Part of the process
Choose a species
Start with the room, not the mushroom. Blue and pearl oysters fruit in a cool room, pink and golden oysters want warmth, lion's mane and shiitake sit in between. Oysters forgive the most mistakes.
- Easiest first grow
- an oyster kit
- Cool room, 55 to 70 F
- blue oyster, lion's mane, shiitake
Every cultivated mushroom fruits inside its own temperature band, and that band matters more than anything you can buy. Blue and pearl oysters fruit at about 55 to 75 F, lion's mane and shiitake at about 55 to 70 F, king oyster cooler still at 50 to 65 F. Pink oyster wants about 70 F or more and golden oyster 65 F or more. The temperature and humidity chart shows every species side by side.
Then pick the method. Oysters grow on almost anything: pasteurized straw, sawdust blocks, logs and garden mulch, which is why they lead the list of easiest mushrooms to grow. Lion's mane, king oyster, chestnut and shiitake want sterilized hardwood sawdust or logs, so they are grown from a ready block, or from blocks made with a pressure cooker.
Outdoors the choice is different again: shiitake on oak logs, oysters on poplar or aspen, wine cap in a bed of wood chips. Those take months instead of weeks and are covered under logs and outdoor beds. Morels are the exception that fits no method here; the morel note explains why.
Common mistakes at this stage
- Buying pink oyster for a cool basement, or blue oyster for a warm summer kitchen.
- Starting with shiitake or king oyster because they are familiar from the store: both are slower and fussier than oysters.
- Choosing the species before checking what temperature the growing spot actually holds.