Lesson 15 ·Class 9 · Economic Importance of Bacteria and Fungi · Flow Lab
Growing Mushrooms
A crop that needs no light at all.
Mushrooms make no food of their own, so growing them is nothing like growing a plant.
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🌾 Step 1 of 7 · Prepare the compost
Straw, manure and other organic waste are mixed and left to ferment. This is the mushroom's food supply.
Free play — step through the process at your own pace, and move the slider to see what changes. Switch to when you're ready to test yourself.
No light is needed at any stage — a mushroom is a saprophyte, so it eats the compost rather than making food.
What this lesson covers
Challenges to clear
- Advance to the step where the fungus is introduced.
- Reach the step that triggers fruiting.
- Follow the whole crop through.
The task
Mushrooms make no food of their own, so growing them is nothing like growing a plant.
What this lesson covers
- Prepare the compost — Straw, manure and other organic waste are mixed and left to ferment. This is the mushroom's food supply.
- Pasteurise it — The compost is steam-heated to kill competing moulds, insects and weed fungi.
- Spawning — Mushroom spawn — grain already colonised by mycelium — is mixed into the cooled compost.
- Spawn run — Kept warm, humid and dark for two to three weeks, the white mycelium spreads through the compost.
- Casing — A layer of moist soil is spread on top. This change in conditions is what triggers fruiting.
- Pinheads appear — Small white pinheads push up through the casing layer — these are the young fruiting bodies.
- Harvest — Mushrooms are picked by twisting before the cap opens fully. More flushes follow every few days.
Hint
No light is needed at any stage — a mushroom is a saprophyte, so it eats the compost rather than making food.