Wood Ash

Our sifted wood ash can be used in replacement of lime for cold water pasteurisation of substrates, a more natural and environmentally friendly way of preparing your mushroom substrates prior to inoculation.

When mixed with water, wood ash significantly raises the PH to 11-14 which kills most competitor organisms, leading to a fully hydrated and pasteurised substrate. Wood ash is mostly used to pasteurise straw, but can also be used to pasteurise hardwood pellets.

Our premium wood ash is the powdery residue left after the combustion of wood, in our case, untreated hardwoods. We collect wood ash from our partnering wood-fired pizzeria’s who save it for us in exchange for our mushrooms. We also top up our supplies during cold winter evenings when our wood-burner is running in our unit, again we only ever burn untreated hardwoods.

Cold water pasteurisation of substrates is becoming ever more popular with the home mushroom cultivator, it’s less energy intensive, eco-friendly, safer and easier. We use wood ash to pasteurise straw when growing our oyster mushrooms on a commercial level. We’ve found yields to be as high as energy intensive steam pasteurisation, and it costs us a lot less too!

1 good sized handful (approx 100g) is enough to raise a 55 gallon drum of water to a pH suitable for pasteurisation. Simple mix into water. The pH can be measured using our litmus paper strips.