A practical guide to growing mushrooms in IndiaA joint educational initiative by MushroomWale & DMR Solan ↗
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Oyster mushrooms

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Contents · choose a chapter or topic
Start here
  1. 01Oyster mushrooms
  2. 02What you need before starting
Understand the basics
  1. 03Three mushrooms, three different crop arrangements
  2. 04Preparation is not finished when heating stops
From crop to customer
  1. 05Harvest weight and saleable grade are different
When something goes wrong
  1. 06Describe the problem before naming a disease
The process
  1. 07Choose the starting product
  2. 08Protect material after treatment
  3. 09Observe colonisation before fruiting
  4. 10Harvest for the buyer
In the field
  1. 11Decide which part of production you will operate
  2. 12Choose your starting boundary
  3. 13Treat substrate preparation as a recorded batch
  4. 14Write it in your farm notebook
  5. 15Read colonisation and fruiting separately
  6. 16Compare a location problem with a batch problem
  7. 17Schedule bags around harvest and sales capacity
  8. 18Schedule bags around harvest and sales capacity · practical sequence
  9. 19Where the field guidance comes from
Species Selection
  1. 20Species Selection
  2. 21Dhingri is a family, not one mushroom
  3. 22Dhingri is a family, not one mushroom · continued
  4. 23Read the DMR temperature table
  5. 24Read the DMR temperature table · continued
  6. 25Season by region in India
  7. 26Colour, grade and the unit you build
  8. 27Read the numbers in context
  9. 28Read the numbers in context
  10. 29Read the numbers in context
  11. 30Match a species to your next three months
  12. 31Avoid these mistakes
  13. 32Check your understanding
  14. 33Check your understanding
  15. 34Check your understanding
  16. 35Words used in this lesson
  17. 36Sources and field reference
Substrate & Preparation
  1. 37Substrate & Preparation
  2. 38What the straw gives the mushroom
  3. 39Hot water: the small grower's method
  4. 40Hot water: the small grower's method · continued
  5. 41Steam, chemical and sterile methods
  6. 42Steam, chemical and sterile methods · continued
  7. 43Contamination controls that cost nothing
  8. 44Read the numbers in context
  9. 45Read the numbers in context
  10. 46Treat one batch of straw by hot water this week
  11. 47Avoid these mistakes
  12. 48Check your understanding
  13. 49Check your understanding
  14. 50Check your understanding
  15. 51Words used in this lesson
  16. 52Sources and field reference
Bag Preparation & Spawn Run
  1. 53Bag Preparation & Spawn Run
  2. 54Filling and spawning the bag
  3. 55Filling and spawning the bag · continued
  4. 56What a spawn run needs, and what it does not
  5. 57Reading the bag day by day
  6. 58Space, flies and hygiene
  7. 59Space, flies and hygiene · continued
  8. 60Read the numbers in context
  9. 61Read the numbers in context
  10. 62Read the numbers in context
  11. 63Keep a bag diary for one batch
  12. 64Avoid these mistakes
  13. 65Check your understanding
  14. 66Check your understanding
  15. 67Check your understanding
  16. 68Words used in this lesson
  17. 69Sources and field reference
Fruiting Environment
  1. 70Fruiting Environment
  2. 71Opening the bags
  3. 72Opening the bags · continued
  4. 73Temperature and humidity
  5. 74Temperature and humidity · continued
  6. 75Fresh air and CO2
  7. 76Fresh air and CO2 · continued
  8. 77Light
  9. 78Read the numbers in context
  10. 79Read the numbers in context
  11. 80Read the numbers in context
  12. 81Tune one room by watching the mushrooms
  13. 82Avoid these mistakes
  14. 83Check your understanding
  15. 84Check your understanding
  16. 85Check your understanding
  17. 86Words used in this lesson
  18. 87Sources and field reference
Harvest, Problems & Business
  1. 88Harvest, Problems & Business
  2. 89Harvest and flushes
  3. 90Harvest and flushes · continued
  4. 91Packing and shelf life
  5. 92Packing and shelf life · continued
  6. 93Problems you will meet
  7. 94Business: what DMR's numbers are and are not
  8. 95Read the numbers in context
  9. 96Read the numbers in context
  10. 97Read the numbers in context
  11. 98Run one batch as a business test
  12. 99Avoid these mistakes
  13. 100Check your understanding
  14. 101Check your understanding
  15. 102Check your understanding
  16. 103Words used in this lesson
  17. 104Sources and field reference
Practise and review
  1. 105Mistakes to avoid
  2. 106Read three bags without guessing
Sources and next steps
  1. 107Keep learning with the field guides

Species Selection

Field notes

Dhingri is a family, not one mushroom

Different cultivated Oyster forms

A full white oyster mushroom cluster fruiting from a polythene substrate bag on a rack, Bicol, Philippines.
White Oyster cluster
Photo credit & full view

White oyster mushroom cluster fruiting from a bag on a rack (Philippines). Context photograph, not a prescribed layout, diagnostic result or performance standard.

MarvinBikolano · CC BY-SA 4.0

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A large pink oyster mushroom (Pleurotus djamor) cluster and young pins fruiting through the side of a straw-filled polythene bag on a rack, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
Pink Oyster cluster
Photo credit & full view

Pink oyster mushroom cluster fruiting from a polythene bag. Context photograph, not a prescribed layout, diagnostic result or performance standard.

Shreevaishnavi96 · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Oyster mushroom, dhingri in Hindi, is the common name for a group of fungi in the genus Pleurotus. Each species has its own fruiting temperature, the air temperature at which mushroom bodies form on the bag.

ICAR-DMR sorts them into two groups. Winter or low temperature species fruit at 10-20 C: Pleurotus ostreatus, P. florida, P. eryngii, P. fossulatus and P. cornucopiae. Summer or moderate temperature species fruit at 16-30 C: P. flabellatus, P. sapidus, P. citrinopileatus and P. sajor-caju.

Oyster mushrooms21

English learning edition · Independent technical review pending. Keyboard: focus the reading page and use ← / →. Page turning does not mark practical competence.