Growing Mushrooms

Learn how to grow Grey Oyster mushrooms from a ready-to-fruit block with a side opening, high humidity, strong fresh-air exchange, and appearance-based harvest cues.

Learn how to fruit a mature Shiitake block as a bare block, manage humidity and fresh air, recognize normal browning and popcorning, and prepare for a second flush.

Learn how to grow Pink Oyster mushrooms from a ready-to-fruit block with a side opening, high humidity, strong fresh-air exchange, warm room temperatures, and proper harvest timing.

Oyster mushrooms are admired by chefs for their delicious flavor and beloved by mushroom growers for their vigorous growth. Indeed, their adaptability and voracious nature make them an excellent choice for novice growers and a classic staple for those with experience.

At some point in the career of every aspiring mycologist, a phase is reached where they want to go beyond basic growkits and cultivation practices. They want to make grain spawn, work with agar, clone mushrooms, germinate spores, or simply reduce their rates of contamination. 

This is where Still Air Boxes and Flow Hoods generally enter the picture. These tools allow growers to work in a controlled environment where contamination can be significantly reduced or eliminated. They are absolutely necessary for many of the advanced techniques used in mushroom growing. They make up the “heart” of any laboratory, be it a professional-grade lab, or a DIY home lab you prop up in the corner of a spare bedroom. 

An organic mushroom is one grown utilizing cultivation practices that avoid the use of non-organic substrates or synthetic chemicals. In some cases, mushrooms may also be certified organic, meaning that they follow the regulatory framework set out by the USDA (or similar agencies in other countries) for organic production. Due to the challenges mushroom growers may face sourcing certified organic materials, the USDA does allow some flexibility in this regard as is outlined below.