Description

What if we told you that it is possible to develop your own mushroom farm by using rubber wood sawdust?

EcoLogic has mastered it, using wastes from the region’s rubber tree furniture industry. This sawdust is then incorporated into recycled plastic water bottles (mixed with other supplements) by a small local company. It is then placed in a dark room until growth of mushrooms.

The sawdust préparation technique follows a few steps:

1. Keep the sawdust outside for 1-2 months. This fermentation process is used to eliminate toxic gas that could potentially damage or kill the mycelia.

2. Humidify the sawdust with clean water, add the supplements, and transfer the mixture to a cement floor for the night: for 100kg of sawdust, add 5Kg of fine rice bran, 2.3Kg of sugar, 0.2-0.5Kg magnesium sulfate, and 65L of water.

3. Once the mixture is ready, it must be compacted into heat-resistant plastic bags. It is then necessary to sterilize the bags before inserting several grain spawns.

4. We then compact the bags into the recycled plastic water bottles, and close it with a cotton plug and newspaper.

5. Place the bottles on shelves in a dark room. Incubated during 2 to 4 months. You must then wait 48-51 days before the bags are completely colonized (they will turn to a brownish colour). Finally, wait 114-118 days before mushrooms appear to the surface.

A tedious yet efficient preparation! The bags last 2-3 months once they start growing mushrooms. We have ourselves tasted the mushrooms in all forms, and we can guarantee that they were delicious.

For more details on how to prepare the sawdust, we recommend reading the following PDF: https://www.scribd.com/doc/97260356/Mushroom-Growers-Handbook-2-Shiitake-Cultivation (Chapter 4, p.110-116).