Lion’s mane mushroom also known as Hericium Erinaceus is becoming more and more popular day by day. Well, there are various reasons for that. This kind of mushroom is really tasty. And it also has medicinal value. It is now being studied to help prevent dementia and anxiety. Lion’s mane also helps you to keep your heart healthy and control diabetes. For the medical benefits and its taste being this lovely, you should try it too. It grows in a large formation like a snowball. Individually each of these mushrooms can be quite big. Some of them can be as heavy as 500 grams. Our today’s article is all about lion’s mane mushroom. In this article today we are going to learn how to grow lion’s mane mushroom by some step by step process.
How to grow Lion’s Mane mushroom at home
Growing lion’s mane mushroom is a pretty straight forward twelve steps process. So let’s discuss one by one with some visual illustration
Step 1: Put the mixture inside a big jar
We’ll use here the wild bird feed economic mixture. However, you can also use the wheat grain if wild bird feed economic mix is not available in your area. At the very beginning, we put the mixture inside a big pot or bucket.
Step 2: Put hot boiled water
After that put some boiled water inside that jar or pot where we have our mixture. Close the cover of the pot and wait for the next one hour.
Step 3 : Wash the mixture with normal water
After one hour, put the bird feed mixture on another plate and wash it with normal water.
Step 4 : Put the mixture inside some small glass jar
After washing with normal water keep the mixture in a place for 20 minutes. When the mixture is little bit dry put the mixture on some small glass jar.
Step 5: Make some hole on the glass jar’s opener
Then make some medium size hole on the glass jar’s cover/ opener and put a tissue halfway inside the jar. This will help to exchange the gas inside the jar.
Step 6 : Cover the jars opener part with some tin foil paper
Our next task is to cover the jar’s head with some foil paper.
Step 7: Put that jar inside a pressure cooker
Our next task is to put our glass jar inside a pressure cooker, where some water is already boiling. And close the pressure cooker with its cover. And keep it in same way foe the next 15 minutes. After that, let them cool till the next day morning.
Step 8: Inject the lion mane liquid culture
At the very next day morning we put the lion mane liquid culture inside a syringe and inject it inside each of the glass jar through the hole that we make in the earlier days. We recommend 5 Mimi meter liquid culture in each jar is enough to inoculate. Shake the jar properly and keep it on a cold and shady place for the next 20 days.
Step 9: Mushroom start colonizing
After the next 20 days all the liquid culture of lion mane start colonizing and the jar becomes while like the below picture.
Step 10 : Prepare the Spawn Bag mixture
After the 30 days we need to purchase three things. They are : airflow spawn bags, soft pine bedding and wild bird feed economic mix. We need to mix the soft pine bedding and wild bird feed economic mix with 3 : 1 ratio. Put some water inside this mixture and keep in this way for the next 24 hours .
Step 11 : Mixing the lion mane mycelium with the Spawn Bag mixture
The very next day our first job is to put all the wet mixture inside the spawn bag and mix it up with the lion mane mycelium that we already have. Also Make some hole in the spawn bag by using some sterilized knife.
Step 12 : The final stage
Put the bag inside a cold shady room for the next 30 days and you will get some healthy line mine mushroom.
Useful Lion’s mane grow kit that will help to grow lion’s mane mushroom faster
Starting from Spawns
For large scale cultivation, you can use the spawns. If you have previous experience with mushrooms, you can use spawns. Hardwood sawdust is the best option if you are looking for a growing lion’s mane with spawn.
Lion’s Mane Grow Kit
If you are new to mushroom farming, then Kits are probably the best option for you. You get a fruiting block or kit you sterilize it and maintain the humidity and mist it and you are done. Most of the works are done for you beforehand. So, if it is a new hobby for you or you are a newbie, a growing lion’s mane mushroom in a kit is a good option.
Where to find lion’s mane mushroom in the wild
You can find wild mane mushrooms in the high and trees in South Carolina, New Hampshire, and Vermont. If you are into the forest you can often find these delicious mushrooms upon a decaying tree. But why would you climb up a 15-20 feet tall tree to get it? Well, they are just hanging out there for you to pick up and cook it, why wouldn’t you?
However, if you find any of this mushrooms that is a bit shrunk, try to squeeze the water out of it. But if you cannot shrink any water out, just leave it there, but it will taste really bad in that case.
Mushrooms are like a sponge, so you cannot squeeze it too hard. It will turn back to its original size.
And also remember:
- Don’t pick up from the ground
- Avoid the ones with dirt
- Don’t pick up those with bugs
Lion’s mane’s mushroom benefit
Lion’s mane is mostly known for its delicious taste. But it also has some great medicinal benefits, especially neurological and mental health benefits. It is also used in some medicine as an ingredient. Below we mention some of the benefits of this mushroom.
Prevent Neurodegenerative diseases
It alleviates you from the symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases. Lion’s mane helps to improve your brain health.
Help to control blood sugar and diabetics
Worldwide, diabetes is one of the major diseases that a huge number of people suffer from. Maintaining blood sugar is not an easy task, particularly for those with obesity and other complications. This mushroom also helps to control the blood sugar. Therefore if you have diabetics, add it to your food list.
Work as Anti-inflammatory
Lion’s mane is anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. That is why it is used in many medicines as a useful ingredient.
Help to improve mental health
It is now proven that your food habit controls and influences your mood greatly. Lion’s mane helps you to reduce your anxiety level. It also improves mood and focus.So, if you have an anxiety disorder or you can’t focus or have a problem with mood swings, this mushroom will help you.
Keeps heart healthy
By lowering cholesterol levels, it keeps your heart healthy. Thorough research is going on in this topic, the fact that it helps to improve our heart’s health is true.
FAQ
Where do Lion’s Mane mushrooms Grow?
You can grow lion’s mane in either sawdust or hardwood log, either at your home or in your garden.
Is a lion’s mane mushroom edible?
Yes, it is edible. And it is quite delicious. You can simply butter the stakes of it and fry them on a frying pan (dry fry for a minute before that). You can also eat them by cooking with soup.
Can you eat the ones you found in the forest?
Yes, you can. But make sure they are fresh. Remove the water from it. If it is shrunk and you can’t squeeze it don’t eat that one.
Is Lion’s mane healthy?
Yes, it is. This mushroom has various medicinal benefits both mental and neurological.
Conclusion
Lion’s Mane is a delicious mushroom mostly known for its taste. It is also very medically beneficial as it helps to keep us healthy in many ways. So to firm this mushroom is a good option if you love mushrooms because you can grow it easily and cook it fresh. And of course, if you want you can sell them to your nearest grocery shop and earn some cash regularly. To grow lion’s mane mushrooms, follow these simple steps we mentioned above. Growing mushrooms in lit are one of the least difficult things you will find to do. Try it out. Buy a kit, and follow the instructions and see how well you can grow them. So that’s all for today’s post. Hopefully, after going through this post you will get a basic idea about how to grow lion’s mane mushroom at home .
Besides growing mushroom, if you want to grow vegetables on your home backyard you can also check our article about how to fertilize a vegetable garden.
