Learn about mushrooms pins and how to trigger their growth.
3 min read - Feb 01, 2025
Blue oyster mushroom pins
Above all, the mushroom cultivation process takes diligence and patience. For weeks, you must keep your environment organized and clean to give your mycelium the best chance of fruiting. However, key milestones still excite the most seasoned cultivator throughout this slightly mundane process. Arguably, the most exciting milestone throughout this process is when a cultivator begins to see mushroom pins, which means your next harvest is right around the corner.
Before we dig deeper into mushroom pins, let's quickly review the mushroom cultivation process so we can appreciate reaching this milestone a bit more. While the cultivation process can vary from person to person, the process generally follows a similar pattern.
The first step to mushroom cultivation is obtaining a spore or mycelium culture of the mushroom you hope to grow in due time. These can be purchased in syringe form and injected directly into a substrate. However, many folks create agar cultures, which are extremely valuable for long-term storage and optimum gene selection.
After the mycelium successfully grows on your agar, you can confidently select and cut out a healthy section and transfer it to a growth substrate. The substrate is usually a sterilized grain (e.g., rye grain, popcorn, wild birdseed) inside a mason jar or mushroom grow bag. Like every step listed here, the growth rate varies based on the species used, but you can expect it to wait about 2 weeks.
Once your grain is fully inoculated, you can use this opportunity to significantly expand your mycelium by breaking it up and transferring it to more sterilized jars or grow bags. At the very least, you can quadruple the amount of inoculated substrate, leading to a larger harvest.
After your mycelium has eaten through all of your substrate, it's time to transfer all of it to a fruiting substrate. The mycelium will need some time to grow through the substrate, but fruiting should start soon after. Now, growers know their harvest is coming when they finally see mushroom pins! After weeks of guiding your mycelium to this fruiting substrate, witnessing mushroom pins shows that your hard work was not in vain.
Blue oyster mushroom pins
Mushroom pins, scientifically called primordia, are the recognizable formation of tissue signaling the earliest stage of mushroom development. It's important to note that once mushroom pins begin to form, you should expect to see mature mushrooms within a few days if the environment is well-kept. This means that you should carefully schedule when you plan to trigger the pinning stage so that you are on high alert when they begin to grow.
Let's walk through the key triggers that inform your mycelium to begin its reproductive phase.
Blue oyster mushroom pins
Finding the right balance for each of the triggers above varies from species to species. It's essential to know that we're simply trying to mimic the natural environment of the mushroom in the wild. When picking your next mushroom to grow, research its natural environment to be confident in providing what it needs for success. Mushroom cultivation is a marathon, and seeing mushroom pins is something you should be very proud of. We hope you learned something new after reading this article, and we wish you the best on your new cultivation journey!
