11 things I’ve learnt so far…
I’ve been growing mushrooms in the low tech way for a while now, and with time I’ve come to realise a few things, a lot from trial and error. So here are the 11 things I’ve learnt so far in this mushroom journey.
1. Have a routine - it’s important to know when to pasteurise substrate, when to inoculate, the length of time to incubate etc etc. It’s really important to get this in place at the earliest opportunity and gain an understanding of how important all steps are to the cultivation of mushrooms.
2. Become familiar with the terminology! Substrate, inoculation, incubation, pasteurisation, sterilisation, mycology, fresh air exchange… it can all seem overwhelming at first but you’ll soon be using the same terminology once you know what they all mean/ refer to.
3. Keep records of all steps! Create as much data as you can as it’ll help later on when looking at ways to decrease outgoings, working out where something went wrong or impressively right, and moving to streamlining steps to make it all the more efficient.
4. Heat is important - there is a big difference in growing mushrooms in the warmer months compared to the colder months especially if your fruiting area is in a colder place (ie, shed, outdoor building without insulation etc). If your stein of mushrooms need heat, make sure you provide it otherwise her the best yield, or if you can’t provide the right levels of warmth, think so it growing cold weather varieties.
5. Scariad flies are a menace but also love mushrooms probably more than we do. Mushrooms grown outdoors are much more prone to flies attested by the smell of the mushrooms, and will happily take up residence all around your bountiful crop. And once they make a home there, they can be rather difficult to get rid of. And seeing tiny maggots rooting in between your fruiting mushrooms can be both disheartening and utterly horrible! Be aware.
6. Have space in fridge for unused grain spawn. You’ve spent money on it so you don’t want it to go to waste if you can’t use it all at the same time.
7. Do not get too carried away and try to grow as many different varieties as you can - get the basics right, build a solid foundation and work from there.
8. Set yourself goals- weekly, monthly, 6 months and make them realistic. Try and work towards them as much as possible. Small steps are better than no steps.
9. Know the difference between healthy mycelium and mould, it’ll become obvious over time through trial and error, and through becoming familiar with the variety you’re growing. It goes without saying that you’ll have times when mould starts growing instead of mycelium and you’ll have to make a decision when to dispose of it or whether you can salvage it. Sometimes the only option is to cut your losses and dispose of the batch, and being ok with that decision.
10. Don’t give up - if a batch becomes contaminated, move on. You’ll definitely learn more from failure than when things go right… just remember that it’ll not always go the way you want or planned for, but failures ALWAYS lead to better understanding of how to refine your practice to make sure the chances failure are lessened.
11. Make sure all equipment is clean and sterile especially when at the inoculation stage. Being fastidious with cleanliness this stage will save a lot of heart ache and pain later on if mould grows instead of healthy mycelium. Higher levels of cleanliness and sterile practises will undoubtedly lessen the chances of mould setting up home in your bags and buckets among the mycelium, although be aware that you can never keep any microscopic mould spores from floating around!
There we go, but this list is not exhaustive. There are many more lessons I’ve learnt over time, especially when I started moving towards sterilisation and tricker varieties of mushroom cultivation.
But that’s what I love about this process, there’s always something to learn and discover. And I’m sure there’ll be more blogs on things I’ve learned so far.
