Mushroom Mayhem: Top 5 To Grow In Your Own Garden Or Home

Mushrooms are perhaps the easiest vegetable to grow in your garden. Wait a minute, I meant, fungi! Growing mushrooms is easy because you do not need to babysit them. They like darkness and lots of bacteria to feast on. In the world, mushrooms grow in jungles, fields and forests because of one reason. Lots and lots of compost material! When there are damp space and shade, as well as fresh gooey nutrients of nearby growing plants, mushrooms will sprout. They are obviously very good for your health (if you are eating the right ones) and they can be a source of nutrients in your home made dishes and health repertoire.

Enoki Wonders

Tall and thin mushrooms, these are great for your salads and sandwiches. They are very easy to grow as they do noy take a lot of nutrients or care. Much like many mushrooms that you can grow in your garden, they come in kits. Although, you can get mushroom to spawn all by yourself. The Enoki mushroom, can take just 12-30 days to grow if you do it right. Ultimately space that is around 72-77° F. it needs to be very high in humidity, about 90%. You can do this by keeping them in a greenhouse or in a hot broom closet next to the radiator.

When you see that the mushrooms have begun to sprout up to about half their size, then you can lower the humidity to about 80% or slightly more. The temperature can go to 55° F. One spawn bottle can give you about a month’s worth of mushrooms. As mentioned, they go well in salads, sandwiches but also in pasta dishes.

Pink Delight

It’s not fun to grow mushrooms that require a lot of fiddling around with the conditions. But a Pink Oyster mushroom is no hard work at all. In fact it grows in its own box, comes with simple instructions and can be placed anywhere in the home and it will usually grow very large. The key is, the box itself has the food and the spawn inside. So all you need to do is feed it water every now and again. This kind of mushroom was made for pasta dishes as well as risotto. It’s a large mushroom so you should mince it or blend it into a stock for your beef or fish. The additional benefit is, there are no harsh chemicals involved. As you might notice, some mushrooms need CO2. This type of mushrooms just needs to be left alone. You have to be consistent with your watering patterns but usually, it will grow all on it’s own. This mushroom grows in about 2-3 weeks.

Reishi Tradition

The Reishi mushroom is traditional in the lands of China and Japan. This mushroom is very dark at times; it’s hue is earth tone, with brown, black and grey making appearances. The mushroom is very pungent when cooked the right way, i.e. in ramen noodle broth or Chinese egg noodle soya sauce. 

It is grown in a low CO2 environment, so think about open spaces when you bring this home. It takes about 2-4 weeks to grow depending on the atmosphere. They love to grow in dying trees. They mainly grow on hardwood trees such as oak, walnut, yew and cherry. Think about wood that is used for furniture and decor, and these mushrooms will usually be close by in the woods of Japan.

The issue is, they grow rapidly and they become hard to split. Essentially, you can have larger spawns recycle smaller spawns and this can mean that you get one giant mushroom instead of multiple mushrooms. This means you are forced to use the entire mushroom for your recipe instead of just taking a few at a time. But they are worth it as they have a sweet, pungent taste which is great for ramen noodles!

Portobello Classics

The kind of European mushrooms, the portobello is incredible for pasta and pizza. This mushroom likes warm weather and can even grow in small beds of compost. You should also use mulch if you can as these mushrooms are European and they like the harder soils. You can put straw over the compost to help the nutritional value increase for not that much money. They are easy to grow but you need to be careful as they can mature very quickly. They take about 2-5 weeks to grow depending on your mulch and compost quality. 

These mushrooms are chewy and have a somewhat medium-high acid level. This makes them perfect for Italian cuisine, as they add a little dash of flavor into dishes that are mainly carbs. 

 Shiitake Mushroom

The Shiitake mushroom is the East Asian version of the chestnut mushroom. Brown, with a heavy bulb, it has a very earthy and raw flavor. It is powerful and can be used in barbecue skewers as well as roasts. They love to be grown in 45-80 degree Fahrenheit, making them very versatile. They can be grown in a greenhouse or even inside your home. They usually like to hide underneath logs and at the base of trees. They can grow very large, i.e. about 40-inches. They can yield about a 4lb crop, which just goes to show they are very heavy when fully grown.

They do, however, only grow about 2 times out of the year, namely in Spring and Autumn. These mushrooms would be good for noodles too but they usually get blended for a broth as they add a lot of flavor to any dish.

Growing mushrooms is easy. They just need to be watered and given time to flourish. In the end, they can be used for almost any type of cuisine you want to cook at home. It’s a no-brainer for why you should grow them yourself and never buy another mushroom again.

Make it a beautiful day, dear friends.

Luda@PlantsandBeyond.com

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