Grow Your Own Mushrooms - Is it worth it?

LadyDee

As the title really.

Mushrooms have, like everything else, risen in price so thought I might save a few pennies.

Has anybody had success with the mushroom kits? Any hints and/or recommendations?

Lavender_Rose

Personally I think they are a waste of money. We have had one or two (given as presents) and you get 1 or 2 crops from them and that's it....they need certain conditions etc to grown properly

Pink.

I've moved your thread over to our Greenfingered board where you should get a better response.

Pink

SailorSam

I've looked at them in the shops and those kits seem awful expensive.

moments_of_sanity

I bought a kit from the £ shop and followed the instructions to the letter and only 1 tiny mushroom has grown. I won't be bothering again.

RAS

I was given some components free to make a kit up (they had run out of coffee grounds).

Despite my best efforts to kill it by breaking up the spores, putting it in sunlight, and getting it too wet initially, the mycellium has colonised the coffee grounds I have fed it so far. Need to bulk it up a bit more before I try to get mushrooms out of it.

The kit provider's text does explain how to use the first kit to propagate further kits.

I suspect that anyone with a modern house with central heating will find it hard to keep the kit sufficiently moist, and at certain times of the year cool enough. Without central heating it may also be hard to keep it warm enough in winter.

RAS

moments_of_sanity wrote: »

I bought a kit from the £ shop and followed the instructions to the letter and only 1 tiny mushroom has grown. I won't be bothering again.

I find that £ and 99p shops are very good at killing live things whether they be hardy plants or seedlings. Very hot, dry and no light, then left on the shelf until dead.

With a bit of luck the remaining mycellium would colonise new moist material and might work later. Just by the time you bought it, most of the culture would have been killed off.

rum1

Tried a kit once and what i did get looked awful and tasted awful, i wouldn't bother again

LadyDee

Oh well, I thought it was a good idea - just have to eat fewer mushrooms:)

Thanks for your comments.

tim_n

I have had success with the kits, but not to offset the costs. Kits are half hearted and unless you're making a mushroom log and have areas perfect for mushroom cultivation (like an old anderson shelter like I was discussing with my collegue this morning!) I wouldn't bother.

Last year I visited the Center of Alternative Technology and they have a mushroom growing shed. It gives you an appreciation of the level of technology you need to have mushrooms for the dinner table and it's not that easy.

Saying that, with excellent hygiene, a pressure cooker and some jam jars you can make a good go of it, but it always seems like so much fuss.

I have to go to similar lengths to brew beer, but generally feel that the process is much easier and has a better output

Leif

You might be better off learning to recognise wild mushrooms. The main season is Autumn, but there are Spring and late Summer species. Unfortunately many areas are being stripped bare of all fungi, and you find large piles of discarded fungi, shocking. Anyway, picking a modest amount of species you can recognise does no harm and is fun. Obviously you need to know what you are picking, most are inedible, a few are edible, and a few are very poisonous. Good Autumn species are Hedgehogs, Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius), Horn of Plenty and Penny Bun (Boletus edulis). Just make sure you do know what you are picking.