Resources for Mushroom Growers

Blue Dot Background Information

Information about mushrooms in general, how they grow in nature, the history of mushroom cultivation, commercial opportunities with mushroom cultivation and short summaries on how to cultivate various species. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Growing Shiitake Mushrooms - Lentinula edodes

How to grow shiitake mushrooms on natural logs or on sterilized sawdust substrates. The provided links bring you free information, but sometimes technical details are lacking. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Growing Oyster Mushrooms - Pleurotus spp.

Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) are one of the easiest species to grow. Oysters grow rapidly and can out-compete most contaminants. They can grow on most hardwoods as well as straw and many agricultural wastes. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Growing Maitake Mushrooms - Grifola frondosa

Also known a hen-of-the-woods, the maitake mushroom grows in the wild around chestnut trees in summer and fall. It's a wood rotting fungus, so it was easily domesticated. It's a fascinating mushroom with great medicinal properties. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Growing Reishi Mushrooms - Ganoderma lucidum

Also known as lingzhi in Chinese, the reishi mushroom is a polypore mushroom that is soft (when fresh), corky, and flat, with a conspicuous red-varnished, kidney-shaped cap and, depending on specimen age, white to dull brown pores underneath. It lacks gills on its underside and releases its spores through fine pores. It's a wood rotting fungus, so it has been domesticated. It has great medicinal properties. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Growing Morels - Morchella spp.

Morels are one tough mushroom to grow commercially! Two cultivation processes have been patented. The first process is based upon work by Ronald D. Ower, who was the first to produce morels in a controlled environment at San Francisco State University in 1982. His findings were published in Mycologia 74(1), Jan-Feb 1982. The patents are held by Terry Farms and vigorously defended by them. Still, at last report, no one has been able to produce morels by the instructions in the patent. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Growing Milky Mushrooms - Calocybe indica

Milky mushrooms seem to be popular in India, but there are few details . . . Read more . . .

Blue Dot Growing Lion's Mane Mushrooms - Hericium erinaceous

Also known as Bearded Tooth Mushroom, Satyr's Beard, Bearded Hedgehog Mushroom, pom pom mushroom, Yamabushitake, or Monkey Head Mushroom Hericium erinaceus is an edible and medicinal mushroom . . . Read more . . .

Blue Dot Growing Truffles - Tuber melanosporum and Others

Truffles are mycorrhizal species, meaning that they exist in a symbiotic relationship with plants - usually trees. Without the host plant, there is no truffle. Thus, cultivation depends upon the development of a plantation of trees that truffles like. Typically the seedling tree roots are inoculated with truffles then planted. With proper management, truffles appear a few years later. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Growing Caterpillar Fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis)

As the common name suggests, this mushroom is a parasite that grows on caterpillars. The mycelia can be grown in liquid culture and there are techniques to grow the fruit bodies. Efforts are underway to produce this species economically. It has a number of medicinal compounds. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Growing Mycorrhizal Mushrooms

Mycorrhizal species exist in a symbiotic relationship with plants - usually trees. Without the host plant, there is no mycorrhizal mushroom. Thus, cultivation depends upon the development of a plantation of trees that the mushrooms like. Typically the seedling tree roots are inoculated with mushroom mycelia then planted. With proper management, the mushrooms appear a few years later. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Growing Paddy Straw Mushrooms - Volvariella volvacea

Paddy Straw is a warm weather species of mushroom. It is one of the more popular mushrooms in Southeast Asia and is exported from China, Taiwan and Thailand. You may be able to find canned paddy straw mushrooms in appropriate ethnic food stores. While normally grown on rice straw, it can do well on other substrates as well. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Growing Agaricus Mushrooms - Agaricus bisporus

These are the common white button mushrooms, the brown mushrooms (crimini) and their more mature form, portabella. They are grown on a compost substrate that must be meticulously prepared. The newsletter has focussed on specialty species (i.e. NOT Agaricus), but we are often asked about growing Agaricus. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Best Practices

Various organizations and agencies are developing 'best practices' for mushroom cultivation. Best Practices define implementable, state-of-the-art ways of doing certain things in mushroom cultivation. To date, the emphasis has been on environmental protection and food safety.Read more . . .

Blue Dot Contaminants and Diseases in Mushroom Cultivation

Insects, bacteria and even other fungi can attack your mushrooms. In general you need to keep your growing environment clean. In addition, specific pests require specific action. Here is more information:Read more . . .

Blue Dot Marketing Mushrooms

If you decide to grow mushrooms commercially, you will soon discover that growing the mushrooms is just the beginning. To be profitable you'll need to have general business management expertise and, especially mushroom marketing expertise. There are many ways to market mushrooms and we continue to discuss them each month in the Newsletter. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Mushrooms and Your Health

A growing body of evidence supports the notion that mushrooms are good for you. In fact, many species have medicinal values that have been demonstrated in various ways. Most of the evidence comes from test tube experiments or experiments with animals. Another body of evidence comes from studies of various populations that use mushrooms. Some evidence also comes from double-blind experiments with humans. Currently there is research focussing on the latter, so that the final confirmation of specific effects on people can be proven. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Cooking with Mushrooms

At one time we hoped to create a comprehensive, online mushroom cookbook. We collected a few recipes, but others have done much better. Here we offer links to a wide variety of recipes you can try. Starting with a complete cook book from the Mycological Society of San Francisco. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Preserving Mushrooms

Yes, you can preserve mushrooms for future use. If you plan to preserve your mushrooms for sale, be sure to check with your local government agency that handles food safety issues. Typically, you will need to have a commercially certified processing facility if you are doing much more than drying your mushrooms. Here are instructions. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Bibliographies

If there is a good library near you, you should be able to find a lot of print information about mushrooms. To get you started, we offer the bibliographies listed here. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Statistics

When developing or updating your business plan it is important to understand the markets you intend to enter. You can start to develop that understanding by reviewing available statistics. Then you can follow the Newsletter to keep track of how things are changing. That way you will be able to plan ahead and avoid the necessity of quickly reacting when your sales start to fall. Read more . . .

Blue Dot Other Links

Here we offer links to organizations that support the mushroom industry in various ways. If your growers association has a website, send us the link! Read more . . .

This page was last updated on: June 05 2023.