Why We Like It: The deep bottom tray has plenty of space for your mushroom’s substrate and water. Other standard features include a vented lid for humidity and temperature control, and it’s suitable for use on a heat mat during cold days. This is a 10-pack, so you’ll have plenty of space. Also, 4.5 stars from over 4,000 reviews, allows thinking that it’s worth giving a try.
Who Should Buy It: If you don’t have enough room for your substrate in other mushroom greenhouses, consider this one with its deep tray. You may also get a free heat mat if you follow the instructions after scanning the QR code on the packaging.
What Conditions Are Needed for a Mushroom to Grow?
As most of us know, mushrooms are fungi. While you may think that fungi are hardy organisms that are hard to kill, this isn’t entirely true when it comes to cultivating them. Let’s take a closer look at what conditions mushrooms need to grow healthily.
Light
While a small amount of light won’t necessarily hurt your mushrooms, they prefer to grow in the dark. This is because mushrooms are different from plants in where they get their nutrients from. While plants use photosynthesis to get their nutrients, mushrooms pull their nutrients from the substrate on which they’re grown. That’s why mushrooms don’t need light and prefer dark conditions to grow optimally.
Humidity
Mushrooms like humidity. Using a mister to spritz your growing mushroom stash a few times a day will make sure that your grow house remains humid enough for your mushrooms to thrive. The fungi pull water out of the air to stop themselves from drying out and shriveling up. That’s why it’s crucial to keep them humid, so they have perfect conditions to grow.

Substrate
The main food source for your mushrooms is carbon. This means that your substrate needs to be made of carbon-rich material. That’s why most substrates are made of woody, fibrous materials such as coco coir, straw, or even whole logs. The quality and type of your substrate will determine if you need to add any supplements to your system or not. Therefore it’s recommended to get information about the substrates before using them.
It’s also wise to remember that you need to sterilize your chosen substrate before you introduce your mushroom spores. This ensures that your mushrooms don’t have any competition when attempting to colonize their substrate.
Some common mushroom substrates include:
- Coco coir and vermiculite blend
- Straw
- Coffee grounds
- Cardboard
- Hardwood pellets
- Logs
Temperature
To give your mushrooms the best chance of a healthy life, you need to keep the temperatures in the grow house stable. Somewhere between 55 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit should be suitable. A lot of climate control systems use fans to move air around the space, so make sure that there aren’t any strong drafts blowing directly onto your mushrooms. This can quickly and easily kill your mushrooms before they even have a chance to thrive.
Do Fungi and Mushrooms Need Sunlight?
Fungi and mushrooms don’t contain chlorophyll, which means that they don’t need sunlight to grow. In fact, mushrooms need near darkness to spawn, but a small amount of light won’t hurt. They need light for successful fruiting, so a small amount of it is advised. Once your mushrooms are in the fruiting stage as the ones in the picture below, a small lamp or even indirect sunlight for a few hours a day will suffice.

How We Picked
After we brushed up on the optimum conditions for mushroom growth, we chose the following features to determine how we picked the best mushroom greenhouses available today.
- Vents: Having a vented greenhouse means you have control over the temperature and humidity inside your greenhouse. It’s crucial for a healthy mushroom harvest.
- Light blocking: While most of the greenhouses on this list are not lightproof, we made sure to add at least one lightproof product that you can use on its own, or in combination with a vented mini greenhouse.
- Price: Accessibility is important. That’s why we included products that would fit a range of budgets, so more people could benefit from them.
And The Winner Is…
With its extendable vented dome top and solid craftsmanship, the EarlyGrow Vented Propagator is a perfect choice for us. The fact that you can choose a higher lid while still maintaining the vent features means that you can grow all sorts of types of mushrooms in this affordable mini greenhouse.
Remember that during the spawning phase, you’ll have to put your substrate in a dark place, and depending on which species you’re cultivating, they might need a bit of light during the fruiting phase. Be sure to read up on your mushroom species before cultivation to avoid any further complications.