Would you like to enjoy delicious mushrooms all year round? Then you should grow them yourself. We explain how you can grow shiitake, porcini mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms and other popular types of mushrooms at home and what you need to consider.
Mushroom culture: useful tips for beginners
Mushrooms are important suppliers of nutrients. They contain trace elements and provide the body with important vitamins and fiber. Their aroma can flavor any sauce and dish. If you want to refine your dishes with delicious mushrooms, you don't have to spend hours searching in the forest or spend generously in the supermarket. Luckily, mushrooms, like herbs, can also be grown and harvested at home.
There are different variants in this regard. You can find mushroom mycelium at the garden center. You can also buy a ready-made mushroom culture. Or you can opt for a ready-made mushroom set.
Where at home can I grow mushrooms?
In the basement:Edible mushrooms are quite undemanding when it comes to location. They do not need sunlight and can also be kept in the dark. What is particularly important is that theHumidity in the roomis really high and that the mushrooms are protected from the wind. The cellar meets all requirements and offers the best possible conditions for rapid growth.
In the garden house:A garden house with darkened windows is also suitable for this purpose.
In the weatherproof balcony cupboard:You can also grow mushrooms on the balcony. Since the pre-culture is very sensitive in the first few weeks, you should start growing in October. The fruit heads themselves are frost hardy and can be left outside.
Growing mushrooms: ready-made culture
Many beginners opt for a pre-culture set. There the mushrooms are already grown in boxes. The mushroom myrtle is grown through the substrate. The first mushrooms appear after just a month. After that, multiple harvests are possible. Yields can range from 1 to 3 kg in total for smaller breeding boxes.
Cultivation without a breeding kit
Cultivating mushroom spawn without a growing kit is just as straightforward. You just need a suitable surface. Unlike other plants, mushrooms do not need any special substrate. But they grow quickly even without soil. What is particularly important is that the subsoil is rich in nitrogen. Straw, logs from freshly fallen trees and coffee grounds are ideal for this purpose
Growing mushrooms with coffee grounds
The coffee grounds you have already used are ideal for growing mushrooms. But not all coffee grounds are the same: it's best to use filer coffee. Coffee for espresso is little or not at all suitable for this purpose. Only use fresh coffee grounds that are no more than two days old.
You need mushroom spawn for cultivation. First fill a sealable plastic bag with coffee grounds, then add the mushroom myrtle. Seal the plastic bag halfway to allow air to circulate. Then wait two to four weeks. If the coffee grounds turn white, this is a sure sign that they are covered in mushroom myrtle.
Then you can pour the coffee grounds into a small growing pot. The first mushroom caps will appear after just a few days. To promote growth, you can water the coffee grounds regularly. It should be fresh to moderately moist.
Growing mushrooms on tree trunk
In the garden, freshly cut tree trunks (no more than 20 days old) provide the best possible growing conditions. Take a tree trunk from a deciduous tree with a diameter of at least 20 cm. If you felled the tree in sub-zero temperatures, then you should place the tree trunk in a bucket of water for a day. Drill 8mm diameter holes about 7cm deep into the trunk. You can then use inoculation sticks and insert one such stick with mushroom mycelium into each hole. In the first 45 days, the mushroom culture is very sensitive and needs frost protection. It is therefore recommended to either place the tree trunk in a cool, unheated room or, if grown in a greenhouse, to wrap it with black plastic film.
What types of mushrooms can you grow at home?
Most edible mushrooms can be easily grown at home. Even more so - when the weather is around 15 degrees Celsius, the mushrooms can grow all year round and produce yields even in winter. The following types of mushrooms can be easily grown at home:
- Mushrooms,
- King oyster mushrooms
- Shiitake
- Rosenseitling
- Goldpilz
Growing shiitake mushrooms
Shiitake mushrooms come from Asia, where they are widespread in the forests of southern parts of China. The mushrooms are very popular for their high vitamin B content and their specific taste. Cultivation is incredibly easy. All you need is seed plugs with mushroom myrtle, a tree trunk (oak) and a shady room where you can control the room temperature and humidity through ventilation and heating. Proceed as follows:
- Use a drill to drill several 1.5 cm deep holes 15 cm apart. Distribute the holes evenly across the tree trunk.
- You need vaccination dowels with dimensions: 3 cm long and 1.5 cm wide.
- Around 20 inoculation dowels are sufficient for inoculating a tree trunk with dimensions: 35 cm in diameter and 1 meter in length.
- Now drive the vaccination dowels into the holes.
- Seal the holes with beeswax and the cut sides of the log with latex binder (if you have such a binder at home).
- Place the tree trunk in a dark location (e.g. basement, garden or greenhouse). Temperatures must not fall below 14° Celsius and rise above 22° Celsius.
Prefer mushroom culture in straw
DieMushrooms are true classicsamong the mushrooms. They are ideal for growing at home. Proceed as follows:
- Fill a wooden box with straw flour. Add more straw pellets.
- Now put beech wood sticks with mushroom spawn in the bag.
- Cover the mushroom culture with perforated cling film.
- Place the boxes in a location with room temperature 16° Celsius.
- After just three weeks you can see that the straw flour is covered with a white foam. Then remove the foil.
- After another week the first mushrooms appear. When they grow large enough, you can harvest them.
- The harvest time lasts up to four months, with the mushrooms being harvested around three times.
Prefer oyster mushrooms from grain mushroom spawn
If you want to grow oyster mushrooms at home, then you need grain mushroom spawn. The oyster mushrooms are true adaptation artists and can be grown not only on a tree trunk or in a straw ball, but also on banana leaves, hay or even in the substrate. Oyster mushrooms are frost-resistant. But the mushroom culture needs winter protection from November so that it can form fruit heads all year round. The temperatures should not fall below 16° Celsius. After the fungal spores grow through the substrate and the first mushrooms appear, there is a pause in growth. These breaks last between 7 and 14 days.
Special case of king oyster mushrooms
King oyster mushrooms are hardy mushrooms. Even mushroom culture is preferred at lower temperatures than usual. The specific thing about care is that the king oyster mushrooms need sunlight. So place them in an unheated but bright room with temperatures between 10° and 17° Celsius. The mushroom culture should not be placed directly on the windowsill. A sunny spot proves to be optimal. The mushrooms will also feel comfortable in the basement or garage as long as the rooms have windows.
Proceed as usual when growing: Fill straw flour or coffee grounds into a growing bowl and cover it with perforated cling film.
Since the king oyster mushrooms require very high humidity to form fruiting bodies, you should first cover the cultivation tray with cling film and then water the substrate regularly. Kra
Special case of porcini mushrooms
In contrast to other types of mushrooms, boletus mushrooms need a community of different plants so that they can form fruiting bodies. Since this is a complicated system, breeding at home is not possible.
