Top 10 Tips For Mushroom Cultivating Beginners
#1 – Start With a Mushroom Growing Kit – And Make Sure it Comes With Everything You Need
#1 – Start With a Mushroom Growing Kit – And Make Sure it Comes With Everything You Need
The online mushroom growing community is made up of pretty friendly people, and most of them are willing to share their advice with you. There are also tons of books out there about cultivating mushrooms. In theory, all the information you need to buy the right equipment is out there.
#2 – Set Up Your Mushroom Growing “Lab” The Right Way
While you wait for your All-in-One Kit to arrive, take a moment to consider where you’ll be growing your mushrooms. This will be your “lab” (or “farm” if you prefer) and needs to have a few features. Don’t worry though—one of the really nice things about the mushroom growing hobby is that it requires little space. People have successfully grown bountiful harvests from a monotub in their apartments, bedrooms, or kitchens.
#3 – Never Neglect Sterility – Your Mushrooms Will Thank You
Make sure that you take this part of the growing process seriously—yes, mushrooms are hardy organisms and can live through a lot, but why take any chances?
#4 – Don’t Be Afraid to Read, Watch, and Learn: Utilize ALL The Resources at Your Disposal!
As you get deeper and deeper into the mushroom growing hobby, you’ll find that you naturally learn all about mycology—but in the very beginning, some of the terminology used can be confusing. We may have even used terms that you’re not familiar with yet in this very article—things like inoculation or substrate.
#5 – Pick the Right Kind of Mushrooms For Your First Attempt
Did you know that scientists estimate that there are roughly 11,000 known species of fungi in North America alone?
#6 – Use Professionally Made Grain Spawn
Grain spawn is tough to get right—so even though there are tutorials online about how to make your own, at least for your first time growing mushrooms you should get spawn that’s been prepared by professionals. Some mushroom farmers, that is to say, experts in the art and science of mushroom cultivation, refuse to make their own grain spawn. Why? It’s a delicate procedure and critical to the success of your grow.
#7 – Use Professionally Made Fruiting Substrate Too – Here’s Why
Ditto the previous tip—we’ve spent years developing what we (and many professional growers) consider to be the perfect fruiting substrate. Our Super Shroom Final Fruiting Substrate is the result of lots of hard work and scientific precision. The All-in-One kit comes with 10 pounds, enough for at least 4-6 crops.
#8 – Grow the Right Amount of Mushrooms and Don’t Overdo it For Your First Harvest
We’ve seen a lot of people get interested in the mushroom growing hobby (and sometimes get dollar signs in their eyes while thinking about the profitability of growing expensive gourmet mushrooms) and then try to “go all out” for their first time around, buying multiple monotubs or investing in expensive automation systems before they’ve even had a single pin show its head ever before.
#9 – Learn About How You Plan to Preserve and Store Your Mushrooms
Something that catches a lot of beginners off guard is just how many mushrooms they’ll be able to harvest from a single monotub. It’s probably a lot more than you think, especially if you consider that if you’ve done everything correctly you’ll more than likely enjoy more than a single flush.
#10 – Don’t Worry Too Much & Just Get Started – You’ll Learn As You Go
We’ll wrap things up with a short and sweet recommendation: don’t overthink everything. Try and follow the tips we’ve outlined today to the best of your ability, but don’t stress out over doing everything perfectly. The mushroom cultivation hobby (and for some, profession) is one of the most fun, personally fulfilling, and overall rewarding activities you can take part in—so just go with it and have fun!
More Resources & How to Learn More About Cultivating Mushrooms at Home
We hope that you found the tips we covered in this article helpful. Don’t worry about taking our advice word-for-word, just do the best that you can and remember—always have fun! Mushroom cultivation is one of the best hobbies in the world, not just because it’s affordable, but because it gives you near-limitless opportunities to learn and discover.
