can you grow mushrooms easily?

[crisgal]

this year I have vowed to grow my own veg. I want to grow things that I would buy anyway.
The veg I buy most of all, apart from onions and frozen peas are mushrooms. Is it possible to grow them outdoors successfully?

[Ice.Maiden]

I was bursting to put something funny here - but I'm not sure whether they'd grow outside. We have ours in a greenhouse.

[crisgal]

Put something funny by all means!

I'm going to sound really thick, but, do they grow in soil, like a regular plant?

(I'm a gardening virgin you see)
x

[ozzie2]

crisgal put your mind to it and you'll have green fingers in no time

my fave crop are mushrooms
the big spotty red ones

[Ice.Maiden]

I think it's a special compost or growing medium. You can buy kits of it, if you like - but i hope you like your mushrooms, because once they sprout - you get dozens!!!!!!

And the laugh was going to be.....yes, you can grow them easily, judging by the ones that grow on our shed windows! Sorry!! xx

[crisgal]

I getcha ice - i am actually quite the expert in growing green mould myself!

[ozzie2]

zarra phillips?
that made me lol!
sorry crisgal that was on another thread

[Ice.Maiden]

Ah! Maybe a type of penicillin!!!!!!!!!!

Laugh at ozzie!!!

[ozzie2]

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[ozzie2]

best of luck in your project crisgal
hope you do well

[Ice.Maiden]

What's the "grrrrrrrrr" for ozzie??? Sounds like you have wind. Must be too many of those red spotty mushrooms! x

Zara Phillips? Why not? She hasn't just achieved success because of who she is. She's worked hard.

[Buenchico]

Any decent garden centre should be able to sell you a mushroom growing kit (or search online). You don't grow them in the garden for two reasons:

1. Mushrooms don't photosynthesis, so they don't need sunlight. In fact, they need exactly the opposite; they should be grown in the dark.

2. Garden soil is full of all sorts of fungal spores which would compete with (or even attack) the fungi which you're attempting to grow. For this reason, mushrooms must be grown in sterile conditions.

Chris

PS: I think IceMaiden is trying to set a record by posting in every single AB category in the space of a few minutes. Hiya, Icey ;-)

[shylock73]

I`m surprised nobody has mentioned that the red spotty one`s are poisonous so don`t eat them ,they`re toadstools.

[crisgal]

i think he was joking!

[Jugglering]

Mushrooms are amazingly easy to grow ! The kits you can get from the garden centres contain both the growing medium and the spores.... all you need to do is mix the two as per the instructions, water well and let nature take its course.... in a couple of weeks you will have loads of ready to crop mushrooms.... that taste fantastic too ! I grow mine indoors but there are some varieties that you can get that will grow really happily out doors - they tend to come on logs of wood. Have a peek at this site for more info:-

http://www.gourmetmushrooms.co.uk/