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Mushrooms

plantpot3plantpot3 Posts: 7
in Tools and techniques
What is the most successful way to grow mushrooms? I have tried a kit and it was a disaster to say the least. Just a couple of mushrooms...

Posts

  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487

    I'm no expert at all but this may help.  Commercial growers take large open mushrooms and place them, black side down, on plates or other smooth surfaces.  After a while, the areas underneath them become black as the spoors are released from the 'parent' mushroom.  To gather the spoors, they then get some grains of wheat and swirl them round the plates, or whatever, so that a few spoors stick to each grain and it's the wheat that is then planted into the prepared beds.

    On a commercial scale this would involve filling shedfuls of long 'bunk bed' type structures with hot horse manure which is then left to 'cook' in the dark.  I think this is designed to sterilise the manure and, once done, the wheat grains are scattered on to it to produce the crop.  How a domestic gardener creates that environment I haven't a clue, but I hope I've given you a start.  Good luck.

  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    I was once given a kit for growing mushrooms indoors on a soggy paperback book.  It worked all right and it was fun, but the mushrooms didn't taste of much.  When I retired and at last had a proper garden, I spent quite a bit of money on mushroom spawn from a reputable grower, spent hours drilling holes in logs, mixing up my own growing medium etc, followed all the instructions carefully - never got so much as a sniff of a mushroom.  
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286
    I found this interesting, haven't tried it but would like to:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZMozJW2N78

    I'm not going to use my copy of Regenerative Agriculture though, it's a signed copy  :)
  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487
    Well, plantpot3, I think you'll find Supermarketium Aldiensis will be the best option?
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    We grew mushrooms in a shed on the farm when I was a child. As I recall, once the beds of manure had reached the required temperature a layer of peat was added. Then the mushroom ‘spawn’ ... a dry ‘powder’ which had arrived in the post, was scattered on the damp peat. 
    The trick was to keep the shed dark, temperature of the bed and the air in the shed at the right temperature and sufficiently moist. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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