I thought it time I posted an update on our mushroom growing project. I posted back in July how we had harvested (and thoroughly enjoyed) our first batch of chestnut mushrooms, and that despite the warnings in the instructions that allowing them to grow too large would result in a smaller second crop, we let them grow too large. Well just a week after posting that, another decent sized mushroom grew and it looked as though a few more were on their way too.

The second batch of chestnut mushrooms: a decent sized one and a few smaller ones on their way.

So we harvested the fully formed mushroom and waited eagerly for the rest to mature. But after a while they just seemed to disappear. Then a few days later, another few small ones started to form. Once again we were very excited, only to find a few days later that they had disappeared. We waited another few weeks, but there were no further signs of activity. Well that’s not strictly true, the soil became home to a healthy population of fruit flies who started to congregate there.

So after another week or so we decided that it would be best to move the tub to the back yard. It’s quite shady out there, but we still made sure to keep it moist in the hope that further mushrooms would be forthcoming. But alas, it appeared to be the end of the line for the grow your own mushroom kit. We only had ourselves to blame – we let the first batch get very large indeed, despite the warnings. My dad stuck more rigidly to the instructions with his kit (long time readers will recall that I also bought him a kit for father’s day), and his produced more consistent yields.

But then, out of the blue, a couple of weeks later, there was life again! One evening as we came through the back yard we noticed fungal activity once more! But, just as with the smaller mushrooms a few weeks prior to that, before we had a chance to get too excited, they were off the menu. Apparently we weren’t the first creatures to spot these new arrivals – closer inspection showed that something had beaten us to them and already feasted on the final batch of mushrooms.

The final batch of mushrooms consumed, although unfortunately not by us.

There have been no further signs of life since. Furthermore, heavy rain has left the tub flooded (the instructions warned against this too). So we don’t expect to get any further mushrooms from this kit. However, it was certainly a fun experience. We’d never grown mushrooms before, and the kids absolutely loved it. We still plan to get some spore plugs and try growing some more mushrooms in the garden. Stay tuned for more fungal fun!