Growing portobellos

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice on growing portobello mushrooms. I've done a heap of googling and have a fair idea what the go is but it would be great to hear from anyone who has done a DIY jobby growing them themselves. It seems to be nigh on impossible to get spores or spawn, so I harvested some spore from a supermarket mushroom myself (just to see what would happen, really). I did so by popping a mushroom under a glass on some paper and got a lovely spore print. So that's a start! But I'm not sure how to go from that to the next stage.

In my reading, most websites advise growing from shop bought spawn (which I just can't seem to find in NZ). So how do I get from spores to spawn? One website advised harvesting the spore onto damp cardboard, then popping that in your compost. I need to cultivate some mushroom compost (I've read portobellos do best in compost), I've found what seems to be a pretty good website advising on how to make it http://whatbethat.com/%20mushroomhandbook/. I've easy access to horse and chicken manure but not so much cow manure, however as we have sheep I was wondering if I could use sheep manure instead?

We have an old wardrobe which I thought may be appropriate to use to grow them in as they need a fairly dark environment (from what I've read). Also need temperature and humidity control but without hydroponic lights, so what would be the best way to achieve this? We were thinking of waiting until autumn when (hopefully) the days aren't soooo warm and popping the wardrobe under our big old willow tree where it will be protected from excessive heat and also any early frosts we may have. Some websites I've seen have all sorts of elaborate set ups in which to grow mushrooms (double tubs etc) and advise that once you have got mycelia to leave it alone until the mushies have fruited.

Phew! Anyway, if anyone can provide more detail and perhaps any tips and tricks to help us get started that would be fantastic. We love eating portos and we have a fantastic raised bed and glass house which will just about provide us with all our veggie needs once it fully gets cranking (we were a bit late getting things in) plus we have our sheep (and my partner does a lot of hunting and fishing) for meat and our chookies for eggs. It would just be great to add this to the list of things we can provide for ourselves and have one less reason to have to go to the super market! Thanks!

You're inspiring :-)
I'm watching your thread with interest.

I am interested too. What is 'bloodmeal'? Is that something like blood and bone to add to the compost? Do you think that using pea straw might be better than wheat straw for nitrogen?
Interesting. Thanks for the tip on the old wardrobe. great idea!
Now I am feeling inspired too.

I tried supermarket mushies dried and tossed in the last seasons compost which is now overgrown with pumpkins so definitly a shady area. So far no sign of mushies

I think it's basically blood and bone. From what I can gather anyway. Seems like a pretty straight forward mix, maybe I should just try sheep manure and see what happens.

My partner said he will do this with field mushrooms when the first ones of the season turn up-break them up and spread them around. But I've read that portos can be a little difficult to grow like this and you're better off going from spawn grown in compost. There's a place in AUckland that sells growing buckets-all the hard work done, you just have to wait for the mushroom to fruit. ButIi'm not ordering something from all the way up there. Broadfields in chch used to have porto growing buckets too but now they only do oyster mushrooms. I think I would still want to do it from scratch myself though.

I did throw ordinary mushrooms under the fruit trees in a sheltered spot + got a crop for a few years