Introduction
Setting up an outdoor mushroom bed or companion planting with fungi can be a rewarding and fruitful endeavor. With a little mahi and luck you will have delicious edible mushrooms for years to come. In essence this process is simply introducing the fungus of your choice to the environment, along with some food for it and then letting nature do it's thing.
The best time to do this is during spring. Most fungi in Aotearoa produce mushrooms during Autumn, so by starting your patch during spring you give the fungus almost a full year to get itself established. These mushroom beds are best set up somewhere somewhat shady and sheltered and work well along fence lines, garden beds and even in pots. Companion planting with fungi is also an excellent way to make the most of the space you have whilst enriching the soil and maximizing nutrient availability for the plants. This may sound complex, but the actual process is to simply plant your vegetables/plants directly into the mushroom grow bed.
Suitable species
- The Garden Giant or King Stropharia - Stropharia rugosoannulata. This is a delicious, distinct and easy to grow mushroom. This species produces large mushrooms with creamy white stems and caps with a deep burgundy color. This is the species I'd most highly recommend growing in this style that The Mushroom Smith currently provides spawn for.
- Phoenix Oyster - Pleurotus pulmonarius. The Phoenix Oyster is generally found growing on dead or decaying trees here in Aotearoa, however it is an extraordinarily robust mushroom that can thrive on a wide range of substrates. As such it can be grown in mushroom beds as long as you give it a good amount of fresh mulch or straw. It can even have excellent results as a companion fungus alongside brassica vegetables.
Step by step instructions for setting up your mushroom bed:
- Clear and prepare your space! You'll need to remove weeds and potentially even dig into the earth depending on location
- Spread a layer of straw or mulch roughly 5 cm deep
- Crumble your mushroom spawn and evenly spread across the straw. 1kg of mushroom spawn is enough for a roughly 1 square meter bed
- Spread a final layer of straw or mulch, again roughly 5 cm deep
- Throw a few handfuls of soil or compost over the top to introduce some soil microbes
- If companion planting vegetables or plants this is the time to plant them. Do so as you would normally, planting directly into the freshly established mushroom bed
- Water thoroughly
Caring for your mushroom bed
Mushroom beds tend to be very hardy once established and generally only require two things: water and more food. During really hot and dry months it can be worthwhile giving the patch a thorough soaking every few weeks. These are not plants however and don't have the same water requirements.
Once the patch is fully done fruiting for the season spread out another layer of mulch or straw. This is to provide some fresh food for the fungus to replenish what was used during the last season.
Harvesting mushrooms
Once autumn rolls around keep a close eye on your mushroom bed. If you are lucky you'll start to see the young mushrooms form and will be able to harvest them right when they are perfectly mature. In the worst case scenario you'll likely just miss them while young and only notice once they are big and potentially past mature. This isn't the end of the world however as a healthy mushroom bed will continue to produce mushrooms throughout the season, so more will come!
Be extremely careful with identifying the mushrooms before consuming them. It is very possible for other species of fungi to grow within the bed you have established and to also produce mushrooms. So harvest with a sharp eye and be careful. Never consume a mushroom unless you are 100% sure about it's identity. In saying this, Garden Giant mushrooms and other fungi that grow well in beds are usually very easy to identify and once you've done it one or twice you'll find it easy to ID them at a glance.