective as it is, it does have some risks for failure. Because very few of us has laboratory grade and sterilized conditions, there are spores and fungi everywhere and you are starting it where the mushroom is not as vigorous and there are more steps for it to go wrong.
You will be buying syringes of a liquid culture of the mushroom variety you want to grow and inoculating it in to sterilized grain. If everything goes right, you will be able to get a quart or pound of grain spawn for around $1-$2 depending on the grain and variety of mushrooms.
What Grain to Pick
To sterilize your grain for grain spawn, I suggest using Rye Berries or Wild Bird Seed. Rye berries are well known for their ability to hold moisture, and bird seed is known for being incredibly cheap and it does not have to be dried the same way that rye does. Regardless of the grain, soak it over night with covering at least a few inches of water.
Typically you can presume about most grains will gain about 50% or so of their weight in water and each quart size jar holds approximately 1lb of grain. So when you prepare your grain for soaking, estimate about 10 ounces dry to equal about once jar fully soaked. Multiply that by however many jars you plan on sterilizing.
If you are using rye, strain the water off, and let dry for 20-30 minutes in a single layer on a towel either on the floor, kitchen table, or counter. You should be able to pierce the berry with your finger nail but it should not be mushy. Add 1 lb to a quart size jar or bag. If using bird seed, strain off the water until it is no longer dripping and add directly to your bags or quart jars. I have had the best success with bird seed, as I find the rye berries dry out too much. Plus overall it is much easier to purchase in my area and significantly cheaper.
Processing Grain
Once everything is in jars/bags, put on your mushroom lids that have a self healing port and a filter patch. I have heard of individuals using foil to cover the lids so water does not get into the filter, but I have had luck both when I have used it and when I have forgotten.
Grain is incredibly nutritious to not only our mushrooms but to mold and other contaminants as well. To combat the contaminants, you will need to use heat to sterilize the grain. Using an autoclave or pressure canner is the homesteader’s best bet. For 1lb bags or quarts, you will need 90 minutes of pressure at 15 lbs of pressure.
To ensure I had enough water, I set up my canner by lining the bottom with older canning lids, placing a tray that came with my canner on top of them, this add height which will then add more water the canner, and placed my jars on top.
If you are using bags, keep the same principle, but wrap the bag around itself and pack them tightly in the canner so flaps should not be able to move easily. You will need a second tray as you will want to cover the bags to ensure with the steam and pressure, the flaps of the bags don’t come up and accidentally block the pressure release. Bad things can happen if it does.
Once you have cooked the grain, let the canner release pressure naturally and then carefully remove the hot jars/bags out of the canner. If you are using the jars, you are good to let them sit on the counter until they are cool. If you are using bags, when they are still hot, I use an impulse sealer to seal off the grain to keep any contaminants from getting in. The residual heat will likely kill off any contaminants if you act quickly.
Step 2: Adding Culture
Once everything is cooled, you can now inoculate your grain with your culture. Mycelium Emporium and Northspore are two well known and vendors I have used in buying liquid culture and they have produced strong mushrooms. Mycelium Emporium is family owned has has wide array of liquid cultures and fantastic customer service and the cheaper of the two options.
It should come with a sterilized syringe and needle, turn off any fans you have in the room, wipe the lid or bag with 70% isopropyl alcohol, and inject the first jar with 1-2 CC of solution into the jar/bag. If you are using a bag, using your impulse sealer, seal off just below the injection point to keep things clean and from going into the injection point. I have tried using something simple like tape, but most ended up contaminated.
For each subsequent jar/bag, use a flame to sterilize the needle until it glows and then wipe it down and clean with 70% isopropyl alcohol. When you are done injecting all of your jars, if you still have culture left, put the cap back on and store based on your culture’s directions. Most can be left at room temperature for a few months.
Once you have put up your culture and all jars are inoculated done, the bag and jar to ensure even coverage of the culture and in in about 2-3 weeks most species will start to show full or partial colonization. You are looking for bright white mycelium. If at about a week to ten days you see it about 30-50% inoculated, consider shaking the jar or mixing the bag. It will help distribute the mycelium across more of the grain but it will slow down the mycelium for a day or two, but then you will see it cover the jar very quickly after.
Once you have 90-100% of the jar covered in white mycelium, you are then able to transfer it to substrate. If you see any other colors like pink (unless you are using pink oyster mushroom spawn) or green, it is likely contaminated and will not get you the yield. It is best to empty the jar in the trash or feed to birds. Trichoderma (green mold often found on bread) was my biggest issue in inoculating but it was largely due to my impatience and not being able to tell if the rye was moist enough. For what it’s worth it only happened with my rye berries, and I have had little issue with wild birdseed funnily enough.
Step 3: Substrates
If you went through the trouble of making your own grain spawn, you probably don’t mind the trouble of making your own substrate. I am looking for a lean approach to growing mushrooms, which is to use as little outside and uni-tasker based ingredients as possible, so I’m going against the grain (pun intended) and not using soy hulls as is common in typical “Master Mix” substrates. Instead I’m using coffee grounds (only fresh), wood chips from my trees outside, straw that I already use for mulch in the garden, and for some mushrooms I do use hardwood pellets as my unitasker ingredient, but arguably some could use that for smoking food as well.
Oyster mushrooms as a whole can get away with pasteurized substrate, however if you are wanting to grow slower species, it is best to sterilize it to ensure fewer contaminants are able to compete with your mushrooms.
| Ingredient | Blue Oyster | Pink Oyster | Golden Oyster |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chopped Straw | 2.75 lb (0.61 lb dry) | 3.00 lb (0.66 lb dry) | 3.25 lb (0.72 lb dry) |
| Coffee Grounds | 1.25 lb (0.50 lb dry) | 1.25 lb (0.50 lb dry) | 1.00 lb (0.40 lb dry) |
| Hardwood Pellets | 1.00 lb (0.90 lb dry) | 0.75 lb (0.68 lb dry) | 0.75 lb (0.68 lb dry) |
| Total Wet Weight | 5.00 lb | 5.00 lb | 5.00 lb |
| Total Dry Weight | ~2.01 lb | ~1.84 lb | ~1.80 lb |
| Estimated Yield | ~1.5 lb fresh (typical) | ~1.3 lb fresh (typical) | ~1.2 lb fresh (typical) |
If you are wanting to make your own sterilized substrate for those wood loving mushrooms the same principle will apply for sterilizing as it did for the grain. However, you will need to go upwards of 3 hours for a 5lb bag. Due to the size of my canner, I cannot go mush bigger than this and can only fit one 5lb bag and two 3lb bags in one batch for 3 hours. Just be sure you add plenty of water to your canner before starting a 3 hour journey.
| Ingredient | Lion’s Mane | Chestnut | Shiitake |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardwood Pellets | 2.1 lb (0.76 lb dry) | 1.8 lb (0.65 lb dry) | 2.7 lb (0.97 lb dry) |
| Pecan Wood Chips | 0.9 lb (0.36 lb dry) | 1.2 lb (0.48 lb dry) | 0.3 lb (0.12 lb dry) |
| Total Wet Weight | 3.0 lb | 3.0 lb | 3.0 lb |
| Total Dry Weight | ~1.12 lb | ~1.13 lb | ~1.09 lb |
| Est. Yield (Fresh) | ~0.84 lb (typical) | ~0.79 lb (typical) | ~0.71 lb (typical) |
In general, for oyster mushrooms due to their aggressive nature, you can get two 5lb bags off of one pound (quart jar) of grain spawn, or approximately 10% of the total weight. You can get by for the same for wood loving mushrooms as well, but it might be best for some individuals learning to make it 15-20%. One jar per 5lb bag.
Functions of the Substrate
When you are gardening you want to provide your plants with the best soil possible. Providing the optimum substrate is no different for your mushrooms. Ensuring that you have the ingredients for the variety of mushroom will help give you the best harvest, or flush in the coming weeks. Since this is the advanced guide, we will also go over what each of the ingredients do in case you want to make changes to the recipe above.
Straw
Straw is a classic foundation for oyster mushrooms. It provides a light weight structure which make it say for aggressive mushrooms like the pink, blue, and golden oyster mushroom.
Lion’s mane, chestnut, and shiitake won’t use much if any straw because they need more dense nutrition than what straw can offer.
Coffee Grounds
I wanted to be able to use the left over coffee grounds after a good brew, so I was very excited to see a use for these. They are incredibly high in nitrogen and provides oyster mushrooms with additional nutrition aside from the straw.
They do have to be incredibly fresh since they are a buffet for contaminants like green mold (commonly found on bread). The nice thing about it is because it is essentially already pasteurized as part of brewing process and the natural acidity of coffee grounds you do not have to re-pasteurize it. If you are saving it for a day or two to build up enough to use, consider putting in the fridge or freezer to preserve it.
For the wood loving mushrooms we leave coffee grounds out. Because they are much slower than oyster mushrooms, the high nitrogen and nutrition typically poses more risk for contamination so it is not worth the risk.
Hard Wood Pellets
I was hesitant about buying something that I felt like was a uni-tasker for mushrooms but for the cost ($7 for 20 lbs) I felt more confident if it meant that I would be able to grow more varieties of mushrooms. Essentially, when combined with boiling water (necessary to break down the outer coating) it turns into a sawdust like material which is close to the composition of decayed wood.
Make sure you are buying hardwood pellet, but it is the perfect and an essential bulk medium for your shiitake, chestnut and lion’s mane. These are not necessary for oyster mushrooms, but you can add it to supplement the straw as it will add densities and more nutrition which may offer more flushes.
Hard Wood Chips
I had bought a chipper and after our loving pecan tree had a limb drop, we chipped it for smoking food, using for mulch but we also wanted to use it for mushrooms since we had dozens of gallons of chips.
Also not entirely necessary for oysters since the straw offers plenty of aeration, but for the wood lovers, it proves more structure so the wood pellets don’t become too dense. These chips offer airflow and because they are not as broken down as the pellets, will provide long lasting lignin (wood) for them to break down. If the pellets are the main course, the chips provide a side to keep the bites interesting and nutritious over time.
Gypsum (Optional)
Gypsum, or calcium sulfate, isn’t a food but helps stabilize pH and adds minerals (calcium and sulfur). It isn’t entirely necessary for growing, especially for oysters, but it is a common ingredient in commercial substrates.
Pasteurizing Substrate
If you are using an Oyster mushrooms variety, you can get away with pasteurizing your substrate. You can do this by simply boiling water over most of the ingredients (you can skip for coffee and gypsum if you’re using it) and let it sit for an hour.
Once it has had a chance to soak, you can strain off some of the hot water for the straw and begin adding to your bags. I weigh them as I’m going on a digital scale and try to squeeze out as much water as I can so there isn’t much more than a drop coming out. I will repeat with coffee grounds and then mix thoroughly. I mix before adding the grain spawn to help it cool off a little bit. Once it’s cool, add your grain spawn and seal with your impulse sealer. Squeeze as much air as possible to ensure that there are not any leaks. Reseal if necessary.
Sterilizing Substrate
For wood loving mushrooms, you will want to make sure everything is soaked and thoroughly moist prior to adding to bags. I do recommend using hot water for the hardwood pellets to ensure they break down quickly, but not necessary for other ingredients.
I add the ingredients by wet weight to the bag ensuring that not more than a drop or so is coming from the ingredients. Make sure everything is well mixed, but you will not be sealing the bag.
Once you have all of the bags set up, I add canning rings to the bottom of my canner (All American 921) and then add my bottom tray on top. This allows for a little extra height to accommodate more water without saturating the bags. I push out as much air as possible and fold the bag over ensuring the flap is facing towards the center of the canner. I can fit two 3 lb bags and one 5 pound bag in the canner. To help ensure the filter on the bag doesn’t get damaged, I make sure it faces up and I try to tuck the flaps where the bags are partially holding them down.
I then fill the canner up to the filter which should be close to halfway full. You want your canner to be much more full with water since it will be going for 90 minutes if you are using 3lb bags or 150-180 minutes if you are using a 5 lb bag all at 15lb of pressure (PSI). If you are not sure if your canner can handle going for so long, start small and use 3lb bags to get an idea of how much water you have left over.
Follow standard canning procedures such as ensuring the canner/autoclave has an opportunity to vent for 10 minutes prior to building pressure, letting it cook for the designated time, taking it off the heat and letting it cool before removing the weight. Let the substrate cool in the canner until it can be handled. Warm or even hot is good so long as you do not hurt yourself in the process. Then using your impulse sealer, close the bag and let cool for a few hours or over night. Once it has cooled, you can cut open the bag and add your grain spawn to the substrate and re-seal. Mix and then wait.
Don’t forget that wood loving mushrooms are a bit pokier and will take a little bit longer to colonize. Still any weird signs of colors should be. Treated as contamination and should be disposed of outside of your normal workspace.
Other items to consider
The syringes I purchased from Mycellium Emporium were fantastic. The gentleman who owns the small family based company is very responsive and they often run great sales to take advantage of. Because the culture is so high quality, I have been able to make my own grain to grain transfer which dramatically increase the value of what you are buying.
Remember how I mentioned you can make 15-20 lbs of grain spawn? Well if you use 2 cc of culture for any given jar, it will make you about 6 lbs of grain. If you are using an oyster mushrooms, you can get away with 1 cc pretty easily, but slower growing species like chestnut and perhaps lion’s mane, you can use 2 cc to give them an advantage. However, if you were able to get successful grain spawn, you can take that jar and make 5-6 more jars. This technique is grain to grain, and there is always the risk of contamination, potentially using the last of your good grain spawn.
Grain to Grain Transfer
I did this on my last jar of blue oyster grain spawn and I was naturally worried that it wouldn’t work. I had issues with contamination on some of my other jars (usually involving rye and my poor patience) and was really trying to see how many mushrooms I could get out a syringe. Thankfully, everything turned out well and I was able to get 6 more jars from the initial one.
A lot of the YouTubers who teach this technique use a flow hood to limit spores floating in the air, but I didn’t want to invest more in arguably a smaller enterprise as part of the homestead. The species I like to grow are relatively aggressive, and if you follow the steps below, you should not need much else to do your transfer.
If you are interested in doing this you will make more sterilized grain, using the same process as before, but instead of filling them to be mostly full, you will want them to be about 66%-80% full. This will allow you to have room to add the inoculated grain to that jar. Sterilize using the same time and pressure as before and let cool.
Once everything is cool, turn all fans and limit any air circulation. Meaning even in the south, turning off fans and air container. You want to work as fast as possible in order to limit the likelihood of rogue spores getting into your grain.
I open the jar of fully inoculated grain spawn keeping the lid covering the jar and then open the first jar of cooled grain, also keeping the lid on top. I have a butter knife on hand to break up the inoculated spawn and then fill the jar of clean grain up, but still leaving 1-2” head space so we can shake it easily. I sit the lid of the colonized grain on top, and seal up the jar of newly inoculated grain with the lid and ring and tighten to finger tip tightness.
Largely after that it is rinse and repeat working with one jar at at time to ensure that while I am feeding the near full jars with hungry mycellium, nothing is getting contaminated in the process.
Once all of the jars have been introduced to the mycelium, you can shake as you would with the liquid culture to help ensure the grains are spread throughout the jar. Now you again sit and wait.
What You Need to Get Started
If I didn’t scare you with all of the things that you have to do to grow mushrooms, great! Below are the items I used to get started. None were given to me free, I paid for them all myself, but below I have provided some affiliated links that will allow me to earn a small commission if you decide you want to make a similar decision as I did and purchase some of these great products (Win Win!)
For Grain Spawn
- Liquid Culture $10-$20 (Mycellium Emporium or NorthSpore)
- ~$28 Wild Bird Seed 20lb (Probably cheaper at local store) or
- ~$30 Rye 10 lb
- $~20 Grain Spawn Lids for Jars
- Mason Jars
- Autoclave/Pressure Canner
For Substrate
- $~40 Straw (20lb) for Substrate (Oyster mushrooms)
- $0! Free at coffee house or from home: Spent Coffee Grounds (oyster mushrooms)
- $~30 Unicorn Bag for holding Grain or Substrate (all mushrooms)
- $~10 BBQ Hardwood Pellets 20 lb for Substrate (wood loving) Probably cheaper at local grocery store ($7 in my area for $20 lb)
- $20 Gypsum 5 lb(optional)
- 1 lb of Grain Spawn (Quart size jar)
For the Homestead
What I love about this process is that most of them are pretty forgiving, and while there is some upfront cost and equipment (bags, culture, and lids), a lot of those things can last for a good while, minimizing overall costs on a regular basis.
Break down of cost:
- Wild Bird Seed: .3lb dry –> 0.5lb soaked –> 1 bag ; $1.43/lb *.3 lb = $0.43
- Liquid Culture: $12 for 12 cc –> $1 CC (Can stretch to $0.50 each or even less)
- Bag: x1 bag @ $0.38 per bag ($30/80 bags)
- Straw: .61 (dry weight) x $1.00 (cost of straw per pound dry) = $0.61
- Coffee Grounds: Free!
$0.43 + $0.50 + $0.38 + $0.55 = $1.92 for overall recurring supply cost.
$1.92 for one 5lb bag of blue oyster which can yield about 2-2.5 lbs of fresh mushrooms. For just under a $1 a pound is great cost for mushrooms. Plus once you have exhausted the bag, you now have compost you can add to your garden.
For a wood loving block like chestnut or shiitake, you can perform roughly the same calculations but change your substrate to be the hardwood pellets.
$0.43 + $0.50 + $0.38 + $0.55 = $1.86 for overall recurring supply cost.
That’s not to say if you have optimal growing conditions for humidity, light, and airflow, you could get even more yield.
Growing Mushrooms on YOUR Homestead
I do believe mushrooms is one of the great ways to close the loop on your homestead. They can use left over materials like mulch and wood chips to grow food plus will then also feed your garden (and you!). They are delicious and growing them at home can be a cost saving endeavor. Depending on the variety you grow, you can make several batches, and if you have room in your fridge, store them there temporarily so you don’t do what I did and get bombarded with mushrooms.
I also made a dual extract with lion’s mane and it’s effects for reducing neurological fatigue have been fantastic for me and the family. It may not work well for everyone (and obviously consult with a doctor), but growing edible and medicinal mushrooms has been a worthwhile journey.
If you’re finding this and if it seems too overwhelming, I get it! Checkout our Growing Mushrooms on a Homestead: Perfect for Beginners and Intermediate- 3 Ingredient Guide to get started or check out the intermediate section. Make sure you subscribe to see some of the wonderful ways we cook and use these mushrooms in our kitchen.
Leave a comment
If you grow your own mushrooms leave a comment below on what kind! How do you grow them? Is this too much or do you forage and gather them outside? Share your journey below!