How to Grow Mushrooms at Home

Learn How to Grow Mushrooms at Home

If you love dishes with mushrooms as one of the major ingredients, you must have surely wondered if you can grow them at home for your own culinary delight. Well, the great news is that it is not very tough to grow mushrooms at home, as long as you can maintain the optimal temperature and humidity.

Just imagine how fulfilling it would be if you can pick the mushrooms right from another room in your home, and take them to your kitchen to prepare a sumptuous meal. You can set up your own area in your house where you will be able to harvest mushrooms. The first thing to start with the process is to decide what kind of mushroom you would like to grow, as different mushrooms requires different growing conditions. 

The variety

The three most popular choices for growing mushrooms at home are:

1. White button mushrooms – This variety of mushroom grown on compost soil.
2. Oyster mushrooms – You will need straws to cultivate this variety
3. Shiitake mushrooms – These mushrooms require hardwood or hardwood sawdust to grow on.
   

Spore or spawn 

The spore or spawn of the mushrooms should be of a good quality and to ensure that, you should purchase them from a reputed dealer. Basically, for the sake of simplification, spores are like the seeds of trees, while the spawns are the seedlings. Of course, logically, spawns are easier to grow and take care of, especially if you are a rookie in mushroom growing. 

Preparing the compost or the growing medium

You should take care to prepare the compost carefully, so that there are no contaminants in the compost. Since this is the food source of the mushrooms, you do not want them to get damaged. 

Adding the spawns to the compost

You will have to take care that the temperature of the place around the mushrooms remains more or less constant. Maintaining the environment of the required for the growth of mushrooms is very important. When the temperature of the compost is below 30 degrees Celsius, you should add the spawns to it. Usually, the spawn will fill the compost with mycelia over the period of a few weeks.

Basically, mushrooms require a cool, dark and damp place in your home. So you can grow them in the basement, or even a closet. Next, you will have to place the compost or the growing medium in a pan and then raise the temperature. You can make use of a heating pad for this purpose too, if that is what you prefer. 

Casting the compost and harvesting the mushrooms

Once you have placed the spawns in the compost, you will have to cast the compost bed. This involves layering the compost to encourage the growth and formation of the mushroom body. The material that you use for the casting should be high in organic material, free from pests and diseases and it should not repel water, as this is one of the most important factors while growing mushrooms in your home. 

Once the spawns have grown, you should cover them with an inch or two of potting soil. Keep the soil damp with the help of constant spray. Finally, when the mushrooms are ready to be picked, remember to pick them with an upward motion and not pull the pieces of casing with the mushrooms.