Every common way to grow gourmet mushrooms at home, side by side
Growers call a method a “tek”. Here are sixteen of them for oyster, lion’s mane, shiitake, wine cap and their relatives, with what each costs in effort, kit and time. Answer seven questions and we’ll suggest three to start with.
Find your tek
Seven questions
Nothing you pick is sent anywhere or saved. See the rules.
The tek library
Sorted by the stage of a grow they belong to. Most beginners start in Substrate or Outdoor with bought spawn; the clean-work and culture teks are for when you want to make your own.
Clean work
Where sterile transfers happen
Culture
Keeping and growing a clean strain
Spawn
Making the mycelium you plant
Substrate
What the mushrooms eat
- All-in-one grow bags A sealed, pre-sterilised bag of grain and substrate; you add culture and wait.
- Supplemented sawdust blocks Hardwood sawdust or pellets with bran or soy hulls, including master’s mix.
- Pasteurised straw (hot water) Chopped straw held hot in water for an hour or two, then packed with oyster spawn.
- Cold-water lime pasteurisation Straw soaked overnight in a high-pH hydrated lime bath; no heat needed.
- Bucket tek Oyster spawn and soaked chips or straw packed into a drilled five-gallon bucket.
- Spent coffee grounds Fresh grounds mixed with sawdust for oysters, and where the method falls short.
Fruiting
Where the mushrooms form
- Shotgun fruiting chamber A clear tote drilled all over and set over damp perlite, to fruit a few blocks or bags.
- Martha tent A wire shelf inside a zip-up greenhouse cover, with a humidifier on a timer.
- Monotub fruiting for gourmet species A deep tub of colonised bulk substrate with filtered holes, fruiting from the surface.
Compare every tekOne sortable table: space, cost band, sterile work, difficulty, species, indoors or out.
Species and the teks that suit themNine culinary species against sixteen methods, with links to species guides.
GlossarySpawn, substrate, field capacity, flushes and the names of the moulds you will meet.