My first attempt at growing Blue Oyster mushroom

Substrate recipe:

  • 300 g of spent coffee grounds

  • 600 g of cardboard from shipped packages and used coffee filter papers, shredded by hand

  • 1.1 L of tap water

Layered the cardboard and coffe grounds Inside a polypropylene bag (39 x 50 cm), then added 1.1 L of water, used a reusable ziptie to close the bag, and pressure cooked for ~1 hr 30 min.

The following morning, using a still-air box, I innoculated the substrate with mason jar’s worth (~700 mL) of blue oyster rye grain spawn.

Allowed the mushroom to colonize for about 3 weeks, then made a hole in the bag.

What I liked a lot about this grow is that the substrate mix consists of recycled materials. This was my first time using coffee, and I thought it would easily get contaminated. Luckily this was not the case. The mushrooms grew very fast and I had no contamination issues.