Manual: Wood Ear - Spawn

Wood ear - Spawn

(Auricularia auricula-judae)

Use the spawn as soon as possible after you receive it, or keep it in the fridge for a few weeks at most.

What you need:

• Wood ear spawn
• Substrate: hardwood sawdust with bran or soy hulls
• A pressure cooker or another way to sterilise
• A grow bag with a filter, or a clean container
• A clean working area, gloves and alcohol

Preparing the substrate:

Mix about 80 percent hardwood sawdust with 10 percent grain and 10 percent bran. Add water until the substrate just releases moisture when you squeeze it, without being soaked. Then sterilise it for 2 hours at 15 PSI in a pressure cooker, or heat it longer at a lower temperature. Let it cool down completely before you go on.

Inoculation:

Work in a clean area, disinfect your work surface and wear gloves. Mix the spawn evenly through the cooled substrate, roughly 1 part spawn to 10 parts substrate. Close the grow bag with a filter or micropore tape, so air can get in but spores cannot.

Incubation:

Keep the bag in the dark at around 23 degrees. Wood ear needs 25 to 30 days to colonise the substrate completely. Check now and then for green or wet patches, which point to contamination.

Growth and fruiting:

Move the colonised substrate somewhere bright, but out of the sun. Wood ear likes warmth and fruits between 16 and 30 degrees, at a humidity of 85 to 90 percent. Cut the bag open or make a few larger holes. Put the bag on a wet cloth and mist the inside regularly. At the same time make sure there is fresh air; in still air the ears stay small.

Harvesting:

Harvest as soon as the ears are full grown and still feel firm and rubbery. Do not wait until they turn slimy. Pull or cut them carefully off the substrate.

Storing:

Fresh wood ear keeps for about a week in a paper bag in the fridge. It dries excellently: dried wood ear keeps for years and is as good as new after half an hour of soaking.

Second harvest:

Expect 3 to 4 flushes, 2 to 3 weeks apart. Keep the substrate moist and the conditions the same, and the next ears will come by themselves.

Cleaning up:

Once the substrate is exhausted you can compost it or use it as a soil improver in the garden.