North Spore

There are A LOT of edible mushrooms you can grow at home, but it really depends on where you'd like to grow them! For the beginner, we recommend oyster mushrooms (indoor and outdoor), Wine Cap (outdoor beds) and shiitake (outdoor logs). All are reliable producers, and will increase the likelihood of a successful first attempt!

If you've never grown mushrooms before, we recommend starting slow and easing your way into it! Start with a Spray & Grow kit or beginner Fruiting Block kit that doesn't require any special equipment to get the feel for it. Once you're comfortable, invest in a monotub or martha tent for indoor growing. Or, if you're an outdoor grower, invest in a container or drill bit (for plug spawn) and go from there. As you become more comfortable, you can level up your equipment. But it shouldn't take a huge investment to get started.

Mushrooms prefer indirect sunlight, lots of humidity, and temperatures between 60-75 F. Some species are more tolerant of heat (like pink oysters), while others are more tolerant of humidity changes. But generally speaking, it's best to create conditions that are relatively cool, moist, and shady.

Many species go from "pin" to "flush" in as little as two weeks! But others, like reishi, can take months. Also note that, if you're growing on logs, you'll need to factor in inoculation time (which is generally 6 months to a year).

Absoulately! Kids love the mushroom growing process as much as adults. As long as they have adult supervision and somebody to cook their mushrooms thoroughly, the process of growing and harvesting can be a fun year round project for children.

Note that mushrooms produce spores at the end of their growth cycle, so children (and adults) with respiratory allergies or compromised immune systems should only grow mushrooms in well-ventilated areas and take extra precautions when handling (like wearing a face covering) to prevent overall spore load.

Most pets are generally inquisitive, and some may try to dig into substrates and/or eat raw mushrooms. For this reason, we recommend growing mushrooms in an area of your home that is off limits to pets. Mushrooms are generally safe, but like humans, pets can get sick to their stomach if they eat raw mushrooms . Or, you may come home to a floor covered in spawn and/or sterile substrate, which isn't fun to clean up.

Indoors, you can grow mushrooms on your countertop (with a kit), in jars, in bags, in a monotub, or in a martha tent. Outdoors, you can grow mushrooms in containers, garden beds, and on logs, stumps, and totems. Check out our mushroom growing guides to learn more.

Yes. Mushrooms don't do well in direct sunlight. However, they do need ambient light to grow. So, if you plan to grow indoors in a basement, closet, or other dark space that sunlight can't reach, you will need to supplement with an artifical grow light.

Mushrooms eat the substrate they grow on, so additional feeding and fertilizing are not necessary.

If you're not using a humidity-controlled environment (like a humidity tent or martha tent), you will want to generously water your mushrooms 2-3 times a day. That said, you don't want to soak them either. Spray with a fine mist until water droplets appear, then keep an eye on them for signs of moisture loss. Dry mushrooms will wilt and the edges will curl, which means they might need to be moved to a different space or be watered more frequently.

The word "fruit" can be very specific, referring to foods like berries and apples, or a bit more general to refer to how an organism reproduces. So tomatoes and rosehips are the fruits of those plants; they contain the seeds. Likewise, mushrooms are the fruits of a fungus; they contain spores. So when a fungus starts to produce mushrooms, we call that fruiting. A "flush" refers to the production of multiple mushroom fruit bodies at one time. Many of the fungi we cultivate tend to produce many mushrooms simultaneously - this is known as a 'flush' of mushrooms.

Interested in learning more? Check out our mushroom growing terminology guide.