Learn to Grow

Your Questions Answered

Learn to Grow

Your Questions Answered

Growing Mushrooms

Oyster mushrooms are by far the easiest and most reliable mushrooms to grow. For beginners we recommend our Mist & Grow Oyster mushroom grow kits. Simply cut an X in one side of the bag, cover with a humidity tent, and mist a few times daily. Within 7-10 days a cluster of baby mushrooms will appear!

*Be sure to order a humidity tent and spray bottle with your mushroom kit, unless you have something suitable at home to create a well-ventilated and humid growing environment.

To learn more about mushroom growing check out our Learn to Grow page. Check YouTube for the many videos of people growing their own mushrooms. Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets is an excellent book about the amazing benefits of fungi and the basic techniques for growing them.

Can I store my kit and start it next month?

While we recommend starting your mushroom grow kit sooner rather than later, it is possible to delay for weeks or even months if kept refrigerated. Keeping your kit at as cold a temperature possible slows down growth and delays fruiting.

When you are ready, bring them out of refrigeration and warm to room temperature. After a few days, follow the growing instructions for your specific mushroom species. Click here for growing instructions.

How early can Wine Caps be started outdoors?

Wine Caps can be expanded indoors anytime, for future planting outdoors.

Planting outdoors depends on where you are located in Canada. Here on Vancouver Island, Wine Caps can start growing from March onwards. Other parts of Canada you might want to wait until April or May. Wine Caps can survive cold weather, they just won’t grow very well until things warm up. Check the last frost dates for your region to get a better idea of when to start your Wine Caps.

Learn more about growing Wine Caps on our information page, or with these helpful videos.

How Do I set up my humidity tent?

Roll up the bottom of the humidity tent three times like you would a pant leg, and flatten out the gussets at the top to form a box. Place over your grow kit and mist inside tent with a spray bottle. Watch a short demonstration of setting up a humidity tent here.

Why won't my kit make mushrooms?

Oh, those mysterious mushrooms! Sometimes a grow kit just doesn’t produce mushrooms in the timeline you expect, despite following the growing instructions.

Each grow kit is an individual. Some are late bloomers who need a little more time, and some are quite particular about the humidity or temperature being just right for them. Mushrooms need extremely high humidity to form, and not enough is often the problem.

If you have been trying for several weeks and your kit has not produced, try these steps that replicate the natural conditions – heavy rains combined with cold nights and warmer days – that trigger many mushrooms to fruit in the wild:

Rehydrate it. Heavy rains are an important factor that trigger wild mushrooms to fruit. Completely submerge your kit in cold water for 2-4 hours (use a plate to weigh it down), and then drain off any excess water. Poke small holes in bottom if necessary to encourage draining, as water pooling in the bag can cause bacteria and mold to form.
Give it a “cold shock”. Temperature fluctuations can also stimulate the fruiting of wild mushrooms. Think of pleasantly warm spring and fall days when the temperatures then drop to cold nights. To emulate this temperature fluctuation, place your kit in your refrigerator for a night or two
Keep humid. High humidity is essential for mushroom formation, particularly tiny new mushrooms which are very susceptible to drying out. Place your kit under a clear plastic humidity tent with holes that allow for air exchange. Mist the inside walls of the tent several times daily, or more often if you find the water droplets evaporate completely off the walls of the tent. Alternatively you can create a simple fruiting chamber by putting a water vaporiser inside an aquarium or small greenhouse, and using a computer fan to bring in fresh air.
Change the location. Some species of mushrooms prefer to fruit in cooler environments (like King and Blue Oysters),while others prefer a warmer environment (like Elm, Yellow and Pink Oyster). Try moving the kit to a cooler or warmer location.
Don’t give up! As long as your kit is white with fungal mycelium and has no patches of blue/green or black mold, it’s alive! If you are ready to give up, find a nice shady location outdoors where your kit will be exposed to rain, and leave it be. You’ll often get a pleasant surprise months later when it suddenly produces a bouquet of mushrooms after a heavy rainfall.

If, in spite of following instructions, your kit doesn’t fruit, we are happy to replace it!

Mushrooms are forming - but not where I cut the hole. Now what?

It is common for “baby mushrooms” (pins) to form inside the bag, particularly for species like Oyster and Lion’s Mane. You just can’t hold them back! Not to worry. You can either carefully cut a flap opening to allow those baby mushrooms to emerge, or you can just ignore them and wait for mushrooms to form at the opening you have already created. Keep in mind that the more holes you have cut into the bag, the faster the kit will dry out and you may need to rehydrate by soaking in water between crops.

Note: If the “baby mushrooms” forming inside the bag are already fairly mature before you “set them free”, you might find they grow “leggy” with more stem or deformed once you “let them out”. Stems of most mushroom types are generally more chewy than the caps.

My Lion's Mane kit is brown, should I wait before cutting it open?

Lion’s Mane have a habit of making mushrooms prematurely – before the fungal mycelium forms a thick white mat around the kit. When you receive your kit, you may still see the brown colour of sawdust. But if you look closely you will also see fine wispy mycelium spreading through the entire kit. Your kit is ready to cut open, keep humid and grow mushrooms now. If you prefer, you can let it mature longer before cutting open. If you wait too long, some mushrooms might start to form wherever there is a gap between the sawdust and plastic bag. Not to worry. You can ignore them and cut open where you would like your kit to fruit.

Help! My Lion's Mane looks strange...

While Lion’s Mane kits are relatively easy to fruit, getting the perfect white spiny fruit body can be more challenging. They are a bit “sensitive”.

When conditions are just right, your Lion’s Mane will form one or several white balls that grow in size, and at the final stage dangling spines will form.

If, instead of a nice white “pompom”, your Lion’s Mane branches like a coral or takes on an alien form, these deformed shapes indicate a build up of CO2 produced by the fungus. It’s probably too late to fix the issue for this mushroom, so harvest and enjoy, then plan to provide more fresh air exchange while growing your second crop. You can do so by poking more air holes in your humidity tent, propping up the tent bottom, or even providing a fan. To compensate for bringing in more dry air, you will also need to mist more to maintain the high humidity.

A pinkish hue is very normal for young Lion’s Mane, and not at all a concern. As your mushroom matures, you may find they turn a yellow or brown hue before the spines elongate. This discolouration can be caused by misting water directly onto the Lion’s Mane mushroom, or it can be caused by air currents that dry it out. Lion’s Mane with some discolouration are still good to cook and eat, as long as they don’t have mushy brown rotting sections!

Help! Something is wrong with my Oyster mushrooms...

When conditions are right, your kit will produce a cluster of overlapping oyster mushrooms with broad caps.

Fresh Air Exchange
One of the most common issues is “leggy” oyster mushrooms with long stems and small caps. This is caused by a build-up of CO2 produced by the fungus, and at extremely high levels will cause oyster mushrooms to look like a branching coral or white octopus.

If your mushrooms already look a bit strange, it’s probably too late to fix it for this crop. Harvest and enjoy, then plan to provide more fresh air exchange while growing your second crop.

You can increase air exchange by poking more air holes in your humidity tent, propping up the tent bottom, or providing a fan. To compensate for bringing in more dry air, you will also need to mist more to maintain the high humidity. It’s ok to mist a little directly onto the oyster mushrooms, as well as the inside walls of the humidity tent. Some people use a tray of perlite under the tent, or a reptile fogger to increase humidity.

Baby “Pins” Stop Growing
Sometimes a cluster of mushrooms start to grow, but some or all of them “abort mission”. It is common if conditions aren’t perfect for some “baby mushrooms” within a cluster to abort while the others grow to maturity. Remove the stunted mushrooms when you harvest your mature cluster as they will not continue to grow.

If all the mushrooms stop growing, and they appear slightly dry with some browning on the edges, this indicates that they need consistently higher humidity. By contrast, if they look a little mushy and shrivelled, it may be the result of bacterial contamination that gets hold when too much water pools on the mushrooms. In that case avoid watering so much directly onto the mushrooms. Remove all aborted mushrooms, tweak the growing environment, and wait for the next crop to emerge.

Pale Colour
The colour of your oyster mushroom may not be as expected. Their colour (and texture) varies under different environmental conditions. When fruited in cold conditions, oysters tend to have a deeper hue and have a thicker flesh, whereas they can be thinner fleshed and pale to white when grown in warmer environment. Humidity and light levels also impact the colour of the mushrooms.

How many mushrooms will my kit product?

Your mushroom kit can produce anywhere from 0.5 to 1.5 kg (1-3 lbs) of fresh mushrooms over its lifespan. The amount depends on many factors including:

which species of mushroom you are growing,
the growing conditions you provide (each mushroom species has its’ own optimal range of temperature, humidity, air exchange and light), and
if you have the patience to fruit your kit a second, third or fourth time. (Generally the first harvest is the largest, with subsequent crops being smaller and smaller until the kit has used up its food resources within the bag.)

Of course your kit has the potential to produce abundantly more mushrooms through expansion into bulk substrates or logs (ie. feed it more food). See “How Can I Expand my Kit” or have a look through the tutorials on the website to learn more!

Eek! I think my mushroom kit is moldy *%#!!!

Grow Mushrooms Canada ships freshly made mushroom kits and cultures that are grown under sterile conditions and are guaranteed to arrive free of mold or other contaminants. The white “stuff” in your kit is not mold, it’s the fungal mycelium which are growing on the the sawdust or wooden dowels in your kit. When provided the right conditions, this mycelium will produce delicious mushrooms.

Mold is the bane of mushroom growing, as it thrives under the same warm humid conditions as mushrooms. Mold shows up as areas of black or green. If you see mold on your unopened mushroom kit or plug spawn contact us so we can replace it! Once you cut open your kit, it is exposed to mold spores that are always in the air. Over several weeks or months, the likelihood of mold invading your kit increases. To reduce this risk, keep the room as clean as possible, and run a hepa air purifier if you have one.

If you are planning to expand your mushroom kit into pasteurized or sterilized substrate, use the contents immediately upon opening. Some people want to fruit their kit first, and then try expanding. While you can certainly do this, there is more risk of contamination since your kit will have been exposed to mold spores in the air.

When inoculating logs with plug spawn, be sure to use clean hands and disinfect your drill bit to reduce any contaminants.

Where are your mushroom kits produced?

We are a family-run Canadian company that grows all of our mushroom kits, plug spawn, and liquid cultures from our home-business on Vancouver Island, BC. We value supporting Canadian farmers and the substrate in our mushroom kits is pure Canadian hardwood sawdust supplemented with organic wheat bran and rye from the Canadian prairies.

What do I do with my kit once it's done?

When your grow kit has finished producing mushrooms, it means that the fungal mycelium has eaten all of the substrate – but the fungus isn’t dead! It could potentially keep producing more mushrooms, if you give it more food to eat. Some people transfer the substrate into logs, or make beds with new substrate to continue harvesting more mushrooms. Check out this video showing to inoculate a log with your grow kit, and check out our resources page for more growing tips.

If you want to eat anything you’ve grown outside, you must be 100% certain in your mushroom identification, as toxic or even deadly wild mushrooms could be fruiting in your bed. Unfortunately, we cannot identify mushrooms for you from photos.

Do you sell Button mushroom kits?

We don’t sell any Button or Portobello mushroom kits.

Liquid Culture

How long can I store my liquid culture before use?

While we recommend using your mushroom cultures as soon as possible while they are at their prime, they can easily survive for months refrigerated in a cold dark place. (In fact fungal mycelium is amazingly resilient, and cultures are often still viable even after a year or more!)

Over time, your liquid culture may become too thick with mycelial growth, making it difficult to inject through the needle.

How much liquid culture should I use?

This will depend on which species you are growing, how much substrate you are inoculating, and the temperature at which you incubate.

As a rule, the more you use, the faster they will colonize. Your aim is for full colonization of your substrate within about 2-3 weeks, although it can take longer.

For faster growing species like Oyster and Turkey Tail, about ~2 ml (or cc’s) of liquid culture is generally adequate per 1L canning jar or small injection port bag full of cooked and sterilized grain (approx 2-3 lbs cooked).

With slower growing species like Shiitake, Lion’s Mane and Maitake, you might want to use 5 ml.

It can take some time before you see visible mycelium growing in your grain (1-2 weeks). But once it starts to grow, the process accelerates quickly.

Shake the bag or jar when it’s around 1/3 colonized to evenly distribute the mycelium. After this point, the bag will be fully colonized quickly, generally within 5-7 days.

Growing Mushrooms on Logs

Is it safe to eat this mushroom growing on my log?

Since you are growing outdoors, wild fungi can potentially also grow in your mushroom log. Because there are some species of deadly poisonous mushrooms, it is important to be confident in your identification of any mushroom you eat.

How long before I get my first mushroom crop on logs?

Growing outdoors on logs takes patience, as it can take anywhere from 6 months to several years before enjoying your first crop of mushrooms, depending on type of mushrooms, type of wood, diameter of log, and the length of your growing season.

Oyster mushrooms tend to produce very quickly (ours produced mushrooms the first fall after early spring planting). By contrast, our shiitake took 1.5-2 years before the first mushrooms popped out, and we are growing on Vancouver Island BC where the winters are mild and short. In colder areas of Canada with a shorter growing season spring to fall, the time to first crop might be further delayed.

The diameter of the log also matters, with smaller logs producing more quickly (but for not as many years) as larger logs. When we inoculated a very large alder log with shiitake, it was at least 3 years before we saw our first crop. But one rainy fall, we got our first shiitake and they were the size of dinner plates! No joke!

Typically, the denser the wood (like oak), the longer the wait for your first crop of mushrooms. But once your log is ready to fruit, you will enjoy seasonal crops for ~5-7 years. Fast-growing trees like poplar will produce mushrooms quickly (as soon as 6 months) but have a shorter production life (~3 years).

If you want faster rewards, consider growing a Mist & Grow mushroom kit which will generally produce mushrooms within weeks, and a couple more crops over a period of months.

Should I use plug spawn or sawdust spawn?

Plug spawn is very easy to use and requires tools that are found in most households. You will need a proper size drill bit to drill holes, a hammer to tap the plugs into the holes, and a paintbrush or wax dauber to apply melted wax to cover them. To easily drill holes to the proper depth each time, fit a depth stop on your 8 mm (5/16″) drill bit or purchase a special high speed 8.5 mm drill bit with built-in depth stop.

Sawdust spawn requires the purchase some special tools, but is a more economical option if you have lots of log to inoculate year after year. Drill 12 mm holes in your logs. For fastest drilling, use this 12 mm drill bit with built-in depth stop with an adapter to convert your angle grinder to a high speed drill. Fill the inoculation tool with sawdust spawn, and “punch” the pellet into the hole. Cover with melted wax using a wool dauber.

How long can I store my plug spawn before use?

While we recommend using your mushroom plug spawn as soon as possible while they are at their prime, they can easily survive for months refrigerated in a cold dark place. (In fact fungal mycelium is amazingly resilient, and cultures are often still viable even after a year or more!)

A small amount of yellow or amber liquid may collect in the bottom of your bag over time. Not to worry, the liquid is naturally-forming metabolites, a by-product of mycelium growth. It is still perfectly good to use.

Should I choose wide, warm, or cold Shiitake for my climate?

“Wide”, “warm”, or “cold” indicates the conditions under which this strain of shiitake will generally produce most prolifically. All three kinds of Shiitake can be grown across Canada! Even if your region has cold winters, you can still grow the warm strain in the summer. When choosing which variety to grow, we recommend that you consider your local climate, and your Shiitake production goals.

For instance, here on Vancouver Island, BC the summers are very dry, whereas the spring and fall tend to be rainy and humid. We decided to work with nature, and select strains that tend to fruit in the spring and fall when it is humid here, rather than fight to keep the logs watered during the summer drought. The wide temperature strain is a good all-around choice, and the cold strain helps us to extend our fruiting season as early as possible in the spring and later into the fall.

If your goal is to have mushrooms spring, summer and fall, then a combination of wide and warm strains would be a good choice. In some parts of Canada summer heat is often accompanied by high humidity, and this would be suitable for the warm strain Shiitake, which maximizes the productivity and quality of mushrooms during the summer.

“Cold Range” Fruiting Temperatures: ~7-20C (44-68F). This strain of Shiitake will expand your season by fruiting earlier in the spring and extending later in fall than the wide range variety. Does not respond well to forced fruiting in summer.

“Wide Range” Fruiting Temperatures: ~15-25C (59-77F).This strain can be fruited over a wide range of temperatures, though mushroom quality and yields of this variety will be diminished in high heat as compared to the warm temperature variety.

“Warm Range” Fruiting Temperatures: ~13-27C (55-80F). During warm summer months, this variety produces mushrooms of better quality and higher yield than the wide range variety. May fruit naturally or by force in warmer spring and fall months, must be forced to fruit in summer.

What type of trees can I grow mushrooms on?

Most cultivated mushrooms are grown on “hardwood” logs from deciduous trees. Preferred tree species in Canada are oak, maple, alder, birch, and beech. Typically the denser the wood, the longer the wait for your first crop of mushrooms, but thereafter you will enjoy crops for ~5-7 years. Fast-growing trees like poplar will produce mushrooms quickly (as soon as 6 months) but have a shorter production life (~3 years).

Gourmet edible and medicinal mushrooms that can be grown on hardwoods include Pearl Oyster mushrooms, Yellow Oyster mushrooms, Shiitake, Lion’s Mane, Turkey Tail and Reishi. For advanced growers wanting a challenge, try growing Maitake and Chicken of the Woods (hardwood variety).

If you have access to a log from an evergreen tree like fir, you can experiment with growing Phoenix Oyster, Bear’s Head, Hemlock Reishi and Chicken of the Woods (conifer variety).

Cedar trees have strong antifungal properties and therefore are not good for mushroom growing. Fruit trees are reportedly not very productive, but you can always experiment!

Where can I get logs for mushroom growing?

Sourcing logs is easy if you have a woodlot, but for people in urban settings it’s not as easy. Here are some ideas to help your search for logs.

Look around for trees that are being cut all over for reasons such as subdivisions, road accesses, maintaining hydro lines, and forestry. Contact your local arborist, or firewood seller. Keep your eye out for windstorms that are strong enough to bring down healthy trees. Posting free wanted ads on Kijiji, craigslist or facebook groups can also be effective.

Remember that the log must be from a freshly cut or fallen *healthy* tree, a tree that is already dead or dying would already be infected with other forest fungi and not suitable for mushroom growing. Also keep in mind which kind of mushroom will grow on the type of tree you have sourced.

How soon after cutting a tree should I inoculate?

Some sources recommend waiting 2 weeks after cutting a living tree to allow time for natural anti-fungal compounds to dissipate before inoculating. Other sources report that this wait is not necessary and have shown that you can successfully inoculate immediately.

That said, it is important to inoculate within a month after falling the tree in order to give your fungal mycelium a chance to establish within the log before wild competitors have time to invade the log.

A tree fell three years ago, can I grow mushrooms on it?

Having been down for years, this log would not be a good candidate for edible mushroom cultivation. Although it may not be visible, any logs left over several months or more will have already been colonized inside by wild fungi. If you then inoculate with Shiitake, Oyster or another mushroom of your choice, your mushroom will be competing for space (food resources) in the log.

You might still have success producing some mushrooms, however for best results start with logs from healthy trees that are freshly cut or fallen.

That said, if the log is there and you love to experiment, oyster mushrooms would be the best choice to plant because they grow very quickly and aggressively. Another good candidate would be Turkey Tail, a beautiful medicinal fungi which sometimes be found fruiting in the wild on older logs that have lost their bark.

Can I inoculate logs in the late fall or winter?

The ideal time to cut logs is late winter for early spring inoculation. This maximizes time for the mycelium to grow into the log before the winter freeze. However, you can inoculate throughout the year, and it is generally best to plug your log within 2-4 weeks of the tree falling.

Fall is an awkward time, and you need to make a call whether to inoculate now or let the logs sit through winter and inoculate early spring.

If the weather in your location is already below zero, there would be no harm to let the logs sit through winter, as there is little chance of wild fungal competitors invading your log during this time. If you did choose to inoculate, your mushroom mycelium won’t have much opportunity to grow from the plugs into the logs either, and may be compromised by extreme cold.

If you anticipate a month or more of above zero daytime temperatures, or you can place your logs in a basement or greenhouse that will be warmer than outside, then there would be an advantage to inoculating immediately and giving the logs a head start.

How far apart should I keep my different mushroom logs?

You may choose to keep different varieties of mushroom logs separated for log management purposes, but it’s not critical.

If your logs are physically touching, eventually fungal mycelium may grow out of one log into another. Traditional Shiitake cultivation in Japan was done by simply stacking freshly cut logs touching colonized Shiitake logs!

With that in mind, if you stack your freshly inoculated logs touching mature mushroom logs of another species, you might end up with two different mushroom varieties inhabiting and fruiting from the same log. Not what you intended, but kind of cool. Multiple fungal species growing from one fallen tree happens regularly in nature.

If logs are not touching, there is little risk of cross-contamination. Spores (mushroom “seeds”) travel long distances by air currents and will land on your log from your nearby mushroom crops and distant wild fungus. However, your planted mushroom species has a strong competitive advantage and there is little chance that other mushroom species will take over from spores.

Keep in mind that the logs you inoculated may have already been infected with a wild mushroom species, growing unseen inside. This wild fungus may coexist sharing the resources of the log, or one may outcompete the other. Since some wild mushrooms are poisonous, it’s important to accurately identify the mushrooms you harvest as the edible species.

What wax can I use to cover inoculation sites?

After inserting your plug or sawdust spawn, we recommend covering the inoculation site with melted wax. This prevents contaminants from entering and retains moisture while the fungal mycelium grows into the log.

Many types of wax can be melted and used to cover inoculation sites. We sell soy wax for this purpose, but bees wax and cheese wax can also be used.

I planted 2 years ago and still no mushrooms. Is it dead?

Shiitake mushrooms can be a little bit tricky! The baby mushrooms need 95% humidity, so try soaking your block overnight in cold water. Not only will this provide the necessary hydration, it also acts as a cold shock! Check out Paul Stamets’ “Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms” for more Shiitake growing tips.