Growing Mushrooms at Home: A Step-by-Step Guide

As a mushroom lover, you’re probably wondering, “Can you grow your own mushrooms at home?” You’ll be pleased to hear that the answer is yes! Here’s what to know about growing mushrooms.

Mushrooms are a type of fungus that can be found in nature or grown in a controlled setting. They have many culinary and medicinal uses and can be grown at home with some basic supplies and knowledge. There are many different types of mushrooms, and each has its own unique properties. Some mushrooms are poisonous, so it is important to do your research before starting your own mushroom cultivation project.

Growing mushrooms at home is easy when you know how. They won’t even take up any room in your garden since they’re actually best grown indoors.

If you enjoy growing your own food, then learning how to grow mushrooms at home could provide you with a regular supply of nutrition-packed, kitchen-ready ingredients.

Here we take a closer look at how to grow shrooms, including what kind of growing environment is best for them, to help guide you toward mushroom-growing success.

Are Mushrooms Worth Growing?

If you’re wondering if mushrooms are worth growing, then the answer is a resounding yes. While they are quite different from growing plants, there are many reasons why it’s a good idea to start growing your own mushrooms.

Mushrooms are actually an extremely healthy fungus packed with fiber, vitamins, antioxidants, and other nutrients.

They’re also low calorie and fat-free. Mushrooms make a delicious addition to your homemade pizzas, pasta, stews, salads, appetizers, and more.

They’re easy to grow since they don’t need light, so anyone with a dark, temperature-controlled space at home can give it a go.

Growing Mushrooms

After explaining the answer to the question, “Are mushrooms worth growing?” is a yes, it’s time to start setting up. If you’re looking for the easiest and quickest set up for growing your mushrooms, then you can buy a mushroom growing kit.

It will provide you with everything you need, including the right substrate or the ideal surface for your mushrooms to grow on, which will already be inoculated with mushroom spawn.

If you start without a kit, then you’ll need to decide what kind of mushrooms you’d like to grow so that you can source the right substrate for them.

It’s probably best to grow your favorite type so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labor to the fullest. Some of the easiest options include:

• Shiitakes
• Button mushrooms
• Oyster mushrooms

Mushroom Types and Their Growing Substrates

As mentioned, different mushrooms thrive better in different substrates, so the type of mushrooms you want to grow will dictate what you need to propagate them in.

1. Shiitake Mushrooms

Shiitake mushrooms will thrive best when grown on logs or sawdust from untreated wood, preferably hardwood sawdust.

2. Button and Portobello Mushrooms

Button and portobello mushrooms need to be grown in nutrient-rich composted manure. Ideally, straw mixed with horse manure. If you can access horse bedding being thrown out of stables, then that will be ideal.

Leave the bedding outside to rot for around three weeks, and you’re ready to move onto the pasteurization process.

3. Oyster Mushrooms

Oyster mushrooms thrive best on straw, but you can also use sawdust, cardboard, and coffee grounds.

Know that oyster mushrooms are the most forgiving. If you’re a beginner gardener, we recommend you start with oyster mushrooms first.

Mushroom Spawn or Spores

Next up, you’ll need to purchase mushroom spawn or spores. We highly recommend that you buy spawn over spores since you’ll have a better chance for success.

Growing mushrooms from spores takes longer and requires a bit more practice, so it is best left to more seasoned growers.

You should be able to find good quality mushroom spawn online, as well as in some gardening stores, and organic living stores.

The mushroom spawn you buy will most likely be sawdust that has been inoculated with mushroom mycelia, which is the root structure of the mushroom.

What Conditions are Needed for a Mushroom to Grow?

Growing mushrooms at home can be pretty simple, as long as you can accommodate the right conditions needed by the mushrooms in which to grow.

When you’re deciding on where to grow your mushrooms, there are some factors that you should take into account, such as light, humidity, and temperature.

1. Light

Growing mushrooms is different from growing any other plant, as they do not contain chlorophyll, so they don’t need sunlight to grow.

For your mushrooms to spawn successfully, you need an environment that is as dark as possible, although some light won’t harm them.

When they’re beginning to fruit, they will need a couple of hours of dim light per day.

Mushrooms usually grow in the shade where they thrive off the filtered light, so indirect sunlight will work great, or you can invest in a fluorescent lamp or the best LED grow lights for indoor plants.

Many people find that the basement is an ideal spot to grow mushrooms, as basements tend to have more limited light and are slightly cooler than the rest of the house.

2. Humidity

Mushrooms have no skin, so moisture is easily lost from their bodies. They thrive particularly well in more humid conditions so that they can avoid this water loss.

Their substrate should be moist at all times, but not too wet since it is also possible to drown mushrooms. Many seasoned mushroom growers will often employ the use of plastic bags or sheets to encourage moisture retention.

3. Temperature

Mushrooms tend to prefer cooler temperatures, around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Wild mushrooms are less fussy, as they’re able to form mycelia in temperatures anywhere between 40 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

However, they will usually only begin to fruit when temperatures reach between 50 and 70 degrees.

Mushrooms such as button, portobello, and oyster, are all considered to be commercially-grown mushrooms and are a bit fussier. They prefer temperatures of around 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

The perfect growing temperature for shiitake mushrooms, on the other hand, is slightly warmer, which is from 72 to 78 degrees temperature.

Introducing a thermometer to your growing area will allow you to keep a closer eye on the temperature. This way, you can be sure you are doing everything you can to help them.

How Long Does It Take to Grow Mushrooms?

Unsurprisingly, you’re probably wondering how long it will be before you can start seeing and eating your results. The timing all depends on the type of mushroom you’re growing, as well as how perfect your growing conditions are.

If you’re starting with a mushroom growing kit, then you can expect to see mushrooms forming anywhere from one to four weeks.

If you’re using fresh substrate and spawn, over spores, oyster mushrooms can reach their fruiting stage in as little as two to three weeks.

Elm oyster can take up to six weeks, while shiitake may take a little longer.

Generally speaking, your mushrooms will flourish faster if you have your substrate, temperature, and humidity levels just right.

Process of Growing Your Mushrooms at Home

Now that you are with the types of mushrooms you can grow and what conditions are needed for a mushroom to grow, you’re ready to start planting. If you want to grow your own mushrooms, then we recommend starting with oyster mushrooms.

Follow our quick and easy, step-by-step guide below to see how you can grow oyster mushrooms on coffee grounds.

1. Order or Buy Your Mushroom Spawn

You can ask around at your local gardening stores, or order your spawn online, whichever you prefer.

Make sure you have the spawn in your hands before moving onto step number two, as the coffee grounds you collect should be inoculated with the spawn that same day, while they’re still fresh.

2. Find Coffee Grounds

You’ll be using these coffee grounds as your growing substrate, so you’ll need enough to fill up your growing or cultivation container.

If you don’t drink coffee, or anywhere near enough, then pop by a local cafe and ask if you can have theirs. A busy cafe will probably be able to give you the amount you need within a day.

The beauty of using coffee grounds as your substrate is that there is no need to pasteurize it before inoculating it with your mushroom spawn.

Pasteurizing your substrate kills off all microorganisms living within it, which your mycelium would otherwise have to compete with.

The brewing process already pasteurizes fresh coffee waste, plus they contain tons of nutrients that would otherwise have ended up in the trash.

3. Inoculate Your Substrate

The more mushroom spawns you mix with your substrate, the better chance of success you’ll have. Remember, you need to mix your spawn with your coffee grounds the same day that you get the used coffee grounds.

Otherwise, you run the risk of them becoming compromised, and they may produce green mold in the cultivation process.

We recommend that you start by using a ratio of around 1:5, spawn to the substrate. If you have 2.5kg of spent coffee grounds, then use around 500g of your oyster mushroom spawn.

After washing your hands and arms to avoid contamination, mix the mushroom spawn into the coffee grounds in a large clean bowl.

Break up the spawn and distribute it evenly throughout the grounds.

4. Cultivate

Next up, you’ll want to load up your spawn and grounds into something suitable for the cultivation process. Ask your local gardening store if they sell filter patch grow bags.

If you don’t have access to a filter patch grow bag, then you can use an empty ice cream container or a large freezer bag.

Wash your container, if it’s not brand new or clean, and cut four x 0.5mm holes into the sides. Load up your mixture and seal it shut at the top.

Place your bag or container somewhere warm, around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, for three weeks, in which time the spawn will come to life.

An airing cupboard or heated room is an ideal spot for this, and you’ll see the appearance of the coffee grounds change from day to day.

The whole coffee grounds mixture should turn white by the time the spawn has fully colonized it.

5. Fruiting

Now it’s time to place your growing container on a shaded windowsill or worktop, or down in the basement, whatever location you have picked out for it.

Cut a hole in the top of your container or just take the lid off and spritz the area with water a couple of times per day, being careful not to let the soil dry out.

Remember that mushrooms thrive in damp, humid conditions, and they just won’t grow if it’s too dry.

As per how long does it take to grow mushrooms, it will probably be around a week before you start to see little mushrooms start to form on the surface, Then over the next week, they will literally double in size every day.

You’ll know that your mushrooms are ready for harvest when the edge of the oyster caps start to turn upwards. Cut the mushrooms at the base of their stems with a sharp knife and enjoy.

6. Troubleshooting

If you followed all of the steps above and didn’t get results, then we’re sure you’re keen to know why.

The three most common things are the substrate not turning white during the cultivation process, green mold patches appearing, or just no mushrooms growing at the end.

Substrate Didn’t Turn White

If your substrate didn’t turn white after three weeks in the warm, then there must have been a problem with your mushroom spawn.

Substrate Developed Green Molds

If your mixture starts developing small patches of green mold, you can try adding a little salt to the area to kill off the bacteria living there.

If the whole bag goes green then, again, it probably has something to do with poor quality spawn, or mold spores infected the coffee grounds.

In this case, we’re afraid that you have to throw the whole thing out and start again.

Mushrooms Didn’t Grow

If the cultivation process seemed to work, but it still didn’t fruit you any mushrooms, then you may have let the soil run a little too dry.

Either that or maybe the growing area you have for your mushrooms isn’t as ideal as you hoped it would be.

Mushrooms will enjoy fresh air, but will not respond well to an area that is too drafty. The next time you try, change the location you’re growing them in.

Growing Mushrooms

So, now you know how to grow shrooms, which type are you going to try first? If you’re feeling a bit unsure, remember that you can always start with a mushroom growing kit to see how it all works.

If at first, you don’t succeed, don’t let it put you off trying again. Growing your mushrooms at home is affordable and easy, especially once you’ve established your growing environment, substrate source, and good quality spawn.

Once you’ve grown your first successful batch, you may feel more confident for the next time, so why not give another variety a try? 

There are many types of edible mushrooms you can grow at home. When you buy a mushroom cultivation kit, you will have everything you need to begin growing mushrooms.

In conclusion, growing mushrooms at home is a rewarding experience. It is a great way to get introduced to the world of fungi and have fresh mushrooms year-round. In addition, it can be a valuable source of food and medicine. It is also a fun project to do with kids. With a bit of time effort, knowledge and experience from trial and error, anyone can learn how to grow mushrooms at home.