How do I grow mushrooms at home?
Not really about growing mushrooms in a garden, but you can get pre-spawned shiitake logs that produce every couple of weeks for a few years. Try shopping around for the best price.
Preindustrial societies did not cultivate mushrooms as the word is being used here. France led the development of true msuhroom cultivation starting in the 16th century – its said Louis XIV was big on mushroom cultivation. England advanced the science of cultivation quite a bit. The first book on the subject was printed in 1891.
Mushrooms are better grown in a basement or dark garage. You’ll just need trays, mushroom spawn, and the right substrate. This is a great page about getting started, and this place sells spawn and kits at a reasonable price.
I’ve tried mushroom growing kits where they give you a big white block and you mist it with water and keep it under a bag and, if you’re lucky, mushrooms grow. It was fun and worth doing once, but, really, I think you’d need to have an automatic mister to make it really work well – I just couldn’t keep up with the every-4-hours misting schedule they apparently needed.
