Growing mushrooms

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Mushrooms are seemingly mysterious and are super valuable to our world. They come in all sorts of colors, sizes, shapes and textures. Different species are found throughout our planet including on land, in water, in the air, and even in plants and animals.

Mushrooms have been around since ancient civilizations and we continue to produce them and study them today. People learned how to use them for various purposes: to produce delicious foods like bread, cheese, and even beer, and they have also helped us save thousands of lives since they have helped us develop medicines.

Did you know the fungi kingdom is more similar to the animal kingdom than the plant kingdom? This is because they are eukaryotic and are not autotrophs like plants, they don’t have chlorophyll and instead, they obtain their food by decomposing matter or eating off their hosts as parasites.

In this section on mushrooms you will learn and understand:

What mushrooms are.

The benefits of mushrooms.

How to farm mushrooms’

At the bottom of the page we have included some questions to help you with your learning and please use the forum to answer the forum questions or to post questions of your own to the community learning with you.

What are mushrooms & How do they grow

Discover the wonderful world of mushrooms via the following links

  1. What are mushrooms?
  2. Wild and Edible Fungi – a global overview
  3. How do they grow?
  4. How to do it at home (Vertical Veg)
  5. Q&A from Mushroom Canada

Why Mushrooms?

Link between hydroponics and mushrooms: Do Mycorrhizae Have a Role in Hydroponics?

Mushroom Production

There are six steps to mushroom cultivation:

  1. making mushroom compost
  2. Finishing the compost
  3. Spawning
  4. Casing
  5. Pinning
  6. Cropping

Link: Mushroom Production methods (Queensland Government 2010)

Watch the following 2 video’s for examples of mushroom farms:

More videos to watch

Informational Videos

Video – From spore to store Oyster Mushrooms (2007)

Video – Mushroom health Benefits (scientific articles review) (May 2015)

Video – Tour in the Phillips Mushroom Farms in Kennett Square, USA (2009)

Blue economy Mushroom Farming

Video – Rotterzwam – growing mushrooms in Rotterdam, Netherlands (May 2015)

TEDx presentation by Adam Sayner and Eric Jong

Will mushrooms take over our cities? | Adam Sayner and Eric Jong | TEDxTotnes (November 2015)

Food for Thought

The below questions are here to help you asses your understanding of the mushroom world and to help you think critically about the concepts. Answer the questions and the comments below and use this as an opportunity to ask questions, exchange ideas, and share opinions with like minded international people and vertical farming experts.

  1. What are the main differences between plants and mushrooms
  2. Why are mushrooms so interesting for Vertical Farming?
  3. What’s your favorite mushroom and why?
  4. How would you farm mushrooms?