Growing Mushrooms

[Michelle W. Flannery]

I've been interested in growing my own mushrooms for years, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I think this year will be the year I finally do it, but I know nothing about the growing process.

Mail order mushroom kits are the only growing method I know of, and those are for simple button mushrooms. Are you growing mushrooms? Do you use a kit or some other method? Are the kits any good? Is a mushroom harvest from a kit worth the expense? When kits have been fully harvested, do they continue in a seasonal growth pattern or are they unusable? Please tell me everything you know! I'm not very interested in foraging for wild mushrooms as there are no edible mushrooms in my area. Thanks for your input.

[Tamra]

I did a kit for the first time last year. It was fun, but think it would have been cheaper to buy the mushrooms from the store. I only got 2 harvests, then the whole box was overrun with fungus gnats. I did not want them to spread to my house plants or seedlings, so I dumped the contents on the compost pile. At that point there did not appear to be anymore mushrooms anyway.

I would love to cultivate them in my yard. I have read about it and have a few spots in the yard that would work, but I just have not gotten around to it. Have you checked out this place?

http://sporeworks.com/

They are in Knoxville Tennessee, so when I am ready I will probably get spores from them.

[Michelle W. Flannery]

Tamra, thanks for the information Tamra. I'll check out the website. Your experience with the kit is what I've been thinking it would be like. If you do cultivate your own, let us know how you do it and how it goes. I'd love to hear.

[Courtney Ostaff]

My father has bought kits for years. His most recent purchase was for something that started with an "s"....I don't remember offhand, as I don't eat mushrooms. ;) He loves 'em. He "plants" leftover kits for use in following years. I don't know about the frugality of it.

[Michelle W. Flannery]

Courtney, it would be great to learn if your father got more mushrooms after he planted the leftover kits, and what he might have done to encourage new mushrooms to grow. Thanks for responding.

[Kathryn]

İ have bought bags from the local mushrooms farms in my area - they had finished with them but İ got several harvests out of them before using the compost on my garden. İ have also bought a kit from the supermarket and got good results.

[chris w]

I just started some oyster mushrooms... I think it is cheaper to purchase mushrooms but there is supposed to be more flavor in home grown ones. I'm hoping that's true because I don't really like mushrooms at all but I want to find some I like for the nutritional value. Plus its just cool to grow them. One tip I received from a botany professor - once you get your first crop of mushrooms you can add more growing medium and split the mycelium (spelling) mix into more than one container. She recommended only growing the mushrooms to about three sproutings and then tossing them all into the compost heap.

[Snowshiva]

I have a large conifer tree that I am going to fell soon, could I leave the stump in the ground and cultivate edible fungi on it?

[Mary Ann]

I've looked into growing mushrooms. Most popular mushrooms will not grow on conifers, though a few will. (Of course, I have many conifer stumps in my backyard, no hardwood.) My experience with a shitaki kit is similar to the first poster. I think it's more economical to buy them in the store, but I loved having a huge amount easily available in the house, when I was thinking about cooking dinner. Google growing mushrooms and you'll find plenty of information. http://www.fungi.com/index.html sells kits, plugs to grow your own, holds seminars in the Olympia, WA area, touts some books, etc.

[Rick]

I've grown mushrooms successfully for a few years even here in Minnesota. I've grown winecaps and agaricus out of sawdust and woodchips mixed with dirt and spawn. I've also harvested some shittake from plugged oak limbs.... Try www.fieldforest.net Good luck RAD

[jaunasaddictione]

Growing mushrooms can be fun and extremely rewarding. What a feeling when you see those mushrooms popping out of your mushroom kit on the kitchen window. I have had very good success growing mushrooms at home. Sometime I have managed to get 2-3 flushes from one kit. MMMmmm Mushrooms. So tasty. Here is a couple of sites I have ordered from recently that I would recommend. Cheers.

http://www.sporepod.com/US/mushroom-growing-edible-medicinal.html
http://www.mygtech.com

[Chris Matthew]

Yes, mushroom grow kits are worth the expense. All are relatively good and easy to start. The most popular ones are shiitake mushroom logs. These logs can last for many "flushes" and produce a lot of mushrooms. Growing kits are a great way to go, but if you learn a little bit about how to grow mushrooms, then you can grow whatever kind of mushrooms you want. Just need the spore strain of the mushroom you want to grow. Hope that helps!

[Jan Stapleton]

A friend in Minneapolis recommends using spores from Field &Forest Products in Peshtigo, WI (www.fieldforest.net). He has grown shititakes for years in his back yard with great success. We are having some green oak logs/limbs cut for us this winter, so we will be doing our first planting next spring (and will learn about patience as we wait a year for our first harvest...that's what retirement is all about, I guess!).