The simplicity of this installation is one big advantage to growing mushrooms in your home, and of course how delicious they will taste. You should obtain a mushroom log or pollutants from a respectable mushroom supplier, but the materials you’ll need for allowing the mushrooms grow frequently are things you may find around your home. Growing shiitake mushrooms generally entails purchasing a growing log, so that the mushrooms will grow on the hardwoods they prefer. Other mushrooms, such as oyster mushrooms, can be grown on household substances, such as newspaper or straw.

Decide on a spot in your home or yard that receives only indirect sunlight and will remain at a temperature at or very near 58 degrees all the time. Due to changing weather conditions, an indoor porch or basement could be ideal.

Wipe down the whole area with a cloth soaked in one part bleach to ten parts water.

Set a aquarium or a large, clear plastic storage container in your preferred location. Wipe the whole container down with the bleach rag.

Sterilize your straw or shredded paper by warming it to 140 degrees in the oven for about 1 hour. To keep the items from catching fire in your oven, set them in a large broiler with a lid. If you are using a mushroom log, you won’t have to complete this step, because your growing medium is the log rather than the newspaper or straw.

Remove the newspaper or straw materials from the oven, managing them with sterile plastic gloves. Pack the material to zippered plastic bags, and put a few mushroom spawn sticks into every bag. Zipper the bags closed. If you are using a mushroom log, skip this step.

Boil a nail to sterilize it, and then poke several holes in each of the zippered bags. Skip this step for Shrimp logs.

Set the mushroom log or your straw/newspaper bags in your plastic container. Check the instructions on the log; if it says you must soak the log, do so by immersing the log in a clean container of nonchlorinated water.

Cover the container with a plastic trash bag or walnut vinyl, and then secure the plastic into the top of the container with clothespins. If you haven’t previously, wipe down the tote or greenhouse plastic together with the bleach solution.

Spray the sides of the container and the very best plastic”cover” with nonchlorinated water every day, or enough to maintain a humid environment within the container.

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