We can’t deny that cultivating mushrooms isn’t an easy task. It’s a delicate process that takes weeks of careful attention and planning. Since that’s the case, it’s helpful to have some tips you can use throughout the process to learn how to do it well. For now, let’s give you more information about everything you should know about mushroom incubators below.
What Is Mushroom Incubation?
Mushroom incubation is the process you perform before you inoculate your mushrooms and before your mycelium fully colonizes your substrate. It’s a delicate time for most mushrooms, and you can ruin it if you don’t have the ideal environmental conditions for the process to succeed. We’ll get into those conditions below, but incubators provide the environment that mushrooms can grow in during this time.
Most people use tubs and grow boxes as incubators, but some people looking to create small mushroom farms have entire rooms dedicated to them. Regardless, your incubator allows you to control variables such as temperature, humidity, airflow, lighting, and sanitation so your mushrooms don’t become contaminated.
How Do You Build Your Mushroom Incubator?
While we won’t go over how to set up a huge mushroom grow room, you’ll want to find a suitable location to set up your mushroom cultivation kit. Make sure the area is dark, quiet, and undisturbed. Find two plastic storage totes and put one tote inside the other. Make the second tote smaller than the first one.
First, drill a small hole 1 inch into the tote’s end. Then, drill another hole 6 inches from the top of the container. Put an aquarium heater at the bottom of the container toward the center. Next, place a power cord through the hole you just drilled so you can plug that aquarian heater up to the tote.
Put two bricks under the smaller tote and add water to the bottom until it’s about two-thirds of the way full. Then, add your substrate—anything from perlite to coffee grounds or straw—and add about 4 to 8 quarts of the mushroom substrate to the bottom of the container.
Finally, add water until the substrate is damp but don’t overwater it. It shouldn’t be drenched. Ensure you place a thermometer in the tote at the far bottom so you can monitor any temperature fluctuation. Make sure you have a sterile environment, wash your hands up to your arms, and use gloves while handling your culture. Finally, put your culture on the substrate.
What Are the Ideal Incubation Environments?
There are several ideal environmental conditions that you must adhere to if you want your mushrooms to colonize properly and fully. But what are these conditions, and how do you best incorporate them into your mushroom cultivation process? Let’s learn more about them below.
Nutritious Growing Medium
You must ensure your substrate in the incubation chamber is adequate for growth. The mushroom substrate is the material that your mycelium grows within. It establishes itself within the mycelium over time. It gives your mycelium the nutrients, energy, and moisture it needs for healthy growth rates.
Different species of mushrooms have their ideal substrates. But typically, the ideal substrate has fibrous, woody materials like cellulose and hemicellulose, which contain a ton of carbon necessary for mycelium growth. There are also many substrate materials, such as straw, wheat, and coffee grounds. If you want to choose the right substrate, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind:
- Get a substrate with low nitrogen content. By “low,” we mean one to two percent. If you need to add more substrate of a different kind to make this happen, do so.
- Your substrate needs to have a pH level of five to six degrees.
- The substrate must have a structure that allows for air exchange.
- The substrate needs to be a blank canvas that doesn’t allow for competing organisms.
- Finally, the substrate’s moisture content should be anywhere from 50–71 percent. Don’t exceed this range; doing so will result in a substrate that is too saturated to foster proper growth.
Ideal Temperature
You should always keep growing mycelium at an ideal temperature. Typically, most mushrooms colonize best between 75–80 degrees Fahrenheit. If you keep your mycelium in a space that’s any higher than this, you’ll kill it and possibly increase the chances of its growing contaminants. Likewise, temperatures lower than this slow colonization.
There are many incubation techniques that can promote growth, like the tub-tub-incubator we described earlier or the bomb incubator. Both incubation methods control temperatures and keep them within the mycelium’s ideal range.
Fresh Air Exchange
Your mycelium requires fresh air to grow. You can often provide this with filtering patches on your mushroom grow bag or holes in the lid of your substrate jar. Fresh air exchange shouldn’t be contaminated. Remember that mushrooms produce carbon dioxide. Growth can stall if you don’t ensure gas exchange, as mycelium needs adequate oxygen to survive.
Low Lighting
Lighting is a controversial issue. Most growers—especially beginning cultivators—are keen on keeping their mushrooms in low light. This is because mushrooms grow in the earth, which is naturally dark. However, while studies show that exposure to direct sunlight is detrimental to their growth, mushrooms thrive with indirect light exposure. Therefore, many people put their mushrooms on ledges opposite the sun so that they’ll get some sunlight but not too much.
Common Problems for Mycelium Growth
Just like you must have ideal conditions for mycelium growth in your incubation chamber, you must also be able to troubleshoot if things go awry.
Weak mycelial growth, for instance, is a huge issue when nutrients are missing from your substrate. This is usually because the substrate’s acidic properties or nitrogen quotient are off.
Poor air exchange can also lead to dried-up mycelium and large patches where mycelium isn’t colonizing properly. We spoke earlier about fresh air exchange, but make sure you have that filter in your substrate bag or poke holes in your substrate jar. Otherwise, the mycelium won’t grow the way it should.
Contamination is another serious problem. This might sound a little excessive, but try to take a shower before handling your mushrooms. Also, ensure you sterilize the container you’re going to incubate the mushrooms in and clean all surfaces that your mushroom will come into contact with. Keep your grow room clean and wash your hands regularly. If you have a grow room, invest in a water basin that allows you to wash your hands before and after working with your mushrooms.
Now you know everything you need to know about mushroom incubators. Mushroom incubation is a long process that has a lot of moving parts. You must learn how to incubate appropriately, but first, you’ll need to invest in a grow kit. We got you covered—shop Midwest Organics today for the best mushroom grow kits!
