A mushroom substrate is simply any substance on which mycelium will grow.

Mycelium, a thread-like collection of cells that is the vegetative growth of a fungus, is to a mushroom like an apple tree is to an apple. You need to have one as the base for producing the other. Spawn is just a smaller amount of a nutritious material upon which the mycelium can begin to grow before it's ready to colonize a substrate A substrate is inoculated with mycelium through the use of mushroom spawn.

Successful mushroom farmers select the most profitable varieties of mushrooms for cultivation, ensure proper conditions for optimal growth and find strong distribution channels that ensure product freshness for customers. From shiitake mushrooms to truffles, consumers and chefs want fresh mushrooms to enhance the flavor of their cooking and for the nutritional and health benefits mushrooms contain

POINTS TO BE NOTED for The milky mushroom (Calocybe indica): Decide what mushroom species you want to grow. Consider your environment, local and national demand, current prices and current suppliers.
Milky mushroom is most suited to areas having higher temperature range 25-35C and relative humidity more than 80%. Characteristic features * Crop comes to harvest from 24-28 days after spawning and the total crop cycle is only 45-50 days. Most importantly, the milky mushroom has an extended shelf life of 3-5 days compared to other cultivated species * Can be cultivated on many agricultural wastes like straw (paddy, ragi, wheat) areca husk, sugarcane thrash etc. * Contain highest protein (17.2%) and has 12 essential amino acids,

Prepare a space where you can grow your mushrooms. As opposed to other types of farming, mushroom farming requires a dark, moist environment with lots of organic waste material. Consider adding mulch to a well-shaded area and adding hardwood logs to create a suitable location for cultivation. Bag filling and spawning area should be

aseptic and if possible. Hepa filter should be used Cleanliness Maintaining a high level of cleanliness seems obvious, but is what can hold some growers back. Make sure your growing area is clean and safe from any contaminates. Wipe down and disinfect any surfaces that might come into contact with your substrate, spawn or other items. Spray the air with a 10% bleach solution. Take care of any drafts that might be present. Use caulk or weather-stripping to stop those threats. And don't forget to wash your hands thoroughly. A high level of cleanliness will lead to quality mushrooms, which will in turn lead to quality profits.

One of the keys to having a successful mushroom-growing business is cleanliness. There are many things that could potentially contaminate your mushrooms, but if you take special care, your mushrooms can grow up healthy and tasty. So what do you need to do? First, pasteurizing your straw growing medium will remove possible threats of contamination. When you're ready to spread out your straw to cool down, take special care to wipe down and disinfect the surface using a 10% bleach solution. And finally, remember to always wash your hands thoroughly before handling any items, such as your spawn or substrate.
Inoculate hardwood logs with mushroom spawns. Keep the moisture level high in the logs by misting or spraying the logs routinely until you see the log filled with the small mushroom buds. Consider stimulating the mushroom buds by soaking the hardwood logs in water tanks.

* Take fresh paddy straw, chop it into small pieces of 2-3 inches and rinse it in clean water for about 8-10 hrs * Drain out water completely and boil the pieces of straw in a wide mouth container for about 30 minutes to kill harmful microbes. Then, drain out boiling water completely and remove the excess water if any by spreading it on a clean wire mesh in a dean room. * Take polythene bag of 12 x V$ or 14 x 24 size and make few holes at the bottom. Fill up the prepared paddy straw to a height of about 4 inside the polythene bag and press it slightly. * Half handful of milky spawn seeds are spread uniformly all along the periphery of the bag. Repeat this procedure of filling the bag for 4-5 times with paddy straw and seeds. At this stage, one can see the spawn seeds on the periphery of the bag. Straw filling should not be too tight or too loose. * One bottle of spawn seeds is sufficient to raise 2 polythene bags containing paddy straw of 2.5 kg. each. * Once spawning and bag filling is over, the bag is tied and labelled with date. Then the bags are shifted to spawn running room (semi dark clean room) where temperature is maintained at 32-38oC. The bags are kept under this condition for 18-20 days. During this time, the spawn seeds will start growing inside the polythene bag.Monitor the growth of your mushrooms. If you experience many days without rain, mist the area with water to maintain a higher humidity level.

Casing material should be alkaline and must be pasteurized, either with for maldehyde of steam. Cropping room should be providing with cross ventilators and sprinklers to maintain the required R.H. Ventilators should be provided with nylon net and iron mesh to protect against insects and room should be rat proof.

Harvest your mushrooms individually when they reach peak size and development. Know how the species of mushrooms you are growing are graded for maximum profits. For example, shiitake mushrooms reach their highest grade when they have a small curl on the edge of the cap. If spore shedding is high, it may create allergy to certain

people, hence one should harvest at the right time and use exhaust. Workers should also use masks.
Package your mushrooms with care. Mushrooms are delicate and can easily be damaged, so pack them carefully in containers that will minimize damage.

Free samples are a great way to drum up interest for your mushrooms. This is especially a good idea when you're selling to grocery stores and restaurants. They'll probably want to sample your mushrooms, so come prepared. Handing out a sample to a chef or produce buyer will increase your chance of making a sale. Putting on demonstrations is similar to handing out free samples. If you're able to sell your mushrooms at a grocery store, ask if you can put on demonstrations. This will help increase demand for your product. Using an electric skillet, saut your fresh mushrooms in butter, and hand out samples to passing customers. Friday is a high-traffic day, so consider doing it on that day. Have fun with it! Pass out recipes and other information about your mushrooms. Better yet, make one of these recipes and show your customers just what your mushrooms can do for them. Freeze or dry unused mushrooms Your mushrooms will be at their best when they're fresh. That's when you should sell them. If you're not able to sell your fresh mushrooms right away, freeze or dry them. Either method allows you to sell them at a later date, such as a few days or months in the future. Again, your goal should be to sell your fresh mushrooms as soon as possible, but use freezing or drying if you can't do that. Fresh mushrooms will sell the best. If you're unable to sell your entire supply soon, you can freeze or dry them to sell at a later date

The production technology of milky mushroom is outlined here: Substrates Milky mushroom can be cultivated on a wide range of substrates containing

lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses. Substrate should be fresh and dry. Substrates exposed to rain or harvested premature (green colour) are prone to various weed moulds which may result in failure of the crop. It can be grown on straw of paddy, wheat, ragi, maize/bajra/cotton stalks and leaves, sugarcane bagasse, cotton and jute wastes, dehulled maize cobs, tea/coffee waste etc.,sorghum stalks, pearl millet stalks, palmarosa
grass, vetiver grass, sugarcane baggase, soyabean hay, groundnut haulms etc. However, for commercial production paddy straw is the best substrate.

Straw is chopped in small pieces (2-4cm size) and soaked in fresh water for 8-16 hours. This period can be reduced when pasteurization is to be done by steam. Main purpose of soaking is to saturate the substrate with water. It is easier to soak if straw is filled in gunny bag and dipped in water. The purpose of pasteurization is to kill harmful microbes. This can be achieved in two ways. Water is boiled in wide mouth container and chopped wet straw filled in gunny bag is submersed in hot water for 40 minutes at 80-900C to achieve pasteurization. This is very popular method particularly with small growers. Wet straw is filled inside insulated room either in perforated shelves or in wooden trays. Steam is

released under pressure from a boiler and temperature in side substrate is raised to 650C and maintained for 5-6 hours. Air inside the room should be circulated to have uniform temperature in the substrate. Substrate is filled in polypropylene bags (35x45cm, holding 2-3 kg wet substrate) and sterilized at 15 lb psi for 1 hour. Once pasteurization/sterilization is over straw is shifted to spawning room for cooling, bag filling and spawning.
Casing means covering the top surface of bags after spawn run is over with pasteurized casing material in thickness of about 2-3cm. Casing provides physical support, moisture and allows gases to escape from the substrate. Casing material (soil 75% + sand 25%) with pH adjusted to 7.8-7.9 with chalk powder is pasteurized in autoclave at 151b psi for one hour or chemically treated with formaldehyde soln (4%) about a week in advance of casing. Solution should be enough to saturate the soil. It is covered with polythene sheet to avoid escape of chemical and at a interval of 2 days soil is turned so that at the time of casing soil is free from formalin fumes. Bags top is made uniform by ruffling top surface of the substrate and sprayed with solution of carbendazim (0.1%) + formaldehyde (0.5%). Casing material is spread in uniform layer of 2-3 cm thickness and sprayed with solution of carbendazim and formaldehyde to saturation level. Temperature 30-350C and R.H. 80-90% are maintained. It takes about 10 days for mycelium to reach on top of casing layer when fresh air is introduced while maintaining temperature and R.H. as above. Light should be provided in long time. The changes thus made in environment, result in the initiation of fruiting bodies with in 3-5 days in the form of needle shape which mature in about a week. Mushrooms 7-8cm diam. are harvested by twisting, cleaned and packed in perforated polythene/polypropylene bags for marketing. Mushrooms can also be wrapped in klin film for longer storage.
Pasteurisation/sterilization Polythene bags of 60x30 cm or 75x45 cm size are used for bed preparation. Chaffed paddy straw bits of 3-5 cm length are soaked in cold water for 4-5 hours. After draining the excess water, the straw bits are boiled for 45-60 minutes in a separate drum. Though hot water treatment is the safe and best method of sterilization, steam treatment or chemical treatment with a solution containing carbendazim and formalin can also be followed. After treatment, the substrate is shade dried to remove excess moisture before bed preparation. At the time of bed preparation the substrate should contain around 60% moisture (can be tested by squeeze method). Spawn requirement and availability Milky mushroom is also propagated through spawn. Spawn produced with sorghum grain/paddy chaff as substrate is most commonly used. With each bottle of spawn 2 cylindrical beds can be prepared. Production of mushroom spawn Sorghum or wheat grains are used for spawn preparation. Half cooked grains, are mixed with calcium carbonate @ 20g per kg of grains(dry weight), thoroughly mixed and filled in polypropylene bags ( 15x30 cm size) provided with PVC rings as neck. The bags are tightly plugged with non-absorbent cotton and sterilized at 1.42-kg/cm2 pressure and 126C

temperature for 1.5-2.0 hours in an autoclave. When the bags are cool, they are aseptically inoculated with fresh cultures of oyster mushroom fungus. The work should be done in a culture room or in a laminar flow chamber. After inoculation the spawn bags are stored in a clean room for 15-20 days before use. These bags with white mycelial growth serve as mother culture. Each mother spawn bag can be used for inoculating 30 bed spawn bags that can be prepared following the above procedure. It is advisable to have a thorough training in the Kerala Agricultural University, before starting spawn production unit. Bed preparation Cylindrical beds are prepared following layer method of spawning. A layer of straw is laid and sprinkle one tablespoon full of spawn over the filled straw around the peripheral region. A second layer of processed straw is filled and spawned as above. Repeat the process until the soaked straw is finished. Every time before spawning, press the straw with hand for making it compact. Finally the bag is close tightly with twine and the beds are incubated for spawn running under semi-dark condition in a clean room. Spawn run will be completed in 12-15 days at 30-35C. Casing Unlike oyster mushroom cultivation, milky mushroom production involves an additional process called casing. After the completion of spawn run, the cylindrical beds are cut horizontally into two equal halves. Apply casing soil on to both halves to a height of 1-2 cm. The casing soil is prepared by steaming garden soil (clay loam, pH around 8.0) for one hour. Cropping After casing, the beds are to be incubated over racks in a partially sunken chamber lined with blue coloured high-density polythene sheet as roofing material. Optimum relative humidity of 8095%, room temperature of 24-28C and light intensity of about 1600 3200 lux should be maintained in the cropping room. Proper ventilation for gaseous exchange is also essential in this chamber. The beds are regularly sprayed with water to maintain 50-60% moisture level on the casing surface. Pinheads appear in 8-10 days after casing and the first harvest can be made in 68 days after pinhead formation. After obtaining the first harvest the casing medium is ge Source(s): http://freshinspirations.wordpress.com/

Things (not) to do in your growroom: Be clean and healthy! This is very important. Be clean when you work with your spawn and whenever you enter your grow rooms. An entire crop in your grow room can be wiped out by a single fly! You are risking your mushroom crop when you walk into your grow room with a cold! Make sure you have cleaned the soles of your shoes when entering your grow room! Never use any chemicals in your room while you have mushrooms growing there! You will loose your mushroom crop! Never allow any visitors in your grow rooms without making sure that they are clean! (You can even go and take a shower with them just to make sure! - I have done this but that's a story for another day and another blog...)

Make sure the temp. inside your room is constant. Make sure you keep a high level of humidity in your room. Make sure you are wearing a mask when spawning your growing substrate.

Mushroom Spawn Making - How to Make Your Own Mushroom Spawn

One of the best things about growing mushrooms is that when you have started to grow them you can continue to grow them for years and years without the need to purchase any more mushroom spawn. It is very simple to create your own spawn and be able to store this in a fridge ready to use for several weeks. Mushroom spawn is simply some kind of food which has mycelium growing through it. The food is usually some kind of bird seed such as corn or rye grain, and this is used because the mycelium loves to grow through it and because of the shape and small size of the grain it provides many innoculation points (it has a large surface area which means you have more chance of the mycelium "leaping off" and growing through your substrate). Creating your own mushroom spawn can be a very easy process when you know exactly how its done and when you are aware of the possible problems caused by contaminations (which is why it is very important to have good sterile procedures). To make your own spawn you firstly need your own mushroom spores. Take a mushroom and leave it on a piece of foil to leave a spore print. Next you add a little distilled water to this print (a few millilitres) and mix this solution using something called an innoculation loop (small piece of wire with a metal curve in one end). This will mix the spores with the water. Next you need to use a syringe and suck up this solution. As mentioned before its important that the syringe is clean and any other equipment too. You can store this spore syringe in a cool place such as a refrigerator until ready to use. Next you will need to get a large jar and fill it up with the chosen grain (such as Rye grain). Place a piece of tyvek over the cover and seal with a metal lid. It helps if you drill 4 small holes in the lid (near the corners) which are used as innoculation points later. When you are ready take the spore syringe and inject a few millilitres of your solution into the 4 holes in the lid of the jar. Usually one syringe can innoculate around 5 jars. When complete, place the jars in a warm place and after about 4 weeks your contents will have colonised and mushrooms will start to form! Or you could simply use this colonised jar of grain and use it as spawn - the choice is yours. You could even

multiply the spawn and turn the 5 jars into as many as 25! This is simply done by getting more jars of grain and mixing in part of the colonised spawn jar with the others. One jar can turn into 10 if done properly! Discover how you can make your very own mushroom growing spawn simply by using a wild mushroom. Visit our Mushroom Growing website today and learn about how you can grow mushrooms at home.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2418197

www.nrcmushroom.org
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/011/i0522e/i0522e00.pdf http://www.shroomery.org/6219/General-Mushroom-FAQ http://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/mushroom-spawn-cardboard.html http://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/grow-mushrooms.html#types http://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/grow-mushrooms-failure.html http://mushroomspawn.cas.psu.edu/SpawnGrowth.shtml?from=FactSheets http://www.alohamedicinals.com/book1/chapter-4-1.pdf http://www.alohaecowas.com/clean-room.html http://www.pakissan.com/english/advisory/the.most.easy.and.economical.mushroom.sht ml http://www.psupress.org/Justataste/samplechapters/justatasteRussell.html http://www.isms.biz/MHGIBulletins/MHGIBulletinFeb_09Final.pdf

In the last few decades, the number of traditional farms in the United States and Canada has dropped by half or more, but a new type of farm is growing faster than a prairie weed. These new farms are much smaller than traditional farms. Instead of hundreds of acres, they may be only an acre or two - even as small as a quarter acre for some specialty crops. Many of these new "microfarms" are springing up in and around the fringes of larger cities and towns, where customers for the specialty crops are close by. Many of the

new growers choose to grow plants not just for profit, but also for the satisfaction of tending a crop and the quality of life it provides. Many are part-timers, like the lawyer who grows gourmet garlic in his spare time to destress in addition to making a profit, or the retired school teacher who earns most of her retirement income from a half-acre of potted exotic bamboos, or the stay-at-home mom who cares for her three kids while growing mushrooms for market in a backyard shed. This trend is growing so big, so fast, the agricultural experts at the U. S. Department of Agriculture have given it a name, "exurban microfarming." One reason this trend is growing so fast is the zoning regulations around large towns and cities, where land division is restricted. This has left a large number of smaller 2 to 5 acre parcels. Owners of these parcels soon discover that they can either mow a lot of grass or put the land to more productive uses. Grow More - With Less It is simply amazing how productive a small piece of acreage can be. A recent university extension service study found 760 families in one county alone making a good living with specialty crops on plots averaging 3 acres. As one retiree remarked, while tending her garlic patch, "My only regret is not doing this sooner. My grandkids love helping me and learning about gardening. The country seems to be falling apart, so this is one way to keep families together." While there are hundreds of very profitable plants - including quite a few illegal ones there are only a few that qualify for the top choices. Here's what to look for:

Is it growing in popularity every year? Is there enough demand to support profitable prices? Is it reasonably easy to grow? Is it a beneficial plant for consumers? Is it a "high-value" crop - one that allows a grower to earn a solid income from an acre or less?

Four specialty crops that qualify on all counts are bamboo, garlic, ginseng and oyster mushrooms. Let's take a closer look at each of these money makers: Bamboo For thousands of years, bamboo has been an everyday part of Asian life, providing food, shelter and raw material for everything from garden fences to flutes. Several varieties of bamboo are grown just for their edible shoots, producing an edible harvest of up to ten tons per acre. In North America, bamboo is being rediscovered as a landscaping plant and most growers can't keep up with the demand. Bamboo is not just a tropical plant either - many varieties

are grown in Japan and China, where the climate can be just as harsh as our northern states and provinces. Landscapers are also using more and more bamboo instead of traditional shrubs. Why? According to one grower, "You can use bamboo as a hedge, a screen, as a specimen plant or as a shade plant. Bamboo keeps it's green color through the winter, and it's easy to grow. Plus, you can get a big plant quickly, unlike trees that take years to mature.". Potted bamboo plants can bring as much as $150 each retail, and value-added bamboo products, such as fencing and garden art. Garlic Garlic is a member of the same plant family as onions, shallots, leeks and chives. For thousands of years, garlic has been used for cooking and medicinal purposes. Recent scientific research has proven many of the historical claims for garlic's healing powers. It's chemical ingredients can fight bacteria, lower cholesterol levels and act as an organic insecticide. According to a vegetable crops professor at Cornell University, "There's a booming market out there for fresh local garlic. Those growing it can sell every clove they produce. Elephant garlic, for example, retails for $8 a pound and produces up to 15,000 pounds per acre." Garlic is an ideal crop for the small grower, as it is almost foolproof to grow. Because it tolerates a wide variety of soils and weather, it's very hard to lose a crop. For decades, growers have nicknamed garlic "the mortgage lifter" for that very reason. Most small growers use "value-added" methods to get a higher price for their garlic, such as garlic braids, fresh garlic greens and garlic powder. One Pennsylvania grower has found even more ways to add value to his garlic. In addition to garlic braids and bulbs, he sells "garlic gardens" sized to grow on a windowsill. He also discovered that the Chinese have long harvested the garlic greens for fresh seasoning, much like chives, so he now sells greens and a recipe for garlic greens pesto sauce for $15 a pound in season! Ginseng Once called "Green Gold", ginseng is an ordinary looking plant that grows on the shaded forest floor. It's value lies in it's slow growing root. The Chinese have valued the ginseng root for thousands of years as the most potent of herbs and as a regenerative tonic. Since it was discovered in the U.S. almost 300 years ago, most ginseng has been exported to Asia. According to experts at North Carolina's Horticultural Crops Research Station, "American ginseng has great potential as a small-scale cash crop. But growing ginseng is not a get-rich-quick scheme. By it's nature, ginseng requires patience."

Although it takes 6 years before the slow growing ginseng roots are ready to harvest for market, most growers sell seed and two-year rootlets to earn an income from their ginseng crop in the years before the harvest. At current ginseng prices, a half-acre ginseng patch could produce $100,000 worth of seeds, rootlets and mature roots over that 6-year period, or over $16,000 per year. As any ginseng grower will tell you, that beats growing most any other crop by a country mile!

Oyster Mushrooms Bob Hanson and his wife Kathy started growing gourmet mushrooms a few years ago, and now grow shiitake, portobello and oyster mushrooms. They sell their entire crop at the Farmer's Market, where regular customers line up to buy the freshly harvested mushrooms every week. Hanson, who believes in sustainable agriculture, grows all his mushrooms in his barn, where "high technology" consists of a fan and a 40-watt light bulb. He keeps the operation small scale, with he and his wife supplying all the labor. Hanson is fond of his oyster mushrooms, because as he says, "They are so easy to grow." He just mixes spawn with straw and puts the straw in plastic bags with slits. A few weeks later, he has mushrooms. Says Hanson, "There are a lot of different niches that people can go into. As long as you can grow a good product, you can market it." In most areas, it's hard to find gourmet mushrooms, such as oyster and shiitake. Both have a short shelf life, and do not stand up well to long distance shipping - a barrier to large mushroom companies. That's why small local growers will always have the "freshness advantage" with local consumers who want a high quality product. What do consumers like about gourmet mushrooms? With the trend to healthier foods, mushrooms fit the bill nicely. Gourmet mushrooms are fat-free, cholesterol free, pesticide free and have many medicinal benefits. Consumers are also concerned about their food safety, and gourmet mushrooms can be grown without harmful chemicals. Oyster mushrooms also produce heavy yields - the average is one pound of mushrooms for each pound of straw used to grow them. Most growers average six "crop cycles" per year. This allows growers to produce lots of mushrooms in a small space. A 200 square foot growing area, for example, can produce 5,000 to 6,000 pounds of mushrooms each year. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6327794

. For the mushrooms you're ready to sell now, read Golden Harvest, available at: http://extraincomebulletin.com