Grow Mushrooms At Home
Have you ever questioned how mushrooms grow? The work of growing your own mushrooms may seem like a lot of work at first, but it is a good experience and is now simpler than before to start thanks to the availability of DVD’s and books. In order to grow mushrooms, you will need to know the basic process as well as the conditions for growing and several other factors. The general process of how mushrooms grow is as follows:
get the spores or spawns of the mushroom you plan to grow. spores or spawns are also known as agar cultures or test tube cultures. You can make them yourself or buy it.
Next, grab some sawdust or sterilized grain and inoculate the spores into it so that mushroom spawns can form. Spawns can also be purchased from suppliers.
Depending on what type of mushrooms you are wanting to grow will most likely determine what materials you will need. Various strains of mushrooms grow better in soil while others prefer woody materials like straw, wood chips and even tree stumps and logs.
Step Four… use the spawns to activate the growth of mycelium, the fibrous network of mushrooms. For mushrooms that grow in soil, it is best to use compost to feed the mushrooms because they need to gather nutrients from a source because they can’t make their own food since they have no chlorophyll
Step Five – you will need to layer the compost with material that does not have a lot of nutrients, like peat moss. The purpose of this is to encourage the growth of the mushrooms or fruiting bodies. The top layer will retain moisture while preventing the growth of other bacteria and/or unwanted microorganisms, therefore the reason why you want to use something that has little to no nutrients to avoid the growth of other organisms.
Lastly, all you have to do is wait until the first flush appears then you can harvest and enjoy your edible mushrooms. Usually that occurs within a few weeks and every additional flush occurs within 10 or so days. For the time being, you should be aware of keeping the compost moist and within the optimal growing temperature. You can get roughly 3-5 flushes before you will need to start over. This applies mainly to soil based mushrooms. A mushroom log can last much longer.
Relative to what species of mushrooms you start with will decide which steps you must go through and which you can skip. For novices it would be best to start with a mushroom grow kit to avoid some of the earlier steps that require more work and attention. You now have a basic understanding of the process of growing mushrooms. It can be a rewarding experience if you take the time to learn how to grow your own mushrooms. Here’s to a successful first harvest!
