Portobello, Shitake, White Cap, Oyster. These are just a few of the many species of Buy magic mushrooms available in your market. True that you buy most mushrooms in the market but would it give you greater pleasure when you grow them yourself?
Looking at those white globs would make you think that it might be too hard to grow, much more cultivate mushrooms. But then again, looks can be deceiving. And it sure does! Mushrooms are one of those things that can surely capture your imagination. They may seem delicate to look at, but no expert hand is really needed to grow these babies.
This is an important part of the process if you want to cultivate your own mushroom garden. The reason why you need to know the type of mushroom is each mushroom has different needs. Some mushrooms are better used as dowels and other need to be spawns. But for beginners, it is suggested that you use mushroom growing kits so it would be easy to do, plus, this can become a small project over autumn or spring.
Some mushrooms are better planted on logs such as willow, oak and beech. These include the oyster mushroom and the shitake mushroom. You do not plant directly onto the logs, actually. You need dowels for that. These dowels are saturated with the mycelium, the part of the mushroom from where the mushrooms that we eat spring out. These dowels are then inserted into the log, sealed with some wax to prevent any contamination, stored in a dark and dry place until the mushrooms are ready to be harvested. The logs should be protected from direct sunlight as well as strong winds. So, better wrap them in a black polythene bag. It would take around a year and a half for the fungi to colonize the entire log.
