A Detailed Guide to Mushroom Cultivation Methods and Growing Techniques

Mushrooms are a food we love to eat, and an indispensable ingredient in hot pot. So how do you grow edible mushrooms?

Mushroom cultivation is different from growing crops: it does not use soil, and the ground is merely a support for the mushroom bed. Mushroom cultivation uses a growing substrate, which the mushrooms break down to build their own bodies. The vast majority of these substrates are lignocellulosic agricultural and forestry by-products that humans cannot eat directly as food, such as straw, wood chips and poultry and livestock manure.

Although there are many kinds of edible mushrooms, the cultivation procedure is basically the same, namely substrate preparation → sterilization or fermentation → inoculation → mycelial growth (some edible mushrooms require casing soil) → fruiting (mushrooms or wood ear) → harvest. Some varieties produce only one flush, while others can produce several.