Keeping mushrooms after their harvest - advice need

Can someone who have a greater knowledge about mushrooms tell me something more about keeping the mushrooms after their harvest: how long can they survive as fresh and not spoil, in which conditions should be kept, which temperature and so on? I guess, it should be stored in those refrigerators for storage of fruits/vegetables?

 

Room temperature, dry, and dark should keep your mushrooms good for years.

 

^yup

I just lay them out on a paper towel inside a dark cabinet for a few days, after they're fully dried I store them in a wooden box at room temp.

 

That is terrible advice


Shrooms should be dried as quickly as possible and kept as dry as possible. One of the best methods is to lay them on newspaper (or even better put them on some mesh so air flows freely around them... i use a wire mesh pasta strainer for this purpose) and use an electric fan to speed up the drying process until they are cracker dry (48 hours). Then they need to go into a dessicant chamber which is a small plastic tupperware bin with Damp Rid or Dririte in it to suck out every last bit of moisture out of the mushrooms. I usually leave them in there for a week. When you pull them out of there they are so dry they crumble like dried leaves when you squeeze them.

Then store them in a glass air tight jar or a air tight foil bag either with some dessicant capsules to keep the interior atomsphere bone dry or under a vaccum and store somewhere dry and cool.

This eliminates oxygen, heat, and light which are psilocybin natural enemies. I routinely do mushroom I grew up to 6 years ago with no lose in potency.

 

^ yeah, probably good if you plan on storing them for a decade. Or if you're just anal about how you do things

They're "cracker dry" after setting out with no fan after 3-5 days. I've stored them up to a little over a year in a plain wooden box with no issues. I've been growing on and off for almost 5 years.

 

They don't last long fresh in the fridge before they go slimy (a few days at most)

If you are going to store them fresh for a few days DO NOT PUT THEM INTO A PLASTIC BAG OR TUPPERWARE...... this will speed up them going slimy on you. It is best to put them into a paper bag and put in the fridge.

 

There is a world of difference between "cracker dry" and dessicant chamber dry.

Whether you are storing for a month or storing for a decade you should get into the habit of storing your mushrooms properly. Once you get into grain transfer, agar isolation and bulk growing it is very easy to grow pounds of dried mushrooms in a matter of a few months and you can't eat them all no matter how much you try.

If you have been growing for 5 years.... you should know better.

 

Well, I'm not growing weight, only personal and for a couple friends. I have not ran across any issues with such a small scale.

No doubt that your way is 'proper', I just don't see the need to do it in my case. I don't see any difference between mine and any that I buy from bigger growers.

 

i think this site will help you. link

 

I dry my shrooms on a screen at room temperature for 7-10 days then place them in an AIR TIGHT container with 1" deep Drierite. Drierite are these blue crystals that turn pink when they no longer hold much moisture. Luckily they can be heated and reused many times because they are expensive. Drierite will MUMMIFY your shrooms for LONG term storage. Freezing once dry is another good method to keep potency of the psilocybin in the fruiting body. Mine never last for long term!

 

hey grainpsilo....can we be friends