How much light do I need when growing magic mushrooms?

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growing magic mushrooms

When mushrooms grow in nature, then there is also a huge network of ‘roots’ called the mycelium. This network is basically waiting for a sign to shoot the shrooms. In most cases is this sign enough sunlight, so the shrooms are able to reproduce themselves and grow more and more mycelium in the forests. As soon as you grow shrooms at home, then you also need enough sunlight to grow the shrooms. In this blog, we will explain everything that you need to know for an optimal harvest of magic mushrooms!

The needed amount of light for shrooms

If you want to grow shrooms, or any plants, then you need four things:

  • Oxygen
  • Light
  • Water
  • The correct temperature

Temperature and light are both needed for your shrooms to grow. The perfect temperature differs for the shroom but should be in a warm place that is between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius. But please do note that you don’t put the growkit in direct sunlight, or on a heater. The perfect amount that is best for shrooms differs per shroom, but also per mycologist. Some prefer 12 hours of light and others just use natural light. However, some types of lighting also produce heat, which is also needed to grow shrooms.

If you are looking for artificial lighting, then you can best choose lighting that produces heat and is colored blue. These lights have a brightness of 6000 to 7000 Kelvin. In most cases, you can give your shrooms about 12 hours of light and then 12 hours of darkness. If you use less, lighting then this shouldn’t be a problem. If you are afraid that you burn your substrate or that the lighting is too intense, then you can also use three to four hours of lighting per day. As soon as you use artificial lighting then is the distance between the lamps and the substrate is very important as you don’t want to burn it.

The lightning experiment with shrooms

A few years ago a user on a forum called Shroomery did an experiment with different kinds of lighting. They tested different distances and colors of lighting such as 100 Watt HPS lighting MH lighting, Gro-light bulbs, and ultraviolet lighting (the type of lighting you see in clubs and everything gets purple. The shrooms that grew under cool-colored lighting grew best. These were lamps like the MH and HPS lighting. But the shrooms that grew under the lighting with ultraviolet were smaller than others. The conclusion is that shrooms grow under all types of lighting, but that there is a difference in how big they get.

So what kinds of lighting do I buy to grow shrooms?

If you are choosing to buy lighting for your shrooms, then you need lighting with a brightness of 320-400nm. For example a CFL-lighting or other types of grow lamps. The intensity of light will differ per shroom so try to change the intensity of lighting and see what works best for your shrooms. Never set the light too close to the substrate as they burn and good luck with growing your shrooms!

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