How much you earn depends on the type of mushrooms you grow, and the scale of your operation, as well as your talent for marketing your produce. 

As a small scale operator, maybe with just a small garden shed to work from, growing mushrooms probably won’t make you a full-time living, but you should earn enough to pay the mortgage or fund Christmas, and perhaps take a long holiday each year.

Add a few more sheds or acquire space from a local farmer or landowner to expand your venture, and you can grow as big as you wish and enjoy a very good living.

Mushrooms are not only easy to grow, they are also a year round delicacy and markets are plentiful. Private households, hotels, shops, restaurants,market stallholders, and others, are all potential clients.  So you see, just a few clients can form the bulk of your market, and represent regular repeat buyers for as much stock as you can harvest.

Small scale operations need only a garden shed to make for a viable business; mushroom farms on the other hand require extra space and a more organised and systematic approach.

Growing mushrooms is very different from growing plants, flowers and vegetables, mainly because they do not contain chlorophyll, and instead they depend on other plant material - called ‘the substrate’ - for food. 

Most popular species of mushroom, from a money making point of view, are the oyster and the shrimp, shiitake, and many other very common and more unusual types.  Generally the various species of mushroom, of which there are many, have their own preferred growing medium and will respond better in some environments and temperatures than others.

There’s not a great deal to know about growing mushrooms, and it’s not an exact science, but there are rules and procedures to apply if you want to grow quality stock and maximise your profits.

Matters to concern you before starting your business include health and legal matters, pest control, market potential for specific species of mushroom, suppliers of basic cultivation and growing materials.

Most important of all, however, it’s very important to point out that some mushrooms are not for eating, they are poisonous, and you must learn all about mushrooms and the health and legal aspects of growing them for sale before embarking on this idea. 

You’ll find plenty of useful information about the health and legal aspects information from the Mushroom Growers’ Association featured later.

Main Stages of Mushroom Production

These are the essential steps in growing mushrooms for profit:

1)  Learn about mushrooms and the different species, also how those species are used in food and health preparations.  Study the difference between cultivation methods for different species, and search on and off the Internet for potential clients for the various species. 

2)  Choose a specialty.  Decide what species to grow, and preferably choose according to whatever capital you already have and equipment you can obtain at a premium while you establish your business.

3)  Identify and comply with local and more distant legal obligations.  Various rules and regulations surround the growth and marketing of most forms of plant life.

4)  Decide where to grow your mushrooms and establish a suitable working environment.  Your chosen location should be clean and dry, and have the correct temperature for storing your basic ingredients under cover and free from rain and sunlight.

5)  Choose a suitable growing medium or ‘substrate’ for your chosen mushroom species.  Straw and dirt are commonly used.  You’ll also need mushroom spawn to lay on the medium.  Your spawn can be self-grown once the cultures start to develop.  You’ll also need cultivation beds on which to grow your mushrooms.  Beds can comprise logs with cut out cavities for mushrooms, sometimes sawdust and simple wooden boxes will suffice.

6)  Find a supplier for beds, medium and spores (spawn).

7)  Prepare and sterilise the medium.

8)  Lay spawn - spores - on the beds.  Spores are mature mushrooms grown on a sterile medium.

9)  Establish and maintain the correct temperature, moisture, humidity and other essential conditions for optimum mushroom cultivation.

10)  Pick, pack and market your mushrooms.

11)  Clear the beds and start all over again.

Basics on Which to Expand Your Knowledge

-  The mushroom season, from preparing beds to harvesting the stock, lasts from between six and eight weeks, and rotating seasons means you will always have mature stock to market.

-  Mushroom spore, grown on an appropriate medium in trays or boxes, must be maintained at a temperature of between 50 and 55 degrees F. The trays should be placed in a dim but well ventilated spot - an empty cellar or spare room is ideal.

-  Mushrooms should be sold, and preferably used, almost straight after

picking.  If you have to store them, keep them in a cool dark place. Try taking a stall at local markets. You won't make a fortune from passers by, but you might find several business owners, hoteliers and restaurant owners

becoming regular clients. Afterwards you can deliver to them direct.

-  How you promote and make money from your mushrooms is the most important part of your business plan, and the one on which your success or otherwise in making money depends.  But profit margins can be low which means, from a really small set up, you could be working hard and investing significant time and effort for precious little reward.  See the next tip.

-  Economies of scale are what convert a moderately successful mushroom growing venture into a hugely profitable one.  Your success can be guaranteed before you begin the business, by pre-planning the scale of your operation and the type of mushrooms you’ll grow, as well as studying the market and potential for your stock, and aiming to contact likely buyers before you grow your first mushroom.

Tips

-  Be market driven and make all plans and contemplate any investment and changes to your business based on money-making potential, past and current, also future.  Even before you begin, talk to potential buyers and people currently buying other people’s mushrooms, ask about volume of stock they might purchase from you and at what price.

-  When you’re up and running and manufacturing just a few species of mushroom, begin planning other species for your business and consider reselling other growers’ mushrooms also to provide variety for your own clients and add additional income streams to your business.

-  Invest and grow slowly and carefully, and learn all you can from other producers and mushroom growing experts before embarking on a full scale enterprise.

-  Study and make a list of marketing outlets, such as farmers’ markets, direct to the public, from your own Internet site, direct to restaurants and hotels, through small retail outlets and larger commercial wholesalers and supermarkets, and so on. 

Learn as much as possible about potential markets before and after starting your business.  A very good way to research markets, and keep your eye on what the competition is doing, is by searching on Google for both organic listings as well as firms advertising through Google AdWords. 

Check out fellow suppliers, for example, based on a search for ‘mushroom + suppliers’ at Google.com:

Find potential markets for your mushrooms by keying something like ‘mushroom + marketing’ into the search box at Google.com.