Fungi Academy

There’s a moment in mushroom growing that no video can quite hand you — the first time you pour a jar of healthy grain spawn into substrate and feel how it should look, smell, and crumble. Hands-on courses exist for exactly that moment. Below is a directory of teachers and farms around the world running in-person mushroom cultivation workshops, organised by region so you can ...

Quick answer: Turkey tail (Trametes versicolor) is a colourful bracket fungus that grows on dead hardwood all over the world. It’s one of the most-researched immune-supporting medicinal mushrooms — used as a tea or a double-extracted tincture, never eaten whole, because the fruiting body is far too tough and leathery to chew.

Quick answer: A substrate is the material your mushrooms actually fruit from. For most beginners that’s a pasteurised mix of coco coir, vermiculite and gypsum (CVG). Wood-loving species need hardwood sawdust; others prefer straw or manure. Match the substrate to the species, hydrate it to field capacity, and treat it with heat before use.

Quick answer: A monotub is a plastic storage tote converted into a fruiting chamber. You drill a few holes for fresh air, fill it with colonised grain spawn mixed into bulk substrate, and mushrooms fruit inside the humid, still environment. It’s the cheapest and most popular way for a beginner to grow a big flush at home.

The monotub...

Quick answer: Agar is a gelatine-like growth medium poured into petri dishes and used to start, purify, and clone mushroom cultures. Because you can actually see the mycelium spreading across the dish, agar lets you isolate clean, vigorous growth — and catch contamination early, before it ever reaches your grain.

Agar is where you ac...