mushrooms

[slug spud]

hi every one
i bought pack of mushrooms 5/6 weeks ago sowed in a tray container with well rotted manuer bought in a bag.i firmed it down as instructed on packet placed news paper over it,kept it damp on a regular basis placed tray in outside shed as it best kept at 20degr optimun growing conditions.after 10 to 14 days should see white threadlike growths emerging, as of yet nothing,whats gone wrong any sugestions wold be most welcome. slug spud.

[Primrose]

Can't help I'm afraid as the only time I tried growing mushrooms from one of these packs I disappointingly didn't get a single mushroom. The kit was given to me as a Christmas present and I suspect that it had been recycled from somebody who had received it the previous year and hadn't had a clue what to do with it! So maybe there's a shelf life on these kits?

[richard p]

i tried one about 20 years ago, not a single mushroom apeared, never bothered again. its possible that accurate temp and moisture conrol is critical

[pongeroon]

I worked on a mushroom farm once, and the whole process was very complicated, with light/temperature/humidity critical, bacterial contamination potentially causing disease and all sorts of difficult stuff. I suppose it depends on what sort of mushrooms, though, these were common or garden commercial ones.

[Johnboy]

Close to 40 years ago I bought a bucket of mushrooms at the Hertfordshire Show. It was at the end of the show and they were practically giving them away. You had to follow the instructions (which were idiot proof)and simply waited for the result. Dear god we had so many mushrooms that we were giving them away and they went on for at least a month. I went to the show the following year with every intention of buying some more but in all these years I have never seen them for sale in a bucket since. When it had all finished I threw the contents under the hedge and for a couple of years we had them again but they eventually died out.
I am going to the Three Counties Show next Friday and I will be looking to see if there is a bucket of them for sale but I very much doubt that I will be lucky.
JB.

[Chantal]

I tried growing them once I followed the instructions explicitly and after a month all I had was a box of compost with a lot of small black flies.

I gave up, went on holiday for a week and when I came home had one mushroom the size of a plate. That was it, though. Just the one.

I've never bothered again.

[heyjude]

We bought a load of mushroom compost last winter and used it as a mulch. Four inches of rain in four days followed by warm sunshine last week gave a pretty good crop amongst the red currants.....