How to Grow Mushrooms & Preserve the Spores for Reproduction

Growing mushrooms is a rewarding project that produces tasty fungi for you to use in the home. Mushrooms require a special sterile or pasteurized substrate or growing medium. They also need warm temperatures and slightly moist conditions. Once you have these prerequisites you then need to acquire the spores of the fungus. The spores are like the seeds of the mushroom and are collected from the gills of the fungus. In commercial mushroom production, they are inoculated onto pasteurized grain that is then called spawn. You spread spawn over the substrate and mushrooms grow. In home production, you can harvest the spores and use them directly but the process requires conditions as close to sterile as possible.

Bleach
Water
Towel
Gloves
Mature mushrooms
Pane of glass or mirror
Cup
Razor
Piece of paper
Thin necked glass container
Cotton ball
Microwave
Syringe
4- to 6-inch deep dish or container
Mushroom substrate
Plant mister
Foil

Instructions

- 1
  Sterilize all surfaces on which you will be working. Use a 10 percent solution of bleach and water to wipe everything down. Put on gloves for the spore retrieval process.
- 2
  Peel the cap off a mature mushroom and place it gill side down onto a piece of glass. Set a cup over the glass to keep air from blowing the spores away.
- 3
  Wait 24 hours and then remove the cup. Pick up the mushroom and then scrape off the spore that it left behind. Put the spore into a piece of paper and fold it. You can store it in a dark dry room for many years.
- 4
  Plug the top of the container with a cotton ball. Place an inch of water in the glass container and microwave for 3 minutes. Let the water cool and microwave again. Remove the cotton and scrape the spores you collected into the jar. Stick a syringe into the jar and withdraw some liquid containing the spore in suspension.
- 5
  Layer mushroom substrate into the shallow dish. Use a plant mister to moisten it lightly. Squirt each section with 2 to 3 drops of liquid spore. Mix the substrate after inoculating with the spore to distribute it. Cover the top with foil and keep the dish at room temperature or warmer but no higher than 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 6
  Check the spawn to make sure it is lightly moist every day. In 8 to 10 days, the substrate should fruit, but the exact time will depend on the species of mushroom you used.

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