The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms: Simple and Advanced Techniques for Growing Shiitake, Oyster, Lion's Mane, and Maitake Mushrooms at Home

by Stephen Russell

From the basics of using mushroom kits to working with grain spawn, liquid cultures, and fruiting chambers, Stephen Russell covers everything you need to know to produce mouthwatering shiitakes, oysters, lion’s manes, maitakes, and portobellos. Whether you’re interested in growing them for your own kitchen or to sell at a local market, you’ll soon be harvesting a delicious and abundant crop of mushrooms. 

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Food, Science, Agriculture

232 pages, Paperback

First published May 14, 2014

Reviews

[Megan]

I had read Paul Stamet's excellent Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms before this. I picked this one up because while Stamet's volume is amazing, it didn't really delve into very small-scale mushroom growing, and I was hoping this book would have some suggestions along that regard.

And then Russell starts his introduction by praising Stamet's work, then noting that his books "did not fully elaborate on many of the most beneficial methods for small-scale, at-home cultivation. They also did not address many of the unique challenges home growers often encounter. With that in mind, I set out to produce a book of solid methods that readers could replicate for success, or use as a base for their own experimentation."

This is EXACTLY the book I was hoping it would be. Russell starts with the smallest, easiest methods and works up to more demanding, larger-scale techniques. I'll note that the book largely deals with growing mushrooms indoors. If you're only interested in outdoor cultivation, this book has some information, but probably not everything you're looking for.

I enjoyed reading this one cover to cover and I'm excited on getting to work on building a small fruiting chamber. I feel like I actually have the tools now to overcome my specific growing difficulties when I was wondering if I should just give up trying to grow mushrooms.

[Matt Hogue]

The Essential guide to cultivating mushrooms by Stephen Russell was an excellent read.

Not only did the author set a solid foundation of the cultivation of mushrooms, but he also kept things relevant for indoor growing, including commercialization. The lack of jargon made it a very smooth read and at only 231 pages it only took a few hours to read, with much of the information being skimmed through until I found my specific technique.

The author clearly described the start to finish of everything from lab procedures to 3 different methods of cultivation, in addition to identifying common faux pas of growers. The author was even able to describe common contaminants with their potential solutions, with plenty of color photographs to help.

The information was general as far as mushroom cultivation without going too deeply into the details of the specific forms of cultivar. For an intro to mushroom growing and assuming the reader has not yet decided on what type of mushroom to cultivate, I feel it was done perfectly as the information is universal AND detailed. I would absolutely recommend this book for any newbies or prospective cultivators!

[Katie]

This was informative but a little confusing. I thought the organization needed work. There were times when the author started talking about something and I had no idea what he meant. A couple pages later, he defined that thing he was talking about. There were also times when the topic seemed to jump around a bit which felt a little disjointed. Overall though if you want to get into mushroom production, I think reading this book two or three times will get you most of the information you need. It certainly gave me a much better understanding of the overall process so now I know what I would want to try and what I definitely want to avoid

[Daniel]

This book opened my eyes to how much I need to learn about mushroom cultivation. I liked the color pictures. I only knew about mushroom kits before reading this book since I had used a kit to grow whit button mushrooms several years ago. It was so fun. I can't wait to get growing mushrooms again. So fun. Oh, I also liked that the book talk about the equipment needed. i also liked learning about the problems that mushrooms can have.

[Angela]

Good introductory chapters & info on how to get started (he recommends ready-to-grow kits and also gives interesting-sounding instructions for beginners growing oyster mushrooms on toilet paper rolls). The chapter on combating contaminants -- with all the various problems that can crop up with growing indoors -- may scare me off from trying any of it though. I only skimmed through the more advanced techniques.

[Rosemary]

This is an excellent guide to growing your own mushrooms. I did not find it inspiring however. Even with kits it is complicated and time consuming. Daily misting. Like having another pet. Glad I read the book before I bought a kit!

[William Jarboe]

Very good and thorough. I have no idea how well done it is as I haven’t done a grow myself but the author seems to give you « real » advice, as in you should technically do this but this works well too. My only gripe is that it’s very temperate woodlands US focused.

[Elizabeth Gajdosik]

Helpful first few chapter then it kind of lost me...

[Bob Wiseman]

I was enjoying this book very much, but the amazon ebook kept skipping blocks of pages. In frustration, I put it aside and got a refund.

[SofíaL]

Una excelente guía para cultivar hongos desde micro hasta macroescala. Con consejos muy prácticos con una base científica muy precisa. Lectura obligada para quien guste crear su propio cultivo.

[Braedon Frisch]

Russell gives the reader everything they need to know to not only start growing their own mushrooms, but also the information to understand the process along the way.

[Chantille]

Very thorough! I wanted to learn how to make mushroom logs and this book has detailed instructions plus so much more.

[Saulo Esteban Andrade Rincon]

Muy completo

Uno de los libros más completos. Incluye una mayor información comparado con otros libros del tema. Muy recomendable de los mejores.

[Alia Awni]

Really poorly organized. The chapters jumped all over the place. By the end of it I had to re-skim the whole book to try to piece together bits of information that were useful to me and my process

[giovanni pellegrino]

incredible book for beginners

Learned a lot in the book, things i was hesitant to try, but not anymore. A must read. Happy Fungi

[Raven Wilhelmsen]

Very comprehensive and gives a great step by step process

[David Ward]

The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms: Simple and Advanced Techniques for Growing Shiitake, Lion's Mane, Oyster, and Maitake Mushrooms at Home by Stephen Russell (Storey Publishing 2014) (635.8). This is an extremely easy-to-use guide to the cultivation of mushrooms. The instructions include all of the necessary instruction to successfully grow repeated crops of edible mushrooms and “active” (i.e., hallucinogenic) mushrooms. My rating: 7.5/10, finished 11/30/15. I purchased a used PB copy in good condition for $5.00 on 6/10/18. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

[Rachelm85283]

Informative and pretty to look at.

I enjoyed reading this book and learning about mushroom cultivation. However, I have decided that cultivating mushrooms is not something I'll attempt any time soon. I'm glad I read this before investing any money into the process!

[Astrid Yrigollen]

This book is great for anyone who is interested in growing yummy mushrooms to eat. Large colorful, pictures , examples and methods. Instructions on glove box making.

[Nicholas Bolger]

This book had a lot of good information. I did find that it didn't walk you though each step as well as another book I have read on the subject.

[Mills College Library]

635.8 R967 2014