Have you ever wanted to grow some mushrooms? Mushrooms are an awesome addition to any garden.
For Mushrooms to grow, they need a dark, moist environment. Organically derived substrates such as straw, compost, manure, sawdust, and coco coir retain moisture and produce higher, healthier yields.
The 6 Steps to growing mushrooms are:
- Choosing the variety
- Obtaining the Mushroom Spawn
- Inoculation
- Incubation
- Fruiting
- Harvesting
Growing your own mushrooms is easier than you think. In this article, I’ve shared a step-by-step guide to growing mushrooms and what factors you need to care about to increase the yield of mushrooms.
Is it Hard To Grow Mushrooms at Home?
Mushroom cultivation at home is both complex and easy at first. However, once you’ve mastered the technique, mushroom cultivation isn’t as complicated as gardening in general.
You may even find it easier than growing plants as they can be found scattered on lawns and vegetable gardens without intervention.
By getting a mushroom cultivation kit, you can take the guesswork out of cultivating mushrooms for the first time and reduce some of the anxiety associated with it.
Kits typically contain everything needed to produce mushrooms, along with instructions. Almost any type of mushroom can be cultivated at home, but some are simpler to grow than other species.
Home-based mushrooms (shiitake mushrooms etc.) are promising options for people that are just starting off with mushroom production. You can get kits for these home-based mushrooms, but if you want, you can also find mushroom spawns.
They are manageable, and they come in many varieties. Home-based mushrooms like Enoki mushrooms are cultivated in both nature and the home.
If you are interested in growing your own mushrooms, I have found this organic growing kit from amazon to be cost-effective and produce yummy mushrooms with minimal effort. It’s perfect for both beginners and enthusiasts alike.
You can find it by clicking here.
Steps To Cultivate Mushrooms:
Here are a few instructions you should follow to grow high-quality mushrooms:
Choose a Variety of Mushrooms:
Start by choosing the ideal type of mushrooms to cultivate. Some homegrown mushrooms like Button mushrooms and Enoki are suitable for new mushroom growers. They are simple to develop and don’t have any complicated instructions to follow.
Get Mushroom Spawn:
After selecting your ideal species of mushroom, you need to buy spawn or spores of that mushroom. Spawn is a substrate with its root structure already growing, while spores are just like a seed. It is better to purchase spawn rather than spores.
Mushroom spores can take a lot of time to grow, while mushroom spawn already has a growing mycelium, so they require less time to develop.
Inoculate the Substrate:
Next, you need to put your mushroom spores or spawn in a growing medium. This step is mainly skipped, but it can be beneficial for the high-quality growth of mushrooms.
This introduction of mushroom spawn to a substrate is done under sanitary conditions. This decreases the chance of any form of mold forming on the mushroom culture.
Incubation:
After you finish insulating the substrate, you need to incubate it. You should pick a dark, warm spot in your room and put your mushroom culture there for some time.
After some months pass, the mushroom will consume the substrate and mature into a fully grown form.
Fruiting:
Now that your mushroom has grown, it is time to shift the cultivating conditions to fruiting conditions. Snip the container or bag open and disclose your growing mushroom to the outside air. Remember to water your mushrooms regularly.
By putting them in the necessary condition, your mushroom will soon start to fruit.
Harvest Fully-mature Mushrooms:
After the fruiting is over and the spores have shed, you need to collect the mushroom. Snip the mushroom cap from the remaining part of the fungi.
Avoid tugging or yanking the mushroom. Tugging the mushroom too harshly can damage the mycelium. So, we recommend using a sharp tool to remove the mushroom caps. Then you can store these mushroom caps or cook them.
Types of Mushrooms to Grow
You can enjoy fresh mushrooms any time at home by growing them yourself. For home growing, the best variety is oyster mushrooms, but you can use any type of mushroom.
Growing mushrooms at home are easy, but you should choose them from organic sources. No special equipment to propagate store-bought mushrooms, all you need is a good
Here is a list of easy-to-grow mushrooms:
- Oyster Mushrooms
- Enoki
- Shiitake Mushrooms
- Button / Cremini / Portobello Mushrooms
- Maitake
The most common types of mushrooms that people grow in their homes are oyster mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms. These two varieties are very popular because they have a high yield per unit area. They also do not require much attention during growth.
The other types of mushrooms such as enokis, button mushrooms, portobellos, maitakes, etc., are less commonly used because they take more work and attention than the first two.
How to grow mushrooms at home using mushroom kits
Growing mushrooms at home is easy, fun, and inexpensive. All you need is some clean soil, a light source, and a container. The best thing about growing mushrooms at home is that you can control everything from the temperature to the lighting.
If you want to grow mushrooms for profit, then you should look into purchasing a mushroom kit from Amazon.
The most beneficial part of purchasing a mushroom kit is that the most time-consuming part of growing mushrooms, sterilizing and inoculating the growth substrate, has already been done.
You just have to cut open a little window in the bag, soak it face-down in water, and then place the kit in a cool, dimly-lit room.
Types Of Mushroom Kits
There are many different types of mushroom kits available on Amazon. Some of these include:
1. Oyster Mushroom Kit – This is the best type of mushroom kit to start with if you want to grow mushrooms at home. It includes everything you need to get started, including a starter culture, substrate, and instructions.
2. Enoki Mushroom Kit – This is an excellent option if you already know how to grow mushrooms or if you want to try growing enokis. It contains everything you need to get going.
3. Shiitake Mushroom Kit – This is another great option if you want to grow shiitakes. It has everything you need to get your feet wet, including a starter culture.
4. Maitake Mushroom Kit – This kit will help you learn how to grow one of the most delicious varieties of mushrooms. It includes everything you will need to get started.
5. Button Mushroom Kit – This is a perfect kit for beginners who want to grow button mushrooms and is also easy to set up.
6. Portobello Mushroom Kit – This kit is great for anyone looking to grow portobellos. It contains everything you will need to begin.
How Long Does it Take For Mushrooms To Grow?
The amount of time it takes to grow mushrooms relies entirely on what type of mycelium you plan on growing and the method you are following.
When you cultivate mushrooms with a mushroom kit, it requires about 11-13 days to form mature mushrooms.
Substrates rich in minerals and nutrients, on the other hand, will grow faster, though they will require purifying medium and inoculation in a laboratory. So, it is better to get a substrate that is abundant in nutrients and minerals.
The use of substrates rich in minerals will require purifying media and using a laboratory, but the advantages of increased yields and quick fruiting will outweigh any inconvenience.
If you are maturing mushrooms without a kit, it might take time to see any growth.
The entire cycle of cropping up mushrooms from spores to evolved mushrooms takes anywhere from 5 weeks to 8 weeks for the most common types of homegrown mushrooms.
Similarly, PsilocybeI (also known as magic mushrooms) can come into existence from spores within five weeks to eight weeks. The process of inoculating the substrate with mycelium takes one week to four weeks.
Fruiting takes a few days to almost a month once the substrate has been prepared. Shiitake mushrooms (and other mushrooms grown on logs) require one to two years to inoculate the log before you can collect them. Logs can be farmed annually.
How Often Do You Need To Water Mushrooms?
Depending on the varieties of mushrooms you’re cultivating, the pot or container, the moisture content in the soil, and their appearance, you’ll need to water them more often or less often.
Generally, watering once a day is not enough; spray 3-6 times on each side twice a day with a spray bottle. Mushrooms are almost 100℅ water, so they must be watered on a daily basis.
Whenever the soil is parched, spray 2 – 4 times a day if you can give attention to your mushrooms more frequently. Spraying 2 – 4 times a day will increase development, especially after your mushroom shows its first sign of growth.
When you mist your growth kit mushrooms, leave it sitting on its rear side so that water does not spill out.
You can tell that your mushrooms are dehydrated by a number of signs. If the mushroom caps start to tear up, they are dehydrated and require extra water. Keep them soaked every day until they are ready to harvest.
Home-Based Mushrooms:
For home-based mushrooms like shiitake mushrooms, water them three times each day when you first plant them. As they begin to peek through the soil, you can increase the frequency to several times a day.
Be careful not to water the mycelium; only water the ground where mycelium is growing.
See our detailed post on how to water mushrooms to produce the best yields.
Do Mushrooms Require Daylight?
Mushrooms are a type of fungi. They are not autotrophs and can not generate energy on their own. They depend on other species and nonliving matter for nutrition.
Mycelium does not have chlorophyll and doesn’t need daylight for proper functioning.
Although mushrooms need as much darkness as possible to spawn, some amount of light is not harmful to them.
Also, fruit bodies are formed only after receiving a small amount of indirect dim light, so mushrooms do need a faint light source to develop fruit.
However, mushrooms often grow in dull, woodland settings where they receive screened light. They can also be grown indoors under indirect sunlight or a fluorescent lamp.
Do Mushrooms Cultivate Faster in The Dark?
The answer is YES. It should be noted that the main distinction between fungi and green plants is the way that mycelium makes use of daylight. Fungi cannot transform sunlight into fuel, so light is not as crucial for them.
During the blooming period, mushrooms only use light from the sun for a few moments a day.
If you are developing mushrooms, you should keep them in humid places and only disclose them to the sun for a limited time a day.
The growth of mushrooms is more influenced by darkness than by sunlight, contrary to popular belief. For a mushroom to flourish, the soil must be more than 80℅ water, and atmospheric humidity must be more than 80℅ moisture.
Darkness retains moisture better. Water droplets in the air do not vaporize quite as rapidly when daylight is not present. Hence, mushrooms don’t lose water to transpiration and grow better.
What Temperature Do Mushrooms Need To Grow?
Winter is particularly hard on mushrooms. They particularly dislike the desert-dry air that is often associated with more bitter conditions, and a hint of a chill is disastrous for them.
For mushrooms to produce abundantly, humid conditions and temperatures above 55 degrees F do the trick. Still, temperatures shouldn’t rise too high above 65 degrees, although they can tolerate a bit of heat.
We recommend keeping your grow kit at 24 degrees Celsius or 75 degrees Fahrenheit when you are growing psilocybin mushrooms because that is the optimal temperature for growth.
Ensure the climate in your grow kit, and your mushroom spawn stays consistent. Fungi are not a fan of sudden temperature changes. Environments that are extremely hot or extremely cold can delay fruiting.
Can You Regrow Mushrooms?
Mushrooms can be regrown but it takes some additional attention compared to growing them from a kit or from spawns.
after the kit of mushrooms has been used move them outdoors into a shady area and water them lightly. A change in the environmental conditions can stimulate mushrooms to fruit.
The mushroom kit can also be buried into the soil with minimal soil cover to protect the spores from the elements. This also allows for the mushrooms to soak up moisture from the soil around them. Remember shady areas work best!
The Takeaway
Although mushroom cultivation can seem complicated and time-consuming, the truth is quite the opposite.
You can grow mushrooms quickly as long as you choose the suitable variety to cultivate and follow the exact steps to make them thrive. It is also essential to know the growing conditions for fungi growth.
Mushrooms require little to no light for proper growth and functioning. They prefer shade and grow better in the dark.
Mushrooms are water-loving fungi and love humid and wet conditions. With the right amount of watering, you can achieve a high yield of high-quality mushrooms.
Contrary to popular belief, fungi or mushrooms thrive in high temperatures. But not too high as extremely high temperatures can kill the fungi.
