Easy Grow Mushrooms for a Gourmet Bounty

To the average gardener, growing mushrooms can seem a little alien because they seem to fly in the face of all gardening logic.

Fungi are classified as a kingdom as opposed to the more earthly known plants and animals.   A mushroom garden can add a little gourmet to your harvest and you may just fall in love with growing this quirk of nature.

Good For You

Not only do they make a delicious addition to pizza and stir fry, mushroom are high in fiber, protein, B vitamins, selenium, potassium and phosphorus. You can easily grow most species of mushrooms including Shiitake, Reishi, Maitake, Oyster and the popular button.

Easy Grow How-To

Although you can grow your own spawn (fungi speak for seedlings) from spore (think seeds) and use mediums from mature to coffee grounds, the easiest way to produce a healthy, bountiful flush (harvest) is to purchase sterilized spawn and inoculate (fungi speak for plant) in a log.

• Just think of the last place you would grow anything. Mushroom need a dark, humid and cool environment so grow them in a garage, shed, basement, cellar or outbuilding. If your climate and yard allows (dark and dank), grow outdoors.

• Mushrooms are grown on hardwood. You will need a 3-4 foot log, cut 4-12 weeks prior to inoculating.

• Don't use a fresh cut log as it still has the tree's natural fungicide compounds and will kill your spawn. Likewise don't use an aged log as its nutrient and sugar content has depleted.

• Select oak, poplar, elm, maple or alder. Avoid cedar and pine as they are too aromatic.

• Purchase sterilized plug spawn.

• To inoculate your hardwood with the spawn, drill 2" deep holes at 4" intervals in your log.

• You should drill about 40 holes in a 3-4 foot log.

• Pound the spawn plugs into the holes with a hammer (one per hole).

• Seal the holes with a fine coat of melted paraffin wax to prevent insects from feasting on your spawn.

• Inoculate prior to the winter freeze as the spawn will need to go dormant in winter.

• Stand your log on end; just lean it up against something.

• Water every few weeks; never let the log dry out.

• Colonizing can take 9-12 months.

• Your logs have begun "fruiting" when you see dark mottling on the cut ends.

• You can force fruiting by submerging your log in cold water for 24 hours (or putting out in heavy rain) and then hitting it with a hammer or dropping it a rock (aliens!). This arouses the primal instinct of the fungi who apparently think the tree has fallen and it's time to produce.

• Once established and given the right growing conditions, your fungi will fruit in flushes for years.

• Harvest your mushroom with a sharp knife.

• Should you want a steady supply of mushrooms for the whole family, inoculate 1-2 dozen logs.

• By re-soaking with a 6-8 week resting period you can rotate through the logs and be totally flushed in mushrooms year round.

• Start a new crop every year or two.

An even easier way to grow your own mushrooms and make a fun project for the kids is to buy mushroom kits. There are kits for most gourmet mushrooms prepared just right for their specific species and ready to fruit in just weeks. Mushrooms make a great new hobby and a meal too!