Five Mushroom Growing Methods for Beginners: A Home Guide
A WIRED author shares her experience trying five different mushroom growing methods at home and in the yard, with only two proving successful.
Growing mushrooms at home is gaining popularity, but it's not as simple as gardening vegetables. Mushrooms need only spores, a food source, and humidity, but they are highly sensitive to light, heat, and contamination. Over a year, a busy working parent and WIRED author tested five methods to grow shiitake, oyster, wine cap, and lion's mane mushrooms.
Methods and Results
1. Mushroom Log: A Williams Sonoma shiitake log for indoor use has not yet fruited after several soakings, and green mold appeared. The manufacturer guarantees fruiting within 7–9 months.
2. Spray-and-Grow Box: Kits from Back to the Roots and North Spore with oyster mushrooms were successful—after soaking and misting, harvest appeared within days. The North Spore kit had fungus gnat issues, resolved with a soap-vinegar-baking soda spray.
3. Spawn in the Garden: Wine cap spawn from North Spore was sprinkled into wood chips but was eaten by squirrels. Inedible chip cherry mushrooms grew instead.
4. Fruiting Blocks in a Monotub: The automated North Spore Boomr Bin was the most successful, yielding four flushes of colorful oysters and three flushes of lion's mane.
5. Bucket Tek: The North Spore MushBucket kit with straw and grain spawn failed, producing only mold. The author recommends pasteurizing straw and trying outdoors in fall or spring.
Conclusions
Beginners should start with an oyster mushroom spray-and-grow box for guaranteed success. For larger yields, a monotub setup offers controlled conditions and higher productivity.
