Description

To all of our mushroom lovers this is a bargain to not pass up.

Spore print is collected by placing a mushroom cap (grown indoors) on a piece of paper or aluminum foil and allowing the discharged spores to collect and form a print. Prints can be used to grow mycelium on a sterile petri dish.  While we take every precaution to maintain sterility we cannot guarantee prints are completely free of contaminating organisms. 

Mushroom spores can last for years!  For long term storage it’s best if spores are stored in the refrigerator. Spore prints need to be sealed from moisture before storing in the fridge. Sealing them from air and heat prolongs their life. Spore prints have been known to last 18 years! Perhaps longer but this is the longest we are aware of from our customer feedback and our network. 

Oyster Mushrooms 

Cultivation Difficulty: Easy
Type: Edible
Substrate: Pasteurized straw, wood chips, sawdust, various grains, coffee grounds, agricultural waste, newspaper and cardboard.
Colonization/Fruiting Temperatures: 70-75F/60-70F

This is the common temperate oyster mushroom. Oysters are aggressive and very hearty mushrooms producing high yields.

As with all oyster mushrooms they need plenty of fresh air to develop normally. High carbon dioxide levels from mushroom metabolism will accumulate in sealed growing environments and can reduce cap size and elongate stems severely.Fruiting in open humidity chambers with frequent fresh air exchange will produce best possible yields.

Lions Mane 

Cultivation Difficulty: easy
Type: Edible
Substrate: Hardwood chips and sawdust, hardwood logs.
Colonization/Fruiting Temperatures: 70-75F/65-75F

The Lion’s Mane is toothed fungus, it forms tooth-like spine structures instead of gills. The spines grow from a common clump and can become over a centimeter long. Younger specimens are more desired for flavor, which is often described as lobster-like when fried in butter.

This is an aggressive species that spontaneously forms primordia on malt agar and sawdust substrates but may be slow to colonize grain spawn. The mushroom develops quickly once initiated and can grow from a tiny primordia to a large, ready to harvest mushroom in one week or less. We offer a quick and easy Lion’s Mane Mushroom Block – Ready to Grow Kit for those wishing to try growing this mushroom at home. It may also be cultivated from cut hardwood logs using plug spawn.

The Lion’s Mane has been used for hundreds of years in Traditional Chinese Medicine and recent studies show certain compounds in the mushroom produce antioxidant effects, may regulate blood lipid levels and may reduce blood glucose levels.

Shiitake 

Cultivation Difficulty: easy
Type: Edible/Medicinal
Substrate: hardwood chips and sawdust, hardwood logs
Colonization/Fruiting Temperatures: 70-80F/50-70F

Perhaps one of the best known gourmet mushrooms, shiitake is both good food, and good for you. It reportedly has wide-ranging health promoting and immunity stimulating properties, showing promise in fighting cancer, viral infections, and helping control high cholesterol.

Shiitake has been cultivated in Asia for centuries, and is desired for its dense, meaty flavored flesh. Tastes great fried, grilled, in soups, salads, stir-fry and with rice.

This particular strain has spontaneously formed fruit bodies in 4 months on malt agar.

Fruiting formula by volume:

• 100 parts hard wood sawdust/small wood chips
• 10 parts bran
• 1 part gypsum (calcium sulfate)Water until moist and well soaked through. Drain or squeeze out excess water. The substrate should be damp but not wet. Pack into autoclavable bags and sterilized from 1-4 hours at 15 psi depending on the volume of the substrate. Larger volumes need a longer sterilization time to heat the core enough for complete sterilization. Depending on the type of bag and method of inoculation, the bags can be sealed before or after sterilization. Colonization is slow and may take as long as 1-2 months.Fruiting requires removing or puncturing the bag and providing a cool, well ventilated and humidified environment with indirect light. Hand misting daily and covering the bag less sawdust block loosely with a light plastic grocery bag (to maintain humidity) gives acceptable results on the kitchen counter.

King Stropharia, Wine Cap

Cultivation Difficulty: Easy
Type: Edible
Substrate: Pasteurized straw, wood chips, sawdust, various grains, coffee grounds, agricultural waste, newspaper and cardboard. With additional casing layer on top of substrate.
Colonization/Fruiting Temperatures: 70-75F/60-70F

These mushrooms are great for a garden bed with shade.

A large and adaptive edible species best suited for outdoor culture in the home garden. Indoor fruitings are possible but the King Stropharia requires a non-sterile casing to stimulate mushroom development and is slow fruit. These difficulties are avoided by simply inoculating a garden compost pile.

 The King Stropharia’s massive size, attractive appearance and ease of cultivation mark it as desirable for home cultivators. Very young mushrooms that do not have darkened gills from spore production are considered most desirable for eating

1. Scouting a site:

 Look for a shaded, damp area sheltered from the wind. It is beneficial for the bed to receive natural rainfall even if you are able to water regularly, do not choose a site where water pools. A slope out of the wind, under a shady tree or in between rows of vegetables are suitable locations. It is extremely important to put the bed somewhere easy to see but not in the way of foot traffic. Fungal cultivation requires patience and mushrooms can appear suddenly without warning so the easier it is to check on them the better.

2. Preparing outdoor bed:

 You will need 10-50 pounds organic growing medium such as hardwood chips, mulch, or straw. For smaller areas 10-30 pounds of growing medium will be required. Clear a 10-20 square foot space of any decomposing organic debris such as twigs or leaves. The bed can be on the surface or excavated a few inches deep; place a layer of cardboard or natural fabric such as burlap over the entire surface of the bed. This will act as a temporary barrier to any lurking native fungi and give your mycellium time to establish itself. On top of the barrier lay down two inches organic growing medium, water thoroughly and spread mushroom mycelium evenly over entire surface. Add another 1-2 inches of moist organic growing medium. If you have used a light weight medium such as straw use a layer of wood chips or other heavy organic material to compact the substrates and retain moisture for optimal growing.

3. Watering:

 Water bed thoroughly every few days, especially when it is hot or dry. Check the bed periodically; when most of the growing medium is colonized with the white mycelium it is ready to produce mushrooms.

4. Casing

 Once the bed is mostly colonized case with a mixture of 1:1 peat moss and garden soil. Simply mix peat moss with soil and evenly spread it over the entire mushroom bed. Don’t use sterilized potting soil. The organisms in the soil are necessary to induce fruiting.

5. Fruiting

 Induce fruiting by watering at least once a day for 30 minutes. Within a couple weeks reddish mushroom primordia will being to poke up through the growing medium. Watch closely as the primordia mature into fully formed mushrooms. Harvest your mushrooms before the mushroom cap edges flatten and curl upward. Remove all mushrooms large and small by cutting them at their base.

 Mushrooms can be cultivated in a hole or a cardboard box for indoor growing in a barn or garage. Hole or box should be approximately 1.5’x1.5′ and 2 feet deep. Layer bottom and sides of hole first with cardboard or natural fabric, moistened growing medium and place entire spawn block in the center or mix with medium. Cover with more damp medium.