BF 153: Indoor Specialty Mushroom Production

Managing indoor spaces for production of high quality mushrooms

Mushrooms are an emerging niche crop with many benefits and offer a unique and highly desired product. With a bit of practice, oyster, shiitake, lions mane, and other mushrooms can easily be grown in a variety of locations and on many different substrates including straw, coffee grounds, and more.

This course trains new and experienced farmers in the background, techniques, and economics of farm scale indoor commercial production. Students will learn the basic biology of mushrooms, cultivation techniques, proper conditions for fruiting, management and pest needs, and harvesting and marketing mushrooms.

Note: In addition to weekly online readings, presentation, and discussion, we encourage participants to order a spawn kit to try mini mushroom experiments on their tabletop at home. Kits are $30; details on what and where to order are posted in the course.

Target Audience

All levels - This course is for new farmers, or experienced farmers seeking to diversify their operations. It’s also relevant to others at any scale, interested in this topic. Growing as a viable economic enterprise will be discussed, though techniques can also be applied at any scale. Mushroom growing is an easy topic for beginners with some experience farming and managing crop systems.

Course Objectives

At the completion of this course, you will:

• Be able to describe the basics of indoor mushroom production, harvesting, and marketing

• Know the infrastructure needs and options for indoor cultivation
• Understand the logistics of management, sales, and legal issues related to mushroom farming


Webinars

The bulk of the course happens on your own time, with discussions, readings, and assignments in Teachable, our virtual classroom. To add to the experience, webinars will be woven into the online interface of the course to allow you to meet on a weekly basis to learn from outside presenters and ask questions to address your farm issues in real time. If you miss one, they are always recorded and posted for later viewing.

Webinar Schedule

Live instruction for 2023 has concluded. While we encourage live attendance so you have the opportunity to engage with the presenters and ask questions, all webinars are recorded and posted in your online classroom for students to watch anytime. Once you have enrolled in this course, you will retain access to all materials indefinitely, and can return to participate in the live webinars in future offerings of the course if you wish. Our next live session will be offered in Winter 2024. Please join us!