Hattiesburg Fungi

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A lot of you have expressed an interest in visiting our operation but sometimes that is not really that practical for you. To accommodate those of you that do have in interest we have posted some pictures to give you a look into how we do what we do.

It all begins in our Lab. Some our mushroom cultures were developed from the spores of mushrooms in the wild and isolated to promote the qualities that we desired in our mushrooms. Others have been developed from tissue cultures. The cultures are stored for later use in test tubes and refrigerated.

After the culture has been developed it is transfered and multiplied where we then divide it up and put it in sterilized grain in special bags that have an air patch that will allow gas out but keep contaminated air from entering the bags. This is what the grain bags, called spawn, look like after they have grown out.

After the spawn has grown out it is ready to be used to inoculate the substrate on which the mushrooms will grow. There are several different local items that we can use for a substrate that Oyster Mushrooms will grow on. Here in Mississippi cotton seed hulls are in abundance as is sugar cane bagasse. Wheat straw can also be found at different times of the year. We primarily use the cotton seed hulls but have done experiments with the other mentioned substrates.

We first begin by pasteurizing the substrate. This is done by a hot water bath of 140°F for 2 hours. We use both electric and solar energy to achieve this. We built a pasteurizer form a 55 gallon water barrel with 2 water heater elements. To save on energy cost, we first fill the barrel with water from our solar water heater and then finish it off with power from the grid. Below is a picture of the pasteurizer we are currently using.

Our first pasteurizer was made out of a metal barrel. It wasn’t long before the bottom of the barrel began to rust out and leak. That is when we decided to give the plastic barrel a try. It has worked great and actually is more efficient than the metal barrel.

After the substrate is pasteurized, we drain the barrel and transfer the contents to a tumbler. The spawn is added and mixed in for a minute or two and then transfered to the clear plastic bagging.

After the bags are made holes are poked all the way around the bag. The purpose of this is both to let C02 escape and provide an outlet for the mushrooms once the mycelium has run its course. We took a block of wood and put several broad head arrow tips on it to accelerate to process of making the holes.

After the bags are completed they are moved into the grow room with the other bags. Oyster mushrooms require a rather cool temperature

and about 98% humidity. They also require that the C02 be manages to around 700 ppm (parts per million) This is done with fresh air exchanges. We had to build a system that would control all this; this is what we came up with.

The grow room has a humidistat that triggers 2 solenoids that allow air and water to be sent to our fogging system. This way we are able to keep the humidity at a constant 98%. A cycle timer is used to regulate the air exchanges to control the carbon dioxide level. We installed a squirrel cage type fan to provide air circulation. The fan is combined with an air return on the other end of the grow room and is not shown in this picture. The grow room also has an air conditioner to maintain the temperature around 70° F

It takes about 3 weeks for mushrooms to produce there first flush (mushroom talk for crop.) The mushroom are harvested and taken to the market. There you have it.

Hope you enjoyed our tour and we will see you at the market.

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