Oyster mushrooms are a very useful species for a number of things and reasons.
They are absolutely voracious and are not prone to contamination, making them very
easy to cultivate for even the beginner. You can use them to recycle the cardboard that
you would normally throw away into food, with a very efficient bio-conversion might I add.
One lb of dry cardboard easily equals one pound of fresh oyster mushrooms once you get
your method down.
The spent mushroom substrate can then be used for a high quality worm food and makes
a spectacular vermicompost. That vermicompost could be applied in the form of a tea as a
foliar feed for your AP system, or sold at a local farmers market or to a hydroponics shop.
AACT (actively aerated compost teas) are great as a foliar feed because you are introducing
aerobic, plant benefiting bacteria to the leaves, which are often the plants first line of defense
against fungal and other bacterial infections. There is also calcium in AACT, which is reported
to be one of the lacking nutrients in AP systems. The worms can also be used as a protein
source for the fish.
Mushrooms themselves are also very high in protein and other nutrients. Here is a link to
the nutritional data on oyster mushrooms- http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/veg ... cts/3050/2
Supplementing mushrooms to a diet with fish seems like it would be very good way to get
protein without much bad fat and cholesterol like what beef contains. They have a large
amount of potassium as well, more than bananas.
I don't know if you could grow them directly in an AP system unless you were using a coconut
fiber substrate, and even then they might be more prone to contamination. Would still be a nice
experiment though!
