Getting started

So you want to grow mushrooms...where to begin? There's no shortage of information available...and some can be good or bad, or in formats that work better for your individual learning style.

I began my own mushroom growing journey with "The Psilocybin Mushroom Grower's Guide" book by Oss and Oerick. Published in the early 70s by the McKenna brothers, this relatively quick read is excellently written and covers all the fundamentals of cultivation. Due to its age, some of the materials and equipment covered in the book have been improved upon over the years, but the techniques themselves have stood the test of time, and honestly weren't new when the book was written, but adapted from food mushroom cultivation practices. Paul Stamets books "The Mushroom Cultivator" and "Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms" are phenomenal resources as well, with even deeper insights into the science involved with cultivating these and other mushrooms.

There are also bad mushroom growing books, with inviting sounding titles and filled with AI generated fluff. While AI is steadily improving at generating content that looks grammatically correct, it does not have any experience growing mushrooms.

But not everyone reads books anymore these days, and the internet has plenty to offer as well. One of the longest running online resources available is the Shroomery forum. It has some excellent writeups, commonly referred to as "teks"...its only downside is that there's decades of information both good and bad to sort through, in a somewhat antiquated site format, and you can fall down some real rabbit holes paging through years and years of posts and comments with conflicting information. To keep things simple for you, some of the best teks on Shroomery are written by Bod and Pastywhyte, so including these names in your search queries can help keep you on the best track.

Speaking of search queries...what about Google? You can find everything there, but the quality of the information you receive is dependent on knowing exactly what to search for in the first place...and if you haven't already been growing mushrooms for a while, this can be challenging. More general queries like "how to grow mushrooms" can potentially lead you down some shady paths. Search engine optimization methods give advertisers ways to lure you in just to collect your data and gain views with hollow AI written content that really won't help you.

Are you a visual learner? YouTube has some fantastic channels to get you started, Philly Golden Teacher, North Spore, FreshCap Mushrooms....there's really too many for me to name. Besides instructional videos, you can also find longform podcasts like MycoGeeky or Ed Grand with deep discussions to further your knowledge. Unfortunately, YouTube also has a history of cancelling some great channels on this topic,

One of the best ways to learn is directly from other people, which brings us to Facebook. There are numerous groups on Facebook focused on mushroom growing, where you can ask questions directly or just passively learn through others posts and comments. Some of these groups also serve as selling platforms with vetted vendors, giving you access to quality genetics as well as extended customer service after the sale. Like anything else on the internet, social media has its pitfalls as well, in the form of predatory scammers that will promise you anything to get at your hard earned money. The better mushroom groups work hard to educate and protect their members from scammers. Two obvious red flags are any stranger messaging you to sell anything, and of course anyone offering to sell controlled substances.

However you may choose to get started, the important thing is getting started. Mushroom growing is one of the most fascinating and rewarding hobbies I've ever engaged in, and after 25+ years I'm still engaged and learning new things all the time. Come join in the fun, and welcome!