Growing King Oyster mushroom can be an excellent option for beginners and moderately skilled growers. It’s a type of mushroom that you can grow at home and enjoy. Oyster Mushrooms come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. The King Oyster has a robust appearance and a wide range of uses.
Scientific Name: Pleurotus Eryngii
Required Supplies for Growing King Oysters
King Oyster Spore Syringe (Amazon) – Mushroom Grow Bags (Amazon)
(For a guide on using mushroom grow bags, visit our page here)
How to grow king oyster mushrooms
In Growing King Oyster mushrooms, they don’t produce a shelf-like growth formation but instead, produce a mushroom with a round cap and a defined stem.
The cap usually unrolls as it grows, becoming flat. If grown indoors with minimal fresh air and low light levels, the mushroom will grow a large, tall stem and a small cap. Lots of fresh air and light will produce a mushroom with a small stem and a large dark cap.
It may be tricky at first, but you will find the process of learning to grow king oyster mushrooms a very process, especially considering that it is an edible mushroom. The better you can complete your growing process and yield, the better the outcome of the food. The entire fruiting body of the king oyster mushroom is edible!
Growing King Oysters can yield some mushrooms over 1lb!
Details on how to grow king oyster mushrooms
Natural Habitat: King Oysters grow from the roots of trees, emerging from underneath the soil. They are found in Europe, North Africa, Central Asia, and Western Europe.
Agar: King Oyster mycelium grows well on Malt Yeast Agar. Growth can be slower than some other Oyster species. Mycelium appears dense and fluffy.
Substrate Types: King oyster grows best on supplemented hardwood sawdust in grow bags. Supplement the hardwood dust with wheat bran at 10-15%. King Oysters will also grow on straw but will reduce the yield.
Yield: In most cases, 1 lb can be grown from a 5 lb supplemented sawdust block on the first flush. Multiple flushes can be achieved. Some cultivators can get 2 lbs from a block on a single flush.
King Oyster Growing Process
Fruiting Containers: Large gusseted autoclavable grow bags with a filter patch will produce the best results. For straw, logs use poly tubing. It can also be grown with success outdoors in garden beds.
Casing Layer: Unlike other Oyster mushrooms, the casing layer to grow King Oyster mushrooms will benefit from a casing layer. To prevent casing contamination, use 50/50 peat moss and vermiculite with 1% hydrated lime.
Harvest: Harvesting King Oyster depends on preference. Smaller, younger mushrooms will generally have a better texture and flavor, achieving less yield. King Oysters are unique among oysters because the stem is highly desired for culinary uses. Allowing the stem to grow large may be desired for culinary purposes. Harvest by removing the mushrooms at the base of the stem, be careful not to damage the top of the block if subsequent flushes are desired.
Weakness: King Oysters are resilient against contamination but can be susceptible to Blotch. Blotch is a bacterial infection generally caused by humidity. It is represented by dark spots on the mushroom fruit body. You can reduce the chances of this by lowering the humidity and watching for stale water droplets on the mushroom. Increasing air exchange also reduces this risk.
Spawn Run:
Incubate the grain spawn at 20-22 deg C until complete colonization of the substrate. The Spawn Run can take 10-14 days before complete colonization
Initiate Pinning:
Change fruiting container to lower temperatures (15 deg) and higher humidity (95-100% RH). Increase fresh air exchange
Fruit Development:
Temperatures are in the range of 15-18 deg C. Lower humidity is best but maintained above 80%. Mushroom fruits will develop in 4-8 days.
Conclusion
Learning to grow King Oyster mushrooms can be very rewarding and fun. We recommend visiting websites like Wikipedia for the King Oyster mushroom, where you can dive more into some information on the mushroom type.
Growing them at home produces fresher and better edible mushrooms than imported ones!
They are fun to watch grow, growing large and relatively fast. They store for much longer in the fridge than typical oyster mushrooms, sometimes lasting longer than two weeks. You can have fun altering the growing conditions to produce vastly different-looking mushrooms.
Growing King Oyster mushroom is a perfect candidate for cultivators new and experienced!