Want to know how to grow your own blue oyster mushrooms in the comfort of your home? With hardly any effort? In this article, I’ll let you know how to grow a beautiful hunk of blue oyster mushrooms from a blue oyster mushroom grow kit. I’ll also give you tips on how to manifest a second harvest (or flush as we mushroom lovers like to say!). I used the blue oyster mushroom spray and grow kit from North Spore, but any oyster mushroom spray and grow kit will do.
Activate Your Blue Oyster Mushroom Grow Kit
After removing the perforated cardboard rectangle, cut an ‘X’ into the exposed plasted. No worries if you scrape the spawn inside a little. Then take your little handy mister included and spray your blue oyster mushroom kit at least twice a day. If you mist more than twice a day, simply remove the fruiting block from the cardboard box to prevent a soggy cardboard bottom. No one really wants that, right??
Then in one to two weeks, you should start to see baby mushrooms form called “pins.” They’re pretty cute if you ask me!
One thing worth noting is that blue oyster mushrooms only fruit within a specific temperature range. I made the mistake of trying to grow blue oyster mushrooms with this grow kit in summer temperatures, 75 degrees and higher. Let me tell you, nothing will happen! Not a single mushroom will even think about growing for you in those conditions. One month after activating my block, I brought it down to the basement. Then, voila, it couldn’t wait to start pinning! Keep that temperature window in mind if you’re using a blue oyster grow kit in the summer. Otherwise, choose from some friendlier summer oyster varieties, like pink or golden oyster mushrooms.
Once you start to see pins, your blue oyster mushrooms should be ready to harvest in two to five days. Until then, keep spraying and watch the magic happen! To extend the shelf-life of your mushrooms, it is best to harvest them when the cap margins are still somewhat rounded. I could have harvested my flush when they looked like the bottom left photo (see below). I chose to wait until the next day (bottom right photo).
What Kind of Yields to Expect for your Kit
For my first flush of blue oyster mushrooms, I grew 15.25 ounces fresh weight. Keep in mind, it is still possible to obtain a second and even maybe a third flush from your fruiting block.
I was able to yield a second flush of oyster mushrooms with my fruiting block, and I will explain how! First, I’ll let you know that I initially cut off the stub from the first flush. I put the block outside in the shade, still leaving it in the plastic. My block started to first again, but then maggots started to invade it. Oh no! Freak out; throw the whole thing away! No, no, just kidding! Don’t actually do that.
I remedied this disaster by removing the whole block from the plastic. Then I soaked the block in a big bowl of cold water, and all the maggots sloughed off the block. Phew!! Finally, I dug a hole in a shady spot and plopped my block in there, being sure to completely bury it. Maybe there was a half inch or so of soil covering it. After burying the block, I watered the soil.
How to Obtain a Second Flush!
Then I kind of left it and forgot about it. Roughly three months later, I discovered a sweet little patch of blue oyster mushrooms poking out of the soil! This second yield produced 4.25 ounces. This happened in late October. I’ll have to check back and see if it wants to fruit anymore in the future. Note that if you bury your block in sandy soil, your mushrooms will likely be a little sandy. Just soak them and rinse them, and they’re ready to cook.
Are you starting to feel a little more ambitious, now that you are wildly successful with your oyster mushroom grow kit? You can read this article on how to grow oyster mushrooms in outdoor straw beds!