What I will teach: 

• The basics of the mushroom life-cycle – from spore to mushroom – using diagrams, illustrations and hands-on materials.  

• History of domesticated wild oyster mushrooms, how we cultivate them today and a brief explanation how the pure culture is maintained using sterile laboratory techniques. 

• How one can easily grow oyster mushrooms at home using spawn starter, straw and upcycled plastic containers. 

• Hands-on inoculation of pre-pasteurised straw with mushroom starter spawn, carefully placing the straw into upcycled plastic containers (bottles, plastic bags, buckets, etc.) 

• How to incubate the container – how to check for contamination and colonisation progress. 

• Initiating fruiting of the substrate container – how to know when to initiate fruiting, how to initiate, where to fruit.  

• Harvesting and subsequent flushes. When to pick the mushrooms. How long to wait for another flush.  

• How to extend the substrate block – continuing the colony outside in the garden.  

• Alternative growing methods.