Mushrooms - Grow the Yummy Fungus in your Garden

Mushrooms are the fleshy fungi that are used as a food worldwide. Being added to different cuisines, they add a unique taste to your food and are equally popular all around the world. If you are also among those who love to eat mushrooms, then you’ll love to know that growing mushrooms is not that hard.

You must have wondered about how to grow mushrooms at home, well, if you have enough space and little patience, then by working in the right conditions you can grow them at home and enjoy them in your meals.

• Edible mushrooms

There are just about 250 out of 14,000 types of mushrooms that are actually edible. Others are poisonous and some of them are even fatal. Mushrooms are not plants in general terms, they are actually fruiting part of fungi. They are propagated through spores and a single mushroom can produce up to 16 million spores which are then used as seeds for growing mushrooms.

• Favorable environment

Growing mushrooms at home needs the favorable conditions to work. Mushrooms grow best in a cool, dark and humid place. Being a kind of fungi, humidity is very important for mushrooms to grow. You also need to have a carbon-rich medium to cultivate. Unlike normal plants, mushrooms cultivate in the environment full of carbon and oxygen. Where other plants produce oxygen, mushrooms feed on it.

• How to grow mushrooms at home stepwise
• It is advisable to start growing mushrooms in the spring on freshly cut wood. Make sure that the wood should not be processed in any way.
• Dig holes about 1 inch deep in the log, about 5-6 inches away form each other.
• Tap mushroom plugs in the holes with the hammer until they are flush with the log. You will find the mushroom plugs in the market.
• Melt some beeswax and pour about a dime-sized wax on the plugs to seal them. This will protect them from getting contaminated.
• Place the log in a shaded place and water it twice a week for about an hour so that they get the right amount of moisture.

• Precautions

• Do not wet the mushrooms too much or they will get soggy.
• Mushrooms do not need any fertilization, so never do that.
• The place where you are growing mushrooms should be moist and dark but well ventilated.
• Temperature should be controlled at +/-60 degrees.
• Keep them sheltered to avoid damage through rain and storm.

Growing mushrooms at home could be a good small business opportunity. But you have to take special care in the growing mushrooms at home because they need specific conditions to grow. Moreover, it is also important to find out the right kind of mushroom that you are growing. If you are growing more than one kind, then keep them separate from each other.