Mushrooms and the World's Problems

Mushrooms really are incredible -- for an organism is so simple, it has a lot of potential to help the human body, and the health of our planet. It is not only the fancy mushrooms with Japanese names that are interesting researchers -- the button mushrooms, which are cheap and plentiful in our supermarkets, give scientists plenty of reason to sing their praises also! If you have a mushroom growing kit at home, or enjoy dried porcini mushrooms or shiitake mushrooms, find out how you’re helping your body and your world here.

Button mushroom genome sequencing could solve global warming and improve soils

This research is being headed by the University of Warwick, and the team has high hopes for it. The efforts come from the fact that these mushrooms are extremely efficient at decomposing what is around them (so your spent mushroom growing kit is definitely not rubbish!). They break down lignin (part of the biofuel formation process), help cycle carbon through decomposing plant matter, and can hyper-accumulate toxic metals, cleaning out the soil.

Reishi mushrooms fight sarcoma

This research is at present only in the mouse stage -- human trials have not begun. However extracts of reishi (especially when fused with extracts of green tea) seemed to create a massive slowing of the growth of sarcomas in mice. All mice still eventually died of their cancers, but those that received a commercial reishi mushroom extract as well as a green tea extract showed much slower progression. The anti-cancer effect has been attributed to other mushrooms like shiitake mushrooms and dried porcini mushrooms also.

Reishi mushrooms fight obesity, heart disease, diabetes

They have been used for centuries as health promoters, and now scientists are uncovering the reasons behind that. Researchers are targeting people with Syndrome X in reishi mushroom powder trials.

Shiitake mushrooms hold key to biofuels

The ability of the shiitake mushroom to turned fallen wood into sugars to feed itself is amazing -- and may help scientists develop more efficient biofuels from a wider range of sources. Californian scientists believe the gene responsible is Xyn11A, and carries the instructions for the mushroom to make xylanase, an enzyme. This enzyme could be used to digest rice hulls and other food leftovers to make biofuels.

Five FAQs About Mushroom Growing Kits Answered

Mushroom-growing kits are very easy to setup and maintain. Fungi are typically very prolific reproducers, with the right conditions, and many people don’t have a problem getting the volume of mushrooms that they would like out of their kit. For the novice though, some strange and worrying things can occur in the brave new world of growing your own mushrooms! We look at five of the questions that most plague newbies in the mushroom growing kit world.

When should I harvest my crop?

The thing that confuses many people is that mature mushrooms all grow to different sizes. Sizes differ from species to species, and also from individual fungus to its neighbor. There is an easy way to tell, though -- the thin veil covering the gills underneath your mushroom will break when it is ripe (releasing spores into the air to grow new little mushrooms!). You can pick the ripe ones out of your mushroom growing kit and leave those that aren’t ready.

There's bugs eating my mushrooms! How do I kill them?

The bugs in most cases will do no harm to your mushrooms -- if you are worried, you can coat the inside of a large compost bag with vegetable oil and place it around the mushroom growing kit. The flies' wings will stick to it and they will die, without using chemicals.

There's mold on my casing surface -- what should I do?

Again, this usually is not a problem. Unless the molds start multiplying out of control or spreading onto the mushrooms themselves, don’t worry about them. Try to introduce a little more air ventilation next time.

Where do I put the kit when it is finished?

You'll know when your kit is finished because mushrooms no longer grow well in the surface -- the nutrients have been used up. This usually takes around 12 weeks but does vary by the particular mushroom growing kit you use. Mix it in with the compost, or dig it through the garden soil outside -- you may get more mushrooms with the fresh injection of nutrients!

My mushrooms are spreading their seed all over my cupboards -- what is going on?

This is their natural reproductive process. Spores usually come off with soap and water, but a better strategy is simply to pick the mushrooms when they are ripe -- this should minimize your spore load.