Practical Tips When Growing Mushrooms At Home

Using mushroom kits, you can easily grow your own mushrooms at home. Whether you want gourmet, medicinal, or magic mushrooms, it does not take rocket science to cultivate them.

You can easily get mushroom kits online. These kits come with mushroom spores, perhaps a liquid culture, and some offer to include live spawn with the kits. The price range for mushroom kits may vary depending on what is included in the package.

Do Your Homework

It will be best to do some research prior to deciding that you want to grow mushrooms. While a lot of people may think that mushrooms are vegetables or herbs, these things are actually fungi. There are around 14,000 known mushrooms of which 3,000 are perfectly edible while around 700 are considered medicinal.

One of the most popular mushroom varieties is the button mushroom that we see in a lot of dishes today. There are other variants we commonly used in cooking that provide more earthy flavor and come in firmer textures. You also have magic mushrooms that are known for its medicinal properties.

Buying Mushroom Kits

When buying mushroom kits, only get it from reputable sources. Also know if your state or city bans growing certain variant of mushrooms.

When you buy mushroom kits, it typically includes some pots, and a growing medium like vermiculite. The growing media needs to be injected with the mushroom spores, magic mushroom spores for example, and then you will see white filaments developing through the substrate.

Kits of magic mushrooms also come with pots that fit a growing tray. You can cover this tray with a greenhouse dome to create a humid environment ideal for mushroom growth. Some kits may come with grow bags. They also come with mushroom substrates such as mushroom compost, coconut coir, rye grain, or straw with horse manure.

By the way, in case you decide to use a roll of toilet paper as a substrate, make sure you get the unbleached type so toxins will not be absorbed by the mushrooms.

Growing Mushrooms

Mushrooms love dark, moist, humid, and cool environments. You can use mushroom kits to grow some magic mushrooms in your basement or perhaps even just under your sink.

Check the location if it offers the ideal condition. Do your research on the best temperature needed to grow the variant of mushroom you want. Most mushrooms love the dark but some can tolerate low light.

Having a controlled environment makes things a lot easier when growing magic mushrooms compared to growing them elsewhere where it could take them years to develop.

If you have pets at home, it will be best to keep them away from the mushrooms. While there are no reports of harm done to pets gnawing on mushrooms, better follow the mantra of being safe rather than being sorry later on.

In case you are traveling, it will be wises to have someone look after your mushrooms. However, if you don't have a friend who can spritz water onto the mushrooms, you can re-soak them overnight for some moisture boost.