The four stages of growing mushrooms are inoculation, colonisation, fruiting and harvesting. You begin by introducing a culture to a substrate; the mycelium spreads through that substrate during colonisation; a shift in conditions then triggers pins, which develop into mushrooms; and finally you harvest before the caps open fully and drop their spores. Each stage has its own conditions and timings, and each builds on the one before — which is why understanding all four matters more than m … read more