Mushroom Growing Methods

By Stephany Seipel, eHow Contributor

updated: February 17, 2011

Most mushroom species prefer a specific growing medium.

Mushrooms are nutritious, healthy and have many medical and culinary uses; however, they are often expensive to purchase in stores, so some mushroom enthusiasts choose to grow their own mushrooms at home. The difficulty of growing mushrooms varies depending upon the species. Most types, however, require little effort beyond the initial setup. Mushroom care includes monitoring their development and harvesting the mushrooms when they are ready.

Tray Production

1. Portabella, crimini and button mushrooms are secondary decomposers, which means that they rely on bacteria and fungi to break the substrate down into a usable form before they can fruit. They grow well in 2-foot-long by 3-foot-wide trays filled with a mixture of manure and straw. Growers add dry flaked mushroom spawn to the compost and place the trays in a cool, dark location, spritzing them regularly with water several times a day to keep the soil moist. In about two or three weeks a thin layer of mycelial webbing appears on the surface, followed by tiny mushrooms. Mature mushrooms are ready for harvest in two or three weeks.

Log Production

2. Shiitake mushroom enthusiasts harvest logs from healthy and living oak, hornbeam, beech, or aspen trees, preferably with a diameter six inches or smaller, and cut the logs to lengths of around 3 to 5 feet. Leaving the bark on the logs, they drill holes in the wood and fill the holes with shiitake mushroom spawn. They seal the ends of the wood and the holes with a layer of paraffin or cheese wax to protect the spawn, and then stack their logs in a cool, shady area, checking the logs regularly to ensure that they do not lose moisture. They leave the logs outdoors for about five months and then soak them in water for a day or two, which encourages the fungus to fruit. Mushrooms appear around a week later.

Bag Production

3. Oyster mushrooms grow in plastic bags. Growers soak straw in a mixture of water and slaked lime for half an hour, then pile the soaked straw on a cement surface and allow it to ferment for around a week and a half, turning the mixture every few days. When the straw is ready, they layer it in large plastic bags with a mixture of rice husks and mushroom spawn. They cover and place their mushroom bags in specialized mushroom houses. In around a month, mycelium begins to form. The growers cut slits in the bags and spray them with water. Mushrooms grow out of the slits in the bags and are ready to harvest around a week later.

Other Methods

4. Some mushrooms such as morels grow best outdoors. Growers cultivate morel mushrooms in 4-foot square sites with sandy soil and good drainage. They add peat moss, ashes and gypsum to the soil to provide nutrients, and spread morel mushroom spawn throughout the top layer of the soil mixture. They cover the mushroom spawn with hardwood chips, preferably from trees such as elm or ash, and then wait for several years until the mushrooms begin fruiting. Other methods of mushroom production include growing various species on stumps, on mounds, or on specialized mushroom walls.