By Ian Hunter | 2023-11-29
Do mushrooms need light to grow?
Yes. It is a common myth that mushrooms need dark to grow. Some mushrooms are purposefully grown in the dark in commercial production, such as button mushrooms, and Enoki. This is done to produce smaller fruiting bodies and paler caps. This is to make it more attractive for the super market shelf and average consumer. Enoki Mushrooms are even subjected to higher C02 environments to make them stretch, as they reach higher to try and find oxygen.
How will my mushrooms benefit from grow lights?
Growing mushrooms in a grow room or Grow tent with artificial light such as LED strips, will affect and help them in a few ways.
Light will help the mushrooms form initial pins, this is crucial for your mushrooms to then go on and form good sized fruiting bodies.
LED lighting will also help the mushroom body to form properly. Grown without light in the case of Lions mane, the mushroom will become stretched and more coral like. With Light you should see a dense tight growth, and slight coloration.
LED Grow Lights can also help to increase the size of the mushroom and increase overall yields.
What else are you growing indoors? Check out these articles below for more guides to help you Keep on Growing!
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What is the difference between growing mushrooms with light and without light?
As mentioned previously in the case of Lions mane, the mushroom will become stretched out, and almost stringy and coral like when no artificial light is present.
Oysters Mushrooms will also become long and stretched with a paler color.
What is the optimum light temperature and brightness or LUX for growing mushrooms?
There are lots of LED lights to choose from. The Urban Grow FS110 LED Grow Lights in the grow room pictured are quite well suited to this sized grow tent (3 x 3 x 2 m ), although they have enough power to light a larger space.
They have a color temp of 5000K, and a LUX reading of somewhere in the 200 to 300 range at the point of growth in the lions mane mushroom bags currently in the tent.
The 5000K color temperature of the FS110 LED’s is great for all types of growing. I have read during my research that mushrooms will do well in anything ranging from around 5000K all the way up to 9000K which is very white, and almost blue.
The Urban Grow FS110 LED Grow Lights are a Full Spectrum light, which makes them ideal for growing all sorts of plants from seed to right the way through the fruiting stage. Applying them to mushrooms seems to be working well so far.
We have been through 2 cycles of Lions mane and Skitake mushrooms and have harvested a good amount of weight each time, so choosing the Urban Grow FS110 LED Grow Light for your Mushroom operation is a good idea. In my setup, I have 2 x FS110 Grow Lights, but there is the option to daisy chain up to 50 at once from a single power supply, allowing you to reach all of those potentially shady areas of your grow tent/room.
See all the details of the Urban Grow FS110 on the website:
What is the recommended light cycle to grow mushrooms?
It is recommended to have a standard 12 hour on 12 hour off light cycle, giving the mushrooms some time in the dark, to develop and form properly.
A few more images from the rest of the tent. Mostly newly pinned sh*takes going in:
