How Do I Grow Mushrooms Using Rye Flour?

Fill a shoe box or rubber or plastic bin three-quarters with rye flour. Don't worry about treating the rye flour beforehand. Make sure your container is a convenient size for both movement and storage. Keep in mind that the mushroom container will need to fit inside a drawer or cupboard and doesn't need a lid.

Inject your mushroom culture into the rye flour. Mushroom cultures are available in injectable forms at both home and garden shops and hydroponic shops and will come in a syringelike instrument. Insert the tip of the "syringe" into the rye flower, to depth of a half-inch, and depress the plunger. For home growing, use a culture for white, oyster or crimini mushrooms, which stay smaller. Mushrooms don't grow from seeds but from spores, which live in the culture. One mushroom culture may sprout thousands of mushrooms, given time.

Put the container in a secure, dark spot with a heating pad. Set the pad to 70 degrees F, then, using a spray bottle filled with water, spray the rye flour to dampen the surface but not make it soupy or sticky. Leave the container in the dark for three to four weeks, but spray it every day to maintain moisture. This gives the culture the warm, moist environment it needs to take root.

Cover the rye flour with a quarter-inch of topsoil and reduce the heating pad to 55 to 60 degrees F after the first three to four weeks have passed. Continue spraying the container every day, and give another three to four weeks for mushroom sprouting. Harvest mushrooms when you're satisfied with their size, then put the container back and continue to maintain it for another round of mushroom growth.