How To Grow Mushrooms

Okay, so you’re starting to grow your own mushrooms and you want to know some things.

Here we will shortly cover one of the conditions to grow mushrooms, namely how much light if any, is needed to grow them.

Many people have thought that it is an absolute must to grow mushrooms in the dark. That is not true, nor is it completely false or without reason to believe so, however.

Mushrooms, unlike plants, do not contain chlorophyll and therefore do not have the ability to convert sunlight to food through the process known as photosynthesis.  Instead, they need to “leech” their nutrients from other sources, that’s where substrates such as soil, straw or logs come into play. So, with that said, this means mushrooms can grow just fine in the dark, but it does not mean that mushrooms cannot grow if exposed to sunlight.

There is a logical reason for people to grow mushrooms in the dark. Although mushrooms do not use light to produce food, they are in fact sensitive to it. They will grow towards the direction of light first of all.

Secondly when mushrooms sense the light, it tells them to start, what is called “pinning” or begin to form the fruiting bodies we have come to know as mushrooms. What this translates to in essence, is that you use light on your substrate to tell the mushrooms to start growing at a certain point when you feel it is right. It should also be mentioned that light is only one factor affecting mushrooms pinning. Other factors include the carbon dioxide levels and temperature. But you’ll come to know this through experience.

The type of growing medium for mushrooms varies with the mushroom species you are trying to grow.

While there are mushrooms that can grow on almost any medium, some will only grow on certain material.

A good example would be truffles. They are only known to grow in the soil underground and near the base of a tree.If you try you grow truffles on a log or stump, good luck. You’ll probably have passed before it grows.

For a species like oyster mushrooms, they can grow on a great variety of medium. Oyster mushrooms can grow on coffee grounds, sawdust, wood chips, logs, and even almost any kind of straw you can get your hands on. This pretty much categorizes oyster mushrooms as growing on woody material.

So before growing your own mushrooms, go do a little research on what growing medium suits your species. It is better to take a little time to get to know what medium helps your species grow best so you can have a successful harvest, rather than rushing only to later find out it isn’t going to work.

photo credit: timsamoff

So you love to drink coffee right?  Everyday you have one in the morning, and maybe another one or two down the road during the day to keep you energized, or maybe you just like its taste.  But after you’re done with your coffee you just end up throwing away all the used coffee grounds.  Why not use those coffee grounds for another purpose?  Yes, you could be growing mushrooms in coffee grounds.

The process of it is rather simple really.  You could be growing your own mushrooms simply by taking used coffee grounds and re purposing them.  After you have brewed your coffee for the day, the coffee grounds have already been steamed or boiled through so that already handles the sterilization/pasteurization, even though it is already clean before it is packed for us to use anyway.

The only thing required of you is to have the mushroom spawns or plugs ready.  You can either do this by making your own spawns or by getting them from a supplier.

Once you have your spawns, all that is needed is to mix the spawns with about a bucket or so of coffee grounds.  After that is done, you simply wait around until it starts to fruit, only making sure to keep the grounds moist by spraying now and then and keeping the mix in a relatively cool area, and that’s it.  Enjoy the fruits of your labor.