Are hardwood or straw pellets best for oyster mushrooms?
Hardwood fuel pellets supplemented with bran or soy hulls give dense, high-yield blocks, but need thorough sterilisation due to their higher nutritional content. Straw is cheap, fast, and only requires thorough pasteurisation. Straw yields can be excellent with proper hydration and compaction. However, straw will only support species that colonise substrates aggressively, outcompeting contamination. Choose based on your equipment: hardwood pellets for bags/blocks using exotic mushrooms such as lion's mane and enoki with sterilisation, or straw for aggressive species like oysters with simple pasteurisation.
