How do I grow mushrooms at home?
I had a friend grow non-pschedelic mushrooms using psychedelic methods. From what I could tell, it’s not really worth it. Fungi does not easily grow in what can be termed a traditional cultivation environment, meaning you can’t really plant it like carrots or lettuce. I would recommend going to the Shroomery FAQ. Basically you’ll need bulk substrate, a pressure cooker and a few other things. The idea is to grow the mushrooms in a sterile environment in order to not encourage the growth of toxic bacteria or fungus. I may be wrong, but my impression from him was that fungus were one of the more labor and capital intensive agricultural products to grow.
I wouldn’t eat edible mushrooms grown in a garden. When you grow mushrooms, you do it in a mostly sterile environment, because the growth medium, because bacteria and other fungus are just as likely to grow on it. If you just want mushrooms in a garden because they look cool, or whatever, you could probably inoculate a growth medium as normal, and then take the stuff out once your ready to have the bloom. But, the medium, out in a garden, would probably only last a few days, before being infected with some other fungus that would probably take over.
It is very much possible to grow mushrooms (safely) outdoors in your garden, the idea being that the mycelium — if it survived to that point — has successfully out-competed all the other spores and whatnot in the area. Provided you only eat clean and fresh fruitbodies, there ought to be no problem eating garden grown mushrooms. That said, natural culture of most varieties is a bit of a pain. I’d probably culture under sterile conditions then spawn to an outdoor medium, either that or do what people did for hundreds of years… find a patch of mushrooms, section of some mycelium, then transplant it (which, in part addresses smackfu’s question I suppose). The best book I’ve ever read on the matter is The Mushroom Cultivator, which will tell you just about everything you need to get started. Particularly if you’re interested in cultivating agaricus bisporus (common brown mushroom).
Mushrooms are like fruit. The thing they grow out of is actually beneath the soil; the mushroom itself that you pick doesn’t kill the fungus. This is why they tend to crop up in the same places. Also, they grow very quickly (just a day or two), so if you go to a wooded area a few days after it rains, you’ll probably find mushrooms. Knowing which are edible, though, is why you’ll probably want to bring someone with you.
