Growing Fungi
Fungi are amazing. They are neither plants nor animals. But the are VERY important to plants and animals, including us humans! Explore fungi and the mushrooms they produce inside PS 48 and in the school garden. Fungi keep us healthy! Can you find fungi outside? Maybe on a tree or in the soil.
Growing Mushrooms Outdoors
PS 48 students are creating spaces in the garden for growing fungi. Fungi help enrich the soil to make it healthy for plants to grow. Plus lots of other reasons! Thank you Fungi Foundation for donating the mushroom grow kit!
We will explore different ways to grow edible mushrooms outdoors.
One way is to take our indoor mushroom grow kits outside to grow in the garden.
Another way is to use sawdust spawn to grow in straw as the substrate (material that provides moisture, nutrients, and, energy).
A third way is to use sawdust spawn to grow mushrooms in compost
A fourth way is to add mushroom spawn (mycelia) to our vegetable garden beds mixed with straw. This helps the soil stay moist and adds nutrients for the vegetables to grow!
Taking Indoor Mushroom Grow Kits Outdoors!
Let's watch this video. We will learn how to grow MORE mushrooms from our indoor mushroom grow kit that already fruited (mycelia that grew into the mushrooms we know and can harvest). We will learn how to:
placing the kit in a shady space in the garden
bury the whole kit in the garden soil,
break up the kit and then to sprinkle into our garden beds with straw and wood mulch
and more!
Which way should we continue growing mushrooms? Any other ideas? It's up to you! Which way do you think will work best? It's time to experiment!
Using Sawdust Spawn to Grow Mushrooms in Straw Substrate
We will grow mushrooms by spreading straw (substrate), mushroom spawn, straw, mushroom spawn, and straw in layers, like lasagna! That's a lot of words with the letter "S!" Do you see the pattern? A = straw B = mushroom spawn The pattern is ABAB. Does this make sense? :)
Planting an Almond Agaricus Mushroom Bed
We will grow almond agaricus mushroom bed using compost. Compost is nutritious (yummy!) for the plants that we will grow in the soil. This compost is made right here in the city we live: New York City! It is made from food scraps and other decaying plant material by the NYC Department of Sanitation.
We will do these steps:
Build the base by pouring and spreading evenly 4 bags of compost into the raised bed.
Break up the almond agaricus mushroom spawn in egg sized pieces. We will NOT crumble the spawn into small pieces! :)
Plant the egg sized pieces of almond agaricus mushroom spawn 4 to 6 inches apart.
Cover up the almond agaricus mushroom spawn with 4 more bags of compost. Spread the compost evenly on top of the almond agaricus mushroom spawn pieces.
Mulch, or cover, the compost and the almond agaricus mushroom spawn with straw. Cover with 4 inches of straw. This will keep moisture inside the mushroom bed.
Start video at 3:18 for the steps we will follow in our school garden.
Grow Mushrooms in the Garden Alongside Vegetables
Learn about different ways to grow mushrooms alongside the different plants we grow in the garden. We are growing Italian Oyster mushrooms in straw that covers up the soil around our vegetable plants. This added straw protects the soil by keeping it moist, adds nutrients to the soil, and keeps weed plants away (plants we don't want growing!). The mushrooms also helps the soil structure to grow stronger and healthier vegetables!
Which ideas do you like? Why? Let's try!
