Cultivation of oyster mushrooms as a business: reviews, photos. Business plan for growing oyster mushrooms at home

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

If the intention is ripe to start your own business with a small budget and without significant costs for renting a room, then it makes sense to consider growing oyster mushrooms as a business. Reviews of those who have tried this scheme confirm the reality of this type of earnings. In addition, to get a decent result, you don’t have to dive into complex processes - working with such mushrooms after a short study of growing features will be relatively simple. This means that such an idea for making money is suitable for almost everyone.

Reason for relevance

First of all, oyster mushrooms should be de alt with for the reason that they are in demand. People like these mushrooms, they are ready to buy them. If we compare them with porcini mushrooms, then we can safely say that they are not inferior to this product in terms of taste. In addition, oyster mushrooms are very he althy because they contain many vitamins, amino acids and proteins.

In the process of growing oyster mushrooms, the use of chemicals is not required, and after the harvest is harvested, they can be stored for a long time. If competentlydraw up a business plan, growing oyster mushrooms will turn into a stable source of good income.

And one more advantage that you need to pay attention to is the opportunity to start such a business at home without tangible financial risks and fuss with the selection of premises for rent. And if we compare the costs of growing oyster mushrooms and, say, champignons, then the former will be much less with relatively the same demand.

Where to start

Initially, you need to understand that for such a business, although rent is not needed, a certain premises will still be required. This means that growing mushrooms (oyster mushrooms) at home is a business that requires its own site. It can be a place in the yard of your own house or in the country. It will be problematic to implement such a process in an apartment, but if desired and if there is free space, such a prospect remains possible.

So, in order to take the first steps in organizing a mushroom growing business, you will have to find a dark room with high humidity, good air supply and an exhaust hood through which carbon dioxide will escape.

As for growing methods, you can do it on wood cuts and sawdust, straw bags, boxes and stumps. Natural conditions are also perfect, we are talking about an extensive method.

Auxiliary processes

There are a number of steps during the mushroom growing process that you simply need to know to get a good harvest:

- preparatory work for planting the substrate, that is, the base in which andI will grow mushrooms;

- preparation of seed, it is also called mycelium;

- compliance with all necessary conditions until the primordia (mushroom germ) appears.

It is important not to make a mistake with the choice of the type of mycelium, on which the final result largely depends. Proper planting of seeds is also important. This factor must be taken into account if we consider the cultivation of oyster mushrooms as a business.

More specifically, in the process of preparing the substrate, straw or sawdust should be used. They must first be steamed, and then placed in a bag. In this case, only the raw materials that have had time to cool down are placed. After the bags are placed on a shelf in a dark place (room temperature 18-20 ° C). When the sowing is completed, it is worth making holes in the blocks (bags). A nail is suitable as a tool.

You can count on the first noticeable results in two weeks after sowing.

What determines the harvest

Cultivation of oyster mushrooms as a business inevitably depends on the fact how many mushrooms an aspiring entrepreneur will eventually collect. The more product, the higher the income. And in order for the results of the work to please, several key conditions must be observed.

As mentioned above, the room in which blocks with mushrooms will be placed must have an increased level of humidity, it must also be ventilated and ensure that the optimum temperature is maintained in it.

As the experience of many has shownentrepreneurs who have de alt with oyster mushrooms, the best yield is observed when grown in blocks placed on racks in a vertical position. The distance between them should be 90-110 cm. This will allow you to move freely among the blocks both during mushroom care and harvesting.

If you have to deal with bags, then it is better to arrange the rows with a distance of 30 cm from each other. As for the width of the shelving, in this case it is better to stick to the 40 cm mark. This helps to maintain the desired temperature.

Assessing the cultivation of oyster mushrooms as a business, reviews should be taken into account without fail. And the experience of many people involved in the cultivation of these mushrooms confirms the fact that high-quality fruiting should be expected only with stable observance of the desired temperature. At the same time, it is important to understand that, depending on the species, the level of both 13-15 ° C and 25 ° C may be relevant. Special heating equipment will help stabilize the temperature regime. Steam heating connected to the sensors can perfectly perform this function.

How to deal with lighting and ventilation

So, oyster mushrooms will feel great, provided that in the room where they are located, free access of oxygen is provided and there is a good waste of carbon dioxide. If the concentration of the latter exceeds 0.8%, then caps with wrapped edges and long growths will appear on the mushrooms. With such a presentation, it is unlikely to count on increased interest from buyers.worth it.

For those who have identified growing oyster mushrooms as a business, it is important to know that an acceptable level of humidity in the room is checked. This is actually not difficult to do: ventilation is in perfect order if the stem length of growing oyster mushrooms is about a third of the total size of the mushroom.

Also, when installing a ventilation system, take care of the presence of a filter in it.

On the topic of lighting, it should be noted that in the case of oyster mushrooms, light is needed, but in limited quantities (from 100 to 200 lux for 12 hours). If this norm is neglected and the concentration is increased, then one will have to face such an unpleasant consequence as a significant decrease in the number of primordia.

Irrigation and humidity standards

Growing oyster mushrooms as a business at home will always involve work related to regulating humidity levels. You need to understand that a product such as mushrooms is 90% moisture and if you allow excessive dryness of the room, then full fruiting will be in question.

This is why bags are ideal for this process - they hold moisture very well. To reliably protect mushrooms from deformation, it is necessary to achieve a stable humidity level of 85%. But don't get carried away with hydration either. In this situation, "too" is not a good thing, as mushrooms can end up with poor storage tolerance, which is an important aspect of the business building process.

To make it easier to accurately determine the humidity level, it makes sense to purchasean instrument such as a psychrometer. It is not difficult to arrange - it contains two sensors that evaluate dryness and humidity. It is the difference in their readings that makes it possible to identify violations of the required regime or to determine its compliance.

If we consider growing oyster mushrooms in bags as a business, and moreover thoroughly, then we cannot ignore the fact that these mushrooms require different levels of humidity at different stages of growth. This means that batches of different ages must be stored in separate rooms or in one, but divided into several parts with different humidity indicators.

Now a little about the irrigation process. You need to remember it at the moment when the size of the fruiting bodies reaches 30 mm or 1 cm. In order for the mushrooms to receive high-quality irrigation, it is worth using a mesh with holes up to 0.5 mm. But as for fogging installations, it is better to forget about them right away. At the same time, it is important to understand that watering should not be stopped even during collection, otherwise you may encounter such a nuisance as oyster mushroom deformation.

Key cultivation principles

There are several important rules, in addition to those mentioned above, that everyone who has decided to start growing oyster mushrooms should know. Home business in this case should be extremely literate. If you carefully study the requirements and understand their essence, then it will not be difficult to ensure stable yields.

So here are the rules in question:

- For the fastest possible growth of mycelium, the number of substrate layersin the bag should start from 12.

- The mycelium itself must be scattered in such a way that it covers the entire area of the site. But at the same time, it is worth distributing 80% closer to the walls, and only 20% in the center.

- After tamping is complete, it is important to leave room for the tie.

- It is important to pay attention to the fact that the bags have holes at the bottom, this will allow all excess moisture to drain easily. In general, perforation means 10-20 holes per mycelium bag.

- At first, blocks with emerging mushrooms should be stored in a dark, damp place, but after 14-16 days of ripening, when the entire mycelium is filled with the substrate, they must be moved to a place where there is light, but there is no direct sunlight. It can be a plot in the shade of trees or a house, a basement, and also a barn.

More details about equipment

Obviously, growing oyster mushrooms as a business for beginners can have different scales. Everyone’s home conditions are different: someone has a small area for such experiments, while others can afford to allocate a tangible territory for such a business, say, in the country. And if it so happened that there are no problems with square meters, then it makes sense to think about serious volumes of the grown product, and for this it is already advisable to pay attention to the appropriate equipment.

You should start with an autoclave, with which you can produce mycelium. With this approach, the process of preparing the base for mushroom growth will become much faster.

Relevant alsois a substrate preparation equipment. In the absence of funds, you can independently make a similar machine. For these purposes, you need to find a thick-walled barrel (100-200 liters), pour water into it and bring it to a boil using a diluted fire. It is necessary to take care of the presence of branches that allow the release of steam. Thin-walled barrels with the same volumes are connected to such outlets and the substrate is already placed in them. Under such conditions, it undergoes high-quality heat treatment.

But that's not all the equipment required to grow oyster mushrooms as a business. Reviews confirm the feasibility of using equipment for pasture fruiting bodies. In fact, we are talking about a well-prepared room or several areas where the required humidity, temperature and the required level of lighting are maintained.

How to calculate profit

A business plan for growing oyster mushrooms inevitably includes a calculation of expenses and possible income.

To get the numbers you need, let's do some simple calculations. If we take the simplest option, then money will be needed to purchase bags and a filler - a substrate. On average, ready-made blocks with various relevant content can be purchased for $2.5 each. Since in this case a business plan for growing oyster mushrooms at home is being considered, the costs of renting premises and employees are not taken into account. Mushrooms for sowing can be purchased at a price of $1.5 per kg.

If you correctly organize the area, then for 1 m2 you can place up to 7blocks. One such block is able to bring a crop of 3 kg of mushrooms. Accordingly, from a square meter of usable area, an entrepreneur has 21 kg of oyster mushrooms. As for the sale, you can try to independently organize the sale and delivery of mushrooms to the end consumer (shops, markets, markets, etc.) or use the services of resellers.

On average, you can earn up to $ 3 per kilogram of oyster mushrooms, which leads to a simple conclusion: such a business allows you to enjoy a 100% margin on goods and get a tangible profit compared to investments. This means that those who intend to try their hand at entrepreneurship should seriously consider growing oyster mushrooms as a business. A photo of the process and its detailed description on the forums will allow you to easily understand the features of the process and get constant yields.

Results

Obviously, this business idea deserves attention, since it does not require significant funds to start a business and promises good earnings if the process is properly organized. Therefore, if you need money, and dreams of owning your own business are rushing out, it makes sense to evaluate the cultivation of oyster mushrooms as a business. Reviews of many enthusiasts who ventured to take advantage of this opportunity only confirm the fact that this type of income can be safely called promising and extremely safe in terms of financial risks.