How To Grow Mushrooms, Then Stores The Stems To Regrow Them Again?

Question

I am a doomsday prepper, I want to know how to grow mushrooms but more than that. I am very interested on how to store the stems after harvesting so that I can grow more mushrooms and set up a sustainable source of edible mushrooms. There is not much information in terms of properly storing the plantable stems.

Answer 1

This happens to be my area of expertise!

Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time and even more money invested to grow mushrooms to a capacity that would feed anyone. Nature does it best, here.

That doesn't mean that it can't be done.

Typically, one would store mushroom culture clones, rather than stipe butts. This will ensure a clean culture that will not die to bacterial infection. To store them requires knowledge of agar, or liquid culture, as well as equipment, such as an autoclave, to sterilize everything that you will be working with.

In the case that you don't have access to a full laboratory, as I have, you can utilize those stem butts, immediately, after cutting them.

Straw, or soaked cardboard will be your method, here. Make multiple batches, since most will get very heavily contaminated without sterility. Straw or cardboard should be soaked in water that stays between 150 degreees to 170 degrees. This should be soaked for about 2 to 3 hours. Once the desired temperature is met throughout your substrate, you can begin to cool it.

Once cool, you can strain to field capacity. This means that when you squeeze the substrate, only a few drops of water should come out. More wet than that, and the project will fail. More dry than that, and the project will stall out.

Pull your stem butts in half, and place them throughout the substrate. Keep the substrate moist. Once the substrate is colonized, you can begin to move it around where you want it. This is how you keep a culture around in storage without equipment. Continually move it to fresh substrate to keep it going.

This doesn't begin to touch the information that you need to be successful with this endeavor. I couldn't, possibly, give you enough information, here, to accomplish what you need. Practice, and proper equipment will be the best way to become proficient, but there are many sources of information on growing gourmet mushrooms on mushrooms forums.

In the meantime, this article can help you to get started:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/mushrooms/propagating-mushroom-ends.htm