You can grow mushrooms hydroponically even though they don’t grow roots. You’ll enjoy greater yields and fresh mushrooms beat store-bought mushrooms any day. You can also have fresh mushrooms year-round! You can either grow your mycelium in a grow kit or completely hydroponically.
Read on to learn about how to become a hydroponic gardener and grow your own mushrooms hydroponically!
Can You Grow Mushrooms Hydroponically?
You can grow mushrooms hydroponically. Even though mushrooms don’t form roots, they can still grow in hydroponic systems.
Growing mushrooms hydroponically greatly increases your yields, bringing on a huge quantity of mushrooms. Also, nothing beats the taste of fresh mushrooms!
While most plants use photosynthesis to create their food, mushrooms feed on organic debris instead and enjoy low-light environments.
There are lots of reasons why you should grow hydroponic mushrooms. One of the largest reasons is that they don’t require any light, which cuts down on your electricity and set up costs!
Advantages of Hydroponic Mushroom Farming
Here are some advantages of hydroponic mushroom farming:
- You’ll enjoy larger yields.
- Your mushrooms will taste better than if you buy them in the store.
- Mushrooms don’t photosynthesize so you don’t need expensive grow lights.
- The setup is very simple and easy.
What Type Of Mushrooms Can You Grow In Hydroponics?
You can grow pretty much any types of mushrooms in hydroponics. Some examples of common mushroom species you can grow include:
- Button
- Cinnamon cap
- Enokitake
- Lion’s mane
- Maitake
- Nameko
- Oyster
- Shiitake
The only kinds of mushrooms you can’t grow are the ones that rely on symbiotic relationships with trees, such as truffles.
How To Grow Hydroponic Mushrooms
Before we talk about how to grow hydroponic mushrooms, let’s talk about why you should!
Mushrooms are great for you because they’re full of vitamins and minerals and are even up to 1/3 protein! They also contain vitamins C and B, sodium, potassium, and phosphorus.
On the other hand, they’re low in carbs, fat, and calories. They’re also free of cholesterol.
Additionally, mushrooms have many medicinal properties and can be made into extracts.
Now let’s get into the nitty-gritty of how to grow hydroponic mushrooms.
Start With the Right Solution and Growing Media
Your hydroponic mushroom growing medium needs to contain the right nutrients because your mushrooms won’t be using any lights to create energy. While mushrooms don’t produce sugars or carbohydrates, they still need them to grow. These are the mushrooms’ only source of food.
The best way to give mushrooms in hydroponics the nutrients that they need is to mix non-bleached flour with vermiculite and perlite. The perlite vermiculite mixture should be 1:1.
Now take this mixture, mix it with a little bit of water, and create small cakes. The spores get mixed in with these cakes. Let them harden and then put them on the upper surface of your growing medium.
You can also use expanded clay aggregate to grow hydroponic mushrooms.
Grow Your Mycelium
There are two main ways to grow mushrooms hydroponically- using a mushroom kit or growing your mycelium hydroponically. Let’s talk about how to grow mushrooms with a kit first.
But what is mycelium?
Mushroom organic matter is called chitin. The chitin will branch in different directions and turn into hyphae, and a cluster of hyphae is known as mycelium.
The mycelium is where the mushroom actually sprouts. Mushrooms are actually mycelium’s reproductive organ.
Now back to growing!
Begin with a culture or fresh mushrooms. Place it on a petri dish and allow the mycelium to grow.
Be sure this happens in a sterile environment. After roughly a month, mushrooms will pop up. Then you can transfer them to a sterilized grain and allow the mushrooms to colonize this grain. Wait a few more weeks!
Now put these spores in your hydroponic setup.
On the other hand, you can grow your mycelium completely hydroponically. Soak your seed block in water until it’s completely saturated and keep it immersed in the water. Be sure to have multiple inches of water covering the top of the block.
Put the square-shape block in a dark environment and wait!
Mushrooms do best in chilled water. They need humidity levels between 70% and 90% in this stage.
Nutrients requirement for growing hydroponic Mushrooms
Just like all hydroponic systems, hydroponic mushroom setups need substrate and proper nutrients.
Once the substrate has spores in it, the mycelium will grow, fuse, and colonize.
In order to do all this, they need plenty of nutrients because they don’t create their own food. The nutrients you provide will be the primary food source for your mushrooms.
Some nutrients your mushrooms will need include protein, nitrogen, starch, lignin, fat, and sugar. Compost or liquid nutrients will both suffice.
Temperature for growing Mushrooms in hydroponics
The temperature for growing mushrooms in hydroponics should be between 75 and 80 degree F during the germination process and between 80 and 85 degrees F when your mushrooms are growing.
Do Hydroponic Mushrooms Need a Grow Light?
Hydroponic mushrooms only need a grow light during their mycelium production stage. They need roughly five to six hours daily in this stage.
After this, they need complete darkness.
Harvest of Mushrooms in hydroponics
Your mushrooms should be ready to harvest within a week!
If you want extra crop, and you have a grow kit, let your block sit for a couple days and repeat the whole process.
Blocks can be reused many times. When you grow mushrooms from mycelium, you can harvest the mushrooms once they pop up on the grain.
When your block is no longer producing fruit, you can add it to your garden compost pile.
Final Thoughts On Growing Hydroponic Mushrooms
Growing hydroponic mushrooms is very different from other hydroponic crops. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a go! There are multiple ways to go about growing hydroponic mushrooms, which gives you lots of room to experiment.
Check out the rest of our blog to learn about what else you can grow hydroponically!