GROWING GOURMET - Anto2ni.it

48 MATERIALS FOR FORMULATING A FRUITING SUBSTRATE
these debris have a perfect opportunity for
growing a variety of gourmet and medicinal
mushrooms. If a mushroom of choice is not introduced,
a wild species from the natural
environment will invade. The probability that
one of these invading wild mushrooms would
be a gourmet species is remote.
I prefer sawdust and wood debris as primary
substrate components. Deciduous woods, especially
those which decompose quickly, are the
best. These fast-rotting woods, being less able
to resist disease, accelerate the mushroom life
cycle. Alder, cottonwood and poplar are favored
over the more resistant, denser woods such as
the oaks, maples, or ironwoods. Once thewood
sawdust is gathered, additional materials are
added to fortify the substrate. Three additional
factors affect the suitability of a mushroom
habitat: structural composition, pH and mois-
ture.
The selection of the substrate components is
more critical for growing gourmet mushrooms
indoors than for growing outdoors. Commercial
cultivators prefer the controlled conditions
of indoor cultivation whereas most home cultivators
are attracted to outdoor natural culture.
Outdoor mushroom beds can be more complex,
composed of crude mixtures of components,
whereas for indoor cultivation, the uniformity
and consistency of the substrate is essential.
Raw Materials
Most by-products from agriculture and forestry
industries can makeup a base medium for mushroom
culture. This base medium is commonly
referred to as the"fniiting substrate".This primary
material is often supplemented with a carbohydrate-
and protein-rich additive to enhance yields.
Here is a short list of the materials that can be recycled
into mushroom production.
Wood wastes, paper products
Cereal straws & grain hulls
Corncobs
Coffee plants & waste
Tea leaves
Sugar cane bagasse
Banana fronds
Seed hulls (cottonseed and oil-rich
seeds)
Hulls of almonds, walnuts, sunflower,
pecans, and peanuts
Soybean meal, roughage (Okara) &
soy waste
Artichoke waste
Cactus waste: saguaro & prickly pear;
yucca, agave*
Suitable Wood Types:
Candidate Tree Species
A vast variety of woods can be used for growing
gourmet and medicinal mushrooms.
Generally speaking, the hardwoods are more
useful than the softwoods. Several wood types
may not perform by themselves, but when combined
with more suitable woods—and boosted
with a nutritional supplement—will give rise to
commercially viable crops. Recommended
hardwoods are alders, birches, hornbeans,
chestnuts, chinkapins, beeches, ashes, larches,
sweetgums, tanoaks, cottonwoods, willows,
ironwoods, walnuts, elms, and similar woods.
Suggested softwoods are Douglas firs and hemlocks.
Most other pines (ponderosa, lodgepole),
cedars, and redwood are not easily degraded by
mushroom mycelium. Aromatic hardwoods,
such as eucalyptus, are not recommended until
we better understand why some people
become ill from eating otherwise edible mush-
* An Oyster mushroom, P/euro tus opuntiae. is native to
prickly pear, agave and yucca.Although I have not cultivated
Oyster mushrooms on these cacti, they should
serve well as a substrate base.
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