One of the famous cultivations now is growing mushrooms at home. Because mushrooms have great demand in the market today for food and medicinal purposes, growing mushrooms at home can be a profitable hobby.  There are available mushroom growing kits at local gardening stores and online gardening shops. These kits include instructions on how to successfully grow these fungi.  These mushroom kits are useful to those who would want to start mushroom farming at home.

Before growing mushrooms at home, one must understand and know the different types of mushrooms. There are many varieties of mushrooms and each variety has different needs and requirements for growth. The amount of yield and growing period differs in each variety or type of mushroom.  Knowing their characteristics and requirements will help you produce maximum yield.

What are the common types of mushrooms that are grown at home?  The most commonly grown mushroom are the Portobello, Crimini, Common white cap mushrooms. All belongs to the same family. A Portobello mushroom can grow up to six inches in diameter while the smallest in this family is the crimini. A yield of three to six pounds of mushrooms is produced in one kit but growing period usually takes longer about three months or more. Sunlight is not needed for growing this type of mushroom.

Shiitake mushrooms are also highly regarded due to their taste and medicinal values. It also has been studied to have anti-viral properties. Shiitake can grow up to three to four inches in diameter. It has a very rich texture. Growing this type of mushroom needs a temperature of 55 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. This mushroom can produce a yield up to 2-3 pounds within three months.

Another type of mushroom which can be grown at home is the oyster mushrooms. From the name itself, this mushroom tastes like oysters. This variety of mushrooms has different types of colors namely cream, bluish gray, pink and white. The white variety is the simplest to cultivate.

This type of mushroom will grow in temperatures ranging from 55 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Oyster mushrooms do not do well in humid environment thus; it needs misting twice or thrice a day. Just by following the instructions indicated in the mushroom kits, growing mushrooms at home can be very easy and fulfilling.

Mushroom growing kits are available for those want to be mushroom growers. These kits are very useful for people who live in apartments, condominiums where there is not enough space for growing plants and the likes. These mushroom kits are affordable portable, and do not take too much space.  That is why it is ideal for cultivating in small spaces.

These mushroom growing kits are compact and easy to take care of. You just need to keep it in an area where there is a regular temperature. You also would want to store it away from direct sun exposure.  When you grow mushrooms, you need to take in consideration all the factors that are needed.  For example, when you grow mushrooms you need to have a substrate for them to grow. Some of the mushroom growing kits do not have the substrate in it so you need to buy one. Some contains log and substrates too.  You also need to consider the temperature, light and humidity aspects.

Mushroom farming is a good business opportunity and as well as an enjoyable hobby. Many go crazy over mushrooms. It can be consumed as food or for its medicinal purposes. Growing mushrooms at home can also be a fun activity where your family can be a part of it. And when you compare a home grown mushroom from those sold commercially, the taste differs a lot. Home grown mushrooms are more flavorful, aromatic ant tasty.

Using mushroom growing kits are very beneficial to those who would want to eat home grown mushrooms but to prospective mushroom growers as well. It is not only economical but also, you can choose a wide variety of kits depending on the variety of mushrooms you would want to grow. There are step by step guide and instructions included in mushroom growing kits. You just have to abide by it and you can attain guaranteed results.  These mushroom growing kits are available in online shops as well.

These mushroom kits contain materials and resources as well as instructions for growing mushroom indoors. These instructions are often easy to understand.

Almost every type of mushroom can be grown using these mushroom kits and because they are grown indoors, you can grow them all year round.  Available types of mushrooms that are commonly grown indoors are the shiitake, oyster, portobello and morel.

These are the types that generate better produce. These types often generate three to five pounds of yield. The yield depends on the meticulousness of the mushroom grower in collecting and harvesting the mushrooms and getting the mycelium and substrate ready for other mushrooms to mature.

Mushroom kits are available in local retail stores, department stores and gardening stores. There are also mushroom kits available in online shops. There are a lot of websites that offer mushroom kits and other supplies for mushroom farming.

How do you know that you purchased and chose the best mushroom kits? Once you have purchased the mushroom kits, you have to inspect it thoroughly. If you see any defects and/or colored mold, return the kit immediately to the store where you bought it.

Ask for a refund or a replacement of the kit you bought. The price for mushroom kits ranges from twenty to thirty dollars. There are also available mushroom kits that for producing extra large fruits as huge as a saucer. These types are usually much pricey.

For shopping mushroom kits online, you can search the internet using the keyword “mushroom kits” and a vast number of websites will be displayed. Now choose from the variety of mushroom you would want to grow and you can include it in your search.

You may compare five or more web sites that offer the kits that you would want to have and determine which web site would give you the best offer including the shipping fee.

There are a lot of varieties of mushrooms and mostly each corresponding variety has available kits. Sometimes it is best to buy online because online vendors often give lower prices compared to buying at local gardening stores.

Just make sure you are buying from a reputable vendor. So you have to read and search for good reviews on the web site.

The great thing about mushroom farming is that you’ll only need a small area where you can grow different varieties and in multiple numbers already.  You can grow your mushroom all day everyday and you can use rice straws that you can get after harvest as long as they are stored properly.  We will discuss here the basics and techniques needed to start out your mushroom farm.

First you will need the right materials to start your mushroom farm.  Dried rice straws or banana leaves as well as sugar bagasse, abaca waste, cotton wastes, corns stalks can be used as materials for bedding. You need to also use a soaking tank or a water container to supply water for the mushrooms. To cover the beds, you can use an empty sack or cement bag or a plastic sheet.

When you harvest, you will notice that the mushrooms grows on the bed of the medium and with the right maintenance and cultivation, the first batch usually come within the period of 13 to 15 days from the time of seeding.  Watering should be stopped while the mushrooms are being flushed and be continued thereafter.

A lot of benefits can be taken from mushroom farming.  They actually clean our environment due to the fact that they decompose dead bodies of animals or plants.  They can be used as well to clean out waste produced from agriculture.  After harvest, you can still benefit from the mushroom culture because they can be turned into fertilizers which you can use for farming.

Another way you can benefit from mushroom is its high protein content which is very nutritious.  Beyond that they also contain a wide range of amino acids.  They are of course low in fat and surely high in fiber.  Mushrooms also stimulate the immune system of the human body which today many are growing their own mushroom farms so they can easily get the right nutrition at a very cost-effective method.

These mushrooms as we all know are fungi.  They start out as spores and grow on mediums that are moist and from there grow the mushrooms that we benefit from.  In this article, we will be understanding the ways these types of mushrooms are generally regardless if they are edible or not.  Some examples of these mushrooms will be stated as we go along the discussion so that we become familiar with each mushroom belonging to their respective categories.

Let’s now discuss the mycorrhizal types.  Mycorrhizal mushrooms weave on the roots of plants  which are called endomycorrhizal or they wrap around them instead which are called ectomycorrhizal.  Their mycelia produces more moisture, phosphorous and other known nutrients to the host plant in which they get from it glucose or sugars that they use to feed.  This reaction makes the plant to grow faster and healthier.  Some examples are truffles and matsutake.

Next we have parasitic types of mushrooms that also use plants as their medium.  Unlike the mycorrhizal that there is a two-way benefit for both fungi and plant, this type is actually gonna destroy or kill the plant.  An example is the honey mushroom parasitic fungi that will use the plant as its host and won’t produce mushrooms and they are unnoticeable too because of their small size when they grow on the tree or plant.

Endophytic mushrooms also are found in plants and their characteristic is to attack the tissue of the host.  They are not like the parasitic that kill this host but instead the host remains healthy and gets nutrients as well. Mycologists can easily study the endopytic types of mushrooms because they can be grown even inside laboratories without their hosts.  They too do not produce mushrooms and still a lot of studies are needed to further understand their behavior.

Finally we have the saprotrophic mushrooms which are the decomposing types of mushrooms.  These fungi discharges acids that break down the tissues into molecules that they can absorb from their host.  In that way the reaction to the host like a wood would decay it.  Even plants or animals can become hosts to this saprotrophic mushroom.  We believe this type of mushroom is one of the most important types to be able to feed on decaying matter.  Some examples of this type are the morels, cremini and oyster mushrooms.

Mushrooms grow over the soil or any of the agricultural wastes or decomposing branches, trees and leaves. Mushrooms have many uses. They are used for food, medicine and straw. There are also different kinds of mushrooms. Button Mushrooms, oyster mushrooms are consumed as food. Shitake mushrooms are highly regarded for its medicinal value as it has anti cancer properties.

How do musshrooms grow? Mushroom spores are released through the gills of the mushroom and are distributed in the environment through the help of the air. Mushrooms undergo asexual reproduction. These mushroom spores germinate to create a hypha.  These hyphae are tangled mass of cells which is the main composition of the fungus then turns into a mycelium when it forms into a dense mass. Mycelium is the rough, white, cottony part of the mushroom. Those that look like root growth are called rhizomorphic.

Water and other nutrients in the environment are devoured by the mushroom spores when they germinate and then they will start reproducing. A substrate is where the mushroom mycelium grows on. A mushroom will have to inhabit the whole substrate before it begins to form fruit bodies. From there the mushroom will produce new mushroom spores and then a new life cycle begins.

As for mushroom cultivation, mushroom spores are grown to form a mycelium. Then it is spawned in a sterile environment and is introduced in a substrate where it will support the growth of the mushrooms. When the substrate is already inhabited, you can now grow actual mushrooms on it and create a small mushroom farm. Just make sure that the mushrooms spores are in a moist environment or medium to ensure proper and optimum growth. This will also ensure producing good mushroom strains for spawning.

Mushroom growing is a good hobby and a good business because mushrooms have many uses and there is an increasing demand for mushroom consumption in the market. A mushroom cultivator can gain something out of the fast growth of mushroom mycelium. Many are now into mushroom cultivation as they have just discovered its potential.

Here are some tips that we can show you on how to grow mushrooms so that you learn the basics of growing mushrooms right at your own backyard.  When you know how to grow them then you can be sure that your mushroom end product would be delicious, fresh and healthy mushrooms which you can also grow them indoors too for an endless supply that you’ll need every time you cook.

To start off in our tutorial on how to grow mushrooms, I would like to tell you first that you can get resources of growing kits for mushrooms which you will find in garden supply stores and even hardware stores and you also start with those by just following their simple explanations and examples that were done from other experienced mushroom farmers in the country.

First of all, just like any other growing plant, you will need seeds.  But for mushrooms which are not plants instead are fungi don’t have these type of seeds.  The kind of “seeds” that mushrooms starts out are called “Mushroom Spores”.  Mushroom spores is where the new born mushrooms begin, they spread out on their own.  These spores are actually the most costly part when you start to grow mushrooms.  Their prices range from $10 to $25, well in that case, they are not that expensive as they sound.  The good thing about that is, once you have them, you can then use them to start out other mushroom propagation that you need to further grow them in a bigger scale.

Next is you’ll need a medium where to grow your mushrooms.  There are a lot of growing mediums out there which you can use to grown your mushrooms.  The important thing is, they have to be kept moist all the time because that is where the growing of the mushrooms happen.  Growing mediums such as saw dust, coffee grounds, woodchips, logs, rice straw or any other organic items are what the mushroom spores will grow on to.  This is what they will consume as well and from there become the mushrooms that we cook and eat.

Finally, you’ll need some equipment on how to grow mushrooms.  These equipments are not that expensive like plastic bags or trays which you will be using to store your growing mushrooms and some watering equipment as well.

Sometimes when you first study these methods you might encounter problems such as contamination or complicated sterile procedures and you might be discouraged, no, this is where the fun begins when you are growing mushrooms.  Mushroom growing can be a good hobby and you can benefit financially with it when you are already experienced to grow these types of fungi where a lot of people love to eat.

Ways of growing mushrooms can be done with the following:  Acquiring mycelium which is a kind of mushroom tissue and maintaining them will be your first choice so that you can decide if this is the breed of mushroom you would want to grow.  When you start with a tissue culture you can get the type of mushroom strain that you want identically.  You can start with spores that are like seeds and can be bought from stores.

When you have a tissue culture, you can begin to create a spawn, a kind of mushroom that you can start with, that can be grown in small amounts with the use of sterilized grain or sawdust.  So you have to make sure that where you’ll be growing your mushroom is clean so that the fungus (mushroom) can grow freely.  Make sure also that you monitor the first portions of the growth of the spawn because once you have one you can make other spawn for you to use for mushroom farming.

You can now use the spawn and present it to the mycelium and form an organic material called a substrate.  This substrate supports the growth of mushrooms.  They will be there to assist the mushroom development and with your constant maintenance of this, you can be sure to have a healthy growth of the mushrooms.

Now, once the substrate has been completely taken over by the mushroom mycelium, you can start growing the actual mushrooms on it and this can be the start of your small mushroom farm.  You can start off like this in growing mushrooms.  In this way you’ll get a cost-effective way to make your mushroom farm bigger and surely profit from it once it grows on a bigger scale.

White mushrooms, like all mushrooms, grow from microscopic spores, not seeds. Plants growing from spores are called fungi. A mature mushroom will drop as many as 16 billion spores. Spores must be collected in the nearly sterile environment of a laboratory and then used to inoculate grains or seeds to produce a product called spawn (the mushroom farmer’s equivalent of seed).

Because mushrooms have no chlorophyll, they must get all their nutrients from organic matter in their growing medium. The medium, called compost, is scientifically formulated of various materials such as straw, corn cobs, cotton seed and cocoa seed hulls, gypsum and nitrogen supplements. Preparing the compost takes one to two weeks. Then it’s pasteurized and placed in large trays or beds. Next, the spawn is worked into the compost and the growing takes place in specially constructed houses, where the farmers can regulate the crucial aspects of heat and humidity.

In two to three weeks, the compost becomes filled with the root structure of the mushroom, a network of lacy white filaments called mycelium. At that point, a layer of pasteurized peat moss is spread over the compost. The temperature of the compost and the humidity of the room must be carefully controlled in order for the mycelium to develop fully. Eventually, tiny white protrusions form on the mycelium and push up through the peat moss. Farmers call this pinning. The pins continue to grow, becoming the mushroom caps, which are actually the fruit of the plant, just as a tomato is the fruit of a tomato plant. It takes 17 to 25 days to produce mature mushrooms after the peat moss is applied. Size is no indication of maturity in mushrooms. Perfectly ripe ones vary from small buttons to large caps.

Each crop is harvested over a period of several weeks and then the house is emptied and steam-sterilized before the process begins again. The remaining compost is recycled for potting soil. The harvested mushrooms are set in carts, refrigerated and then packaged and shipped quickly to supermarkets, food processors and restaurants. The entire process from the time the farmer starts preparing the compost until the mushrooms are harvested and shipped to market takes about four months.

Crimini Mushroom

Crimini mushrooms are grown and harvested in the same manner as the white mushroom. The reason they have a darker color and slightly denser texture is that they come from a different strain of spores.

Portabella Mushroom

Portabella mushrooms are also grown like the white mushrooms. Actually, the Portabella is a mature Crimini. It’s usually three to seven days older than the Crimini when harvested. As a result of their longer growing period, Portabellas develop much larger caps-ranging up to six inches in diameter.

Oyster mushrooms

Like other mushrooms, Oyster mushrooms are grown in mushroom houses but they require a bit more humidity and fresh air than the white variety. They grow well on a range of agricultural and wood waste products including hardwood chips, chopped cereal straws or corn cobs. After the growing medium is pasteurized and cooled it is inoculated, that is, mixed with spawn and packed into long, tubular shaped plastic bags. Holes are punched in the bags to allow the mycelia to breathe and the bags are hung up or set on racks in the growing rooms. After about 14 days, the mushrooms pop out through the holes and can be harvested. If straw is used as a growing medium, the substrate can be used as fertilizer after mushroom production is completed.

Shiitake mushrooms

Shiitake mushrooms were originally cultivated on natural oak logs, a process which took two to four years before the mycelium colonized the wood sufficiently to produce fruiting. Shiitakes were harvested on a seasonal basis (spring and fall) for about six years. Now, however, oak sawdust is packed into poly bags, sterilized, inoculated with spawn and placed in environmentally controlled rooms. These man-made “logs” produce Shiitakes in seven weeks. The total process, from spawning to the end of harvesting takes about four months as compared to the six year cycle on natural logs.

Enoki Mushroom

For the Enoki, current technology uses automated systems to fill plastic bottles with substrate usually ground corn cob pellets along with other ingredients such as wheat bran and soybean meal. The bottles are sterilized, inoculated with the mushroom culture and placed in growing houses. When the substrate is fully colonized with mycelium, the bottles are moved to an area where a plastic collar is attached to the mouth of the bottle. This collar guides the forming mushrooms to grow straight up to help control Carbon Dioxide. Enokis require a colder environment, 45 degrees compared to growing temperatures of about 60 degrees, which other varieties require. After about 90 days, the mushrooms are harvested. The collars are removed, the Enokis plucked from the mouth of the bottle and usually packaged in shrink-wrapped bags. The remaining substrate is recycled, since Enokis only produce one set of fruiting bodies per crop.

Beech Mushrooms

In some ways growing Beech mushrooms is similar to growing Enokis. Plastic bottles are sterilized, inoculated, with mushroom culture and then placed in growing houses to allow the substrate to colonize with the mycelium. However, Beeches require a temperature of 60 to 64 degrees in order for the culture to fully develop. It takes about 100 days to produce a mature crop. Afterward, the mushrooms are harvested and packaged for sale. Since Beeches only produce one set of fruiting bodies per crop, the remaining substrate is recycled for agri-business products.

Maitake Mushroom

The cultivated Maitake starts out as a mushroom “culture”- a piece of mushroom tissue grown on special sterile media in a Petri plate in a laboratory. The culture is used to make mushroom spawn- a series of steps to make a lot of mushroom tissue out of a little. The mushroom spawn is used to inoculate Maitake production logs, which are made out of sawdust supplemented with grain byproducts such as bran. The logs go through a “spawn run” where the mushroom spawn colonizes the sawdust and supplements and knits them together in a solid mass. This takes about 30 days. The logs are incubated in special mushroom houses with temperature, humidity and air flow carefully controlled. Once the logs start to pin ( small mushrooms begin to form) the logs are moved into “fruiting” houses which are also very carefully controlled to provide the best environment for mushroom formation. Like the Enoki mushroom, Maitake produces only one time, then the substrate is recycled into agri-business products. The whole process from lab to table takes from 10 to 14 weeks.