How To Grow Mushrooms at Home: A Complete Beginner's Guide
How To Grow Mushrooms at Home: A Complete Beginner's Guide
Introduction to Mushroom Cultivation
So, you're interested in growing your own mushrooms. Well, you've come to the right place! My name is Mike, and I am the owner of Out Grow LLC. I have been growing mushrooms professionally for over 15 years. I am a master gardener and got bored during the long Midwest winters. So, I decided to grow mushrooms, which became a full-time profession for me.
Growing mushrooms isn't as hard as it may seem. It's just a bit of a learning curve if you're used to growing things. Even if you're not, it is still not all that hard if you follow proven standards of mushroom cultivation.
Essential Materials for Beginning Mushroom Growers
Everyone's mushroom cultivation set up will be a bit different. It really depends on what is available to you locally and your budget. The most basic of lists is as follows:
- A mushroom culture
- Sterilized grains to start the culture on to create mushroom spawn
- A mushroom substrate to transfer your mushroom spawn to
Now, this may be a very simple list, but that's really all you need to get started. Let me explain.
Understanding Mushroom Cultures
A mushroom culture is living mycelium that is either a liquid culture or mycelium growing on an agar plate. My company Out Grow offers over 200 different types of mushrooms in liquid culture form. Think of a mushroom culture like a seedling. Whereas you would think of mushroom spores as the seeds.
You will add your mushroom culture to your sterilized grains. Which I will explain next.
Creating Sterilized Grain Spawn
When I say a sterilized grain, I am referring to grain spawn. Which can be made if you have a pressure cooker, raw ingredients, like rye berries, mushroom grow bags and an impulse sealer. If you just want to give it a go, Out Grow LLC sells a large variety of sterilized grains.
How to Prepare Grain Spawn
So basically, you will take some rye berries and boil them for about 45 min on a gentle boil. The goal is to hydrate the grain without overcooking it. After the grain is hydrated, you need to put them on a rack, screen, towel or something to let them slightly dry. You do not want overly wet grains when you bag them up. Generally, your grain will be plump with hydration, but not very wet on the outside of the grain.
Once you have achieved this you can then add your hydrated grain to a mushroom grow bag and seal it with a heat sealer. You can also use mason jars with fabricated lids, but bags are easier and cost less. Once you have your mushroom grow bags loaded up with the grain spawn, you will need to sterilize it.
Sterilizing Your Grain Spawn
By sterilizing the grains, you are killing off all microorganisms, bacteria and mold spores. This will give your mushroom culture the chance it needs to grow. If improperly sterilized, your mushroom culture will not be able to compete with the other bacteria and molds, and it will be contaminated.
Oh, and a pro tip, despite what you read online, you do not have to soak your grains prior to boiling. Trust me, I've just boiled and sterilized my grains for well over a decade. It saves time and work. I've done both ways and see no real benefit from soaking.
How To Inoculate Your Grain Spawn
So, let's say you have successfully made or bought your sterilized grains (grain spawn). Now you are ready to inoculate those grains with your mushroom culture.
Creating a Clean Environment for inoculation
Inoculation of your grain spawn should be done in a very clean environment. You can achieve this at home. Make sure the area you choose to inoculate is clean and dusted well, free of any carpeting if possible and there is no forced air furnace, or air conditioner or fan running. These can blow around potential contamination, and carpet can kick up dust and contamination when being walked on.
A laminar flow hood or still air box is optimal for inoculation, but if the air in the room is still enough, and you spray it with Lysol (the air) you may be able to inoculate in open air. Again, don't believe everything you hear online, like inoculating on an oven door and other nonsense.
Inoculation Technique
Your grain spawn bag or jar should have a self-healing injection port and a filter patch. The port is where you will insert the needle, and the filter patch is needed for gas exchange.
Wipe down your grain spawn bag or jar with rubbing alcohol prior to inoculation. Now you will insert your liquid culture needle into the self-healing injection port and add about 4-5cc per quart of grains. Withdraw your needle and discard it into a sharp’s container. If you are using agar wedges, you will want to add about 4 to 8 one-inch sized agar wedges per quart of grain spawn, however this should really be done in front of a laminar flow hood.
Post-Inoculation Care
Now that your grain spawn is inoculated you will want to mix the grain. You can do this by gently mixing the bag or shaking the jar you used for inoculation. In most cases comfortable room temps are perfect for colonization. If you want to incubate do not exceed 26c.
If you are using mushroom grow bags you will want to make sure your grow bag is semi-inflated so it can stand upright on a shelf. You want a clear path on the inside of the bag from the grains to the filter patch. If the bag folds over or is wrapped up, this will cut off the gas exchange and stall colonization.
Colonization Timeline for Grain Spawn
In most cases if you used a liquid culture for inoculation, you should see growth start in 1-2 weeks and around 3 weeks for full colonization. If you are using spores, it will be longer. About 2 weeks to see the beginning of spore germination and about 4-5 weeks for full colonization, under normal conditions. The genetics of the mushroom and environmental conditions can affect growth time.
So, let's say you successfully inoculated your grains, and they have fully colonized. Congratulations, you have created mushroom spawn!
Why You Need a Mushroom Substrate
Grains do not have sufficient nutrients to fully grow your mushrooms, so you will need to add your mushroom spawn to a secondary, more nutritional substrate. Often referred to as a mushroom substrate or bulk substrate. Now the mushroom substrate you choose greatly depends on the mushroom you are growing. So, you will need to have researched this prior to cultivation.
Choosing the Right Mushroom Substrate
Now again, you can either make your own mushrooms substrate or purchase from a reputable vendor. And guess what? Out Grow offers almost every mushroom substrate there is. Some mushrooms prefer a manure-based substrate, some prefer compost and surprisingly, 90% of the world’s mushroom prefer a wood based mushroom substrate. I will list below some examples for you.
- Oyster Mushrooms – wood substrate
- Reishi – wood substrate
- Shiitake – wood substrate
- Maitake – wood substrate
- Turkey tail – wood substrate
- Portobello – manure compost and straw mix
- White button mushrooms - manure compost and straw mix
I could go on and on, but I won't. Like I said, be sure to research the mushroom you are growing to find out which mushroom substrate is best suited for cultivation of the mushroom you are going to grow.
Spawning: Adding Mushroom Spawn to Substrate
So just like inoculation, when you add your mushroom spawn to your mushroom substrate, everything needs to be super clean. It is best to wipe down both the mushroom spawn bag and the mushroom substrate bag with rubbing alcohol.
Adding your mushroom spawn to the mushroom substrate is called spawning. This process should be done in front of a laminar flow hood or in a still air box.
Breaking Up the Spawn
You will start with breaking up your mushroom spawn. If your mushroom spawn is in a mushroom grow bag, simply gently massage the bag to break up the myceliated grains. If you are using a jar for your mushroom spawn, you can shake the jar to try and break up the grains. If they do not break up, you may have to use a sterilized butter knife or other tool to manually break up the mushroom spawn. This is why mushroom grow bags tend to be easier to work with.
Mixing Spawn with Substrate
Now that your mushroom spawn is broken up, you will need to add it to your mushroom substrate. Basically, each quart of mushroom spawn can inoculate up to 5 pounds of mushroom substrate. Carefully cut open the top of your mushroom spawn bag and mushroom substrate bag. Then dump your desired amount of mushroom spawn into the mushroom substrate bag. Once you have finished adding the mushroom spawn, reseal the mushroom substrate bag with a impulse sealer. If you do not have one, clear packing tape works well for resealing the mushroom grow bag that holds your substrate.
Once you have added your mushroom spawn and sealed the substrate bag, gently mix the substrate to evenly distribute the mushroom spawn.
Mushroom Substrate Colonization
Now place your mushroom substrate bag in a place that is out of direct sunlight. Comfortable room temperatures are just fine for colonization of the mushroom substrate. Make sure your mushroom substrate bag is standing upright with the filter patch unobstructed, just like we did with the sterilized grain bag after inoculation. If the bag is folded over or wrapped up, this will cut off the gas exchange and cause your mushroom substrate to stall.
In most cases it will take around 2-4 weeks for your substrate to fully colonize. You will know it is fully colonized when it turns completely white. Even then, you should leave it sit for another week, as the center of the substrate may not be fully colonized. This is called consolidation, and all of the substrate must be colonized to move onto fruiting.
The Fruiting Process
What’s fruiting you ask? Well, this is the fun part. Fruiting is when your mushrooms start to grow. You will see little white "dots" forming on the substrate. This is called knotting, and it is the primordia, which is the beginnings of your baby mushrooms growing. It is important to mention not to disturb the substrate at all during the primordia phase, as it could damage the fragile baby mushrooms, causing them to abort.
Introducing Fruiting Conditions
Now that you see knotting you can introduce fruiting conditions. Most mushrooms use fresh air as a fruiting trigger. So, you can now open the top of the mushroom substrate bag and gently fan with your hand 3-4 times. Do this once a day and reseal the bag afterwards. If you don't reseal the bag your substrate could dry out and stall fruiting. If you don’t want to keep using tape or a heat sealer, simply fold the top of the bag down a few times and use cloths pins to hold it shut.
From Mushroom Pins to Harvest
Once your primordia had reached an inch tall, the mushrooms are now called pins. Continue to fan once a day and only mist if the substrate appears to be drying out. Once the mushrooms get going, things will move fast. Most mushrooms will grow from pins to full sized mushrooms in a week from the pinning stage. Depending on the mushrooms you are growing, you can tell they are ready to harvest when the veil is separated from the cap and the mushroom gills are exposed.
It is important to harvest before the mushrooms fully mature, or they may release their spores, which can be a mess. It’s not the end of the world if they spore, you can rinse the spores off of the mushrooms, but yeah, try to harvest them before this point.
Harvesting Your Mushrooms
Harvesting is simple. Gently grab the mushroom by the base, close to the substrate and twist. This will remove the mushroom from the substrate with minimal damage to the substrate. If you just pull the mushrooms off the substrate, you’re likely to take large chunks of the substrate still connected to the base of the mushroom. After harvest, mist the substrate and reseal the bag. Why reseal the bag you ask? It’s because the mushroom substrate will fruit again in about 2 weeks. Each time a mushroom substrate fruits, it is called a flush. In most cases you can get 2-3 flushes before discarding the mushroom substrate.
Now that you have harvested your mushrooms you can either eat them fresh or dehydrate them for later consumption. If stored correctly, dehydrated mushrooms can last a couple of years easily.
Your Growing Mushrooms at Home Journey
There you have it. This is the easiest procedure for beginners to grow mushrooms at home. Of course there are other methods of growing, like on logs, but we will cover that in a different blog post. Log cultivation is a bit more advanced and requires different techniques, time frames and materials.
Remember, take your time and follow these instructions. Try not to get discouraged if you fail or run into contamination issues. Use it as a learning experience and try again. Once you get past the learning curve, mushroom cultivation will become easier for you. Everyone will fail at some point. It is just the nature of mushroom cultivation. Keep your work area clean and stay focused. Even the newest beginning mushroom grower can cultivate mushrooms at home by following these directions.
Out Grow offers everything you need to get started. From mushrooms cultures, sterilized grain spawn, mushroom substrate, and all other mushroom supplies. Have fun, learn and grow mushrooms at home.
Here are some other blogs posts you may find beneficial.
Your Full Guide To Mushroom Substrates
5 Best Mushroom Substrate Recipes for High Yields
Top 10 Most Expensive Mushrooms in the World
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. What is the easiest mushroom to grow for beginners?
Oyster mushrooms are the easiest for beginners because they grow quickly, tolerate a wide range of conditions, and thrive on many types of substrates.
2. Do I need a pressure cooker to sterilize grain spawn?
Yes, a pressure cooker is the best method to fully sterilize grain spawn. If you don’t have one, you can buy pre-sterilized grain bags from Out Grow.
3. How long does it take to grow mushrooms at home?
The full process can take 4 to 8 weeks, depending on the mushroom species, environmental conditions, and whether you're starting from liquid culture or spores.
4. What is the best temperature for colonizing grain spawn?
Most mushrooms colonize best between 70-75°F (21-24°C). Avoid exceeding 26°C (79°F) to prevent contamination issues.
5. How do I know if my mushroom spawn or substrate is contaminated?
Look for off-color spots (green, black, or pink mold), bad odors, or slow/no mycelium growth. Contaminated spawn should be discarded immediately.
6. Can I reuse my mushroom substrate after harvesting?
You can get 2-3 flushes from a single batch of mushroom substrate. After that, it can be used as compost or in the garden.
7. How much mushroom spawn do I need per substrate?
A good ratio is 1 quart of grain spawn per 5 lbs of substrate. Using more spawn speeds up colonization.
8. Do I need special lighting to grow mushrooms?
Most mushrooms do not need light to colonize but require indirect light for fruiting. A room with natural light or a simple LED bulb is enough.
9. Can I grow mushrooms without a laminar flow hood?
Yes, but you must maintain very clean conditions. A still air box (SAB) or a sanitized workspace can work for inoculation.