How to Grow Mushrooms Easily

The least labor-intensive way to grow mushrooms at home is with a purchased indoor mushroom kit. With many kits to choose from, you can grow several types of gourmet mushrooms, including oysters, shiitake and button, in a few weeks. After your kit has had several flushes (crops) of mushrooms, break it up and dig it into an old compost heap or a shady, damp area in your yard, where they are likely to naturalize on their own.

Things You'll Need

• Mushroom kit
• Plastic tub or tray
• Light source
• Water misting bottle

Instructions

1. Open the boxed kit carefully, making sure not to cut, puncture or tear through any of the packaging inside. Remove, read and set aside any specific directions included that pertain to your particular kit.

2. Remove the kit from the box and place in a plastic tub, on a tray or place the entire kit into the tub to avoid water damage to floors or surfaces. Most mushroom kits are manufactured to allow the entire kit to remain in the box, but this often leads to moisture leakage.

3. Place your mushroom kit in a well-lit area out of direct sunlight. Your kit will be fine in the dark overnight; constant light is not needed. Any area with light strong enough to read in will work.

4. Find a location with fairly consistent temperatures between 65 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Place a room thermometer in different rooms of your house, garage or shed to find the ideal location. Your kit will produce mushrooms at ranges between 55 to 74 degrees, but will do better if temperatures are kept in the optimum range. After finding the right location, if it does not have enough natural lighting, a lamp fitted with an incandescent bulb placed near the mushrooms and left on 12 hours a day is an acceptable substitute.

5. Mist the mushroom kit thoroughly every day. Mist the inner bag to the point where moisture beads up on the outer bag. Avoid over-watering, which will result in water pooling at the bottom of the container, as it will cause rot.

6. Increase the misting to 2 to 3 times a day when mushrooms begin to fruit out of the inner bag (usually within 4 to 7 days, but sometimes 7 to 14 days). Leave the top of the plastic kit liner pulled up, but open to retain humidity and allow air circulation needed for mushroom growth.

7. Harvest mushrooms when they mature or stop growing. Pick mushrooms by grasping at the stem and gently twisting until the mushrooms release. Continue to mist the kit 2 to 3 times a day while harvesting. Most kits will have one large flush of several to many mushrooms and then have smaller crops with each subsequent flush. The size of each flush will depend on growing conditions and the type of mushrooms.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to find a location where you can watch your mushrooms growing. If left in an out of the way place, they could be forgotten.

• Break your mushroom kit into small pieces when it has stopped fruiting. Dig the pieces into your compost pile. They may colonize the compost pile and begin fruiting there, but if not, it is still good for your compost.

• Do not harvest mushrooms that appear dry, sickly or deformed.

• If you are allergic to mushrooms, place your kit outdoors or in a garage.

References

• Mother Earth News: Grow Your Own Mushrooms

Resources

• Fungi Perfecti: Ready to Grow Mushroom Patches