The Easiest Way to Grow Mushrooms at Home
Growing your own mushrooms is an interesting way to add this vegetable to your meals. The trick is to have plenty of patience because it takes a year or two to harvest the mushrooms once you plant them. After that, you will reap the harvest for two to four years. For a continuous supply of mushrooms, plant more within a year or two of the first crop. Mushrooms add a nutty flavor to your dishes and can be eaten raw or cooked. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Freshly cut log
- Drill and drill bit
- Large plastic spray bottle or water hose
- Wooden dowels with mushroom mycelium (choose a wood-eating species)
- Candle
Instructions
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Ask your local cooperative extension agency where you can purchase wood-eating mycelium or order it online (see Resources). The most effective way to plant them in logs is to coat the wooden dowels with the mycelium. The mycelium will grow and spread its way through the damp logs and produce its fruit, the mushroom.
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Trim any branches off a freshly cut log and lay it in a shady area that doesn't receive much sunlight. Mushrooms need shade and moisture to thrive.
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Drill a few holes into the log with a ¼-inch or larger drill bit. The mycelium dowels are only about an inch in length, but you will place more than one in each hole, so drill them several inches deep.
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Moisten the holes using a plastic spray bottle or a water hose.
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Place a few mycelium dowels into each hole. Do not allow them to extend out of the hole.
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Seal the holes by holding a lit candle over each of the holes. Allow the melting wax to cover and seal each hole. This will ensure the moisture stays inside.
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Water your log often enough to keep it damp. This is especially important during dry or hot weather conditions. Wait a year or longer for your mushrooms to sprout.
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Tips & Warnings
Use your mushrooms raw on salads, in Asian stir-fry dishes, in casseroles or as a marinated topping for meat dishes.
Do not eat mushrooms you find in the wild without first researching the variety to see if it is edible. Some mushrooms are poisonous.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit mushroom image by Horticulture from Fotolia.com
