im a noob and this is what i do, critique is welcome!
first i clean the bench and my hands, then i get a chinese takeaway container and fill it two thirds with water. i work at coles so i bring home the cardboard that the apples are displayed on (its kinda like egg carton cardboard). i tear the cardboard into little chunks and submerge the shreds. i then put the lid on the box and nuke it for 6 minutes.
after that i CAREFULLY drain the hot water while keeping the cardboard in the box and leave it to sit for a few minutes with the lid rested n top with a small opening for steam to leave
once its cool i take the bum end/spawn/skinned stipe of the mushroom and plop it in, close the lid, label the date and species, give it a good shake and leave it under my desk.
so far its been really really good for king oysters and white oysters, theyve even started pinning on the cardboard alone, and what i think is Hypsizygus tessellatus is colonising well too. ive had poor luck with shitake though
i recently took the pininng king oyster out of it box because the mushrooms were getting too big for such a small box and i microwaved some more cardboard, some newspaper, a handful of coffee beans and a handful of whole rye (or was it barley i forgot) grains in a bigger plastic container, drained off the water, let it cool, put the colonised cardboard in and shook the whole thing up
so far ive learnt from failures that oysters LOVE coffee but HATE tea (or at least contams love tea more) and they also HATE getting too wet and even an egg yolk is enough to drown them. they seem fine with dry dog food though!
