Growing mushrooms | 4Food

Growing Guides How to grow mushrooms

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Date Published:: 15/10/2007

Supermarket shelves sport an array of exotic mushroom varieties but if you don't fancy paying hand-over-fist for yours, and aren't confident enough to forage in the wild (you'll need a good book to identify the non-poisonous ones) then why not grow your own?

A number of veg specialists produce easy-to-use kits for this very purpose, making it easier than you might think - and great fun to boot.

Broadly speaking, mushrooms fall into one of two camps: those that grow on the ground (and can be cultivated on a compost mix) and those that live in decaying wood (so you'll need your own logs).

The ground-growing types are the ones you will be most used to seeing on supermarket shelves as they include button and portobello mushrooms - both of which are essentially the same species.