Overseas guides assume a basement at 18°C. Australia offers a tin shed at 40°C, a Queenslander at 85% humidity, a Melbourne hallway at 11°C in July and a Perth summer where the air would dry out a wet towel in an hour. The species you pick should match the room you have in the month you have it. This guide is organised by what matters most to the fungus: temperature during fruiting, then humidity.

The temperature bands

By region

Brisbane, Gold Coast, northern NSW

Summer and the shoulders: pink and phoenix oysters, reishi. Winter nights in the low teens open up lion's mane and pearl oysters. Humidity is your friend most of the year.

Darwin, Cairns, Townsville

Pink oyster and reishi almost year-round. Lion's mane, blue oyster and shiitake need air conditioning. Watch for contamination: warm, wet air is also mould's favourite.

Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong

Pearl oysters most of the year, pink in summer, lion's mane and blue oysters from April to October. A garage or south-facing room is a good winter chamber.

Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat

Blue oyster, lion's mane, king oyster and shiitake from autumn to spring, the best cool-season growing in the country. Summer heatwaves call for pearl or phoenix and a cool spot.

Canberra, Hobart, Launceston

Cool-season species thrive. Unheated rooms in winter can drop below 10°C, which stalls colonisation; colonise in the warmest room and fruit in the coolest.

Adelaide, Perth

Mild winters suit everything except pink oysters; summers are hot and dry, so humidity management (a sealed tub with wet perlite, or a tent with a humidifier) matters more than anywhere else.

Inland, SA and WA country

Dry air all year. Fruit inside a tub or tent, never in open air, and mist more than you think.

Summer heat

Over 28°C most gourmet species slow down and the fast contaminants speed up. Colonise in the coolest part of the house (a south-facing room, a tiled floor, a cupboard away from external walls), choose heat-tolerant oysters, and keep tubs out of any room that gets afternoon sun. Reishi and pink oyster are the exceptions and enjoy the heat. If you have a wine fridge or a spare bar fridge, a controller can turn it into a cool fruiting chamber for blue oysters and king oysters in January.

Winter cold

Colonisation needs warmth even when fruiting wants cold. A grain bag at 12°C will sit for weeks. Colonise in the warmest room or on top of a fridge (the back vents warm air), then move the colonised block to the cold room, garage or verandah to fruit. Blue oysters, shiitake and king oysters produce their best, densest fruit in exactly those cold rooms.

Dry air

Humidity is the Australian problem. A fruiting block in a room at 40% relative humidity dries out between mists. The fix is an enclosure: a clear tub with a loose lid and a layer of wet perlite in the bottom, a tent with a cheap ultrasonic humidifier on a timer, or simply a large clear bag tented over the block with a few holes. The fruiting guide covers each.

Written by the Aus Myco Kingdom crew. Everything here is general growing information for gourmet and medicinal species; your room, your climate and your culture will have the final say.