r/raspberry_pi • u/Tough-Influence-4080 • 3d ago
Show-and-Tell An automated mushroom growing chamber in my closet with a Raspberry Pi 5 (open source)
During my software development studies, I decided to combine programming, electronics, and mushroom growing into a little DIY project.
I built a mushroom growing chamber in my closet using a Raspberry Pi 5 and a 4-channel relay module to automate the lighting, ventilation, and humidification.
I also used an SCD30 sensor to monitor CO₂, temperature, and humidity. The system is written in Python, with a FastAPI backend and SQLite for data storage.
The ventilation automatically responds to CO₂ levels, while the humidifier maintains the desired humidity.
I've made the project open source in case anyone wants to explore the code, build something similar, or improve it!
GitHub: https://github.com/Ulysse-Dev-Serre/Projet_IoT_RaspberryPi
Here are a few pictures of the setup and some Lion's Mane mushrooms growing inside. 🍄
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u/ad-on-is 3d ago
I just leave food on the counter for a few days and get similar results
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u/Tough-Influence-4080 3d ago
Haha, sounds like you've got a much more energy-efficient setup than mine! 😂
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u/Primary_Mycologist95 3d ago
If this is inside your house, I hope it's a well sealed system. I've seen more than a few images online of people's houses that have oyster mushrooms growing out of carpets and furniture constantly as they tried growing inside and didn't contain spores.
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u/lebrilla 2d ago
That's because of underlying water damage. Not escaped spores
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u/Primary_Mycologist95 2d ago
they don't appear in a vacuum
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u/lebrilla 2d ago edited 2d ago
Alright I took extra time to answer this because I think it's worth addressing outside of this thread. I'm gonna post it a couple other places.
I think you are suggesting that someone grew mushrooms inside and the same mushrooms grew soon after in the house.
Even though I've never seen that happen in person or online, I definitely believe it. What I'm saying is that mushrooms would have grown there anyway.
The air everywhere on earth is packed with spores. That's why when we cultivate mushrooms we use sterile air and sterilize/pasteurize nutritious media (like wood) or it will become "contaminated" with the wrong type of fungus or bacteria.
The media we use has to be saturated with water to field capacity or mushrooms will not grow. Every part of the mushroom life cycle requires water. If wood is dry, mushrooms cannot grow, if wood is wet, fungus will grow.
If mushroom fruiting bodies pop up in your house it means there's water saturated wood underneath which needs to be fixed. The mushroom fruiting bodies don't change anything. They won't spread beyond the affected area even if they dropped a trillion spores because they need wet, nutritious wood and your house should not have wet, nutritious wood.
Spores are only a hazard when breathed in very high quantities, like a mushroom farm.
The last place I lived had inkcaps pop up in one of the bathrooms. It was because the bathroom wasn't properly ventilated and part of the tile wasn't perfectly sealed. Moisture from showers saturated the wood below the bathroom. So even though I grew a bunch of mushrooms there, one that I had never grown showed up in the bathroom.
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u/Primary_Mycologist95 2d ago
I only bring it up as I don't want to assume OP is in the US, and it definitely seems a thing on here that all people from the US have climate controlled housing by way of central/ducted air conditioning. That's very much NOT a thing for much of the rest of the world, and it's not uncommon for ambient humidity levels to be enough for mold growth in the home. I'm aware of the perils of spores in the air (photographer that has proper storage for equipment due to this very reason as I live in a damp area). Unfortunately for many it is difficult to keep a stable/low humidity level indoors, and it doesn't take water "damage" for these things to start.
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u/lebrilla 2d ago
That's a really good point that I didn't consider. AC definitely reduces moisture in the house but growing mushrooms inside won't be the difference because the air is packed with fungal spores.
I'm not trying to argue with you, I understand why you said that, I just really don't want people to think that an indoor mushroom kit might infest their house with mushrooms because it isn't true and it's a common misconception.
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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago
sorry, totally not trying to argue with you either. I probably should have been more descriptive in my initial comment!
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u/BCMM 2d ago edited 2d ago
I've seen more than a few images online of people's houses that have oyster mushrooms growing out of carpets and furniture constantly as they tried growing inside and didn't contain spores.
If their mushroom-growing systems are causing this, it's because they didn't contain moisture properly.
Fungus grows in any place where conditions are right for fungus to grow, because spores are basically omnipresent. If the houses in those images had the same level of damp, but no source of oyster spores, then some other white rot would take hold.
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u/TheSmashy 3d ago
Could I adapt this if I wanted to cultivate a different crop in my closet?
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u/Tough-Influence-4080 2d ago
Absolutely! For plants, you'd mainly need to swap what's connected to the relays. For example, you could replace the humidifier with a water pump to automate irrigation, then adjust the lighting and ventilation to suit the crop.
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u/13_letters 3d ago
Badass! What did you end up spending on the project from a materials perspective after sensors, relays, lights, etc?
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u/Tough-Influence-4080 3d ago
Thanks! It's hard to say exactly since I spread the expenses over almost 6 months. There was a lot of trial and error while I was learning how electronics work, especially dealing with different voltages and all that stuff.
I'd say around $600 CAD in total, including plenty of mistakes and lots of waiting for AliExpress deliveries.
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u/13_letters 3d ago
Very cool, appreciate the rough number. Never stop learning and tinkering! Cheers.
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u/ThrowRA_That_Owl_25 3d ago
What kind of mushrooms? The funny kind? 🤣
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u/bazderoman 3d ago
Looks like lion's mane.
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u/DynamicHunter 3d ago
Very cool! Since no other commenters asked about it, do you grow anything other than Lion’s Mane? Is this more of a passion project or is Lion’s Mane pretty expensive to buy?
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u/Tough-Influence-4080 2d ago
Thanks! I've also grown oyster mushrooms! And yes, it's mostly a passion project combining mushroom growing, programming, and electronics. I actually come from an agricultural background, but I've since moved into software development, and I really enjoy finding ways to combine both worlds!
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u/Dapper_Profession 3d ago
your closet has better climate control than my apartment
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u/Tough-Influence-4080 2d ago
Haha, same here! My mushrooms are living in better conditions than I am. 😂
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u/Dapper_Profession 2d ago
at least one of us has their life together. mine would get a windowsill and neglect
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u/lebrilla 2d ago
That's awesome. Nice work! Wouldn't the pi be overkill for this? I'm curious what the cheapest way to accomplish the same thing is.
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u/Tough-Influence-4080 1d ago
What exactly do you mean by accomplishing the same thing? :) If you just want a small automated setup for growing mushrooms, I think you could build something pretty cheap with a metal or plastic shelving rack covered by a plastic sheet, an ESP32 to control humidity, and an exhaust fan with a filter to remove excess CO2 and spores. That could make a nice little DIY mushroom growing setup without spending too much!
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u/777Void777 3d ago
This is amazing. Imagine to someones house for a date or something and their closet is a fully automated mushroom farm.
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u/Laserdollarz 3d ago
I set up automatic heating and misting only to re-discover Neglect Tek works great.
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u/lebrilla 2d ago
Same. Doing stuff like this is really fun and for gourmets it's necessary. For actives, monotubs are most efficient.
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u/Appropriate-Prune728 3d ago
Jesus lol. I'll trade you for one of my esp32-s3 dev kits. It'll do everything you want and it's waaaay smaller. We can trade. I'll even pay for shipping
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u/Linuxmonger 3d ago
I've wanted to grow mushrooms for years, this might be the impetus to do that - do you have info on what conditions other plants need, and could a front end to select different plants be added?
Curious about the lights, I thought mushrooms preferred low or no light.
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u/lebrilla 2d ago
Plants would want different conditions so.you wouldn't grow them at the same time but you could use the same setup for plants, you'd just also need to factor in light because plants love that shit.
It's a myth mushrooms need no light, mushrooms don't really care that much about light. It can help a bit but they'll grow fine either way.
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u/Tough-Influence-4080 2d ago
Different mushroom species have different requirements for humidity, temperature, and fresh air exchange, so having selectable growing profiles could be a nice feature.
As for the lights, mushrooms don't need light for photosynthesis like plants do, but many species benefit from some light during fruiting. They definitely don't need powerful grow lights though!
I used blue LEDs because blue light can help trigger and guide fruiting in some mushroom species. Plus, I have to admit, I really liked the look of it!
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u/D_a_f_f 2d ago
Where/how are you handling spore removal?
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u/Tough-Influence-4080 1d ago
I have an exhaust fan with a filter that creates negative pressure inside, but it's mainly there to remove excess CO2. Most of the spores just float around for a while, eventually settle on surfaces, and I clean them up manually from time to time. :)
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u/TheStandardPlayer 3d ago
Very cool project, but have you considered using something like an ESP32 for this? A Pi 5 seems like massive overkill
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u/Tough-Influence-4080 3d ago
You're absolutely right! But this started as a learning project during my software development studies, so I wanted to experiment with Python, sensors, relays, and a backend running on the Pi. Definitely overkill, but I learned a lot!
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u/NoGoodInThisWorld 3d ago
Be sure to scrub your humidity system out weekly.