How long does it take to grow mushrooms?

How long does it take to grow mushrooms? This is a frequently asked question from mushroom consumers. The answer is, it depends. Each mushroom farm is different. There are many factors to consider including quality of raw materials, processing equipment, and various methods used in each step.

At our facility, it takes about 80 days from the start of composting to the final day of harvesting the mushrooms. There 5 basic steps in the growing cycle, including:

1. Phase I - Composting (19-22 days)
2. Phase II - Pasteurization (8 days)
3. Spawning (13-14 days)
4. Casing (17 days)
5. Harvesting (21 days)

Each step plays an important role in the quality and yield of the mushroom crop. To learn more about these steps, please read Basic Procedures for Agaricus Mushroom Growing, provided by Penn State University.

So, it takes almost 60 days to begin harvesting. Once harvested, mushrooms enjoy a 9-10 day shelf life. Sure seems like a lot of work for such short period of enjoyment. We hope this helps you further understand the growing process of mushrooms, and as always this encourages you to ...eat more mushrooms!

How do you grow mushrooms?

How do you grow mushrooms? As you can imagine, this is one of the most popular questions asked when people find out you work in the mushroom industry. This often leads to many less obvious and interesting questions. We have tried to answer most of these questions in the FAQs on our website.

To help answer this question, the Mushroom Council has produced a short video (13:11) describing the basics of mushroom cultivation. We permission from the Mushroom Council, we have converted this video to more web-friendly versions and have made it available for your viewing pleasure. You can view "Fresh Mushroom Cultivation - A Virtual Farm Tour" by clicking here. You can also view this video below. (Media Player) This video is also available in Quicktime Player or Real Player formats.



Although, this "virtual tour" is not of our facility, many of the operations and processes are the same. We hope you enjoy this summary on the cultivation of fresh mushrooms and as always it will inspire you to ...eat more mushrooms!