Mushroom Growing Supplies

Are you interested in growing your very own edible mushrooms at home? Mushroom cultivation has actually been around for thousands of years and in the United States, modern mushroom cultivation has developed so much these past few decades that absolutely anyone who has a passion for growing things can try it in the comfort of their home.

Mushroom cultivation is not as difficult as it seems; it is a lot like gardening only this time, you won't be planting seeds or saplings. You will be taking care of fungal mycelium that would later sprout tasty, edible fruiting bodies known as mushrooms.

But don't be deceived - mushrooms don't just sprout from the ground after you've thrown some mycelium. If you want maximum yield, you need to prepare the substrate carefully and add the right amount of spawn to the substrate.

The spawn is really just the fungi attached to a nutrient source. Many mushroom growers use grains like rye to propagate mycelium. When mycelium has finally colonized a batch of grains, the fungi is robust enough to colonize a larger tract ñ the substrate.

Mother Nature knew that fungi can overrun whole forests if it thrived too easily, so it made sure that fungi had very specific requirements before it can produce fruiting bodies.

Fruiting bodies release millions of spores into the air, which allows the fungi to reproduce in other areas. Technically, the mushroom is the reproductive organ of fungi. Without it, reproduction would be impossible in the wild.

The first thing that you would need if you are serious about cultivating mushrooms is a batch of sturdy petri dishes. Petri dishes are used in the first phase of mushroom cultivation (culturing/cloning mycelium).

Agar and some culture are added to the petri dishes and the mycelium is allowed to thrive in the agar. A nutrient source is required. Some people use oatmeal while some like grinding dog food. Mycelium primarily requires carbohydrates so it would be a good idea to add a bit of sugar to your agar to boost the development of the mycelium.

When viable pure culture has finally been obtained, you will then require some rye grain, a large pressure cooker and some glass jars/canning jars with resalable caps. The rye grain and jars have to be "cooked" in the pressure cooker for a time to remove traces of fungi and bacteria. After the sterilization, the prepared culture can then be added to the rye grain.

After the second spawn run, you would have exactly two batches of viable grain spawn. Choose your substrate (e.g. wood chips) and use a rake to spread the contents of your jars. Even distribution is the key to successful mushroom cultivation so make sure that you add a little more spawn per batch of substrate.

After adding the substrate, add the substrate supplement. Animal manure is an excellent choice. Just make sure that you monitor the temperature of the substrate. If it gets too hot, there's a big chance that the mycelium (which is just getting ready to colonize the substrate) will die.