Oyster Mushrooms

Scientific Name: Pleurotus species

Oyster mushrooms are delicate woodland fungi native to many temperate forests throughout the world. Familiar to North American mushroom hunters, they are also widely cultivated internationally on a variety of agricultural byproducts. A particularly elegant and colorful group, Oysters are also aggressive colonizers of many substrates, making them among the easiest edible fungi to cultivate.

Cultivation: Because Oyster mushrooms can grow on so many different substrates, choose the substrate first, then the method:

Toilet paper is a substrate that is easily obtainable and is already “processed,” so all you basically have to do is moisten the paper and add the spawn. Our Teepee Kits come with everything you need (except the teepee of course), and are perfect for a fun and interesting indoor project. Wood logs are probably more difficult to obtain than toilet paper, but healthy soft hardwoods felled and inoculated (such as Poplar species, soft maples, sweet gum and box elder) will yield lots of mushrooms for a very low cost. Use sawdust spawn with the drill-and-fill method or totem method of inoculating and grow them outdoors. Soaked straw conditions the substrate to invite Oyster mushroom growth in boxes and beds indoors or out; or you can take it a step further and pasteurize the straw (or cottonseed hulls, etc.). Mix our certified organic Oyster mushroom grain spawn with the straw then pack it tightly into our Oyster bags. Placed in a controlled environment, you’ll have a regular Oyster mushroom farm. They also grow well on sterilized sawdust (hard and soft hardwood mixes) but if you lack the equipment, the Oyster Table Top Farm is made with such a substrate and is ready to fruit upon receipt.