Haywood Mushrooms / Grow Guides

Grow guides from the lab bench.

Practical, science-backed guidance on running clean cultures and healthy grows — written by a plant pathologist, for growers who want to understand the “why,” not just the steps.

Agar plates and culture tubes
FeaturedSterile technique· 8 min read

Contamination is a diagnosis, not bad luck

Green mold, wet spots, sour smells — most "failed" grows are telling you exactly what went wrong. Here's how a plant pathologist reads the signs, traces them back to the break in sterile technique, and fixes the cause instead of the symptom.

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The library

New guides published as we grow
01Basics

Sterile technique that actually holds

The handful of habits that prevent most contamination — airflow, surfaces, and the order you do things in.

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02Substrate

Choosing a substrate for your strain

Straw, hardwood, supplemented masters — matching the medium to the mushroom, and why it changes your yield.

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03Colonization

Reading colonization like a chart

What healthy mycelium looks, smells, and moves like — and the early warning signs worth acting on.

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04Coming soon

Fruiting conditions, strain by strain

Temperature, humidity, and fresh-air targets that get each of our lines to pin and flush.

In progress
05Coming soon

From grain spawn to first harvest

A start-to-finish timeline for inoculating production substrate with Haywood spawn.

In progress
06Coming soon

Storing & refreshing cultures

Keeping lines vigorous over time with proper transfer and cold storage.

In progress
Grower's list

New guides, strain drops, and pre-order windows.

No noise — just a note when there's something worth knowing from the lab.