Ideal Oyster Mushroom Cultivation Conditions?

So everybody seems to give different info on this. What are the ideal conditions to simply colonize your oyster mushroom substrate?

Right now I have about ten bags of Blue Dolphin from Field and Forest fully colonized. I achieved that by pasteurizing straw in boiling water for one hour, letting it cool then mixing with my spawn about 1:3 spawn:straw ratio. (Yes I know that is more spawn than I probably need.) Anyway, I then stuffed and put those bags (poked two half inch holes per air in each bag) in a tupperware about 18 inches tall with four inches of perlite soaked in distilled water and metal foil to separate perlite and mushroom. It worked wonderfully. Which brings me to my next question.

I've just pasteurized and stuffed about 25 bags of substrate with oyser spawn and straw. I poked one larger hole and six or so smaller holes for air in these bags. I then put all of these spawn bags in a trash bag and tied the top. Will this work to inoculate the substrate bags. I figure the bags will excahnge humiditiy well and be safe from contamination from the outside, but will there be enough air do you think for the mushrooms to colonize the substrate? Do mushrooms need fresh air to colonize? I know it is a key with fruting, but have not heard how important it is or isn't for colonization period.

If anyone with experience could critique my current setup I would appreciate it. It might also be helpful if we share ideal conditions for colonization of oysters as I haven't seen all of that info collected in one place before.

Thanks for reading, please comment!!!

Don't just read it; tell me what you think!!!

If you read this thread and could comment instead of just moving along that'd be greaaaaatttttt

I think you need more air, but there are other people on here with a lot more experience. Give them a little time to find your post. Permies has many members, but not too many seem to be interested in fungi. This forum is not as active as some of the others.

What temperature are they at?

I'm not certain on how much airflow either, but mushrooms need to breath just like you and me. I don't think tying them up tight in a garbage bag is beneficial to their growth. I tried buckets of straw in a garbage bag once with little success and that was even with the top only loosely tied. I actually took one outside (it was winter) to look through the straw to see if colonization was occuring. I saw very little, only in the middle 20% of the bucket, so I instead left them in a clean corner in my bathroom out of the trash bag and figured the project was over. I'm not sure if it was the outside air, the cold or what, but I checked 3 days later and they had colonized 60-70% of the bucket and started to pin.

Another thing I can tell you is that Blue Oysters require more air exchange than other varieties - I'm not sure about the rest.

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From what I recall from various sources, there are 2 main ways to work with substrate bags:

1. Poking multiple holes, probably about 25-40 per 18 inch bag (I can't recall how many, but it was in a RogerRabbit video)

2. What I would call the "asian method". Make a small slice in 2 sides of the bag to create air flow but leave the front open. (they use zip-ties/string to make the front opening narrower)  

Both seem to work, and the only theory I can think of for #2 is that with the front open, more air exchange in one place = better fruiting. Take this all with a grain of salt, I'm only just experimenting with small scale production this coming spring so I'll be reeducating myself in early January.  

For what it's worth, a lot of the commercial asian set-ups are semi-enclosed but accessible to the outdoors - then again it's humid there. (from the videos, It's like a pole barn that only is half enclosed)

p.s This guy's set-up would indicate having around 12-24 holes in half the bag, at least judging from the pictures and the various places that the mushrooms come out.