Grow Your Own Medicinal Mushrooms – A Beginners Guide
Why not grow your own medicinal mushrooms as a practical solution to heading off into the countryside to forage for your own mushrooms or always buying from a local store.
Mushroom hunting can be a lot of fun but also time consuming and buying from a store can be costly and you also never know just how fresh the mushroom really is. Growing your own medicinal mushrooms on the other hand is fun and gives you a creative outlet and total control over the number and type of mushroom you get. You get to decide what variety you like most.
Another benefit is you don’t need to be concerned about picking poisonous mushroom because if you buy mushroom spores from a reputable outlet, you can have confidence they will only be selling edible medicinal mushrooms that taste great in many different dishes.
There are a few basics that will help when you set out to begin mushroom growing, that will minimize frustration and failure and increase your enjoyment and mushroom yield,
Choosing Your Preferred Mushroom Type
Growing your own mushrooms provides a blank canvas as you can choose to grow any and all of the types of mushroom you like most and you can be adventurous and grow mushrooms other than the traditional white button mushrooms.
Each type of mushroom requires a slightly different approach. Many first-time growers choose to start with Oyster mushroom grow kits as they are simple to begin with and learn and don’t require a great deal of maintenance. You could then progress to other mushroom like Reishi, Wine Cap, Shiitake, and Lion’s Mane as your confidence and self-belief grows.
When you buy your medicinal mushroom growing supplies, you will usually have everything in one box to quickly get set up and start your new hobby.
Mushroom Spawn
Inside your kit you should have the spawn for your chosen type of mushroom. You could also go online and buy spawn or visit local stores, but it is best to ensure the kit contains everything required to get started. It is a quicker and easier alternative for most people.
As your skill set and enjoyment grows, you could consider growing spawn of your own by extracting spore from existing mushrooms. In the early mushroom growing days this may be difficult to do properly so using bought spawn will be the easier option.
The Substrate
The substrate is the material on which the mushroom will grow and could be anything from straw, to wood pellets or shavings, paper bags or even corn cobs and many others.
Each mushroom type has a preferred substrate in which they thrive so look to match the mushroom with the recommended substrate to ensure a bountiful harvest.
Again, Oyster mushrooms are very forgiving and can grow well on many varied substrate so they are a great species to start your journey.
The key to successful mushroom growing is to treat the substrate you choose to cultivate the mushrooms on by using a cold fermentation process, lime baths or heat and pasteurization. Or simpler still, make sure your mushroom grow kit has the substrate ready to go.
“Plant” Your Spawn
Now we get to the “technical” part of mushroom growing.
If your mushroom grow kit is not of the kind where you essentially take it out the box and set it up, you need to do what is known as ‘inoculate the spawn’ by injecting spawn onto the substrate until it is moist, using a heated syringe. It may sound complicated, but it’s not. Ensure you inject into multiple areas of the substrate, so all mushrooms don’t grow mainly in one place.
Harvest the Mushrooms
Once you’re done with the process of planting your spawn, the next stage is to fruit and then harvest the medicinal mushrooms.
First place small cuts in the substrate bag so air can enter freely and find a place for it in indirect light. Some mushroom like warmer areas and some cooler so place the substrate in the most suitable environment to obtain the greatest harvest.
Mushroom generally grows fast, certainly compared to most other fruit and vegetables so in a week or so you will start to see your new mushrooms. Make sure you know what a grown mushroom looks like for the variety you have chosen and when you get to that stage, use a sharp knife or scissors and cut off the cap about a thumb thickness below the cap.
Oyster mushrooms for example, become flat when they are ready to be picked. Each mushroom gives a different telltale sign so be sure you know what to look for.
Wrap Up
Growing your own mushrooms can be hugely rewarding and fun. You can do it the easy way with mushroom grow kits from a mushroom growing supplier that provide ready to go kits with everything you need or you can choose to be more adventurous and buy individual items and set it up your own way.
Many first-time mushroom growers start with complete Oyster Mushroom grow kits and then progress to more challenging projects as they gain knowledge and confidence.
The choice is yours.
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