If the intention has ripened to start your own business with a small budget and without significant rental costs, then it makes sense to consider growing oyster mushrooms as a business. The reviews of those who have tried such a scheme confirm the reality of this type of earnings. In addition, to get a decent result, you don’t have to plunge into complex processes - working with such mushrooms after a short study of the characteristics of the cultivation will be relatively simple. This means that such an idea for making money is suitable for almost everyone.
Reasons for relevance
First of all, oyster mushrooms should be dealt with for the reason that they are in demand. People like these mushrooms, they are ready to buy them. If you compare them with porcini mushrooms, then we can safely say that they are not inferior to this product in taste. In addition, oyster mushrooms are very useful because they contain many vitamins, amino acids and proteins.
In the process of growing oyster mushrooms, the use of chemistry is not required, and after the harvest is harvested, they can be stored for a long time. If you correctly draw up a business plan, growing oyster mushrooms will turn into a stable source of good income.
And another advantage that needs to be paid attention to is the opportunity to start such a home-based business 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, mushrooms, the former will be much less with a relatively equal demand.
Where to begin
Initially, you need to understand that for such a business, even if you do not need a rental, a certain room will still be needed. This means that growing mushrooms (oyster mushrooms) at home is a business that requires its own plot. This 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 you wish and if there is free space, a similar 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 extract hood through which carbon dioxide will escape.
As for the methods of cultivation, this can be done on wood cuts and sawdust, bags of straw, boxes and hemp. Natural conditions are also perfect, we are talking about an extensive method.
Supporting processes
There are a number of actions during the process of growing mushrooms, which in order to get a good harvest is simply necessary to know:
- preparatory work for planting the substrate, that is, the basis on which the mushrooms will grow;
- preparation of seed, it is also called mycelium;
- the observance of all necessary conditions until the moment when primordium appears (the primordium of the fungus).
It is important not to be mistaken with the choice of the type of mycelium, on which the final result largely depends. Competent planting of seeds is also of great importance. This factor must be taken into account when considering 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 that raw material that has managed to cool is laid. 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). As a tool, a nail is suitable.
You can count on the first noticeable results two weeks after sowing.
What does the crop depend on
Growing oyster mushrooms as a business inevitably depends on the fact how many mushrooms the aspiring entrepreneur will collect in the end. The more product - the higher the income. And in order for the work results to please, several key conditions must be observed.
As described above, the room in which the blocks with mushrooms will be placed should have a high level of humidity, it should also be ventilated and make sure that the optimum temperature is maintained in it.
As the experience of many entrepreneurs dealing with oyster mushrooms has shown, the best yield is observed when grown in blocks placed on racks in an upright position. The distance between them should be 90-110 cm. This will allow you to freely move among the blocks both during the care of the mushrooms and during the harvest.
If you have to deal with bags, it’s better to arrange the rows with a distance of 30 cm from each other. As for the width of the shelves, in this case it is better to adhere to the mark of 40 cm. 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 fruit bearing should be expected only with stable observance of the desired temperature. It is important to understand that, depending on the type, the level of 13-15 ° C and 25 ° C may be relevant. Special heating equipment will help to stabilize the temperature regime. The steam heating connected to the sensors can perform this function perfectly .
What to do 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 on the mushrooms there will be hats with curled edges and long growths. With this presentation, it is hardly worth counting on increased interest from buyers.
It is important for those who have identified oyster mushroom growing as a business acceptable humidity level in the room is checked. It is actually not difficult to do this: ventilation is in order if the length of the stem in growing oyster mushrooms is approximately one third of the total size of the fungus.
Also, when installing the ventilation system, it will not hurt to take care of the presence of a filter in it.
Regarding the topic of lighting, it should be noted that light in the case of oyster mushrooms 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 you 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 home business, will always include work related to regulating humidity. 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.
That's why the bags are ideal for such a process - they hold moisture very well. In order to reliably protect mushrooms from deformation, it is necessary to achieve a stable humidity level of 85%. But to get involved in hydration is also not worth it. In this situation, “too” is not good, since mushrooms can endure poor storage, which is an important aspect of the process of building a business.
To facilitate accurate determination of the humidity level, it makes sense to purchase a device 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 testimony that allows you to identify violations of the required regime or determine its compliance.
If we consider the cultivation of oyster mushrooms in bags, as a business, and moreover, thoroughly, you can not ignore the fact that at different stages of growth, these mushrooms require a different level of humidity. 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. It is necessary to recall it at the moment when the size of the fruiting bodies reaches 30 mm or 1 cm. For the mushrooms to receive high-quality irrigation, it is worth using a mesh with holes up to 0.5 mm. But with regard to fogging plants, it is better to forget about them right away. It is important to understand that you can not stop watering even during harvesting, otherwise you may encounter such a nuisance as deformation of oyster mushrooms.
Key Growing Principles
There are several important rules, in addition to the above, that should be known to everyone who has decided to start growing oyster mushrooms. Home business in this case should be extremely competent. If you carefully study the requirements and understand their essence, then ensuring stable crops will be easy.
So, here are the rules in question:
- For the fastest possible fouling with mycelium, the number of substrate layers in the bag should start from 12.
- Directly, the mycelium itself must be dispersed 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 in the center only 20%.
- After completing the tamping, it is important to leave a place for the tie.
- It is important to pay attention to the fact that there are holes in the bags even from below, this will allow to drain all excess moisture without difficulty. In general, perforation implies the presence of 10-20 holes per bag with mycelium.
- Initially, the blocks with the originating mushrooms should be stored in a dark, moist place, but after 14-16 days of maturation, when the whole mycelium is filled with a substrate, they must be transferred to a place where there is light, but there is no direct sunlight. This can be a plot in the shade of trees or a house, a basement, as well as a barn.
More about equipment
Obviously, the cultivation of oyster mushrooms, as a business for beginners, can have different scales. Everyone has different home conditions: someone has a small area for such experiments, while others can afford to set aside a tangible territory for such a business, say, in a country house. 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 be much faster.
Also relevant is the equipment for the preparation of the substrate. In the absence of funds, you can independently make such a 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. Care must be taken to ensure that there are branches allowing steam to be released. Thin-walled barrels with the same volumes are connected to such taps and the substrate is already placed in them. In such conditions, it undergoes high-quality heat treatment.
But this is not all the equipment that requires the cultivation of oyster mushrooms, as a business. The reviews confirm the advisability of using equipment for pasturing fruiting bodies. In fact, we are talking about a well-prepared room or several areas where the desired humidity, temperature and the required level of lighting are maintained.
How to calculate profit
A business plan for growing oyster mushrooms inevitably includes the calculation of costs and potential income.
To obtain the necessary numbers, we perform simple calculations. If you take the simplest option, then the money will be needed to purchase bags and filler - the substrate. On average, finished blocks with various relevant contents can be purchased for $ 2.5 apiece. Since in this case we are considering a business plan for growing oyster mushrooms at home, 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 up to 7 blocks can be placed on 1 m 2 . One such block is able to bring a crop of 3 kg of mushrooms. Accordingly, the entrepreneur has 21 kg of oyster mushroom per square meter of usable area. As for the implementation, you can try to independently organize the sale and delivery of mushrooms to the final consumer (shops, markets, markets, etc.) or use the services of resellers.
On average, per kilogram of oyster mushroom can be earned up to $ 3, which leads to a simple conclusion: such a business allows you to enjoy a 100% mark-up on goods and receive tangible profits 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 permanent crops.
Summary
Obviously, this business idea deserves attention, because it does not require significant funds to start a business and promises good earnings with the competent organization of the process. Therefore, if you need money, and dreams of your own business are torn out, it makes sense to evaluate the cultivation of oyster mushrooms as a business. The feedback of many enthusiasts who dared to take this opportunity only confirms the fact that this type of earnings can safely be called promising and extremely safe in relation to financial risks.