Grow delicious edible mushrooms indoors or outdoors, in your garden or on your balcony, and enjoy them fresh throughout the year. This practical book explains how to grow fungi, with easy-to-understand instructions:
- Methods and growing-media for indoors and out
- Getting your mushrooms started and caring for them
- How to harvest, store, and preserve your mushrooms all year round
- In-depth descriptions of the most popular varieties
This beautifully designed book is the perfect introduction to mushrooms. In it, Folko Kullmann explains what fungi are, how they grow, their history and medicinal properties. It outlines every step of how to grow mushrooms at home, with lots of photographs throughout.
Grow Your Own Mushrooms includes a 12-month plan and a list of the best mushrooms to grow at home. In the garden, mushrooms thrive in areas too shady for vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Whether you grow them on logs, straw bales, or ready-mixed growing media, with the right care you’re sure of a rich crop of delicious and unusual mushrooms.
Mushrooms are completely at home on balconies, where you can grow them in the shade in pots or containers and many are in their element indoors – in the kitchen or bathroom, on a windowsill, in a dark corner, or in the basement. Best of all, indoors you can grow them all year round!
Growing your own mushrooms is fun and can give you a great harvest. These mushrooms, described in detail in the book, are ideal for beginners, as they are low-maintenance, grow quickly and are suitable for cooking in a variety of ways:
- Shiitake has great taste and is packed with nutritional value. It grows on wood or special growing media, indoors or out.
- Oyster mushrooms come in such a wide variety, some fruiting in spring and autumn, some in summer, so you can have fresh, delicious mushrooms almost all year round.
- King oyster mushrooms taste very similar to porcini, and form their first fruiting bodies in just a few weeks, so perfect for an impatient beginner.
- Sheathed Woodtuft mushrooms grow quickly and almost anywhere and are so easy to dry, they are perfect for the storecupboard.
- Wine cap mushrooms are tasty mushrooms that fruit twice a year.
And, while mushrooms are versatile in your kitchen, this book also shows how easy they are to preserve, so if you have too many, you don’t have to use them right away.
THE BASICS
What are mushrooms and how do they grow?
Wild, cultivated and medicinal mushrooms
Mushroom cultivation through the ages
Growing mushrooms at home
HOW TO GROW MUSHROOMS AT HOME
Which mushrooms are best for growing at home?
Tools and equipment
The growing medium or substrate
Where to grow your mushrooms
A step-by-step guide to growing mushrooms
Tips for healthy mushroom growth
Harvesting, storing and preserving mushrooms
12-month plan
THE BEST MUSHROOMS FOR GROWING AT HOME
Pearl oyster
Indian oyster
Golden oyster
Pink oyster
King oyster
Shiitake
Poplar / velvet pioppino
Wine cap / garden giant / king stropharia
Sheathed woodtuft
Nameko
Enoki / velvet shank / winter mushroom
Lion’s mane / monkey head
Beech mushroom / shimeji
Button mushroom
Parasol
Wood ear / jelly ear
Shaggy ink cap
Reishi / linghzi
RESOURCES
Growing kits, supplies and further information
Index
This fascinating book takes Grow Your Own to a whole new level. Straightforward, interesting and rather fun, it is packed with possibilities and opens up fresh landscapes of taste to the home gardener.
- Naomi Slade - gardening author & journalist
I have wanted to grow my own mushrooms for ages but didn't know enough to try. This book with its clear instructions and great photos has inspired me to give it a go.
- Sally Morgan -Author, Editor of Organic Farming Magazine
I like the book. Clear step-by-step instructions plus scientific explanations and descriptions of different fungi - plenty of tables, checklist, photos and recipes.
- Charles Dowding - no-dig gardener, teacher and author
An interesting, informative and inspiring read, everything you want to know.
- Bob Flowerdew - author, BBC Radio & TV gardener
All the information you could ever need to grow your own delicious mushrooms in one super book. An essential reference for beginners and experienced growers alike.
- Steve Ott - Editor, Kitchen Garden magazine
...just the ticket for anyone wanting to try the fun and interesting art of mushroom growing.
- Chris Beytes - Editor of GrowerTalks & Green Profit Magazine
I’ve long wanted to add mushroom growing to my garden repertoire, but never really knew how to go about doing so until “Grow Your Own Mushrooms” came along. I can think of no better conversation piece in the garden than a log or straw bale covered with pick-your-own shiitakes or oyster mushrooms.
- Chris Beytes - Editor of GrowerTalks & Green Profit Magazine
All the information you will ever need from spores to storage. A great book for all levels of gardeners.
- Mary Jasch - DIG IT! Magazine
Folko Kullmann has been experimenting with gardening techniques in his garden and balcony since studying horticultural science and plant production at TU Munich and working at prestigious nurseries in Europe, including Kew in London. He edits GartenPraxis, the leading magazine for botanists, gardeners and horticulturists and is both the author of several books and a horticultural journalist.
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