If you received your mushroom spawn from us, but cannot start growing right away, please keep the spawn refrigerated (do not freeze). The spawn can be kept in a refrigerator for up to two months or even longer.

Instructions for growing mushrooms on Sawdust (works for oyster mushrooms, shiitake, lion’s mane, chestnut mushrooms, turkey tail, reishi, maitake, enoki, and pioppini).

You will need hardwood sawdust pellets, wheat bran, and water.

The Fruiting Block Recipe:

For every 4.5 lb fruiting block:

5 cups of hardwood pellets
1.4 liters water
1-1/4 cups wheat bran

Add Mixture to Grow Bags

Weigh out the proper amount of sawdust/bran mixture and add it to a mushroom grow bag. The bags are specially made for growing mushrooms. They are made of poly propelyne which can withstand the sterilization process. The Filter patch allows the mushrooms to breath while they are colonizing the substrate. You can find grow bags for sale at our store.

Fold the Bags Down

The tops of the grow bags are gusseted and should be folded down in a Z-form, with a tyvek filter fitted in between the walls of the bag.

Pressure Sterilize

Load your pressure sterilizer with the bags stacked on top of each other. Make sure to use jar lids or something that will keep your grow bags from making direct contact with the bottom of the sterilizer, as this could cause the bags to burn. Pressure sterilize your bags for 2.5 hours at 15 psi (time starts once the pressure reaches 15 psi) .

Cool Down and Inoculation

Allow your fruiting blocks to cool down for at least 8 hours. Anything over 100 degrees can potentially kill your mycelium. Fruiting blocks are best inoculated in front of a laminar flow hood. You can do it in a glove box or similar, but you will increase your chances of contamination. Another choice would be to spray Lysol or similar solution in order to decrease any spores that may be in the air around your work-station, or simply do your inoculation outdoors (a little breeze helps a lot).

Once you have added grain spawn to your sawdust block, tie off the top of the bag with a piece of wire or zip tie and set on a shelf. Shake the bag to evenly distribute the individual grains throughout the bag. This will speed colonization of the block.

Allow to colonize

Depending on the amount of spawn and type of mushroom you are trying to grow, it might take anywhere from 10-21 days for the mycelium to take over the block. There is no benefit to shaking the bag during colonization, just allow the grain spawn to take over the block naturally. Periodically look over the bag to check for any signs of contamination. Usually, it is not worth opening contaminated bags in your grow room/area, so it is better to just throw them out if the bags look contaminated.

Fruit!

Once the bags have fully colonized consolidated, they are ready to fruit. Different mushrooms have different requirements from this stage, but for most gourmet mushrooms, just cut off the top of the bag and place inside your growing environment. From here, the block should start to pin from the top of the block, and eventually form mushrooms. Closely monitor humidity and temperature to see what your block needs.

You can read specific instructions on how to fruit mushroom blocks in specific instructions for that on our website.