The Honest Guide To Commercial Mushroom Farming

This course will probably talk you out of mushroom farming.

We run a commercial mushroom farm in northern New South Wales: about a tonne a week, certified organic. We've watched more than twenty decent setups close down. Before you spend a dollar with us, we'll tell you what this actually costs. Then you can pick the course that fits your real situation. Including the cheap one.

Give Me The Money Talk

*Still want in after that? Good. We'll show you how it's done.

🍄 ~1 tonne sold weekly ✅ Certified organic since 2021 🌏 Not sold in Australia. We don't train competitors

Updated: July 2026

Dear future mushroom farmer,

We get it. Starting a mushroom business is confusing. Really flippin' confusing.

You're lying awake wondering whether your grain spawn is colonising or contaminating. Your spare room looks like a science experiment that filed a restraining order against you. And everyone on the internet has an opinion.

Should I grow oysters? Lion's mane? Build a fruiting chamber out of a wardrobe? Buy a $9,000 laminar flow hood? Sell to chefs? Farmers markets? Start a "grow kit empire"?

Behind all that noise is one question the people selling courses won't ask you. We'll ask it before you've paid us anything:

How much money do you have?

The answer decides which setup makes sense and which course below you should buy. The cheapest costs less than a takeaway dinner for two. The biggest, we'll talk you straight out of if your numbers don't add up.

We're not gurus. We're Andrew and Abel, the actual Shroom Brothers. We started in our parents' kitchen with white oyster on wheat chaff. Our father thought it was so stupid he binned the first logs. Two survived. Today we grow, source and sell about a tonne a week, certified organic, to distributors, restaurants, and farmers' markets across northern NSW and southeast Queensland.

The lessons between that kitchen and that tonne, from the contaminated batches to the container of shiitake logs that defrosted in our driveway and cost us the whole shipment, are bottled into the courses below.

It all starts with the money talk. Scroll on. It's free.

Marketers Lie. Numbers Don't.

No sales dashboards, no rented Lamborghinis. The farm.

0.00 KG
of mushrooms sold this week, at our average pace — resets every Monday

Honest small print: this ticker is maths, not magic. It runs at our average of roughly a tonne a week across stalls, chefs & distributors — it isn't wired to the tills (yet), and we'd rather tell you that than pretend. The verified numbers are here.

$17,081
Recorded sales in an average week, FY 2025–26 — before cash taken at our market stalls
~1 Tonne
Of gourmet mushrooms sold every week
2021
Certified organic since (Southern Cross)
10
Farmers' markets served every week
20+
Decent farms we've watched close down, so we know what kills them

That weekly number comes straight out of our accounting software — and it leaves out the cash we take across 10 weekly farmers' markets. The real week is bigger. We only publish what we can prove.

Show Me The Proof

Figures in AUD, from our Xero accounting records, accrual basis.

Receipts, Not Promises

This Isn't Theory.
This Is Our Actual Farm.

Chestnut mushrooms, so finicky most farms won't touch them. We grow walls of them.
Chestnut mushrooms, so finicky most farms won't touch them. We grow walls of them.
Andrew and Abel holding crates of fresh mushrooms in the grow room.
Andrew and Abel. Two brothers, about a tonne a week.
Racks that pay rent. Every block grown on our certified organic farm.
Racks that pay rent. Every block grown on our certified organic farm.
Shiitake punnets packed for market.
Punnets, not boxes, so customers see exactly what they're buying. Boxes hide problems.
The Shroom Brothers stall at a farmers' market.
One of ten farmers' markets we serve every week.

We're one of the only reliable sources of lion's mane and chestnut in our wholesale channels. Certified organic isn't a marketing claim; it's a door into customers big growers can't reach. See the farm for yourself at shroombrothers.com.au. Then come back and learn how to build your own.

Read this before you look at prices.

The Money Talk

I'm gonna be very real here, because I don't want to sell courses on hope.

If you have $50–150k, commercial mushroom farming is a hobby. It might be a brilliant hobby. It will not make you a living. Most people in my position would sell you the dream anyway. I'd rather be trusted than flattering.

A serious commercial operation needs serious capital, hundreds of thousands done properly, and years of hard, unglamorous work after that. I've seen more than twenty growers with decent setups close down. They weren't lazy. They started without the truth.

Answer one question honestly: what's your realistic access to capital? Buy the course built for your answer. If you pick the wrong one, we'll tell you and point you at the right one. Even when it's the cheaper one. Especially then.

⚖️ House rule: we ask the capital question before First Farm — not to gate you out, but to point you at the course that fits. We point people at the cheaper option all the time. It costs us money and we do it anyway. That should tell you how to read the rest of this page.

Three Courses. One for your actual situation.

For The Home Grower

Grow Your Own

Serious gourmet mushrooms at home: real food, market-stall money, zero fantasy.

$129 USD ≈ A$199
  • Self-paced video course, shot on our farm
  • Species selection, including the divas to avoid
  • Contamination: what kills home setups
  • Low-tech setup without the $9k lab
  • Honest final module: should you ever go commercial?
Not for you if… you're expecting an income. This will not make you money. It's a hobby, one of the few that can pay for itself.
Start Growing →
Founding Intake · Founding Price Until The Build Is Done

First Farm

For people with real capital, ready to build a farm that survives year one.

$2,950 $1,950 USD founding price
  • 8 weeks, structured: site, fit-out, species mix
  • The real numbers, before you spend yours
  • Certification path & distributor relationships
  • Submit up to 2 questions a week, answered in the weekly recorded Q&A — yours to keep
  • Your questions shape what the finished course becomes
Not for you if… you don't have access to real capital. Don't buy this with savings you can't afford to lose. Buy Grow Your Own and come back when the money is real.

The course isn't finished. That's why this intake exists: your questions steer what we build, at the founding price. When the build is done, the price is $2,950 — and prices here only ever go up.

Join The Founding Intake →
For Existing Commercial Growers

The Grow Room

Margin, range, and systems. One live hour with both of us, every week — the only tier with live calls.

$9,500 USD /year
  • One live 1-hour call every week, with both brothers
  • Questions submitted in advance, answered in priority order
  • Margin per kilo, range moats, labour systems
  • Organic certification as competitor exclusion
  • Every call recorded and archived: a growing library of real operator answers
Not for you if… you haven't grown commercially yet. First Farm is upstream — start there and arrive ready.
Apply For The Grow Room →
🍄

Grow a sellable flush in 60 days or every cent back. And you keep the course.

That's the Grow Your Own guarantee. Follow the process, and if you haven't harvested a flush you could sell within 60 days, email us. Full refund, no interrogation. The timeline comes from the biology.

First Farm: 14 days, full refund, no questions. After that, none: by then you've seen the real content, and we don't sell to people who aren't sure.

Pick Your Course
Reviews

No student reviews yet.
We're not going to make them up.

You've seen the wall of five-star reviews on course sites. Ours goes up once the founding intake finishes, real and with permission. Until then, the farm is the review. Receipts above.

Want the full story first? Read The $500k Truth About Commercial Mushroom Farming, the free piece that explains who should and shouldn't do this. [link to truth piece]

Questions? Naturally.

I've never grown anything. Not even a beard. Can I do this?
Yes. That's what Grow Your Own is for. It assumes zero experience and starts with a low-tech setup you can build in a weekend. If you can follow a lasagne recipe, you can grow oyster mushrooms.
Why should I trust you over the big-name courses?
Don't trust anyone. Ask any course seller one question: do you currently run a commercial mushroom farm, and can I see it? We'll show you ours.
Why don't you sell these courses in Australia?
Because we compete there. We're not going to train our own competitors. If that seems calculating, good. We believe what's in here works.
Is this about "those" mushrooms?
No. Gourmet and culinary mushrooms only: oyster, shiitake, lion's mane and friends. 100% legal fungi. And cook your mushrooms. Every time.
Can I start with Grow Your Own and upgrade later?
You can, with no penalty. But we'd rather you bought right the first time. That's what the money talk is for. If capital ever stops being the constraint, First Farm is where we tell the truth about it.
What if it doesn't work for me?
Grow Your Own: 60 days, sellable flush or full refund, keep the course. First Farm: 14 days, no questions. The Grow Room: it renews yearly — if the weekly hour isn't paying for itself, don't renew. That decision stays yours.
Do you offer payment plans?
On First Farm, yes: two instalments of US$1,000, arranged by email (write to sales@shroombrothers.com.au and we'll send two invoices a month apart). Paying in full ($1,950 founding) is always the cheaper way — the split is a convenience, not a discount. The other courses are priced to not need one.

Still here?
Then maybe you're one of ours.

Most people close the tab at the money talk. That's the system working. If you read it and leaned in, pick the course built for your real situation.

Show Me The Courses