Clean Whole Oats

Clean Whole Oats

What are clean whole oats?

Clean whole oats are oats that are harvested, have the husks removed, and cleaned to get rid of the inedible materials such as dust or sticks. After the oats are processed the final result are clean whole oats. Whole oats are often used to feed livestock especially horses. Further processing would be necessary to prepare whole oats into food fit for humans, rolled oats. We have discovered our clean whole oats work best with our liquid culture when used together to make grain spawn.

In order to turn the clean whole oats in to an effective grain spawn there are a few items that needs to be addressed. The first item to consider is the process that will be used to achieve sterilization. Whether the mushrooms are grown in rooms, tents, containers, or bags the common denominator for consistently successful harvests is sterilization. For the best results, using a large pressure cooker or autoclave and laminar flow hood are essential. Precautions must be taken at every stage of mushroom cultivation to provide a level of sterilization that does not allow competing organisms to contaminate the mushrooms.

The next consideration is the amount of grain spawn needed as per the amount of supplies available. To increase the rate of successful harvests a generous amount of liquid culture should be used to inoculate the sterilized grain spawn. If the desired result is 2 or 3 small mushroom blocks than a mason jar of fully colonized grain spawn will do the trick. Large batches of grain spawn can be created in 0.2 micron filters bags as well as mason jars. Bags of grain spawn are more efficient if the desired result is to produce a large number of mushroom blocks.

The last item that will need attention when producing grain spawn is the environment provided for the grain spawn to create mycelium. Grain spawn tends to produce mycelium faster when placed in a clean, warm, dark, and semi humid environment. The grain spawn may take a couple days to a couple weeks before any mycelium is visible. Shaking the jar or bag does help to promote mycelium growth however; if the mycelium is broken up to early the results could be negative. As a general rule, wait until the grain spawn is approximately 50% colonized before deciding whether to shake or not to shake. Shaking the grain spawn is not necessary but helpful for slow growing mycelium.