How To Grow Lion’s Mane Mushroom

Mushrooms are something that tastes great in almost all dishes. Be it on pizza or a dish only made with mushrooms, they are enjoyed by people all over the world. One of the best characteristics of mushrooms is that it has many types. One such type is the lion’s mane mushroom, scientifically named as Hericium Erinaceus. It has many other common names like monkey head mushroom, bearded tooth mushroom, pompom mushroom, satyr’s beard, and many more. This mushroom is edible and has medicinal properties. It is found in North America, Europe, and Asia. It fits its name with its long spines and its characteristic of growing in a single clump with multiple dangling spines.

Benefits of Lion’s Mane Mushrooms

Some of the benefits of these mushrooms are that they can prevent one from having dementia and ulcers in the digestive tract, they help in curing depression, anxiety and they can reduce heart disease risks. These are just some of their health benefits. If you research them, you’d see that there are many more health benefits for us. You can get these mushrooms from an online store, or from your local market. When you buy the mushroom spawns yourself and then grow it on your own, you have the benefits of having organic, chemical-less mushrooms for yourself.

Growing lion’s mane mushrooms are pretty similar to growing any type of mushroom. In fact, they are much easier to grow. Now you have many options for growing lion’s mane mushrooms. You can grow them inside your home, outside your home or even in your local garden. The most essential requirement of growing them is the growing kit you use rather than the place where you grow them.

Different Methods of Growing Lion’s Mane Mushrooms

The mushroom growing kits are helpful for growing them on a small scale while there are spawns provided if you want to grow them on a larger scale. The kits provided for growing them on a small scale come as a block in a small packet. Inside them, there is soil and mycelium. You need to cut the block through the plastic with which they came. Once the soil and the mycelium present in it encounters the oxygen outside, only one step is required which is providing them with moisture. Once you moist them every day and cut holes in them, they start growing. They also produce mushrooms multiple times and it depends on the concentration and the proportions with which the kit was prepared.

One of the important necessities required for mushrooms to grow is humidity and ventilation. So it is necessary to grow them in that part of your home where you have the most of these. One should keep in mind that mushrooms are neither fruits nor vegetables, but fungi. They take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide. So mistaking them as a normal plant can lead to them deteriorating. You can easily observe if your lion’s mane mushrooms are growing well from their structure. If they are stringy, then it means that something is missing and you need to pay more attention to them. Your ideal mushrooms will look similar to the picture which is provided to you along with the kit.

As mentioned earlier, anyone can also grow these mushrooms outside for which there are different spawns available. Two of the most common spawns are sawdust spawn and plug spawn.  Sawdust is also one of the essential components for the growth of these mushrooms. It is present in the growing kits as well. These take time to grow but are definitely fruitful. For growing these mushrooms, you would need a spawn as well as a substrate. Since these mushrooms can grow on logs, straws, and vines, we have a much higher range of growing them wherever we feel like. This growing method requires some kind of experience and expertise since there are some complexities in it as compared to the method of growing them through a kit. Besides sawdust, these can also be grown on hardwood logs.

If you want to grow them on a log then the first step for it is to choose an appropriate log. Since they grow only on hardwood, it is better to choose hardwood logs like that of maple, birch, oak, etc. It is important that the logs are long and uniform in structure. Once the log is selected, the next step is to remove moisture from them. Keep them out in the sun to dry out.  The maximum moisture percentage it should have is 40%. After this, get the spawn you need. Next, put some holes in the log at a regular distance. The holes should be one-fourth inches deep. Then, gently plug the spawn plug inside the holes. Make sure the spawns are attached firmly with the log with the help of wax. Finally, the logs are placed inside a moist location.

Furthermore, to grow them in sawdust, they can be grown in bags as well, in which case they are called the fruiting block. The first step here would be to make a fruiting block by adding sawdust, substrate, water, and molasses in it. The water should be added until the cluster has clumped and can no longer absorb any more water. After this is done, place it in a small bag in which the block is supposed to grow. Keep the bag in a cool and clean environment for the best results. In the end, add spawn to the sawdust block and place it in a warm and moist environment for a week or two. After the mycelium has spread properly in this time interval, put some holes in the bag and then let the mushrooms grow.

Also check: 14 Fruits And Vegetable To Grow For Your Small Garden

Conclusion

Although these methods are long, they are very helpful in growing in a large area. These homemade lion’s mane mushrooms are very easy to grow as you can conclude. Moreover, the benefits of these mushrooms help both your health and make your food even more appealing, which is a bonus.

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