Growing Mushrooms 101: Setting up a Location

If you love the idea of having a vegetable garden, but simply don’t have the space to put it, mushroom growing kits are a great alternative! Mushrooms are very easy to grow, and grabbing a kit makes it all the more foolproof. Today we are looking at how to set up a location for yourmushroom growing kit -- both natural and created aspects of the environment.

Temperature

Mushrooms will grow best in mild conditions, neither too warm nor too cool. But if you live in a desert or semi-arid area where the natural temperature varies more than this, here are some tricks to help with your fungal fun.

• Keep the mushrooms in a pantry. These are usually built near the center of a house, so are better insulated from outside temperature variations.
• Keep the mushrooms in a box in a part of the house that you frequent. This means that any cooling or heating you use for yourself will also help keep your mushrooms comfortable!
• Grow your mushrooms in the basement or crawl space under the house. In many houses there is easy access to at least part of the crawl space. Clear it out, sweep off cobwebs and set up your mushroom growing kit here to help insulate against the big bad world.

Bug protection

Indoor locations are preferable to outdoor ones, mostly because they have far less exposure to insect pests. Flies and their larvae, slugs, mites, and various flying insects will eat mushroom meat and the mycelium. To help protect against insects in your mushroom growing kit's environment:

• Don’t spray pesticides, unless you like the idea of eating them
• Use bowls of water around the legs of a small table to guard against crawling insects.
• Use mosquito netting to guard against larger flying insects and still allow air ventilation

Light

Ambient light will blush the top of your mushrooms. They will mostly taste the same, but don’t look as nice! This is another reason that the ideas suggested in the "temperature" section are all shaded or dark.

Ventilation

Your mushrooms need air to grow, like all plants do. However, too much air movement will strip the environment in your mushroom growing kit of humidity and dry out the casing. If the only spot you have for your kit is drafty or close to a heat source (which will also dry out the casing), leave a small bowl of water in there to help with humidity. You can also enclose your mushroom growing kit inside a larger box to help protect against drafts.