Collection and storage of oyster mushrooms. Defects in the fruiting bodies of oyster mushrooms Is it possible to eat oyster mushrooms with yellow spots

you can in supermarkets and markets, or you can grow it yourself - from mycelium on sticks on the stump or trunks of deciduous trees.

How to choose the right oyster mushroom?

1. If oyster mushrooms are sold in cling film on a substrate, check the expiration date. In a film, the shelf life is 7-10 days (depending on storage conditions) and, unlike bulk products, they do not lose moisture and look beautiful. Press lightly on the hat with your fingertip, if it is fresh, there will be no dent. Sometimes, when opening the film, an unpleasant smell comes from the substrate, which soon disappears. If the smell intensifies when frying, it starts to smell badly of ammonia, it is better to throw it away. But this happens extremely rarely, and rather with champignons, but almost never happens on oyster mushrooms.

2. The mushroom is plucked at the stage of commercial ripeness. The splices at this stage are dense, heavy, the cap is 3 to 8 cm in diameter, depending on the strain (variety) of oyster mushroom. Unlike fruits, mushrooms are not unripe, that is, fruiting bodies 1-2 cm in diameter can also be eaten. The splices become looser in the warm season, they can be lighter than in winter, and there are fewer mushrooms in each splice. When the mushroom is fresh, it is elastic and the skin on the cap does not have wrinkles.

3. If the oyster mushroom cap is torn, "ragged" as in the photo on the left - this does not affect its taste, they can be eaten.

4. A white coating on oyster mushrooms happens if it lies in the refrigerator for three to four days. This is a plaque of spores or white mycelium.
Look at the photo (click to enlarge), such oyster mushrooms as in photo 1.2 can be eaten, such as in photo 3 - it is better to throw them away.

5. Some unscrupulous sellers put a box not sold in one day on a basin of water, or even fill the boxes with water. The next day, water flows (literally) from the base of the bunch with light pressure.
This mushroom is not worth buying.

6. Occasionally on oyster mushrooms, especially those collected in nature, you can see small midges or worms (these are their larvae). It happens that the larvae themselves are not visible, only the passages gnawed by them in the stem, less often in the fruiting body, are visible.
If the flesh of the cap is light white, dense, and there are few moves, such mushrooms can also be eaten. They need to be held for 10-15 minutes in a solution with salt (a dessert spoon of salt in a glass of water), rinsed with clean water and cooked.
A leg with moves and holes does not need to be used.

7. Bulk mushroom is sold in bundles, cut off as in the photo on the left, below. In some regions, oyster mushrooms are not cut before being sold, only straw or husks that have fallen from the substrate are plucked.

How to cook oyster mushroom?

1. The joint has a rough hard "root" or "butt" - it can be cut off by two to three centimeters. Further, the pulp consists of fused mushroom legs. They can be eaten.
If the base remains hard after the cut, cut it again, to the pulp.
Further, the bunch can be divided into separate mushrooms, simply tearing them off, reaching the base, or you can cut them into pieces - hats and legs together. It depends on how the recipe says - you need whole mushrooms, or sliced.

2. Oyster mushrooms do not need to be pre-boiled. It cooks quickly, so follow the instructions in the recipe.

3. Freezing raw whole oyster mushrooms is not recommended.
It needs to be fried in pieces in butter for 5-6 minutes, then cool, transfer to a container, seal well and close. Freeze like this.
Use within 3-4 months, without prior defrosting. Just put in a pan, and heat up, then use according to the recipe.

Among my acquaintances there are people who are associated with oyster mushrooms, and in the winter time, there are some problems in growing that lead to the formation of mold. Eg:

During the growth of the mycelium, the mycelium does not grow, or develops poorly, this is due to the substrate, which is waterlogged, or its temperature is below 24 degrees or above 30. To eliminate this reason, you need to increase the number of holes in the lower part of the block and adjust the temperature from using ventilation.

Spots of green or black color may appear on the surface of the substrate, this is due to insufficient sterilization of the substrate.

The block grows with a crust of white mycelium, the peduncle of the body is not formed, which leads to deterioration of the mushrooms.

With poor sterilization of the blocks, the fruiting bodies of fungi of foreign species appear. In order to avoid the spread of other spores, they must be eliminated or rearranged for growing in a separate room.

Is it possible to eat oyster mushrooms with a white coating?

When buying oyster mushrooms, they can be caught with a white coating (mold). It is not dangerous and does not affect the quality of mushrooms at all, but before you start cooking mushroom food, you need to:

• Rinse thoroughly.
• Cut oyster mushrooms into large pieces.
• Boil in boiling salted water.
• After heat treatment, all mold is neutralized.

My advice: Home-grown oyster mushrooms are the safest mushrooms, but they are perishable, so they don't need to be stored for a long time, or they can be frozen, in which case their taste will deteriorate.

In fact, oyster mushroom is not quite whimsical and is not susceptible to disease. Those deformations or changes in the shape of oyster mushrooms that mushroom growers see have completely different causes, and diseases are consequences of these causes and most often develop already on dead fruiting bodies.

So, most often problems with the shape and appearance of the fruiting bodies of mushrooms appear as a result of:

1. Deviations from optimal parameters in the fruiting chamber:

Sharp fluctuations in temperature and humidity can cause the death of the primordia of mushrooms (primordia) as a result of wetting or drying (either the primordia or mushrooms dry out) - see photos and captions to them.

The lack of fresh air, the accumulation of carbon dioxide near the clusters causes deformation of the fruiting body of the fungus:

• too long leg and small hat;
• rolling the mushroom cap into a tube;
• tubercles, cracks, growths on the cap, ruptures and other defects of the fruiting bodies;

- improperly organized ventilation (weak or strong blowing of mushrooms):

• yellowing of fruiting bodies. If oyster mushrooms turn yellow and wither, then in addition to strong airflow, this can happen due to the defeat of mushrooms by the larvae of fungal mosquitoes and midges (read below),
• drying or weathering of the mushrooms, then the edge of the oyster mushroom cap may turn brown and crack. Cracking can also be caused by high humidity in the growing chamber, but then the edges of the mushrooms begin to tear after picking and during storage.

You can see what oyster mushroom looks like at constant high humidity by clicking on the 8th photo of our gallery, which is located below, directly below this text. The photo is called “fat leg” - and indeed, when waterlogged, oyster mushroom cannot optimally evaporate moisture, so the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe plates grows in it, forming a thick leg and causing the cap to curl. The fruiting body also turns the records outward, hiding the hat - it looks like a gramophone.

- Yellow, red or brown dots and spots, which can then merge into one large spot on the surface of the fungus. The formation of spots on oyster mushrooms can be caused by drops of water falling on the fungus during irrigation or when a bacterial infection of the block occurs.
For some reason, mushroom growers consider any dots and spots on the caps of oyster mushrooms to be bacteriosis.

In order to confirm bacteriosis on oyster mushrooms, you need to do a bacteriological analysis that will show the presence of a certain type of bacteria - Pseudomonas tolaasii. Without analysis, you can try to determine the bacteriosis to the touch (the points are slimy or the pulp falls under pressure, like cotton wool) and by smell. If you knead the affected mushroom in your hands, it will smell extremely unpleasant. But this source (human scent) is extremely unreliable.

If there are no pseudomonads, then it is just a mold or bacterial infection that develops on previously dead fungi.

Consider some damage to oyster mushrooms in more detail:

A variety of deformations of the fruiting body (the appearance of mushrooms) caused by condensate.

1. Condensation that is not visible.

If this was an isolated case -

causes the appearance of small scales on the surface of the cap (click on the photo, these scales will be clearly visible) Peeling is a dead layer of the entire skin that died when the fungus was still very small. Then it continued to grow, and the upper dead layer of cells was simply torn apart by the fact that the fungus increased in size - and we see the remnants of this dead layer in the form of scales.

Some call this phenomenon "water hammer", but it manifests itself differently. Below we will consider it.

With the constantly repeated fallout of the thinnest film of condensate, the mushrooms do not have time to evaporate their own moisture, partially die, partially twist or stretch and look like in this photo (left)

In the case of this photo - the problem is aggravated by insufficient airflow (weak air currents) - because. there are no air ducts in the chamber. Read about it below in the article.

Also, from excess moisture, a white coating may appear on the primordia of oyster mushrooms. It often happens that small phlox-stage primordia (mushrooms 1-1.5 cm in diameter) have already died, and some kind of mold has settled on a wet hat, which looks like a white fluff.

2. Condensate in the underfilm layer of the substrate.


If water is released between the film and the substrate in the last days of incubation, just before the primordia emerge, then the mushrooms may look like the one in the photo on the right.

Moreover, on one block, most likely, all primordia will be so twisted, and on neighboring blocks - normal.
To determine the cause, you can make an incision in the block and see if there is water under the film.

Ventilation problems:

1. Weak air flow due to missing air ducts or incorrectly calculated air duct diameters, cups and/or fan power.

Under such conditions, CO2 envelops the mushroom druse and the mushroom begins to roll its cap. The more mushrooms develop at the same time, the more diverse the shape of the mushroom cluster becomes. Trying to describe this form, mushroom growers use such expressions as "oyster mushroom shaped like a saxophone." It seems to some that the oyster mushroom at the same time becomes like a gramophone.

In any case, whatever object reminds you of a mushroom, which is in the photo on the left, know that it suffered from weak air currents and a large amount of CO2.

When the primordia is just beginning to grow, the lower part of the drusen is washed by a weak stream better than the upper one, so the lower mushrooms grow faster and gradually block the access of the stream to the upper mushrooms. Therefore, the upper mushrooms cease to evaporate water in the required amount and die. After that, they often rot - after all, excess moisture has accumulated in their fruiting bodies.

It happens that there are few mushrooms in the chamber, and the device shows that CO2 is normal. Then the lower mushrooms look normal, but have a fairly thin cap. But most often, weak flows cannot cope with the removal of CO2, therefore, although the lower mushrooms survive, they pull their leg, wrap their hat up, or roll up into a tube, exposing the plates (this is clearly visible in the third photo, click).

Problems related to the microclimate

- if the high humidity in the chamber dropped sharply by 5-7%, and then recovered again, a rupture of the internal tissues of the fruiting body of the fungus may occur due to a sharp change in the evaporation rate.

As a result of this event, radially divergent stripes (cracks filled with dead tissue of the fungus) form on the body of the oyster mushroom.

Therefore, some mushroom pickers call it "water hammer" by analogy with the fact that real water hammer also causes ruptures and cracks in pipes.

- How does the lack of moisture affect oyster mushrooms.

If there is no weathering, but there is simply a general lack of moisture in the growing room, then how does this affect the development of oyster mushrooms?

With the so-called "dry incubation", if the humidity in the incubator is not observed, primordia may not appear at all. The minimum humidity at which they form is 78%, but even with this humidity, you can get weakened primordia with a long delay. The optimal humidity for the appearance of primordia is much higher - 90-93%. Then the humidity should be lowered to 86-89%, depending on the strain and temperature.

If the humidity is lower than 86% (at temp 16-17 degrees) primordia start to grow, they lack moisture and may become light or stop growing. Older mushrooms begin to wrap their hats. But not up, but on the contrary - down. In this way, they seek to prevent excess evaporation from the plates of the fungus and protect the growing spores.

Therefore, we emphasize again:

All changes in the microclimate in the growing chamber should be done gradually:

Can cause wilting and yellowing of mushroom clusters for no apparent reason. It often happens that the mushroom grower does not pay attention to single individuals of the flying midge, and the larvae breed in the block without flying out of it. Therefore, if your mushrooms have begun to wrinkle and wither, tear out a bunch and examine its base with a magnifying glass.

Perhaps you will find gnawed passages there or the larvae themselves, which look like worms. Also, carefully examine the slot itself (the hole in the block) from which you pulled out the dead bunch - perhaps there are also small larvae that look like worms - white, orange or pink.

Looks like damage, as in the photo on the left.

The circles and arrows indicate the places where the mushrooms were gnawed.

It is difficult to deal with slugs with chemicals, because. mushrooms grow in the chamber and it is not entirely clear where the slugs come from.

Therefore, for starters, try to get rid of them in a folk way - with salt. It is advisable to find a few slugs and sprinkle salt directly on them. But if you see not the mollusks themselves, but only traces of their activity (bitten mushrooms), try pouring a path of salt along the row where there are bites. The salt sucks the fluid out of their bodies and they move away from this place.

If the slugs are very harmful, you can try to treat the camera outside, between the ground and the wall, in places where they can crawl, with a chemical preparation designed to deal specifically with slugs.

By the way, cats can also bite mushrooms, but they gnaw out large areas, and at first they can leave two small holes located next to the mushrooms - these are traces of their fangs. Those. they kind of “compost” the mushroom by biting through it. And then they decide whether to eat further or not.

Like any other business, growing mushrooms requires some knowledge and experience. Beginning mushroom growers, often faced with problems, refuse to continue what they started because of ignorance of the causes of failures and ways to eliminate them. As a rule, the main reason for failure in any business, including oyster mushroom breeding, is the lack of necessary information and non-compliance with technological standards. In this article, we will look at the most common problems and mistakes that mushroom growers encounter when growing oyster mushrooms.

Mycelium in the substrate does not grow or develops very slowly.

The main reason for this may be the inconsistency of the temperature regime favorable for the development of oyster mushrooms (below 24-28 degrees) or a strong waterlogging of the substrate. In the first case, it is necessary to increase the air temperature in the room, and to reduce the humidity in the bags with the substrate, it is enough to increase the number of holes in the lower part of the mushroom block.

The appearance of moisture between the mushroom substrate and the plastic bag.

To eliminate the causes of moisture, it is necessary to stabilize the temperature, as this is a sign of changes in air temperature in the room. In places where fluid accumulates, holes of 1-2 mm should be made. At the same time, make sure that the flowing liquid does not fall on other blocks, the surface of the racks or the floor.

The appearance of green or black spots on the surface of the mushroom block.

This is the most common and perhaps the most unpleasant problem of all mushroom growers. The reason is the development in the substrate of mold fungi - competitors of oyster mushrooms. Usually, mold appears due to poor-quality or short-term heat treatment of the substrate. Also, mold fungi can develop due to poor-quality oyster mushroom mycelium, which does not have time to master the substrate, freeing up the field of activity for competitive fungi. Keep in mind that fungi grow at higher temperatures.
Therefore, one of the most important stages in the cultivation of oyster mushrooms is the qualitative preparation of the substrate and the observance of the temperature regime in the cultivation room. This approach will enable the oyster mushroom mycelium to fully assimilate the substrate without leaving the mold fungi with nutrients, without which their development becomes impossible. Mushroom blocks with mold should be thrown away without regret and started over. However, if the affected areas are small, you can try to save the mushroom block. To do this, you need to carefully cut the oilcloth at the site of mold damage and sprinkle the surface with ordinary salt. This can localize the spread of mold fungi, but yield loss cannot be avoided.

The appearance of foreign species of fungi on mushroom blocks.

The reason that other mushrooms have grown instead of oyster mushrooms is the same mistake as in the previous paragraph, namely poor heat treatment or poor-quality mycelium. Usually, gray dung beetle develops in the mushroom block together with oyster mushroom. If foreign mushrooms appear, they must be removed from the mushroom block. They will appear before oyster mushrooms. For a successful mushroom business, foreign mushrooms should not be allowed to appear, as this is directly related to the quantity and quality of the future harvest.

The appearance of a large number of oyster mushrooms, which quickly dry out.

The reason is insufficient humidity in the room. Fixing this problem is the easiest. It is necessary to increase the humidity with a fine-dispenser sprayer of the "Mist" type or with an ordinary garden sprayer, and in a small room even with an ordinary nozzle for a plastic bottle, or simply moisten the walls and floor with water. An important point - it is impossible for water to get inside the mushroom substrate (only on the surface of mushroom bodies and oilcloth), this can lead to decay of the mushroom block.

The appearance of fruiting bodies of mushrooms with an elongated stem and small or pale caps.

The reason for the appearance of such low-quality mushrooms is insufficient ventilation or poor lighting, or both. With a lack of fresh air, the legs are long and twisted, the hats are of a regular color, but small. In poor light, the legs can be long, and the caps are pale, light. There are mushroom bodies of an ugly shape or coral-like. To prevent such causes, it is necessary to increase the intensity of lighting, for this it is better to use fluorescent lamps (DRL) and provide the room with ventilation. In general, air exchange when growing oyster mushrooms should be given special attention. A careless attitude to the ventilation of the room is the main mistake of novice mushroom growers. Oyster mushrooms require a lot of fresh air, much more than when growing champignons, so it is best to provide forced ventilation for mushroom production. In addition, the accumulation of waste products and fungal spores can adversely affect the human respiratory system.

A novice mushroom grower should remember that mushroom production requires a very responsible and patient approach. Of all the artificially grown mushrooms, oyster mushroom is the most unpretentious and affordable. However, it requires compliance with the microclimate conditions necessary for the development of this fungus, the rules for storage, transportation and sale.

This is the most common type of marriage. Most often occurs with hydrothermy and improperly conducted xerothermy.
It is difficult to distinguish oyster mushroom mycelium from mold in the first stages of growth, since most of them have the same white mycelium. And only disputes are multi-colored, and it takes time for them to mature.
Most often, various types of trichoderma settle in the overgrown substrate, mushroom pickers call it brilliant green. Green spots appear in the bags of all colors from olive to gray-green. If the spot is small, then the oyster mushroom hyphae eat it up, and fruiting subsequently proceeds normally. Large spots of non-growth in the substrate block, on the contrary, progress and suppress the development of oyster mushroom.

Many are surprised that the mushroom block turned green on the 12th or even 15th day. And before that it was white, everything was fine. In fact, the fungus has matured for a long time - from the beginning of the overgrowth of briquettes. Trichoderma hyphae are white, with a grayish tint. And when the Trichoderma mycelium has matured, we see green clusters of its spores.
It is very rare to find a mold of orange, red or pink color - this is a neurospore. Where does it come from, read

Neurospore reproduces very quickly, it can infect the entire incubator in a matter of days. If you find an orange substance in a bag, especially one that goes into a slot, seal the slot and take this bag away from the enterprise. Release it from the film, bury it, and burn the polyethylene. Be sure to treat the room with chemicals such as Armex, Virotsid. Do not wait until the incubator is free - you risk losing everything that is there. If there are already overgrown batches in it, take them out to the growing chamber. Not overgrown can be processed, trying not to get on them with the drug.

It happens that a gray or black coating is formed in the briquette. And what it is called - without analysis and a microscope it is impossible to determine. Yes, in general, the name of the mold does not really matter. It is important to understand that putrefactive fungi of any color indicate problems in production.

How to deal with mold in mushroom blocks.

Beginners think that there are chemical preparations for combating trichoderma in mushroom blocks. If the marriage occurs as a result of improper steaming or poor quality of raw materials, then chemistry will not help. The mycelium of brilliant green, like oyster mushrooms, is killed by one type of reagent - they are called fungicides. And they can not be added to the plant mass. They process the premises.

To get rid of the problem, you need to know its cause. The main three, I will list starting from the most common:

1. Poor quality heat treatment of raw materials.

If brilliant green penetrates deep into the entire mass, this means that the processing technology was violated in terms of time and temperature, or the substrate has high humidity or pH (ph) below 7mi.

The faster the mold conquers a briquette with processed raw materials, the more deviations of the technological processing schedule.

The most critical case is when no overgrowth is noted at all, and the oyster mushroom mycelium grains are covered with a gray-green bloom.
As a rule, the quality of the mycelium has nothing to do with it - it's just that, first of all, the fungus begins to occupy the boiled grain, there is easily digestible food there. And then it switches to a husk or straw that is poorer in nitrogen.

What should be done.

Change the regulations for the processing of plant materials. More ;
- measure the pH of the substrate, maintain it at an optimal level of 7.8-8.5. The growth of mold mycelium is inhibited at pH above 8, and oyster mushroom still withstands this range. Although, at a pH above 9, inhibition of its growth begins;
- Keep the inoculation room clean, create excess pressure there, so the spores of harmful microorganisms do not get into the processed raw materials on the inoculation table.

2. Violation of the microclimate during incubation

More often leads to infection only in the subfilm layer.
Incorrectly designed ventilation, temperature fluctuations in the chamber, creates a large temperature difference between the underfilm layer and the inner contents of the bag, which causes the outflow of water from the center to the underfilm. The presence of free water between the polyethylene and the substrate leads to increased growth of mold and/or bacteria.

Although when breaking the overgrown monolith, it is clear that the entire thickness of the substrate is overgrown evenly and does not contain the inclusion of trichoderma anywhere except the surface layer, such batches practically do not bear fruit.

With a bacterial lesion, an unpleasant odor appears in the incubator and the bag. It starts to ferment or rot. Even if it overgrows, sick mushrooms will come out of it.

Condensation under the film can form even if the optimal microclimate is observed and can be observed until the tenth or twelfth day from sowing, or it can disappear on the 6th-7th day.

It looks like small round droplets of water - "saucers". They appear as a result of the fact that the bag with the growing mycelium is warmer than the air in the room. This is a normal, physiological phenomenon - such a condensate is transparent (slightly yellowish), the drops are small, evenly distributed over the surface.

Click on the three pictures below: on the left image - transparent, with a creamy sheen, drops of moisture, the blocks are overgrown with high quality, and the condensate went away during the formation of primordia.

In the center one can see a brown slurry under the film, and on the right - primordia, sick with bacteriosis from the same bag.

How to fix.
Observe the parameters of the microclimate during incubation.

3. Infection of the hatchery room.

In this case, a coating of green, less often gray and black, is located only in the perforations. Inside, under the film, the entire mass in the bag is well overgrown, white.

How to get rid of Trichoderma greens on block perforation

In the case of single lesions, you can remove part of the straw (husk) from the incision manually, treat the incision with 5% hydrogen peroxide or whiteness and seal it with adhesive tape.

If almost all the holes are green, this indicates a high infection of the room with mold spores. They are not visible to the naked eye. But if you sow air on a Petri dish, on the third - fourth day it becomes overgrown with multi-colored colonies - see the photo at the beginning of the article on the right.

It is necessary to empty the incubator and chemically treat it with sporicidal disinfectants or fungicides.

Hair on an oyster mushroom block

On many old farms and poultry houses, even if the buildings have been abandoned for many years, specific pathogenic microflora persists. Most often, spores of various mold fungi.
Including such long black threads appear in the slot. This is a special type of mucoraceae - Spinellus fusiger. It is popularly called "horsehair".
And if the hair is white and grows from the bottom of the hat, these are disputes. Read about them in the article.

What to do with this animal?

Nothing new - follow the technology, carry out sanitation, set the ventilation correctly. Since the high speed of the air contributes to the spread of this scourge.