That is mushroom spawn, it's basically an auger that has been sprinkled with spores then blended up and mixed with a substrate. Nutrient auger is a bit tough to keep clean of other fungi. You basically have to work in a really sterile environment to keep other fungi and bacteria out of your auger. Here's a long article roughly explaining how it's done https://sciencing.com/make-nutrient-agar-home-6317533.html
Oyster mushrooms are a pretty aggressive mushroom so you can probably get them to grow without auger.
You can also buy already infused auger and inject it into a substrate to try and get mushrooms to grow. https://www.amazon.com/Root-mushroom-Mushroom-Cultures-erinaceus/dp/B07J2X8SWK/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=mushroom+spawn&qid=1584364378&sr=8-6
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Thank you for expaining things to me, I am still trying to figure out ow things work.
I guess since mushroom spawn is generally delicate, that is why mushroom spawn is shipped to customers in a sealed plastic bag. Then my question becomes why are customers instructed to cut the bags open (thus getting rid of the sterile environment?)
Once again thank you for taking the time to teach me about this process.
Once you cut open the bag you mist the openings and the new moisture starts the mycelium producing fruiting bodies aka shrooms. The right temperature and humidity is needed though to get them growing.
Wont the hole introduce too much competition (bacteria and other spores of fungus)that will destroy the mushrooms that you are wanting to grow?
:)
It can, but usually the mushrooms that are grown commercially are aggressive. I've had a few blocks eventually get overtaken if I introduced too much water. Usually the standard green fridge mold is the culprit.
Also how does a person create their own plugs?
Is it easy to identify what you are not suppose to eat?
Probably easier just to buy plugs, they are pretty cheap. As for foraging just learn the major edible mushrooms like morels, oysters, lions mane, dryads saddle and chicken of the woods. All the rest require lots of research.
Am I understanding things correctly, are mushroom plugs like the 'germs' and by drilling into a log and hammering the plugs in...basicly we are shoving the 'germy' plugs into the healthy logs. Is that right?
Just drill a hole in a dead log then put the plug in. Wait until the weather is rainy and the right temperature and see if any shrooms have sprouted.
Do you suppose that if a bunch of dead logs were place near a log that had been inoculated, do you think that all of the logs would produce mushrooms?