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i've just ordered 2 mushroom growing kits one for me and one for the year 11 life skills class i help out with there was a group of lads that wanted to grow organic veg but no one to supervise them so i volunteered for the job mine will be grown at home in my porch and the ones at the school in a greenhouse i will let you know how both get on

Another idea to try (and it's very low maintenance).

I know a mushroom forager who if he finds a particually wormy or too old edible variety he collects it then spreads the spores around his garden/grass, in as many different area types as possible. He also does this in a wooded area near his house.

He has had some sucess. Of course they are seasonal, but the joy of having wild mushrooms on your door step.

I put down some bark mulch three years ago. Two years ago I noticed a couple of things that I thought were morels. I left them to spore.

Last year I got five or six morels, all in a line approximately 3m from the initial one.

I've got my fingers crossed for this spring!.

Hurrah!



Mushrooms growing



mushrooms picked



big mushroom!

Success!

hope i get more now, they were yummy!
And i found my dried spawn that i knew was in the seed box (oh, lovely seed box you have returned!) so i'm going to see what happens when these have stopped growing.

Fantastic! Inspired to buy a kit now!

Good link for how to grow them without a kit is...

http://www.acsedu.co.uk/hort/mushrooms/

Be aware they do take absolutely ages!
I started this box at the beginning of December, and its only just deicded to grow!

Onto the second flush now, and they're still yummy!

great pics i'm still waiting for mine and the schools kits to come but when i was at the garden center on friday they had some kits so i got one each for the kids so a bit of healthy competion going on now oh god what have i done lol

HOORAY my first mushroom from the kit!!!!

Yeay! more mushrooms

I bught a kit for oyster mushrooms the other day, they grow on logs, which we have lots of, so wish me luck with those!!

on a few of the mycology courses I've taken at Edinburgh botanic gardens.. we were told that alot of wild mushrooms may be picked and put in a blender and distributed over a grassy or woodsy area (one type at a time!).. I've yet to try it.

I've grown the box kits too. Got an abolutely huge one about 5 inches across plus 3 more 3 inch ones then nothing.. canna complain

I drilled several logs and hammered in infected wooden plugs in October 2005 and had nothing from them in 2006. I'm hoping they might come good this year.

Here's a few of them.

After the little white mushrooms finished, i wondered whether i could get any more out of the compost or whether it was spent, so i put some dry spawn that i've had for a couple of years on the surface, sprayed it and left it.

The other day, i went to look, and there was a HUGE mushroom growing, it was a different variety to the first ones, it had brows gills instead of pink ones, but it ws about 5" across!!

I've purposely ignored them now hoping to get some more...

I bought a portabello kit from http://www.mushroomadventures.com/ and it is working EXACTLY like the instructions said it would. I have it in my basement which stays right in the middle 60 degree (F) area all the time which according to the instructions, is ideal.



The one in the upper left corner is about the size of a quarter.

Started the kit on March 9, today is March 27. I didn't do anything special, just followed the directions. Basically, keep them at a constant temp, between 60-70, and give them a spritz of water every day.

I got myself one of those mini kits, too - I moved it to the office a few days ago because I found my house was too cold. So now I'm waiting...

I got one of those kits for my birthday last October. I started it in November and before Christmas had a huge crop of mushrooms - and I mean huge. Some of the mushrooms were as big as saucers.
I followed the instructions for recropping and got a further 2 crops out of it - although each crop was smaller than the last.
It certainly worked for me, but I wonder if it wouldn't have cost less to buy the mushrooms. I think the kits must cost the best part of £5.
There's loads of mushrooms growing wild around here but I am far too scared to pick them. I don't trust my own identifying skills.

maggienetball wrote:I think the kits must cost the best part of £5.

Mine was priced at £2.99 - with 20% off, because of a clearance sale (the garden centre is having a major refurbishment - so it's a "genuine" sale).