What is the role played by spawn in mushroom cultivation? The substance inoculated with mycelium is known as spawn. The white or cream colored long fibers provide the base for growing mushrooms. The substrate is the substance on which the mycelium grows. For mushroom cultivation, it is essential to find the right substrate recipe. If you are a newbie then pretty soon you will realize that growing mushrooms is somewhat different than growing other plants.
Different kinds
You may be wondering if you can do away with the substrate and start growing mushrooms directly from mycelia. If you use substrate in combination with spawn, you will get a better yield than compared to using substrate alone. Reputed mushroom spawn suppliers can provide you premium quality products at affordable rates. Various types such as sawdust, grain, plug, woodchip and straw spawn are available in the market.
• Sawdust types
They can be utilized for inoculation of logs, cardboard, pasteurized straw and outdoor beds. The presence of numerous inoculation points helps in easy mycelium colonization. Use the commodities of reliable mushroom spawn suppliers so that chances of contamination are lessened. They are however not too nutritious on their own, so you need to some food enrichers to increase the production yield.
• Sterilized grain
The common grains used for this purpose are rye, millets, corn, and wheat. It is suitable for inoculation of indoor substrates and is more nutritious than sawdust. It is not an ideal choice for outdoor beds because grains have the capability of attracting birds and rodents.
• Wooden Dowels
Sometimes small wooden dowels are inoculated with mycelium. For that purpose, stems of live fungi or sawdust mycelia can be utilized. It works out well for wood or fiber-based substrates.
Do detailed research
Now you may be confused further, and you are having a challenging time in deciding which spawn will be more advantageous for your job. The strategy is to match the spawn correctly to your substrate. The logic behind this strategy is that colonization time is reduced to a significant extent because of the familiarization of the mycelium with the material. Before you embark on your journey of cultivation of these delicious fungi, you should decide the kinds of mushrooms you want to grow. You should research well in advance regarding the type of substrate you would want to use for your project. Do not think that these efforts in the initial phase are an unnecessary wastage of time. These organized efforts will help you from having a lot of hassles in the long run.
Understand the fungal life cycle
Develop an understanding of the fungal life cycle by getting some mushroom growing kits from the market. These are not only easy to grow, but you will have ample instructions guiding you step by step. So if you are still hesitant and have a lot of unanswered questions in your mind, then you should opt for these readymade kits. Get those supplies from offline suppliers or online stores. Use the products of highly recommended suppliers because then you will be assured of their quality.