Substrate Options In the below sections I will be looking at substrates that are suitable for the Pleurotus (oyster mushroom) varieties and the Ganoderma Lingzhi (Reishi or Lingzhi Mushroom) varieties.
Hardwood Woodchip/Sawdust Hardwood is the most obvious material to use as it is the natural substrate for the white rot mushrooms in question. According to Freshcap Mushrooms (Freshcap Mushrooms, 2019) gourmet mushrooms do not grow well on softwoods, so it is important to make sure that any sawdust used is from a hardwood. They also recommend adding a nitrogen supplement such as bran to add more nutrients to the substrate. As I would be growing mushrooms for the mycelium composite rather than for the
fruiting bodies, I don’t think this would be as necessary. Coffee grounds could potentially be used as a supplement with the advantage of coming from a waste stream. Figure 5 highlights some of the best hardwood varieties for different mushrooms. Some possible waste stream sources for this substrate are offcuts from timber yards, sawdust from workshops and joinery studios, and discarded timber from the construction industry.
Mango Sawdust Mango sawdust was found by (Mehta, Jandaik, & Gupta, 2014) to be the most efficient producing larger and earlier yields. They
also note that the best grain spawn base was wheat bran rather than rice bran.
Above Figure 26. Tree species chart. Reprinted from Substrates, by Field & Forest, 2018, Retrieved from https://www.fieldforest.net/substrates.asp
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