How to Grow Mushrooms Outdoors
Wouldn't it be nice if you could sow a row of mushrooms in your garden, just like you do with carrots or spinach? Well, it's not quite that simple, but you can grow your own mushrooms. Mushrooms grown inside mature more quickly, but they require a lot of fussing with humidity levels and fresh substrate. Outdoor mushroom plots grow more slowly and may only produce edible mushrooms during one time of the year, but once established they will continue to produce for years, with little to no input from the gardener.
Research and decide which mushrooms you would like to grow. Although different types of mushrooms grow all over the world, each individual species will have precise habitat preferences. Morels, for example, need a climate with cold winters, so they won't do very well in Florida.
- Wouldn't it be nice if you could sow a row of mushrooms in your garden, just like you do with carrots or spinach?
- Outdoor mushroom plots grow more slowly and may only produce edible mushrooms during one time of the year, but once established they will continue to produce for years, with little to no input from the gardener.
Purchase mushroom spawn. Spawn comes in liquid form or as grain, sawdust or straw inoculated with mushroom spores, or as inoculated dowels that you can hammer into logs. Mushroom spawn can be purchased online or from some garden centers or specialty stores.
Create a suitable patch of substrate for your mushrooms. Different species will have different requirements. Refer to the instructions that came with your spawn. For example, shiitake mushrooms grow on logs, while shaggy mane mushrooms will prefer a bed of rich soil and compost. Many other species of mushrooms will do well in soil that has been loosened and covered with sawdust or wood chips. Most mushrooms prefer low light levels and high humidity, so choose a shady spot that is accessible with a hose or sprinkler.
- Spawn comes in liquid form or as grain, sawdust or straw inoculated with mushroom spores, or as inoculated dowels that you can hammer into logs.
- Many other species of mushrooms will do well in soil that has been loosened and covered with sawdust or wood chips.
Water your newly created mushroom patch gently and thoroughly, so that the growing substrate is as moist as a wrung-out sponge but the water does not pool on the surface of the soil. You may need to water a mushroom patch regularly during the first year, but after that it should be well enough established to regulate its own moisture levels, and will only need watering in very dry weather.
If needed, add fresh wood chips or other substrate every few years as the old substrate decomposes.
Tip
If you have an indoor mushroom growing kit, you can often transfer the spent substrate to a suitable location outside, and if there is viable spawn left, it may colonize and produce another crop of mushrooms the following year.
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Tips
- If you have an indoor mushroom growing kit, you can often transfer the spent substrate to a suitable location outside, and if there is viable spawn left, it may colonize and produce another crop of mushrooms the following year.
Writer Bio
Heidi Almond worked in the natural foods industry for more than seven years before becoming a full-time freelancer in 2010. She has been published in "Mother Earth News," "Legacy" magazine and in several local publications in Duluth, Minn. In 2002 Almond graduated cum laude from an environmental liberal arts college with a concentration in writing.
