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Growing mushrooms is an experience in itself. Just as each variant has different growing requirements, each variant also grows at a different pace. While some may start pinning in just a couple of weeks, some will test your patience. But once you can harvest fresh, healthy, and meaty mushrooms, you will realize that all of it was truly worth the effort.
Some mushrooms only require 20 days to grow, and some varieties take up to years to mature. Oyster mushrooms are the quickest to grow within 3-5 weeks. But, Truffles, the rarest and the most expensive, will take 7 or 8 years to yield.
Oyster and button mushrooms are pretty easy to grow, making them a much-preferred option for beginners. However, the growing environment, the substrate used, and other factors also influence the time taken by mushrooms to develop fully. In this article, you will know everything that you need to grow mushrooms efficiently and adequately.
How to Speed up the Growing Process of Mushrooms?
Since there are quite a few things that can impact the overall time taken by your mushrooms to fruit, it is crucial to consider a few factors before you begin with the process. With these tips, you will be able to grow mushrooms quicker and get higher yields.
Picking The Right Mushroom Variants
Firstly, you need to pick mushrooms that usually grow at a faster pace. As mentioned earlier, oyster and button mushrooms are your best picks while planning to grow mushrooms in a short amount of time. Always research first to know if the mushrooms you are growing are edible or poisonous.
Substrate You Need To Grow Your Mushroom
The material you pick as your substrate (growing medium) for your mushrooms also impacts their growing cycle. Generally, mushrooms grown in substrates that are not rich in nutrients will take longer to develop than ones that have been propagated in a high-nutrient substrate.
To grow your mushrooms in high-nutrient substrates, you would need to sterilize them first. When substrates are rich in nutrients, they must be sterilized. Else, they may get colonized by mold. All you need to do is heat the substrate at around 121 C° for a couple of hours at the pressure of 15 PSI (pound per square inch).
Other than this, you need to ensure that the substrate stays damp. Mushrooms are 70 to 90% water, so they would need water to grow.
Pasteurization Of Microbes
While sterilization eliminates the microbes in the substrate, pasteurization aims only to reduce the microbes to a significant level. For pasteurization, you can steam the substrate in steam between 66 to 85 C° for around two hours. It is a process that is generally recommended for moderately nutritious substrates and is prone to be affected by mold or bacteria.
Spores Or Spawn Mushroom Cultivation?
Before you pick one, you need to understand the difference between them. Essentially, spawn is artificially created with the help of spores, whereas mushrooms themselves produce spores. Growing mushrooms through spawn are much more manageable and even quicker.
Mushrooms that grow in the wild release an uncountable number of spores into the air. There’s a chance some spores land in an environment that will facilitate mushroom growth.
However, things are pretty different when you grow mushrooms in a controlled environment. While spores are genetically distinct, spawns can be cloned, making it easier to know the characteristics of the mushrooms even before they have grown.
Which Mushroom Variants Are The Quickest Grow?
Here are three of the most common mushroom varieties, along with a few ways in which you can grow them easily and quickly:
Oyster Mushroom
While these are already the fastest-growing mushrooms, you can further increase their growth rate with the right kind of substrate. You can mix sawdust and soybean hulls which can wonder for these mushrooms. You can even use materials like straw, toilet paper, and woodchips to accelerate their growth. With this, you will be able to see healthy and high-yielding mushrooms within 3-5 weeks.
While logs are also a good choice for substrate, mushrooms can take longer when grown on logs. They might bring about six months or even more to fruit. However, logs are still a great option if you wish to grow mushrooms quickly and without hassle. Here is a video that will help you grow mushrooms on logs.
“From dead plant matter to nematodes to bacteria, never underestimate the cleverness of mushrooms to find new food”
Paul Stamets
Button Mushrooms
Button mushrooms are one of the most popular variants of mushrooms all across the world. Moreover, growing button mushrooms is extremely easy, inexpensive, and quick. Thus, these are also an excellent pick for beginners. Button mushrooms can be grown indoors and will start to fruit within three months and continue to produce mushrooms for up to 6 months.
Here is a complete guide that will help you grow mushrooms at home quickly.
Shiitake Mushrooms
Shiitake mushrooms take a little longer to grow as compared to oyster mushrooms. They are also a little picky when it comes to their substrate. However, its delicious umami flavor, along with its fleshy texture, makes it worth all the time and effort.
If you are a beginner, growing them on logs would be a great option. Although it might take a little longer, this is one of the easiest ways to grow shiitake mushrooms.
The process of mycelium growth in logs can take up to 12 to 18 months. But it is all worth it because once the mushrooms have started growing, one can harvest them for the next 4 to 7 years (depending on the diameter of the log).
One of the essential things to ensure is that the logs should be kept in a place that does not get direct sunlight and wind. Placing the wood log under conifer trees would be great. Moreover, it is better to keep the wood logs off the ground and put them in pallets, and you can then place logs on top of another.
Also, be sure that the logs are damp. So, if you observe that the wood logs are drying out, one can consider soaking them in water for a few hours.
On the other hand, one can also get shiitake mushroom growing kits from the market. These kits usually take around three months to be colonized entirely and only require ten days to mature.
Truffles
Truffles are one of the most expensive mushrooms, and this is because they take the longest to grow. Growing truffles does not only require a lot of investment but also needs you to be patient. Truffles are grown by inoculating trees and then planting them on a tree farm.
Truffles are known to be one of the most challenging mushroom variants to grow. Truffles require an intricate combination of weather conditions and soil chemistry to grow successfully. Still, growing these mushrooms involves a bit of luck, making the entire somewhat experimental.
No wonder it is known to be the black diamond of the kitchen! If all the requirements are met, the truffles will start to fruit after 7 or 8 years.
Fun Fact: In some countries, pigs are used to find truffles in the wild, but because the pigs sometimes destroy the ecosystem, they are replaced by dogs because dogs can be trained more efficiently.
Truffle mushrooms grow differently as compared to other mushrooms. Here is what these high-maintenance mushrooms require to thrive:
Season: they prefer cool winters, damply warm springs, and hot summers with recurrent rainfall around 28 inches.
pH Level: around 7.5 to 8.3
Irrigation System: 1 inch of water per tree per week
The Quickest Way to Grow Mushrooms
Growing kits allow you to grow mushrooms most quickly and efficiently possible. The mycelium is already fully colonized throughout the substrate in growing kits, which is usually the most time-consuming and tricky part of growing mushrooms. All you need to do is spray them with water at frequent intervals and keep them in the dark and cool spot. With the suitable variety of mushrooms and the ideal environmental conditions, one can yield fresh, delicious mushrooms within 10-14 days.
FAQ’s On Growing Mushrooms
Conclusion
Growing mushrooms is a remarkable experience and rather than focusing on how long the mushrooms take to mature, it is better to offer them the ideal conditions that will not only speed up the process but will also help you get healthy and high yields.
It is also a fantastic way to experiment if you have just started mushroom farming. You can use different methods to grow mushrooms and know more about the various types of mushrooms, and pick one you are willing to grow more of in the future.
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