Mushroom post 2 - detailed instructions

As I wrote in the first installment of the mushroom post, a few weeks ago I purchased an indoor mushroom kit (king oysters). I intend to propagate this kit, so that I can enjoy these mushrooms as long as I possibly can forever.

Reading up, I came across several approaches to mushroom propagation. I'm not 100% sure which will work best for me, so these are the experiments I will set up:

1. Stem butt propagation - to make new mycelium from a single mushroom, follow this video or the     step-by-step instructions in this webpage. Should work well for oysters, king oysters, and morels.     While in the video the mushroom is peeled and the stem is sliced, most websites (and the Russian       folklore) tell you to use the very bottom of the stem as-is, rather than peeling it. If this works, the       next step is just as described for the mycelium propagation approach below - new substrate,   

  humidity.           

  This step requires only corrugated cardboard and an air-tight container.

Morel anatomy. From http://www.waldeneffect.org/

2. Propagation of the mycelium - as opposed to the previous approach, where the actual fruiting body     of the mushroom is used, this approach uses the mycelium itself. This is the      

    stuff growing inside of the mushroom kit. Once the first flush of mushrooms passes, I will take out     some of the mycelium from the mushroom kit, and will inoculate a new container filled with     

    pasteurized substrate (see #3 for substrate choices). The general approach seems to be 500 g    

    spawn for every 2.5 kg of moist substrate (based on here). I will be using the bucket approach.   

    Here is another bucket tutorial, on coffee substrate. Don't have buckets? Use any other container 

    with existing holes (like a laundry basket) or pre-drilled holes, and place it in an intact tote, or even     a large plastic bag. Beautiful pictures with step-by-step instructions here, just click on the "+" 

    sign of each step. And yet another tutorial, covering growing mushrooms on straw, with step-by-       step instructions, using only plastic bags.

3. Substrate choices - from what I have read, oysters (and king oysters) will be happy on coffee    

    grounds and straw; shiitake (unless specifically the straw strain) will want a mix of hardwood    

    sawdust and straw, and cinnamon caps will require sawdust. 

Since I have available wood shavings, and should also be able to find straw, I'm planning on setting up four growing experiments: 1) stem propagation on corrugated cardboard, 2) mycelium propagation on coffee grounds, 3) mycelium propagation on straw, and 4) mycelium propagation on a mix of wood shavings and straw. In the next few weeks, I should be able to start all of these. I will be taking pictures to record progress on all four, we'll see how it goes!

A beautiful, and completely unrelated king bolete. But look how gorgeous it is! From photonaturalist.files.wordpress.com.