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Mushroom hunting that is cool and fun, but you know what’s not cool and fun? Having slugs or other mushroom hunters find your hiding place. Or, worse, accidentally picking up the kind of fungus that could make you sick — or worse.
Ideally, you can safely grow any type of mushroom you like in your home or garden, whether it’s shiitakes, morels, or lion’s manes, just like you can vegetables. But like most gardening jobs, it’s not easy. Mushrooms, like all fungi, need only three things to grow: a seed, a food source, and a moist environment.
However, because fungi are so sensitive to light, heat, and pollution, it doesn’t take much for them to grow properly. Then there is the question of whether it is possible to mimic the complex relationships that many mushrooms, especially the most coveted ones like porcinis and chanterelles, must maintain with tree roots in order to thrive.
I am far from a mycologist, but in the last year, I, a busy parent working full time, have been trying to grow mushrooms in my house and in my backyard: shiitake on a watering can, oysters on a cardboard fruiting tree, wine caps in spawn buried in bark chips in my garden, oysters in a bucket, oysters in a bucket, oysters, oysters, oysters, oysters. making a monotube.
I laughed, I cried, I made cut grass in my bathroom, and only two of the five methods were successful. If you want to grow your own mushrooms, here’s what I did—and, sometimes, I wish I’d done it differently.
Also, be sure to check out our tips mushroom supplements (active type), mushroom gummies, indoor gardening practicesand mushroom gift.
What Will Win?
Step 1: Mushroom Block
Williams Sonoma
Mushroom Log Kit
There is nothing more natural, simple, and inexpensive than a log of mushrooms. Most mushroom trees available for purchase are designed for outdoor use, as they are old-fashioned logs with holes filled with colonies. mushroom seed. But this 12-inch-tall model from Williams Sonoma is made for indoor display (although you can put it outside if you want), with a smooth resin finish and a metal label stamped with the date of its creation.
Soak them for 24 hours and—theoretically—you’ll have button mushrooms in 30 days. Although oyster mushrooms are the easiest to grow, for reasons I knew at the time, I chose a shiitake log, which came with a label that said it was a “small log.” This means that the plant is still in the colony and should produce seven to nine months from the date printed on its tag, which was December 2025. I soaked the log in mid-May and early July, but I’m still waiting to see any pins. Williams Sonoma says the log is guaranteed to bear fruit, so it continues to sit on my dining room table, in a bowl filled with water, sealed with a plastic bag. Some green molds have begun to appear on the surface, but I remain optimistic, even though this is not my first problem with shiitake mushrooms (I tried to grow from another type a few years ago, outside the bush).
