Search

the Book

buy

Hey There! I’m Rochelle Greayer. 

rochelle

meet

REgister now!

A Free Master Class

THE 7-STEP SYSTEM TO DESIGN A

Gorgeous
Garden

STOP WASTING MONEY ON ALL THE WRONG PLANTS  

Mix & match plants like a pro!

Join the Course Today!

I’m a garden designer on tv and IRL. I’m also an author and entrepreneur who thinks she can save the world by teaching everyone a little something about landscape design.

Grow Your Own Halloween Glow In the Dark Mushrooms

August 4, 2022

The heat of the summer has me looking forward to the cooler days of fall planting.  With a lead time of about two months, I’m going to try growing glow in the dark mushrooms this year.  A few magical logs on the front porch, giving off an eerie night light will next level the Halloween holiday decor.  Have you ever grown your own mushrooms?  Have you grown your own Halloween glow in the dark mushrooms?  This is what I know about the process – I’ll be updating my progress as I go. 

Glow In the Dark Mushrooms

The light from glow in the dark mushrooms and other phosphorescent plants and fungi has been documented in literature as well as by scientists, for thousands of years. Aristotle described these shrooms it as a “cold fire” (when referring to a light emanating from the woods). Similarly Pliny the Elder noted them growing (and glowing) on the white wood in olive groves. The Swedes have documented their use for light during dark, winter nights. And in Indonesian and Micronesian cultures, glowing fungi have been used as makeshift torches and incorporated into ritual dress and face paint (source 1).

glow int he dark halloween mushrooms via www.pithandvigor.com


Scandinavians called the wood that glows “foxfire” or “faerie fire”. The name has stuck with many of the 71 species of glowing mushrooms are commonly called foxfire mushrooms.

For my experiments I going to grow the variety Panellus stipticus – primarily it is easy to find inoculated plugs and logs. Also – Panellus stipticus is what you see in these pictures. They look like small leathery oyster mushroom that light up at night. It is worth noting that these are not edible or medicinal mushrooms – it is purely for novelty and fun to grow something that glows. (and freak people out with it at halloween)

How to Grow Your Own Halloween Glow In the Dark Mushrooms

glow in the dark grow your own mushrooms via www.pithandvigor.com


Here is some growing advice from one Amazon reviewer:


What worked best: fresh hard wood, sealed plastic container, wet paper towel, in a dark location (open it at times, let it “breathe”). It took less than a month to see the white fungal growth from the plugs, and within two months I had a pretty extensive mat of growth all along the wood. And all of it glows. I recommend that you don’t put it in a completely dark environment, but one with very low light – somehow the night/day cycle seems to trigger more intense periods of glowing in early evening.

Materials for my mushroom growing project:

I’m planning to follow the set up advised above and I am using matierial I have available. If you want to try something similar, I’ve included links to purchase what I am using.

  • Large storage tub (I’ve order many of these over the years – they are great for general storage as well). It should fit my logs.
  • Hardwood logs from my own woods (18-24 inches). I particularly like the look of the mushrooms on the white birch, so I’m going to give those a try first. I may end up using the logs in a creepy woodland container garden.

I plan to keep the logs it in my garage which is dark- ish, but it also gets the change of light from day to night.

You can buy a kit that has everything but the log from Forest Organics on amazon.

There is also a cheaper option to just buy a bag of 40 plugs (you will also need to provide your own drilled log for this). I am going to try both – I’ll update this post to let you know which works better.

Read more about growing mushrooms:

How to Design a Forest Garden and Grow Mushrooms Outdoors

Animated .gif image of flash-lighted mushrooms found via wikipedia is in the Public Domain.

REgister now!

A Free Master Class

THE 7-STEP SYSTEM TO DESIGN A

Gorge-
ous
Garden

  1. Laurie Brown says:

    Oh, YES! I’ve been looking for a source of bioluminescent mushrooms/spawn! Now to scurry off to see if these are hardy here- I want to line my paths with them!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Does Your Garden Need a Makeover?

Learn my 7-step system to design and build a stunning garden anywhere in the world.



SIGN ME UP!

Join my Free Class!

Understand the 5 mistakes everyone makes when creating a garden. (Save yourself time, money, & headaches and get much better results!)

See how to work directly with me (but at a DIY price!) to
design and create your own gorgeous garden.