Page 19 - IFV Jan Feb Issue 2025

Estate News

Photo by Sébastien Marchand on Unsplash

Growing mushrooms in your garden
Knowing how to identify mushrooms while Oyster mushrooms prefer an Once you’ve chosen the mushrooms
is important and helpful if you’d like to environment of straw, and Button you want and collected their correct
grow your own. Different mushrooms mushrooms grow from the nutrients growing medium, follow these basic
grow in particular settings and mediums of composted manure. Be sure to find steps:
and as such, be sure to find out what out what kind of medium you will need • place the growing medium in a pan
kind of medium you will need for the for the particular species of spores or and raise the temperature to about 21
species of spores you have purchased. spawn you have purchased. In general, degrees Celsius in the area you have
The most popular choices are Oyster, mushrooms like a cool, dark and chosen to cultivate them. A heating
Shiitake and White Button mushrooms. damp place to grow in, so if you have pad can be used to achieve this;
To grow them yourself, you first need a basement or wine cellar this is ideal • after about an hour, the medium should
to buy a selection of spores or spawn – but if not, an old cupboard or trunk is be warm enough and you can then
either can be used. However for home also fine. As long as you can control the place the spawn on it. The spawn will
growing, spawn is much easier to use. temperature, humidity and keep the have rooted after about three weeks,
Shiitake mushrooms usually grow area relatively dark, your mushrooms meaning that the filaments would
on hardwood or hardwood sawdust, will thrive. have spread into the growing medium.
At this stage, reduce the temperature
to around 15 degrees C;
• cover the spawn with two to three
centimetres of potting soil, then cover
the pan and potting soil with a damp
just observe its beauty and don’t have it white when young and turn green with cloth. It’s important to keep spraying
for lunch! age. If bruised, the mushroom turns a the cloth and the soil as they dry, to
The False Parasol mushroom has a dingy red colour. It is highly poisonous keep them both moist;
convex cap at full maturity, and grows and causes severe gastro-intestinal • it should take about three to four
from 5 to 40cm in diameter. The gills are symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea. weeks before you see the mushrooms
appearing. Shiitake mushrooms take a
little longer and will be ready in about
seven to eight weeks. They will be ready
to pick once the cap has fully opened
and has fully separated from the stem.
Happy mushroom farming!

Information and photos courtesy of Life is
a Garden.

The Villager • Jan / Feb 2025 • 17