Planting the spawn is only the first step in mushroom growing
That’s right, planting the spawn is only the first step in mushroom growing, but it’s nevertheless necessary to get it right. Seedling boxes work very well when planting spawn. Remember, of course that you must not use mud in the boxes, but instead compost, or specially prepared manure mixed in well with equal quantities of straw. There are simple ways in which to prepare the ‘soil’, or growth medium as it is more correctly called.
But if you don’t want to be bothered with this, there are plenty of commercial preparations available. Bear in mind, though, that the commercial preparations will cost more than any nutrient formula you make yourself. It’s also absolutely not true that the commercial preparations will work any better than your home-grown growth formula. Now, the right way to plant the spawn is to mix in spawn flakes with the nutrient formula. Make sure you space the flakes out sufficiently that the young mushrooms have place to grow. Then you need to make sure that the growth nutrient is watered sufficiently.
However, if you’re buying your spawn commercially, like most people who go in for mushroom growing at home, you have a choice between flakes and complete bricks made up of spawn. If you go in for the bricks instead, you just need to break them into one inch cubes and poke holes in the nutrient mix that go in about two inches. Place a cube in each of these holes, close up the holes, and commence watering. Either kind of spawn works just as well. The moment you start watering, the spores will begin to grow, though this growth may not be apparent at first. In time, however, a find white web will form on the surface of the nutrient formula. This white web is actually the root system of the budding mushrooms.
Keep watering, and in time the tiny mushrooms will appear. This is a time when you need to reduce the amount of water by a considerable extent, because too much water at this time will cause your new mushrooms to wither and die. The mushrooms will not need too much water now until it’s time to harvest them. Harvesting is pretty effortless – you can just use a kitchen blade to cut right through the stems. A simple twist and pull is also an effective method of harvesting mushrooms. Once you harvest each mature mushroom, it makes room for the next mushroom growing in its place.