How to Grow Mushrooms

It is mid-January & I can’t wait another week to start growing something, so I got some Mushroom Growing kits to grow Portabella & White Button Mushrooms!

Mushrooms are not my favorite food – I really only like them on pizza or steak – and only sometimes! But between Kyla’s family & mine, I know we can find plenty of people that will love them.

My biggest concern with the growing kits I got is that they sat out in sub-zero weather for X amount of hours before I got home to bring the delivery in. You typically want to keep the temperature above 50 degrees to ensure the spores aren’t killed. I’m sure the mail person read the box that said “Magic Mushroom Growing Kit” and didn’t even see the [TEMPERATURE SENSITIVE] sticker on the top.

So with that being said, we began the kits with a little bit of faith that the cold didn’t destroy our potential shroomies!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• A knife to open the box & rake the mushroom compost.
• 32-40 ounces of room-temperature water
• Trowel or Fork

Here’s how you set it up:

1. Open the box & remove the “Casing”. The casing is peat moss & sand fines that will sit on top of the mushroom compost and help to keep the media moist.
2. Look at the mushroom compost – you should see white spiderweb-like strings running through it – that is the mycelium, the vegetative part of the fungus. Now take your knife or fork & rake through the top 1/2″ of compost.
3. After that, add a half-cup of the mushroom compost to the bag of casing & then add 32-40 ounces of water, stirring until you have a muddy-looking mixture. Allow is to sit for 15 minutes & absorb the water.
4. Once the mixture has sat for 15 minutes, dump the wet casing on top of the mushroom compost creating a top layer. Take care to not compress the media.
5. Now we wait! Make sure that your boxes are in the temperature range of 55-75 degrees (62-68 is optimal). They do not need direct light to grow & should thrive in a dark, moist environment.
6. In 1-3 weeks you should see grow & hopefully the first harvest. You should be able to harvest for 6-8 weeks from this kit.

Check back to see our progress with our kits & check out our harvest!

For a more visual aid to growing mushrooms, check out my latest Plant Rant on How to Grow Mushrooms – happy growing!