Magic of mushrooms

Follow gardening editor Mary Lovell-Smith’s fun guide and conjure up your own edible delights

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Novel, rewarding, delicious and nutritious, growing your own edible mushrooms can be easy to do at home. Not only does it take the anxiety out of harvesting in the wild, chances are you already have the perfect shady spot.

Multiple reasons can be summoned for growing mushrooms in garden beds – or on inoculated logs and in plastic bags. Thankfully, all these processes have been simplified, with all the necessary bits and pieces now readily available from specialist suppliers.

While several species of edible fungi can be grown at home, the easiest is the grey oyster mushroom (Pleurotus pulmonarius). This robust, fast-growing (often described as aggressive) fungus tolerates a range of temperatures and substrates, which in their case can be straw, sawdust, grains, woodchips, books even.

TO GROW OUTDOORS 

What 

Grey oyster mushrooms.

How

Mushrooms reproduce with spores, which germinate when landing on a substrate with the right combination of moisture, heat and nutrients. The newly formed cells then extend outwards, creating super-fine structures called hyphae. On meeting compatible others, the hyphae join up, exchange genetic material and their growth accelerates, resulting in a large interwoven mass called mycelium. Mycelium produce the fruit – the mushroom – which in turn releases billions of tiny spores into the air. The cycle continues.

The simplest way for a beginner to start growing mushrooms in the garden is to purchase spawn, which is the commercial name for mycelium in a substrate.

When