Inoculating Fruiting Blocks With Grain Spawn

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We’ve already established that the process of creating your own fruiting blocks is essential to growing your mushroom business. Sure, gaining profit is possible when buying blocks, but true growth requires active participation in the full process from start to finish. Part of which involves inoculating fruiting blocks.

In previous posts, we’ve discussed several of the steps involved. Now, it’s time for going over inoculating fruiting blocks with grain spawn. 

• First, of course, you’ll want to treat your blocks. We pasteurize ours, but some people sterilize. 
• Unload the steamer into the shelves in the lab. Our shelves are close to the airstream from the flow hood which allows the blocks to chill quicker in clean air. 
• We’re producing between 240 and 410 12-pound blocks a week, averaging about 2 tons.
• Take a block, put it on the table in front of the flow hood, sanitize with alcohol, open the bag, pour spawn in. 
  • If you need it to grow faster, double the spawn used. We usually try to stretch it out, however. 
  • When doubling up, we get roughly 20 12 pound bags for each 5-pound bag of grain spawn, but normally we get 40-50 blocks from the same amount.
  • Pour spawn into the bag. We eyeball it. Some people use scoops to measure, but we try to keep our points of contact to a minimum. 
  • We believe that the most important tech is technique. Thus, we prefer to rely on human behavior instead of tools, unless the tools bring a large enough improvement to be worthwhile. 
• After pouring in the spawn, we arrange the bag in our sealer. 
• While it’s sealing, the operator grabs another block and starts the process again. 
• Once the sealer releases, the bag shaker grabs the bag, unless the inoculator removes it first and sets it aside for them. 
• It is important to ensure the spawn mixes thoroughly throughout the block. 
  • Tap bags on the table with straight wrists to avoid impact on your joints. 
  • Flip the bag over and shake to get the spawn mixed through, then knead it in a similar way to how you’d knead dough. 
  • Flip over and shake again to work the spawn throughout the substrate. Don’t worry about getting it perfectly dispersed, as it’s not worth the amount of wasted time. 
• Once you’ve evenly dispersed the spawn throughout the bag, turn it upright. To prevent the bag from overheating, pull the bag tight, compressing the sides. This will increase the surface area and shrink the core, allowing heat to escape.  
• Place it on the cart and take it to the shelf. 
• Once inoculated they sit in the incubation room for 2-3 weeks depending on species. Some mushrooms take longer to grow in, roughly 4-6 weeks for most. Shiitake, however, takes 8-10 weeks. This is a large part of the reason we grow mostly oysters. 

Inoculating bags is a simple process, especially once a workflow has been established. Any complicated methods are saved for running experiments. With three people working; one inoculating and two shaking, we typically can make it through a ton of substrate in 3 – 3 ½ hours, or 9 – 10 ½ total man-hours per ton. Having a system set up allows us to batch out more blocks and achieve the work quicker, enabling us to continue providing the consistency our customers expect. 

*Note: While watching the video to write this post, I noticed that Andrew mentioned the new website design. I found it interesting timing since I’ve been working on a fresh design and have just completed the majority of the work on it. Extremely pleased with the way it is turning out, I believe this will be our final redesign.*

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