Make Money With a Marvelous Mushroom

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When natural light isn't available, fluorescent lamps will do. The ideal arrangement—to illuminate an 8' X 8' space—is one 40-watt, blue advertising tube. Two cool-white bulbs are the next best solution.

FOOD TO GROW ON

After you've duplicated the climate of the mushrooms' natural habitat, you'll have to give them something to grow on. Ralph uses rice straw, but he says that wheat straw works just as well. (For some unknown reason, barley straw doesn't promote oyster mushroom growth at all!) If you live in a rural area, such material (which farmers often burn) can probably be had for the asking.

City dwellers, on the other hand, will have to buy bales from a local distributor and mix the straw with up to 50% of its weight in scrap paper. Generally, because of a high concentration of clay fillers, magazine paper can't be recycled . . . but the material works fine as part of a mushroom substrate. As a matter of fact, scientists (including Dr. Kurtzman) have grown the oyster species on paper that contained high levels of lead and discovered that Pleurotus doesn't absorb the dangerous material! (Where there's little paper available, you can substitute sawdust—pound for pound—with the same results.)

You will, of course, need "trays" to enclose your growing medium. These should be no larger than 3' X 4', and are best constructed in two halves. Make one rectangular frame from 1" X 2" lumber, and another—of the same outer dimensions—from 1" X 4" material . . . then nail welded, galvanized fencing to the outside of each frame. (The mesh size is not critical, though Ralph finds a 2" X 2" wire net is the easiest to work with.) When clamped together with hinges and a latch and filled with straw, the units can be stacked vertically . . . which saves space and enables you to harvest mushrooms from each upright tray's screened sides.

FURTHER PREPARATIONS

Once you've built your trays and selected and blended your growing medium, you should "pasteurize" the straw with hot water. To simplify this chore, Kurtzman cut a 50-gallon drum in half to make two large wash tubs. The water in the tubs can be heated over a wood fire, but our expert saves some time and effort by using a commercial flame sprayer.

When the liquid reaches 180°F (you can check it with a meat thermometer), add enough substrate so that most of the water is absorbed by the mixture Let the ingredients bubble away in one tub for 15 minutes, then slosh them into the other tub with a pitchfork for another 15-minute scouring.

When you remove the soggy mass of growing medium from the second tub, there should be some runoff ... usually only a trickle from the bottom of each pitchforkful of straw. If too much water is left in the material, anaerobic fermentation may occur . . . and could wipe out any mushroom spawn you later introduce into the mixture.

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