Frequently Asked Questions - About Mycelia

We believe filamentous fungi have a crucial role to play in producing healthy food and medicine, in advancing the circular economy and in the restoration of the world’s ecosystems.

But we also realise how difficult it is to work with these fascinating creatures. We aim to give a boost to our industry by creating a global network, by teaching and by developing innovation. The stronger our industry, the better for our planet.

We started off as a producer of grain spawn for edible mushrooms, with a specialisation in uncommon and specialty mushrooms. 

But this was 40 years ago. Now we do much more than that.

Our portfolio contains more than 1300 products. 

• More than 200 strains and species
• More than 35 recipes
• More than 200 different types of mycelium applications
• Production of organic spawn (large batches on certain recipes only)

We are the only spawn company in the world which offers such a broad choice of strains, species and applications.

We also teach people how to grow fungi.

Since 1991 and until 2021, we trained thousands of people from more than 100 countries.

We teach three levels: basic, advanced and expert.

In 2021, the trainings were sold to the Mycelia Academy or MyAc. We remain closely involved, but both are now independent companies.

And finally, we innnovate since 1979. If you work with fungi, you are probably using our innovations daily, even without realising it.

(By the way, did you know this is the world’s first webshop for industrial spawn?)

Yes, we do.

We call these 2nd or 3rd generation “mother spawn”. You can find them in the shop.

Just go to your selected mushroom species and select your product from the dropdown menu.

If you cannot find it online, it is not a standard product.

Are you in need of a special species which you cannot find in our webshop? No problem, we can make you a price offer. If it is filamentous fungi, we can make it. Contact our R&D department for a quote.

In our production site in Deinze, Belgium.

We only have 1 production site, which we share with our sister company Sac O2. In 2021, we use around 5000 m² of indoor surface.

We are planning our next expansion in 2024. We will build the Mycelia Academy and a post-processing facility.

No, we do not grow or sell mushrooms.

No, we do not sell mushroom substrates.

But we have a network of excellent substrate producers in Europe.

This is a website for professionals.

If you’re a hobbyist, you can place orders with us, but we are not always your best option.

It is often better to order directly from one of our partners who are resellers for hobby customers.

They can provide you with appropriate services and an offer tailored to your needs.

Yes, if you want to be a reseller for hobby products.

Just get in touch with us and show us your business case.

No, if you want to be a reseller for professional products.

Our exception to the rule is Urban Farm-It (UFI), who is our exclusive distributor for most of our professional products in the UK Territory.

Yes, we do.

We work with local distributors of hobby products, of which you can find a list here.

We also have one professional distributor: Urban Farm-it (UFI), who imports and distributes our products within the UK.

All other professional products are shipped worldwide directly from Belgium.

The previous edition in 2018 was definitely a success. Curious? Check the WoodFungi website or our WoodFungi Conference Facebook page.

There is a very good chance that we will launch another edition together with our partners. This sounds very promising, but we cannot yet make any guarantees about dates, location, partners or format. One thing is for sure though: if a new WoodFungi follows, we will let you know!

We use a number of maintenance techniques of which deep freezing (at -80°C), subculturing and cooling (at 1-2°C) are the most important.

Yes, you can. 

We only make the time for a phone call with our regular customers, or if you have an important issue that needs to be discussed on a personal level.

This is because we are not a huge company and we are limited in the amount of services we can provide. We simply cannot have telephone conversations with everyone.

Thankfully, you will find many answers to your questions on our website and in our frequently asked questions! And if you are really in need to some proper support, we advise you to book a short consultancy with us.

Our website is in English, but we can communicate in at least 7 languages.

We speak three official languages in Belgium: Dutch, French and German. On top of that, we speak Spanish, Italian, Russian and some Portuguese.

But English is worldwide the most used language for written communication. Since we have customers in more than 100 countries, we had to make a compromise.

We are sorry that we cannot accommodate you in your own language on this website, but there is a limit to what we can do. We can regularly update our website in one language, adding extra languages is too much of a challenge at this point.

It is the same story for our newsletters and social posts. At the moment, we do not have the possibility to create everything in other languages.

Thank you for your understanding.

Sure, you can.

Just go to this page and submit your application.

Sure, you can.

Just go to this page and submit your application.

Each year we accept students for an internship. We only have 1 position available at any given moment. We are open to applications from passionate students from the whole world.

We try to see our customers on a regular basis. But with thousands of customers around the world, this is impossible. Fortunately, there are the following occasions where we can meet:

• In 2018, we organised the WoodFungi Conference in 2018, and who knows, we may yet organise future editions. That would of course be a unique opportunity to meet our team.
• We meet a lot of professional that join us for a training at our production site.
• Each edition of the triennial Mushroom Days fair in the Netherlands we host a booth.
• We have a booth at the Horticulture fair Greentech in Amsterdam.
• Whenever there is a larger event in the world of mycelium, exotic mushrooms or research on them, we try to be there to meet you.

We do indeed have an email list, and you are most welcome to sign in. Just subscribe here.

If you’re a mushroom or a mycelium professional, you will find our emails very useful. We take great care of our emails. We share valuable information about our sector on a regular basis, because this is part of our mission. Our emails also keep you updated on price changes and special offers, dates of new courses, lectures and fairs.

And no worries: unsubscribing takes only one click, anytime you want. We will always respect your choice.

We do indeed have organic spawn with Ecocert European produce certification, but there are limitations.

The limitations are not a question of species, or strain. It is a question of quantity and recipe.

Quantity

In order to produce organically, we are limited to full batches, otherwise we cannot do it. One full batch is a minimum of 150 5-liter bags.

Recipe

We are limited in the raw materials we can stock organically. for example, we may only have barley, some rice and some millet/woodchips mix in stock. We cannot produce our regular recipe on organic raw materials. Usually, we will buy organic raw materials after consulting with you.

Price

Organic production will typically be 10-25% more expensive, depending on the quantity and recipe.

We do produce organic spawn on a very regular basis. Typically, we produce these for:

• People who use our spawn as raw material for neutraceutical purposes, for example Cordyceps, Hericium, Ganoderma and others.
• Seasonal applications such as morel

In conclusion:

It is not possible for you to order “5 bags of organic spawn”, but it is possible to ask us for full batches, certified organic and gluten free.

Look no further, you can just order them online in our webshop.

To make things easy for you, we offer them in for a very large number of production strains and in 2 volumes:

• 500 ml for fermentors and spawn inoculation
• 15 ml for spawn inoculation – only available for large orders of 20 pieces or more. Email us for more info.

You can easily order them by going to our website and selecting your favorite strain(s) in our webshop. Once you found your strain, select the option “Mother spawn – Large syringe”.

Cannot find your product on our website? Then we do not have it in our standard offer. Send us an email on info@mycelia.be and see if you can convince us otherwise 😉

NOTE: We do not sell Microboxes of 500 ml anymore, we had too many problems with shipping.

Click this link to check out our video manual.

Note: we can also produce larger batches of 250 litres in our mobile fermentors. Contact our R&D team if you would like a quote.