How to Grow Mushrooms in the Garden

The Beet: A Podcast For Plant Lovers

Epic Gardening

Home & Garden, Education, Leisure, How To

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2023

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Growing your own mushrooms can be a delicious project, but they can also provide many other benefits to your garden! Think: pest control, improving your soil’s microbiome. Connect With Dr. Gordon Walker: Dr. Gordon Walker is originally from Cambridge, MA but came to California to attend UC Santa Cruz, where he got a B.S. in Biochemistry and spent his free time sailing, scuba diving, and home brewing. Inspired to study fermentation, Gordon came to UC Davis and joined Dr. Linda Bisson's laboratory to focus on the biochemistry, genetics, and ecology of yeast in wine. After graduating with his Ph.D. in 2016, Gordon worked two harvests at Opus One helping to pioneer the use of novel fermentation control technology. He then returned to UC Davis to do post-doctorate work with Dr. Ron Runnebaum focused on how site specificity and elemental composition can affect fermentation behavior. Since he was a kid, Gordon has harbored a deep fascination with all things fungi; inspired by puffballs, chicken of the woods, truffles, and the microbial mishmash that produces sour beers. While living in New Zealand after finishing his PhD, Gordon took on the new hobby of mushroom foraging and started documenting his finds on Instagram. Through his social media (@FascinatedByFungi) he has reached millions around the globe, sharing the amazing diversity of colors, form, and function in the fungi kingdom. He is a renowned science communicator, published academic author, and award-winning speaker. His goal is to teach the world about mushrooms; inspiring others to take an active role in protecting nature and building a more sustainable future. Instagram Facebook YouTube TikTok Pinterest Patreon Website Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 5% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Believe it or not, both myself and Jacques are resident gardener here at Epic Gardening
0:16.4	have tried to cultivate mushrooms at home, Jacques with much more success than myself.
0:22.0	He grew some wine cap mushrooms, and it's the most excited I've ever seen him out.
0:25.5	Honestly, I'm worried about his career as a gardener because he's never been this excited
0:29.2	about harvesting a plant ever in his life.
0:31.5	He came over, cooked them, and gave me a slice, but we have Dr. Gordon Walker back on the
0:35.9	show.
0:36.9	Gordon, Jacques succeeded.
0:39.7	I think he did it in straw underneath like a passion fruit trellis, sort of a semi-shaded
0:44.4	area.
0:45.4	I did it in a mixture of straw and chips layered, I think, underneath like a tree that really
0:50.0	wasn't providing a lot of shade.
0:52.3	So I'm curious, like, how feasible I suppose is it to grow a good amount of mushrooms at
0:57.3	home?
0:58.3	I mean, I think it's surprisingly easy to do mushroom cultivation at home.
1:04.0	The easiest first step that I recommend most people start with is just buying sort of a
1:07.7	pre-mysiliated kit.
1:09.4	So there's a lot of companies out there that you basically just order a big bag of mycelium,
1:15.5	and then when you get it, you cut it open.
1:18.0	You missed it a couple times a day, and you're going to get mushrooms pretty quickly, especially
1:21.9	good to start with as like oyster mushrooms because they're just like the weeds in the
1:24.6	mushroom world.
	...

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