Oyster Mushroom Varieties: 7 Types Compared for Growers

"Oyster mushroom" covers a whole family of species and strains, and they are not interchangeable. Some fruit in a cold garage, some sulk below 20°C (68°F). Some keep two weeks in the fridge, some barely two days. Here is how the seven oyster varieties we get asked about compare, so you can choose the right one for your room and your kitchen.

Oyster varieties at a glance

Fruiting temperatures are the comfortable range for each. Most strains tolerate a few degrees either side, just more slowly.

Blue and pearl oyster: the cool-weather all-rounders

These are the varieties we recommend for a first grow. Both are forms of Pleurotus ostreatus, the classic oyster mushroom, and both colonise fast, resist mould well and fruit in big, layered clusters.

• Blue oyster gives dark blue-grey caps when fruited cool. In a warm room the caps come out paler and grayer, which is normal. It is one of the most cold-tolerant oysters, so it suits a garage, cellar or autumn windowsill.
• Pearl oyster has pale grey to cream caps and handles slightly warmer conditions.

In the kitchen they are mild and savoury, with tender caps and slightly chewier stems. They take on browning beautifully in a dry pan; see how to cook oyster mushrooms.

Pleurotus ostreatus also grows wild on dead hardwood. If you forage, never eat a wild mushroom unless its identity has been confirmed by an experienced local expert, and remember that some deadly species look like edible ones.

Pink oyster: fastest, but hates the cold

Pleurotus djamor is a tropical species and the speed champion of the family. In a warm room it can go from spawning to harvest in about two weeks, with ruffled, coral-pink clusters.

What to know before you grow it:

1. Keep it warm. It colonises and fruits best at 24 to 29°C (75 to 85°F). Below about 18°C (65°F) it stalls.
2. Never refrigerate it. Cold can damage pink oyster mycelium, so colonised grain and bags should stay at room temperature.
3. Harvest young, while the cap edges are still curled. Over-mature pinks turn tough.
4. Cook it the same day if you can. It keeps only two or three days.

The pink colour fades to tan-orange in the pan. Cook it thoroughly and it turns chewy and rich; some cooks compare it to ham or bacon when fried until crisp.

Golden oyster: beautiful, fragile, grow it responsibly

Pleurotus citrinopileatus forms bright lemon-yellow bouquets with thin, delicate caps. It likes the same warmth as pink oyster and is nearly as easy. The flavour is nutty and the texture tender, but the caps shatter if you handle them roughly and dry out fast, so it is rarely sold fresh in shops. That makes it a great one to grow yourself.

Golden oyster is not native to the UK. We suggest fruiting it indoors and putting spent blocks in your general waste rather than in garden compost or woodland.

King oyster: the meaty one that wants sawdust

Pleurotus eryngii is the odd one out. Instead of shelf-like clusters it grows thick white stems with small brown caps, and the stem is the prize. Sliced into rounds and seared, it has a firm, almost scallop-like bite, and it keeps 7 to 14 days in the fridge, far longer than any other oyster.

It is also harder to grow. King oyster wants supplemented hardwood sawdust that has been sterilised, cooler fruiting conditions around 15 to 20°C (59 to 68°F), and usually gives one main flush. Coir and vermiculite is not the right bulk for it. Our grain spawn still works as the starting point: colonise the grain with king oyster, then use it to spawn sawdust blocks.

Phoenix and elm oyster: summer and steady

Phoenix oyster (Pleurotus pulmonarius), also sold as Italian oyster or summer oyster depending on the strain, is the answer for warm months when blue oyster struggles. It fruits happily up to about 27°C (80°F), grows on the same substrates as blue and pearl, and has slightly smaller, paler, thinner caps with a mild flavour.

Elm oyster (Hypsizygus ulmarius) is not a true Pleurotus at all, though it looks and cooks like one. It produces larger, thicker caps, often singly or in small groups, with a firm texture that holds its shape in soups and stews. It keeps well, about a week in the fridge. It is a little slower to colonise than true oysters and does best on hardwood sawdust or straw.

Which variety should you grow?

The easiest way to choose is by the temperature of the room you will fruit in.

Growing tips for every oyster

A few rules hold across the whole family:

1. Fresh air beats everything. Oysters are sensitive to carbon dioxide. Long stems and small caps mean they need more air exchange.
2. Humidity around 85 to 95%. Mist the walls of the fruiting container, not the clusters themselves.
3. Harvest the whole cluster at once while the cap edges still curl downward. Twist it off at the base.
4. Use the right bulk. Blue, pearl, pink, golden and phoenix fruit beautifully on CV Prime, our pasteurised coir and vermiculite. Mix colonised grain spawn in at about 1 : 2 grain to substrate by weight and fruit straight from the bag. The step-by-step method is in how to grow oyster mushrooms on CV substrate.
5. Rest and rehydrate between flushes. See how to get a second flush.

For fruiting room setup, our guide to mushroom fruiting conditions covers light, air and humidity in detail.

The short version

• Blue and pearl oyster are the easiest and most forgiving. Blue is the pick for cool rooms.
• Pink and golden oyster love warmth, grow fast and must be eaten within two or three days.
• Phoenix (Italian) oyster fills the summer gap when blue oyster struggles.
• King oyster has the best texture and shelf life but needs supplemented hardwood sawdust.
• Elm oyster is firm, keeps well and is a little slower to colonise.
• Fruit golden oyster indoors and keep spent blocks out of garden compost and woodland.
• Store all of them in a paper bag in the fridge; our mushroom storage guide has the details.

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