How to Grow Better Mushrooms at Home with the 3-Tier Walden LED Grow Tent Kit
How to Grow Better Mushrooms at Home with the 3-Tier Walden LED Grow Tent Kit
How to Grow Better Mushrooms at Home with the 3-Tier Walden LED Grow Tent Kit
Growing mushrooms at home can be a rewarding and productive hobby. With the right tools and guidance, you can create a perfect environment for mushroom cultivation, ensuring higher yields and a higher quality product. The next generation Active Grow 3-Tier Walden Grow Tent is specifically designed to optimize mushroom growth, making the process easier and more enjoyable.
What Makes the 3-Tier Walden Grow Tent the Best Grow Tent for Mushrooms?
The 3-Tier Walden Grow Tent is the only grow tent designed specifically for mushroom cultivation, distinguishing it from generic grow tents.
3-Tier Walden Grow Tent Unique Features
- 3-Tier Maximum Strength Shelves: Each shelf can support up to 100 lbs, ideal for heavier mushroom bags and monotubs.
- Heavier Duty Construction: 22mm poles provide robust support for home or commercial applications.
- Innovative Vapor Tabs: These tabs direct humidity buildup directly into the spill tray, preventing contamination in the bottom corners of the tent.
- Huge Infinity View Windows: These windows make it easy to inspect and appreciate your mushrooms without disturbing their environment.
- Double-Cinching Ports: These provide greater versatility and keep contaminants out.
- Industrial Strength Zippers: Improved durability and secure sealing to maintain optimal conditions.
- All-Steel Frame: No plastic parts, making installation fast and easy.
- Increased Tent Height: The additional 5 inches of height creates more vertical space for mushrooms, trays and lighting.
- EcoWhite Interior Vinyl: 10% more reflective than mylar, enhancing light distribution.
- Non-Toxic Materials: 100% PEVA materials are safe for plants and people.
- Easy to Clean: The PEVA interior is designed to keep contaminants out, prevents mold buildup and is easy to clean.
- Smart Port Placement: For ventilation, irrigation and power cords, ensuring efficient setup.
- Light-Blocking Zipper Covers: Prevent any light leakage around the tent doors.
- Spacious Growing Area: Grow up to 32 ft² of mushrooms at a time.
Setting Up the Mushroom Fruiting & Incubation 3-Tier Walden White LED Grow Tent Kit
Step #1
Select a Suitable Location
Choose a location away from direct sunlight and drafts, such as a basement or a spare room.
Step #3
Install the Fresh Air Exchange Fan
Active Grow offers the Mushroom Ventilation & Air Filtration Kit which should be installed at the top of the tent.
Since you’re exhausting air out of your tent, you’ll be creating a negative pressure system inside the tent.
Negative pressure systems help exhaust spores and CO2 outside of the tent and pull oxygen-rich air from the bottom of the tent.
Attach the Spore Stopper Filter to the back of your fresh air exchange fan to capture any excess spores. Use a 6-inch hose clamp to secure the filter.
Step #4
Install Active Grow LED Mushroom Grow Lights
Install the Integrated Strip T5 4FT LED Mushroom Grow Lights to the ceiling of the grow tent.
The Blue Sun Spectrum is optimized for mushroom cultivation, providing the specific wavelengths needed for optimal fungi growth.
Step #5
Inspect Your Grow Tent
Ensure the tent functions correctly, blocks out light effectively, and has proper ventilation. Make sure all air ports are cinched off with the double cinching ports to maintain a controlled environment inside the tent.
Step #6
Maintain Cleanliness & Sterility
Mushrooms are sensitive to contamination, so it's crucial to maintain a clean and sterile environment. Use gloves and sanitize your hands before handling the substrate and mushroom spawn.
Clean and disinfect all equipment and surfaces to minimize the risk of introducing harmful bacteria or fungi that could compete with your mushrooms.
Perform a thorough cleaning between each cycle to maximize cleanliness. The 3-Tier Walden Grow Tent’s PEVA vinyl material makes it easier to spot any contaminants and clean effectively.
Importance of Balancing Ventilation & Humidity in a Mushroom Grow Tent
Fresh Air Exchange: Just like humans, mushrooms inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Since the 3-Tier Walden Grow Tent is a sealed environment, without proper fresh air exchange, carbon dioxide may build up inside your tent and suffocate your mushrooms. Installing a fresh air exchange fan allows you to exhaust excess CO2 and maintain proper levels of oxygen.
If you place trays of colonized mushroom mycelium inside a closed tent without any alterations or fans for air exchange, your mushrooms would eventually suffocate due to high CO2 and lack of oxygen. Without constantly refreshing the air in the tent, the exhaled CO2 will build up and disrupt the mushroom growing process. This is why we installed our fresh air exchange fan. You can also use a carbon dioxide meter to get precise measurements of CO2 concentrations, though this isn’t necessary as long as you keep an eye on your mushroom growth, acknowledge symptoms of high CO2 (lack of growth, leggy stems or coral-like growth) and adjust accordingly.
In the wild, lower levels of CO2 help indicate where a mushroom should fruit. Inside your grow tent, an abundance of fresh air will have the same effect. Just having great air exchange won’t guarantee beautiful flushes of mushrooms though. Without a system for managing ambient humidity, your mushrooms will eventually turn brown, crack or dry out due to overly dry air.
Humidity: Humidity ranges between 70-90%, depending on the species you're growing. Mushrooms that are oversaturated with humidity may become soggy or have fuzzy stems. Conversely, mushrooms may dry out or never grow if the environment lacks proper humidity.
Mushrooms are about 92% water, and for this reason, mycelium in the wild will wait until rainfall or humid conditions to produce mushrooms. So, along with a fresh air exchange fan, mushroom growers will add humidification systems in their tent in order to prevent mushrooms from drying out or not growing at all.
Temperature: Most mushrooms grow well between the temperature range of 55-80°F. Even with a fully built Walden Tent, most growers place their tents in areas that have some form of climate control. Regardless of the location, you’ll want some control over the temperature surrounding your growing environment.
Under natural conditions, many mushrooms will fruit in response to seasonality, limiting the time period in which mushrooms grow. Growing mushrooms indoors year-round requires more consistent conditions.
Your grow tent should be placed in an environment that generally stays between 55-80°F. Keep in mind that the exact range tends to vary between mushroom species.
Why Blue Light is Best for Growing Mushrooms
Recent studies and firsthand accounts from mushroom cultivators suggest that blue light, particularly in the 450 nm wavelength, has a profound effect on mushroom growth. The 3-Tier Walden Grow Tent includes lighting that features Active Grow’s Blue Sun Spectrum, which is tailored for mushroom growth. This technology combines 450 nm blue wavelengths with 6500K CCT white high CRI chips to cover the entire spectral range, ensuring optimal conditions for mushroom fruiting.
Advantages of the 3-Tier Walden Grow Tent
Mushroom Specific Design: The 3-Tier Walden Grow tent is the only complete grow tent and LED grow light kit designed from the ground up for mushroom cultivation.
Quality Construction: Designed with durability and longevity in mind.
Optimal Environment: Provides precise control over humidity, temperature and light.
Convenience: Easy to set up and maintain, with smart features for hassle-free operation.
Cost-Efficiency: Eliminates the need for buying individual components separately.
Support & Warranty: Backed by customer assistance and the only 2 year grow tent warranty, offering peace of mind.
Mushroom Grow Tent FAQs
The optimal temperature can vary based on the mushroom species. However, most mushrooms thrive at temperatures between 55°F to 80°F.
Yes, light is necessary for many mushroom species to form fruiting bodies, even though they do not require light for photosynthesis.
Inspecting your mushrooms every day is recommended to assess humidity, temperature and potential pest issues.
While there's an initial investment in setting up the tent, maintaining it is not particularly expensive. Regular checks and minor adjustments are typically all that's needed.
Growing mushrooms at home with the 3-Tier Walden Grow Tent offers a straightforward and efficient way to cultivate a variety of mushroom species like a professional. Its specialized features and lighting designed specifically for mushrooms provide the perfect environment for mushroom growth, ensuring higher yields and a more quality product. Whether you're a novice or an experienced grower, the 3-Tier Walden Grow Tent makes mushroom cultivation accessible and rewarding.