3 Best Methods for Growing Mushrooms at Home
If you’re bored with growing vegetables in your garden, perhaps it’s time to spice things up with some fungal crops. Mushrooms are surprisingly simple to grow at home, and mycology enthusiast Logan Hailey has three tried-and-true methods for getting started.
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If you’re bored with growing vegetables in your garden, perhaps it’s time to spice things up with some fungal crops. Mushrooms are surprisingly simple to grow at home and yield consistent, tasty harvests that can be used in a variety of recipes.
From inoculated in-ground beds and raised beds to containers and pre-made grow bags, there are so many varieties and opportunities for home-scale fungal cultivation. We’ve partnered with North Spore Mushrooms to offer the highest quality spawn and mushroom grow kits to fit a variety of garden settings.
Let’s dig into the best methods for growing delicious culinary mushrooms at home!
Best Methods for Growing Mushrooms at Home
You don’t need an entire indoor humidity chamber to grow mushrooms. Many species eagerly sprout and fruit out in the garden or indoors on your countertop. These three methods are reliable and beginner-friendly ways for almost anyone to start cultivating edible fungi.
In-Ground Bed
You may be wondering if you can grow mushrooms outdoors in a home vegetable garden. If you have partially shaded pathways or in-ground beds, the answer is yes! Depending on the species, any partially shaded garden area is ideal for inoculation. Avoid areas with direct sun, but ensure there is some dappled light. Mushrooms will not grow in complete darkness.
Wine caps (the all-time favorite of @jacquesinthegarden) are particularly well-suited to shaded outdoor beds. They are also called “King of the Garden” mushrooms because they thrive in garden settings and readily spread through shaded borders and pathways without inhibiting plant growth. The mycelium actually enriches soil biodiversity and supports your crops.
Rake and Moisten
First, rake away any mulch from the surface. Existing mulch could harbor competitive fungi that may compromise your desired species’ ability to colonize the medium.
Next, you need to moisten the soil. Although mushrooms are not plants or animals, they have many of the same needs. Water, light, oxygen, and food are crucial for their survival and success.
Layer Wood Chips and Straw
You can begin building a raised mushroom bed similar to a lasagna style garden. The organic materials layered into the bed serve as “food” for the fungal mycelium, which is an underground root-like structure that eventually produces mushrooms above the surface. Straw is the most reliable and fast-yielding medium for growing outdoor mushrooms because almost any species can colonize it, and they will fruit more quickly than they will in logs.
However, fungi can decompose this fluffy mulch relatively quickly, so it helps to add more woody material. Tree wood chips are another great substrate to mix in. Wood chips can be layered on top to ensure a long-lasting yet quick-producing mushroom bed. Be sure to choose a nice tree species like Douglas fir, red oak, red maple, or box elder. Note that hardwoods are the most desirable wood chips, but Douglas fir (a softwood) is an exception because many fungal species easily colonize its wood.
Layer the wood chips first as a solid foundation, then water generously. As you add each layer, be sure to irrigate and moisten thoroughly. Next, add a layer of straw. Chopped straw like GardenStraw is reliable and oxygenated, making it easier for fungus to breathe and colonize.
Spread and Cover the Spawn
The last layer of the bed is spawn. Mushroom spawn is a substrate that is pre-colonized by mycelium. Purchase quality spawn and break it up with your hands before spreading. Sprinkle these chunks onto the surface of the straw. Big and medium-sized chunks are nice additions to the bed to help the fungus spread throughout the bed.
Finally, repeat the layering process to cover the spawn. Moisten with a hose, layer on another couple of inches of wood chips, and water again. Cover with a layer of straw and water the bed. The final order of materials should be wood-straw-spawn-wood-straw.
Fruiting and Maintenance
The raised bed will basically turn into compost and begin yielding big wine caps. Keep outdoor beds consistently moist and partially shaded. They should begin fruiting within 2-6 months and continue fruiting for years to come. You can add wood chips once or twice a year to keep the bed producing indefinitely. This fungus will live for as long as it has food to eat.
Containers
If you don’t have much extra outdoor space, the container method is another super easy way to grow mushrooms at home. You can use grow bags, buckets, or other containers to produce your favorite fungal species in almost any location. In the video above, Jacques and Kevin use Epic Grow Bags with a simple straw substrate.
Pink oyster mushrooms are a great opportunity for fast-growing container producers. This species is more tropical, which means it thrives in the warmer growing environment of an indoor mushroom bag. Avoid putting these outdoors in cold weather.
Filling the Grow Bag
First, add a layer of chopped straw to your grow bag and thoroughly moisten it. Grab a handful of North Spore sawdust spawn and crumble a layer in over the straw. You can spread spawn throughout as many as ten small bags for maximum yielding.
Next, add another layer of straw and then more spawn. Practice this repeat layering until you fill the bag, ensuring a layer of straw over the top. Wet the bag and then decide how you want your mushrooms to fruit: they can grow from the sides and the top, or just from the top.
Choose Upper or Lateral Fruiting
You can allow the oysters to poke up through the top of the grow bag, which requires no modification. Or you can cut holes in the sides of the grow bag so they can also fruit horizontally from the center. Both methods work well; they only differ in the location of the harvests and the destruction of a grow bag.
Raised Beds
Can you imagine harvesting mushrooms and vegetables from the same bed? You can inoculate raised garden beds with spawn even if crops are already growing there!
Fungi thrive symbiotically with plants, breaking down organic material below the surface to enrich the soil while simultaneously yielding edible harvests aboveground. Fungi can even trap and eat harmful nematodes under the soil surface.
Spread Straw and Inoculate
Grab some straw and spread it over the bed as mulch. Wet the surface with a hose. Choose a spawn from a species like blue oyster, which does well in outdoor, mild-climate beds. Crumble the spawn in your hands and sprinkle over the straw throughout the bed. Cover with more straw and water thoroughly.
Maintain Moisture
Keep in mind that this method is a bit less reliable than the other two. More things can go wrong, particularly with moisture. However, you can still bury whole chunks of spawn around your garden and hope that the mushrooms emerge right out of your raised beds.
