Back on Jan 8th I commented that my newly bought mushroom kit looked a little dry and perhaps not ready to go. On advice from the supplier I decided to wait and see what happens. My goal was for the kit to become almost all white before I threw the peat onto it to grow my mushrooms.
Well after boxing up and checking every few weeks I finally got this on the 1st of Feb. This is my first peeve – the box clearly states to get cracking as this is a time sensitive exercise! My mum did and she had no luck which is a right shame as it was a christmas gift for her.
Looks good right! Night a white, perhaps not as uniform as it could be but what the heck, i’ve waited almost a month to get going.
I threw the peat on top, sprayed some water on it and left it a nice dark-ish location in a reasonably humid location – my laundry. A few weeks passed and there was no action. I continued to spray it every few days but no-go. Eventually I packed it up and moved to the darkness of my man cave. It get’s indirect light perhaps for 20min a week and is otherwise in pitch black.
Success came on the 10th of April! (yes, 3 months from when I bought the box!).
Up came some mushroom buds! Couldn’t be happier that research and persistence looks to be paying off. Can’t wait to get 2kg of mushrooms that would make this experiment a break-even venture!
A few days later I’ve checked in and found this:
I’m not sure if the mushroom has been deformed as it grew or perhaps (and more likely) is that I’ve got some critters having a munch. Any ideas?
Tonight I picked my only mushroom that’s a decent size. The malformations continued but at least it still smelt like a mushroom.
I’ll get another update out when I have a view on the size and qty of the mushrooms – remember I’m gunning for 2kg else this makes no economical sense. I’m also going to cover the box up to keep any critters out that might be having a free lunch.
Have you had a go at growing mushrooms? Success or useless failure which seems to the norm from talking to people?
Geek, Garden and Cook 