- Getting Started
- Beginner
- ~5 min read
Growing Vocabulary, Plainly Explained
Spawn, substrate, colonisation, pinning, flush — the words you'll meet everywhere.
Not published yet
Growing Guides
Pick your next stage
A living field guide, written grower to grower and ordered the way a grow actually runs: clean culture, healthy spawn, colonised substrate, mushrooms. Start at the top, or jump straight to whatever is staring at you from the shelf right now. Everything here is free to read — no sign-up wall.
Start here
Never grown a mushroom? Start with these
A short run through the earliest topics. It isn't a course and there's no certificate at the end — it's just the order that makes everything after it easier.
- Step 1Getting StartedSee the whole chain before you spend a cent on gear.
- Step 2Clean Work & Sterile TechniqueThe one skill that decides whether everything else works.
- Step 3Agar & Cultures / Grain SpawnYour first real bench work — take them in either order.
The library
Every guide, by stage of the grow
Search by keyword, or narrow by category and level. Each card tells you where the guide sits in the chain, how long it takes to read, and whether it's ready for you yet.
Showing 20 of 20 guides
Getting Started
FoundationWhat growing actually involves, the vocabulary, and the smallest sensible setup.
Clean Work & Sterile Technique
FoundationAirflow, workspace habits and the handling that keeps contaminants out.
- Clean Work & Sterile Technique
- Beginner
- ~7 min read
Working in a Still Air Box
Why still air beats a breezy bench, and how to move your hands inside one.
Not published yet
- Clean Work & Sterile Technique
- Beginner
- ~18 min read
Clean Work & Sterile Technique
How contamination control actually works: clean versus sterile, preparing a workspace, Still Air Box and flow-hood practice, alcohol and tool handling, movement discipline, and what to do when a culture goes wrong.
Read the guide →
- Clean Work & Sterile Technique
- Beginner
- ~6 min read
Sterilising vs Pasteurising
Two different jobs, two different targets — and when each one is the right call.
Not published yet
Agar & Cultures
Core MethodPouring plates, clean transfers, isolating a strain and reading a culture.
- Agar & Cultures
- Intermediate
- ~20 min read
Agar & Cultures
Why a flat nutrient surface is the best quality-control tool you have: plate work, inoculation, reading growth, transfers, isolation, cloning, storage, and when a culture is ready for liquid culture or grain.
Read the guide →
- Agar & Cultures
- Intermediate
- ~8 min read
Pouring Clean Agar Plates
Mixing, sterilising and pouring plates that stay clean long enough to be useful.
Not published yet
- Agar & Cultures
- Advanced
- ~10 min read
Isolating a Strain on Agar
Reading growth on a plate and selecting the sector worth keeping.
Not published yet
Liquid Culture
Core MethodBroth preparation, inoculation and judging when a culture is ready.
Grain Spawn
Core MethodHydration, sterilisation, inoculation and even colonisation.
- Grain Spawn
- Intermediate
- ~8 min read
Getting Grain Hydration Right
The single variable behind most stalled or soured grain runs.
Not published yet
- Grain Spawn
- Intermediate
- ~20 min read
Grain Spawn
Why grain is the expansion stage between clean culture and bulk: choosing and hydrating grain, preparation and draining, containers and gas exchange, proper sterilisation, cooling, aseptic inoculation, shaking, reading healthy spawn, contamination patterns, storage, records and troubleshooting.
Read the guide →
Bulk Substrates
Core MethodMaster's Mix and friends: ratios, pasteurisation, moisture and loading.
- Bulk Substrates
- Intermediate
- ~9 min read
Spawn to Bulk, Step by Step
Ratios, mixing, loading and why an even spread matters more than volume.
Not published yet
- Bulk Substrates
- Intermediate
- ~22 min read
Bulk Substrates & Master's Mix
Where your spawn is actually going: matching substrate to species, supplemented versus unsupplemented, Master's Mix as a common starting formulation, hydration and mixing, filter-patch bags, pasteurisation versus sterilisation, cooling, spawning, colonisation, contamination and records.
Read the guide →
- Bulk Substrates
- Intermediate
- ~7 min read
Master's Mix, Explained
What the mix is doing nutritionally, and how to hit field capacity.
Not published yet
Fruiting & Environment
Core MethodHumidity, fresh air, light and temperature through pinning and flushes.
- Fruiting & Environment
- Intermediate
- ~22 min read
Fruiting & Environment
What changes when a colonised block moves into fruiting: fresh-air exchange and CO2, humidity versus surface moisture, evaporation, temperature and light, chambers and grow tents, pinning, reading morphology, harvest, flushes and troubleshooting.
Read the guide →
- Fruiting & Environment
- Intermediate
- ~8 min read
Fresh Air, Humidity and Pinning
How the four fruiting variables interact, and what to change first.
Not published yet
Harvest & Storage
AppliedWhen to pick, how to handle, drying and keeping what you grew.
- Harvest & Storage
- Beginner
- ~5 min read
Knowing When to Harvest
Reading the veil and the cap, and why a day early beats a day late.
Not published yet
- Harvest & Storage
- Beginner
- ~6 min read
Drying and Storing Your Harvest
Cracker-dry, why it matters, and keeping moisture back out afterwards.
Not published yet
Troubleshooting
AppliedWork back from the fault to the cause, then change one variable.
- Troubleshooting
- Beginner
- ~8 min read
Identifying Common Contamination
Green, black, grey, slimy or sour — what each one usually means for the run.
Not published yet
- Troubleshooting
- Intermediate
- ~7 min read
When Colonisation Stalls
Temperature, moisture, air and vigour — narrowing down a run that stopped.
Not published yet
Don't panic
Go straight to troubleshooting
Green fuzz in the grain, colonisation that's stopped sulking forward, no pins after weeks of waiting. Start with the symptom, work back to the cause, then change one thing at a time.
Troubleshooting guidesAsk us about your grow
More diagnostic guides are on the way. In the meantime, tell us what your grow is doing and we’ll point you at the right method.
Next stop
The science behind the steps
Mycology basics explain why these methods work; the shop is where the materials they call for will live.