How To Grow Mushrooms Indoors

Have you ever wanted to learn how to grow mushrooms? The effort of growing mushrooms may seem intimidating in the beginning, but it is a good experience and is now a lot less harder than ever to start due to the availability of books and mushroom starter kits. In order to grow mushrooms, you will need to know the basic process as well as the conditions for growing and several other factors. The general process of growing mushrooms is as follows:

• The first thing to do is to get a hold of some tissue culture of the mushroom you wish to grow. spores are also known as agar cultures or test tube cultures. You can either get it yourself or buy it from a supplier.

• The next step is to ready sawdust or sterilized grain and inoculate the tissue culture into it so that mushroom spawns can form. Spawns can also be purchased from suppliers.

• After you have obtained your spawns, you will need to prepare material for which your mushrooms will grow Depending on what species of mushrooms you are trying to grow will determine what materials you will need. Various strains of mushrooms grow better in soil while others prefer woody materials like straw, wood chips and even tree stumps and logs.

• Step Four... use the spawns to start the growth of mycelium, the fibrous network of mushrooms. For mushrooms growing in soil, it is best to use compost to feed the mushrooms because they need to feed on nutrients from a source because they lack chlorophyll and can't make their own food like green plants.

• When mycelium is clearly evident, you will need to layer the compost with peat moss and/or damp soil. The reason we do this is to encourage the growth of the fruiting bodies. The top layer helps retain moisture while defending against the growth of other bacteria and/or unwanted microorganisms, which is why you want to use something that has little to no nutrients to avoid the growth of other organisms.

• Finally, all you have to do is wait until the first flush appears then you can harvest and enjoy your freshly grown mushrooms. Usually that occurs within a few weeks and every additional flush occurs within 10 or so days. Meanwhile, you should be aware of keeping the compost patch moist and within the optimal growing temperature. You can get approximately anywhere between 3-5 flushes before you will need to buy a new kit. This applies mainly to soil based mushrooms. A mushroom log can last much longer.

The species of mushrooms you choose to grow will determine which steps you must go through and which you can skip. For beginners it would be best to begin with a mushroom grow kit to avoid some of the earlier steps which require more work and attention. You now have some basic understanding of the process of how mushrooms grow. It can be a rewarding experience if you take the time to learn how to grow your own mushrooms. Here’s to a successful first harvest!

Learning how to grow mushrooms can a fun experience. MushroomMatt is a mushroom growing enthusiast who teaches his how to grow mushrooms tips at his blog: http://www.learnhowtogrowmushrooms.com