How to Grow Mushrooms: Lighting
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Contrary to popular belief, mushrooms generally require a fair amount of light to grow well. In fact, the mushrooms that grow on the back of our blocks and don’t get much light tend to grow
- We use T5 6500k spectrum lights in 4-lamp fixtures. They don’t have a very high heat output, are easy to replace, and are a lot cheaper than LEDs.
- Since the lights are a bit overpowered for our space we only have two lamps on each in use at a time. A grow room could easily use 2-lamp fixtures, but these were on sale so they cost about the same at the time.
- Even dispersal throughout the grow room is important. Our 10×20 room has 4 fixtures, 2 per aisle, and our 12×12 room has one fixture per a
isle , which is sufficient.
- Our lights are on an automated 16 hour on, 8 hour off cycle. We used to go 12 on 12 off, but that cycle was inconvenient for our work schedule, so now the mushrooms sleep when we do. It’s important to make sure every part of your operation fits as a whole.
- Mushrooms not getting enough light will be leggy, spindly, and pale.
- Low heat still adds up, so compensating with cooler air will likely be necessary. This was one of our biggest trials early on. We didn’t take into account how much heat the fruiting blocks would produce, and we had overheating issues.
- We don’t light our colonization space except when we’re working in there. They incubate best in the dark.
Getting a decent lighting system set up is one of the more simple tasks when setting up your grow room, but also extremely important for growing beautiful, high-quality mushrooms.
How to Grow Mushrooms: Lighting
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You mentioned that the back of your blocks don’t get enough light. I’ve seen some people use LED light ropes on the racks directly above the blocks for lighting. What is your opinion on this method? Do you think it would increase yield enough to offset the cost over time?
There are a lot of variables that would go into that, so it’s not easy to answer. The light output of the LEDs, the cost of them, and the added heat output would all have to be considered. It might be possible to get a benefit out of it, but we’re pretty satisfied with our current setup, so I don’t think we’d be incorporating anything like that any time soon.
Your grow room sizes…are they measured in feet?
Yes
Any thoughts on how, or if certain durations of lighting effects overall yields, and or pin sets? Reason I ask is because I am suspicious of a reasonable amount of lighting entering my fruiting room that I’m almost positive had a negative effect. Since I’ve allowed complete darkness, I can almost swear I’m seeing better clusters.
We keep our lights on a cycle, but we have always noticed that the mushrooms that are completely exposed to the light have done better overall. Sometimes we have fruiting pop through the backs of our bags where it’s dark and they never turn out as big or as high-quality as the ones that grow in the light. If you’re personally seeing better results with more dark, however, feel free to use what works best for you.
Incredible points. Sound arguments. Keep up the great work.
Respectfully, the full cost of fluorescent lights is more than LEDs. Both your energy bills and your tube-replacement cost will be higher.
o T5s generate about 90-95 lumens per watt; LED tubes are now over 125 lumens/watt, and are dimmable. So for the same amount of light, you’d save up to 35% on lighting energy.
o T5s rarely last the rated 10,000 hours, and the cheapest ones, lasting half that long, cost ~$5 apiece; LED tubes (T5 replacements) are rated at 50,000 hours (over 10 years at 12 hours/day), at ~$10 apiece. So you’ll spend costs 2.5-5x more replacing T5s, not counting the labor hours for buying new bulbs and getting out the ladder.
o LED T5-replacement tubes will fit your existing fixtures. You will need to remove the ballast from each fixture, a trivial 3-minute screwdriver project.
o The T5s contain mercury, a toxin you might not want to add to the environment. Make sense?
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I did a lot of research and I can not find enough information for the lighting within a Mushroom Fruiting Chamber.
I have a 3.5 x 2.5 x 2.2 M Grow tent can you suggest how many lumens per sqm ?
You may have to play around a bit to make sure you’re getting the right amount of light for your grow space. Your mushrooms will let you know if they’re not getting enough light.