Planting a mushroom bed

I got mushroom spores from amazon.com:

• Italian gourmet
• White Button Agaricus Campestris
• Oyster Mushroom

And a Kindle book: The Mushroom Book For Beginners

I researched growing methods and developed the following:

For the Italian gourmet, Pioppino, or Poplar mushroom, I learned the following:

• Grows on poplar logs
• Grows on hard wood woodchips
• This species grows on supplemented oak and alder sawdust/chips.
• Many other hardwoods (willow, poplar, cottonwood, maple) are also likey to support substantial fruitings.
• Pioppino can be cultivated outdoor on logs or as mushroom bed, for indoor cultivation we recommend wood substrate bags.
• More info

For the White button mushroom, I learned the following:

• These are the kind of mushrooms you get at the grocery store fresh and canned
• Grows on a variety of media such as straw, compost or manure
• One of the easiest to grow
• Likes temperatures between 50 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit
• More info

For the Oyster mushroom, I learned the following:

• These are one of the second easiest to grow
• They like to grow on a mixture of coffee grounds and woodchips
• They have a little more distinctive flavor than white button

All mushrooms require a cool, humid, shady place with no draft.  A basement corner is a good place to start.  Temp: 50-65 degrees, humidity: 90-100, very low light without direct light.

All water used should be non-chlorinated and the air should be free of chemicals (don't put them in your garage if that's where you keep your car).  Non-chlorinated water can be rainwater, well water, or city water left in an open container for over 24 hours.  I am not sure if the flouride in city water is a problem.  I save water from my dehumidifier and used that.

The substrate (the straw, woodchips, or compost) needs to be sterilized.  If it isn't sterilized, other fungus and bacteria will grow and compete with the mushrooms.

How to sterilize substrate:

• Pressure cook it in a pressure cooker with a canning jar for 50-60 minutes.  Not sure how many of pounds of pressure to use.  This works for sure.
• Buy sterilized substrate.
• I cheated and microwaved the substrate with non-chlorinated water until it boiled for 5 minutes.  This kills most human pathogens, but some fungal pathogens may survive.

Once the substrate is sterile, it needs to be cooled and mixed.  It is placed in boxes and the mushroom spores are mixed in.

Mushroom spores

• Purchased as floating spores in a syringe
• Purchased as spores coating inert seeds
• The "seed" of a mushroom

I took my multiple mushroom boxes and placed them in a large plastic container lined with sawdust.  This will act as a way to keep the local humidity high without having standing water.  I did not sterilize the liner sawdust - I may end up with unwanted fungus in it. 

The mushrooms should grow in 3 to 12 weeks.  From my research, it depends a lot on how happy the mushrooms are.  If things are perfect, they come up rapidly.  If they have improper conditions they may never come up. 

The Mushroom boxes in the basement

The White Button Mushroom bed

A close-up of the mushroom bed

A wide-angle of the mushroom corner.  It is off the ground to keep it away from drafts.

Poplar mushroom bed.  Woodchips and sawdust.

Oyster Mushroom bed.  Wood shavings and coffee grounds.