How to Grow Crimini Mushrooms

The crimini mushroom, or Italian brown mushroom, is actually an immature portabella. Crimini mushrooms have a dark brown cap, moderately firm texture and earthy flavor. Mushrooms are generally difficult to grow, the American Mushroom Institute acknowledges, but crimini are among the easier varieties and thus a good option for a beginner. Commercially prepared crimini spawn also help ensure success.

Things You'll Need

1 cubic yard wood chips
5-6 quarts crimini grain spawn
Garden rake

½ pound of agricultural lime
Sphagnum peat moss

Instructions

- 1
  Once all danger of frost is past, put a 3-inch layer of fresh wood chips in your mushroom bed. A cubic yard of wood chips should occupy approximately a 10-square-foot area.
- 2
  If the wood chips are dry, wet them with water. Broadcast the spawn evenly over the wood chips, and then gently rake them to incorporate the spawn. Within a few weeks, you will see the mycelium, the white vegetative part of the fungus, growing through the wood chips.
- 3
  Add a few handfuls of agricultural lime to sphagnum peat moss and mix well. Cover the wood chips with an even 1.5 inch layer of the moss mixture. Gently spray the moss with water until damp.
- 4
  Keep the mushroom bed moist. In the absence of rain, water it weekly. Watch for crimini mushrooms to emerge. It may take a few weeks or perhaps over a month.
- 5
  Harvest crimini when they have a chocolate brown top and strong mature flavor. Pull the mushrooms out by hand and trim off any remaining root.

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