Homesteaders, whether the 100-acre or backyard type, are always on the lookout for their next big project. If this project can meet the requirements of the rule of three and pull its weight by contributing in at least three ways to the homestead, it’s a project to feel good about. Growing mushrooms in one such project. Not only are mushrooms healthy for your family, they are healthy to their immediate environment and they are a proven specialty crop. Growing mushrooms at home may seem intimidating, but it is a fairly straightforward process that can be as simple as growing them from a home kit or as advanced as cultivating your own spores. It’s a safe and interesting project, making it a perfect addition to any homeschool curriculum, and it can be modified to fit all ages and abilities. The benefits of growing mushrooms on the homestead cannot be overstated.
Mushrooms are a powerhouse when it comes to our physical health. They have been shown to boost the immune system, lower cancer risk, maintain heart health, boost gut health, lower blood pressure, supply vitamin D, support weight loss, protect the brain against MCI (mild cognitive impairment) and neurodegenerative diseases. The health benefits alone are enough of a reason to grow mushrooms at home, but that is not all they do. Growing mushrooms improves your garden by breaking down hardwood and other growing substrates, building and enriching your soil, and attracting earthworms which aerate and fertilize soil.
Scientists have classified 2,189 mushrooms as edible, with 2006 species safe to eat as is and 183 species needing pre-treatment before eating. We are going to concentrate on a few of the most popular mushrooms to allow you to test the waters and decide whether mushroom growing is right for your next homesteading project.
Almost every edible mushroom can be grown successfully from a kit available online. Make sure you are buying from a reputable dealer, preferably one that only sells mushrooms and mushroom products. The kit comes with everything you need, including step-by-step instructions. Starting with a kit is a good idea because it allows you to grow a crop or two of mushrooms without the time and resource commitment. Once you determine mushroom growing is a good fit, you will feel good about the time and energy you invest in building your own mushroom bed, which you can inoculate with purchased spores or learn how to capture and cultivate spores at home.
King Stropharia (wine cap mushrooms) are one of the easiest mushrooms to cultivate in a backyard bed. Getting their name from the wine-colored caps of young mushrooms, they have a mild flavor and their stem has a texture similar to asparagus. To grow these at home you need:
- Sawdust spawn
- Fresh hardwood chips
- Cardboard (all metal and tape removed)
- Straw or leaves
- Water
The location of your mushroom bed needs to receive indirect sunlight for most of the day, Along a retaining wall or wood line is a good choice, as is underneath perennial garden plants.
- Cover the entire bed with cardboard. Water until the cardboard is saturated. Sprinkle spawn evenly and lightly over entire surface.
- Add approximately three inches of hardwood chips and sprinkle with more spawn. Pack the surface to remove any air pockets.
- Tear enough cardboard to cover surface. Torn cardboard ensures moisture can make it to the bottom layer. Sprinkle another layer of spawn to cover the surface.
- Add another three inches of hardwood chips, mixed generously with your spawn. Pack to remove air pockets and mist to moisten chips.
- Cover with 1-2 inches of straw or leaves. This will help preserve moisture and provide shade.
- Water every day for the first week. For weeks two – four, water every other day. After the fourth week, water once a month unless the bed receives adequate rain.
In four to eight months the mycelium will have colonized the chips and mushrooms will begin fruiting. Check your patch often, as once fruiting begins, they grow quickly.
Most mushrooms are relatively easy to grow as long you provide them with the right environment. Oyster mushrooms prefer to grow in logs or dead trees which you can recreate using a hardwood log, cut within six weeks of use, and dowel spawn. Simply drill 10 mm holes at regular intervals along the log and insert spawn. Keep moist and watch for fruiting in six to twelve months. Shiitakes use the same process using holes drilled at 6-inch intervals. Once you insert shiitake spawn, seal with food-grade wax to ensure spawn doesn’t dry out.
White button and portobello mushrooms like to grow in compost. The best compost for these mushrooms is a mixture of horse manure and wet straw. Mix together and pack tightly to raise the temperature and turn every other day for two to three weeks. Once the mixture is dark and smells sweet, it is ready. Put enough compost in a tray to cover it to a depth of three inches then spray with a spore syringe to inoculate. Mix and cover with damp newspaper. You should see mycelium in two to three weeks. Once the tray is covered with mycelium (tiny white threads). Wet and cover with a layer of peat-free compost mixed with two to three handfuls of lime.
If you would like to move to a level of mushroom cultivation beyond store-bought kits, you can make and cultivate your own spores and then create your own spawn. Although this is time-consuming, it is relatively easy, and once you understand the process you will have a never-ending supply of mushroom spawn.
To make your own spores, gently remove the stem and skirt from the cap of your desired mushroom. Lay it flat, gills facing down, on a piece of paper, and place a glass over the mushroom. Leave it alone and in 24 hours remove the glass and gently lift the mushroom off the paper. You now have a spore print. Keep the print in a sealed plastic bag until you are ready to cultivate.
In order to cultivate the spores you need to create a spore syringe. You will do this in a sterilized environment, using distilled water that has been boiled three times, and a syringe with a needle you have sterilized by holding in a flame for a few seconds.
Draw some of the cooled water into the syringe. Using the syringe needle, gently scrape spores from your spore print into a sterilized glass. Expunge half of the water from the syringe into the glass and draw the spore water back into the syringe. This spore water is ready to use to inoculate your growing medium.
Because spores do not contain chlorophyll, they need other material to feed on. This material is dependent on the preference of the particular mushroom you are cultivating, but most mushrooms prefer either sawdust, stray, wood chips or plugs, or grain. If you decide to cultivate wine cap mushrooms and want to DIY the process, you would use your spore syringe on sawdust to create the spawn. Information about the requirements for individual mushrooms are widely available online, at the library, and your local extension office.
Growing mushrooms is a great project for your homestead. Not only is it simple to do, it has tremendous health benefits for both humans and the environment, and they are a proven market winner.