Do you want to know how to grow hydroponic mushrooms? If yes, then read it here about growing mushrooms hydroponically without soil quickly.
Mushroom is an edible fungus that we adore to consume in many forms. Some add it to their pasta, and some eat it raw as it is a primary source of protein.
So if you are also willing to grow them in your garden or farming fields, then keep reading this article to learn how to grow Hydroponic mushrooms. So you don’t have to repurchase it in fresh, frozen, or canned forms.
Without wasting any time, let’s now jump to our primary goal, which is hydroponic farming for mushrooms without soil using a reservoir full of nutrient-rich water so we can grow them quickly in a sustainable way.
Benefits of Selecting Hydroponics for Mushroom Farming
Whenever we buy mushrooms from the local market, we fear whether the mushroom we are purchasing is fresh.
- They are fresh and pest-free when we grow them in our garden without soil and in the nutrient-rich water-soaked growing medium.
- Mushroom farming is one of the most profitable farming where demand is high when the quality of mushrooms is good.
- When you grow mushrooms using Hydroponics, it is nutritious and tasty, which gives you a high return on their consumption and sale.
- Hydroponics mushroom, instead of soil, grows in a well-balanced, nutrient-rich medium due to their appearance being big and healthy, making your dishes more nutritious and appealing to eat.
Why We Should Grow Mushrooms in a Hydroponics System?
It grows in less time compared to the traditional way, making it a profitable commodity to produce for sale and store for general use.
They have health and medicinal benefits, which increase when grown in a hygienic and well-controlled system; thus, consuming these hydroponic mushrooms gives you more benefits.
Similar to how traditional root growth crops are grown, mushrooms are also able to be produced using Hydroponics. Despite lacking roots, mushrooms can develop and flourish in the hydroponic growing medium.
Also read- 11 Types Of Edible Mushrooms Identification In Backyard
Introduction of Growing Hydroponics Mushroom
It is a general misconception that it is a vegetable. Instead of belonging to the plant kingdom, it belongs to the fungi kingdom.
Many users use it as a meat or egg replacement as it tastes like them and is full of carbohydrates, protein, and vitamins, especially Vitamin D and B complex and trace minerals.
Mushrooms don’t grow like traditional hydroponic vegetables, fruits, or flowers by suspending their roots in nutrient-rich water as they don’t have roots.
They develop in a hydroponic-rich medium in three growth stages, spores conversion to monokaryotic mycelium, which later connects and converts into dikaryotic mycelium, and the last Fruiting Body process, where the mushroom is formed.
They don’t perform photosynthesis for their growth due to the absence of Chlorophyll; most of them can grow without sunlight but require a specific temperature range between 24 to 30 degrees centigrade and humidity to develop.
Nutrient Requirement for Growing Hydroponics Mushrooms
Mushrooms thrive on organic matter; thus, we need to select such medium and nutrient water that provides them with the organic matter they need to develop.
Organic matter is generally made up of protein, starch, fat, sugar, soil, lignin, and nitrogen, so if we want to grow them using organic matter, we need to mix mycelium with the organic matter first hydroponics system for further growth.
Good organic matters for mixing are manure, corn flour, straws, wheat flour, perlite, peat moss, vermiculite, and coco coir. Mix your mycelium with any mixture of two or three organic matter to provide nutrients for your mushrooms’ spores to grow.
Growing Medium for Growing Hydroponics Mushrooms
After mixing nutrient mix with mycelium in cake or paste form, they are placed on a suitable growing medium in a hydroponics system to grow further.
Perlite, expanded clay, coco coir, and vermiculite are considered the best growing medium for growing mushrooms hydroponically as they allow air to pass through them and allow mushrooms to grow like their natural growing conditions.
Setting Up a Hydroponics System for Mushroom Farming
You can grow mushrooms in your grow box hydroponically OR in the Mason jar.
You can use a simple jar to grow these mushrooms after adding growing medium and nutrient mycelium mixture to our mason jars and close them unless or until our mushrooms are developed.
Another method is to grow them in a reservoir filled with simple water and have a water heater, air stones, and air pumps in it to provide humidity, moisture, and oxygen to our mushrooms’ spores, mycelium mixture, or cake present over the growing medium.
70 percent humidity and oxygen are provided through these additional apparatus present in our reservoir for quick growth of our hydroponic mushrooms.
It can also instantly grow in hydroponic reservoirs with the help of mushroom kits which only need to soak in the cold and grow into mushrooms in mild temperature water in those water reservoirs.
Types of Mushrooms We Can Grow in the Hydroponic System
Generally, two kinds of mushrooms are preferred to be grown hydroponically, Oyster mushroom and Shiitake Mushroom; both are edible.
Names of some popular mushroom variety gardeners choose for Hydroponic farming are:
| Cinnamon cap |
| Shitake |
| Lion’s mane |
| Oyster |
| Button |
| Nameko |
| Enokitake |
Methods of Growing Hydroponics Mushrooms:
Generally, the three best practices have been developed till now to grow hydroponic mushrooms:
- The Instant method using a mushroom kit
- The jar method uses liquid mycelium
- The reservoir method uses air and humidity
1. The Instant Method Using Mushroom Kit
In this method, gardeners buy a mushroom kit from the market or online by choosing the best available option.
Then take a reservoir filled with cold water and soak their sawdust blocks already containing seeds in them into it. Once they feel their partnership is washed enough with water, they shift that reservoir to a dark and cool place with a maximum temperature of 29-degree centigrade.
Requirements:
If you’re living in a warmer region, you can place your container in a temperature-controlled room where AC is present and adjust the temperature to be maintained within this limit.
In some cases, farmers who need bigger mushrooms use red and blue light to enhance their mushroom growth or, as suggested by the instruction manual provided by the kit developer.
You can also form your mushroom sawdust block by mixing liquid mycelium with sawdust and compressing them into a block shape.
Result:
Within a week, you will see that mushrooms are developed and ready to use. You can recycle this sawdust brick until the mushrooms stop developing on them.
2. The Jar Method Using Liquid Mycelium
In this method, farmers grow mushrooms on a small level using single or multiple jars filled with grains to provide nutrients for their mushrooms’ spores to grow.
At the very start, farmers will take a clean and sterilized petri dish to grow mushrooms on them.
Procedure:
They will pour mycelium culture on those agar-based Petri dishes or mushroom spores enriched in culture over them and let them develop into colonies.
After a few weeks, when the colonies are developed and form delicate thread-like structures, we place them over grains present inside a Jar.
After three to four weeks, mushrooms will grow enough over grains that we can quickly harvest and use them. The sterilized grain of wheat or rye we have used can be recycled again for growing mushrooms next time.
Alternative way:
The same procedure can proceed with using the prepared substrate to replace grains, and instead of the jar for commercial growth, we can use grow bags to grow them.
Temperature and humidity also needed to be maintained for optimum growth and quick process. The temperature needs to be under 29 degrees centigrade for mushroom growth.
In growing bags, after adding substrate to them, your mushrooms’ mycelium or colonies over it grow and develop into whole flesh mushrooms to consume or sell.
3. The Reservoir Method Using Air and Humidity
This method is typical of normal Hydroponics, where we place inoculated mushrooms over a growing medium in net cups. Those net cups are present over the lids of our hydroponics reservoir.
Hydroponics reservoirs contain plain water instead of supplying it continuously. Water is used as water vapor for the growing medium, which keeps the system moist and humid. Air is bubbled through the bottom to provide oxygen.
Depending on the mushroom variety, you can vary your organic matter and growing medium selection to grow mushrooms in hydroponics reservoirs. They also take 1 to 4 weeks to fully develop in your reservoirs to harvest.
Harvesting of Hydroponics Mushroom
Whether you are choosing any of these three methods to grow mushrooms, they produce over growing medium or substrate and need to harvest from them.
Carefully applying force on their bottom, pick them up so another batch can grow from or on the substrate or growing medium again.
FAQS of How to Grow Hydroponic Mushrooms
Q: Which Hydroponic Method Is The Fastest To Grow Mushrooms?
We can grow mushrooms within three days by using a hydroponic mushroom kit.
Q: Which Hydroponic Method Is Best To Grow Mushrooms On A Commercial Level?
Customized kits, grow bags, and reservoirs three can be used to grow them commercially using Hydroponics.
Q: Which Is The Easiest Mushroom Variety To Grow In A Hydroponics System?
Oyster mushrooms can quickly grow on the Hydroponics system along with shitake and button mushrooms.
Final thoughts:
Mushrooms are unique edible fungi that can be grown quickly in our gardens or on the farm without soil if we know how to grow Hydroponics mushrooms and provides ourselves with fresh and tasty mushrooms.
My name is Olivia, and I live in the United States and love having plants in my garden. Lots of plants are there on my balcony, indoor and outdoor garden also. Here I am trying to share useful gardening tips, how to grow and care for various plants, etc.
