Portobello mushrooms belong to the Agaricus family. This type of flora is most typically found in grasslands across North America and Europe. It’s a popular mushroom because of its high nutrients and awesome flavor. It is one of the normal ingredients for vegetarians and savory cooks. Recently, they have cultivated Portobello in over 70 countries worldwide. That does mean you might be able to cultivate it in your garden. But how to grow Portobello Mushrooms?
How To Grow Portobello Mushrooms
This fungus is quite recognizable with a round brown cap and a light black underside. Their succulent textures, wonderfully fresh taste and ideal nutritional content make them very popular. Portobello mushrooms are suitable for your daily diet, from burgers to pasta dishes, mushroom barbecue, stuffing, and even hot pot. As a result, it makes many people mouth-watering and keen on it. Many also try finding ways on how to grow Portobello Mushrooms at home.
In reality, you can plant them both indoors and outdoors.
How to Grow Portobello Mushrooms Outdoors
Possessing a large outdoor space is a great idea to try growing Portobello mushrooms outdoors.
Growing in a Raised Garden Bed
First, create a garden bed about 4 x 4 feet and 8 inches deep. Pour compost into the bed at least 6 inches deep, and then cover the bed with black plastic for two weeks. This will help you disinfect your bed and get rid of bacteria that breed and damage fungi.
Sprinkling Mushroom Spores
After 2 weeks, remove the plastic bag from the bed and mix Portobello spores with a handful or two of manure to mix into the bed. Continue to spread this mixture on the bed and leave it; keep the garden bed in the dark corner until you see some white webs like spider webs. That’s when the fungal spores are developing.
Adding Peat Moss
In this step, you cover the garden bed with a layer of peat moss and cover the growing spores with newspaper. After that, mist regularly on the newspaper twice a day for 10 days. However, it would help if you were careful not to let the soil get too wet, as this will inadvertently make your bed a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Monitor the size of the mushrooms until they are close to the desired size, remove the newspaper from them and continue to provide moisture until the mushrooms are large.
Harvesting
As soon as the mushrooms reach the size you desire, you can harvest them without further ado. The usual ideal size of mushroom caps is 5 inches. These mushrooms usually grow up rapidly. You could harvest about 3 times in just 2-3 weeks before a fresh supply of fungal spores is in need.
Choose the best whole, fresh, and good-looking Portobello mushrooms for cooking. Get rid of rotten, shriveled, and soft mushrooms due to the impact of birds or insects.
How to Grow Portobello Mushrooms Indoors
If your outdoor space is limited or you live in a cold climate, you can’t help growing the Portobello mushrooms at home. In fact, many people prefer this method as controlling the climate and growing mushrooms all year round is simpler.
Materials Needed:
To get started to grow mushrooms, let’s shop for several tools such as peat moss, compost, some old newspapers, and a tray about 4 x 4 feet and 8 inches deep.
Mushroom growing kits are available at many online retailers and plant stores. You can easily order a few sets to start growing mushrooms.
Filling With Compost
Once you have your kit, proceed to fill the tray with the compost that you previously composted in your nursery. Mix Portobello spores with some compost, then sprinkle the mixture in the tray and gently compress the whole thing with your hands.
Then, place the tray in a dark place out of the sun until you see the fungal spores start to grow in the shape of a white spider web. At that time, keeping the temperature around 60-70 degrees F in the space to grow mushrooms is best.
Adding Peat Moss
You take a layer of peat moss and place it on a tray, then cover it with old storm paper and wet the newspaper with distilled water. Repeat this watering regularly 1-2 times/day for several weeks. During this time, you also need to regularly observe the growth of the Portobello mushroom until you see the mushroom’s top of the mushroom, then you remove the old newspaper out of the tray.
Harvesting
And the final step is harvesting. Once the mushrooms are almost the right size for your demands, go on misting every day until harvest.
It’s best to harvest Portobello mushrooms when the caps are slightly bent rather than flat. Typically, the ideal size to harvest mushrooms ranges from 4 to 6 inches in diameter.
Endnotes
Portobello mushrooms could bring out delicious, tasty flavors for your meals and give you nutritious dishes. Growing this mushroom yourself in indoor and outdoor environments is not too complex. Nevertheless, they need specific growing conditions instead of being grown in conventional soil. All in all, you might as well understand how to grow Portobello Mushrooms thoroughly to nail the expected results.
