Milkwood doesn’t produce or sell spawn. What we do have is years of feedback from thousands of students on our Home Mushroom Cultivation courses, which means we know who the good suppliers are.
Spawn is the mushroom’s mycelium, grown on a substrate (usually grain) for one purpose: inoculating more substrate. A bag of spawn isn’t meant to grow mushrooms itself. It’s a bag of inoculant. Getting good spawn is a critical part of growing good mushrooms.
Spawn comes in all sorts. Dowel spawn, grown on little wooden dowels for log cultivation. Sawdust spawn. Even popcorn spawn, grown on popping corn. The most common type is grain spawn, usually wheat, barley or millet, or a mix. Look closely at the photos below and you can see the grain, the mix of grass seeds, and the white fuzzy stuff, which is the mycelium growing through it.
Recommended suppliers
This list comes from years of student reports about who actually delivers, and what turns up when they do.
Australia
Aussie Mushroom Supplies
Our favourite Australian source of grain spawn. Start with any of the “Mushroom Spawn Bag 1.7kg” varieties.
Disclosure: we’ve partnered with Aussie Mushroom Supplies because we use their spawn ourselves. That’s an affiliate link. It doesn’t change the price you pay, and buying this way supports two small businesses. Thank you.
United States
- Field & Forest, grain and plug spawn, Wisconsin.
- Fungi Ally, grain and plug spawn, Massachusetts.
- North Spore, a wide variety of grain spawn, Maine.
- Lacuna Mushrooms, good for garden species like Wood Blewits and King Stropharia, Pennsylvania.
- Mushroom Mountain, plug/dowel and sawdust spawn (no grain spawn), South Carolina.
- SouthWest Mushrooms, urban mushroom farm and a good source of grain spawn, Arizona.
- Fungi Perfecti, Paul Stamets’ company, grain and plug spawn, Washington State. Currently only sells “Master” spawn, which is too expensive for regular use.
Canada
- Circular Harvest, grain spawn in several varieties, Fraser Valley BC.
- Hazel Grove Farm, sawdust kits that work as spawn for logs and gardens, Deep Brook, Nova Scotia.
- Happy Caps, shiitake plug spawn, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
New Zealand
- SporeShift Mushrooms, grain spawn, North Canterbury.
Note: Pleurotus ostreatus species aren’t available for purchase in New Zealand. Use Pleurotus pulmonarius (Phoenix Oyster) instead.
Europe
- Tyroler Glückspilze, Austria.
- Shii-Take, grain spawn, Germany.
- Mycelia, large European supplier, Belgium.
- La Mycosphere, all kinds of spawn and cultivation equipment, Belgium.
- Helsieni, log and garden spawn, Helsinki, Finland.
- Bolets de Soca, Spain.
United Kingdom
- Merit Mushrooms, a wide range of grain spawn, Hertfordshire.
- Urban Farm-It, grain and plug spawn, Kent.
- Gourmet Woodland Mushrooms, sawdust spawn, West Yorkshire.
South Africa
- MushRush, grain spawn, KwaZulu-Natal.
- Funguys Gourmet, grain spawn, Western Cape.
What turns up in the post
A bag of grain spawn, fully colonised and labelled with its species, ready to inoculate whatever you’re growing on.
Found a good one we’ve missed?
Let us know if you’ve found another reliable supplier who has been in business a while, or if you’ve had trouble with anyone on this list. We take suggestions seriously and we’ll review our recommendations.
Want to learn to grow them properly?
Our Home Mushroom Cultivation courses take you from a bag of spawn to a harvest, at your place, with whatever you’ve got.