[HN Gopher] Magical Mushroom - Europe's first industrial-scale m...
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Magical Mushroom - Europe's first industrial-scale mycelium
packaging producer
Author : microflash
Score : 330 points
Date : 2026-02-23 07:43 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (magicalmushroom.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (magicalmushroom.com)
| readingnews wrote:
| Not sure if they were the first, or whatever, but this really
| seems like a breakthrough technology / methodology. How many
| cardboard boxes do we use a day? The mind boggles.
|
| Totally cool stuff.
| adzm wrote:
| This seems more like a replacement for Styrofoam rather than
| cardboard boxes, though it could certainly be used in places we
| already use cardboard inserts. But probably still need a
| cardboard box on the outside. Thankfully we can grow those
| too!!
| ekjhgkejhgk wrote:
| This isn't different from cardboard. This is made from
| mushrooms, cardboard is made from trees. The real problem is
| plastics.
| rithdmc wrote:
| Dell have been using mycelium packaging for a while now - 2014
| maybe? created in the US. Very interested to see this space go.
| ndespres wrote:
| Dell (and IKEA, and others) source from Ecovative who have
| been working on this for a while: https://ecovative.com/
| microflash wrote:
| Nice, thanks for the link. Somehow, this weekend I've gone
| into the rabbit hole of mycelium packaging, a completely
| new and interesting topic for me. Need to check this out
| before my fascination wears off.
| elil17 wrote:
| I don't think this is better for the environment than cardboard
| (if anything it is probably worse as a direct replacement for
| cardboard because cardboard already has a robust recycling
| supplychain). Rather, it is a replacement for plastic foam.
| 8-prime wrote:
| Looks really cool, though I don't know if the name is conducive
| to business. With just the URL I would not have clicked to see
| that the business is about.
| vages wrote:
| Any PR is good PR, I guess?
| Mordisquitos wrote:
| Ironically I only came to this HN post and clicked on the URL
| _because_ of the name. At first I misunderstood the description
| and thought they were doing industrial-scale packaging of
| magical mushroom mycelium.
| blackhaz wrote:
| That's a URL bait!
| AntiqueFig wrote:
| Yeah same, I'm kinda sad now it's only packaging.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| I thought it was going to be about robot mushroom harvesting
| and packing, a competitor to companies like 4AG and
| Mycionics.
| Pine_Mushroom wrote:
| Years ago I ran an ecommerce site for gourmet and medicinal
| mushrooms. We certainly had nothing to do with illegal
| mushrooms, but I liberally sprinkled the word 'magic' where
| ever possible. Also the words 'Ann+Arbor'... It seemed to drive
| some traffic.
| nhinck3 wrote:
| Going on a little PR adventure today are we?
| vintermann wrote:
| This site is run by venture capitalists, I think it's part of
| the package as long as they don't pretend otherwise.
| nhinck3 wrote:
| Yeah, I know it's just funny to see the coordinated effort
| across multiple sites.
| matsemann wrote:
| Or, someone saw it on reddit, thought it was cool, and
| posted here? Aka classic going viral event, without
| anything nefarious.
| microflash wrote:
| Indeed, I stumbled upon it this weekend while searching
| for something completely unrelated. Thought this was neat
| stuff to share on HN.
| larodi wrote:
| how's this Europe's given factories (and all likeliness all else)
| is in UK?
|
| https://magicalmushroom.com/manufacturing/the-factories
|
| geographically, perhaps, not EU though. and not relevant to EU
| where there are at least several similar companies such as
|
| Grown.bio - Netherlands PermaFungi - Brussels (New 1,400 m2
| factory) RongoDesign - Romania Biomyc - Bulgaria
|
| perhaps more. So this title is super misleading - not first, not
| Europe's, but perhaps UK's
| bromuro wrote:
| It's written in the linked page:
|
| "Europe's first industrial-scale mycelium packaging producer".
| ekjhgkejhgk wrote:
| > how's this Europe's given factories (and all likeliness all
| else) is in UK?
|
| You know that a company can own factories in other countries,
| yes?
| larodi wrote:
| So which company owns what, how about you read the homepage
| twice, and we can discuss the facts.
| rithdmc wrote:
| > geographically, perhaps, not EU though
|
| I figure that's why they said Europe's first industrial scale;
| not the EU's first industrial scale...
| rcxdude wrote:
| The UK is still in Europe, even if it's left the EU.
| netdevphoenix wrote:
| EU <> Europe
| oniony wrote:
| There are already companies that use packaging made from formed
| paper and sugarcane. I would be interested to see what mycelium
| packaging offers over this.
|
| E.g. https://www.jishan-group.com/pulp-products.
| cogman10 wrote:
| In the old days, wood shaving and even popcorn were the packing
| material of choice.
|
| The reason styrofoam is used is because it's cheaper (main) and
| it doesn't decompose when wet.
| jvm___ wrote:
| Molasses was cheap because it was the packing material for
| plate glass - which was only made in England. Place your
| plate glass in a barrel, fill it with molasses and you can
| ship it to North America. Just wash off the glass and you're
| good to go.
| Barbing wrote:
| That's wonderful so I want it to be true. Your comment is
| one of the top results on my search for more info!
| amelius wrote:
| Is it edible?
| fanatic2pope wrote:
| Maybe not by humans, but definitely by the various things
| living in your compost pile.
| orwin wrote:
| My sister worked as an intern on mycelium as fertilizer.
| Basically, using cover crops create a small mycelium layer that
| helps plant grow and reduce fertilizer use (by fixing nitrogen
| probably). Her job was to find molecules that would make the
| mycelium, and only the mycelium, grow quicker.
|
| That's a very interesting field to study, and it seems promising.
| fsniper wrote:
| Reading the first sentence have me a lot of " Last of us"
| vibes. I hope she's doing ok :)
| Joel_Mckay wrote:
| Sounds like a great product, but a tough name in a business
| messaging context. The Customer Acquisition Cost for people that
| missed business culture fit rules can be extraordinarily high.
|
| Maybe some sort of additional corporate alias name with
| "Biocomposite" or "Sustainable" packaging related messaging.
| Also, one may want to contact Uline with a set of product sku
| that already fit generic shipping boxes for high-value items like
| wine bottles and laptop screens.
|
| Have a great day =3
| xattt wrote:
| > Mushroom(r) Packaging, grown from natural mushroom mycelium and
| agricultural by-products ...
|
| Does anyone know the agricultural byproducts are?
| Bayart wrote:
| Certainly dung. A common substrate for growing mushroom is a
| straw or shredded wood depending on the species plus manure.
| Rooster61 wrote:
| Not certainly. A LARGE number of fungi grow just fine without
| manure. I think this is a common misconception since agaricus
| bisporus (portobello, bella, white, cremini, button) need it
| to grow well, and it is the most commonly human-grown fungus
| by a long shot.
| 0_____0 wrote:
| Most commonly grown? What, no love for yeast?!
| Rooster61 wrote:
| Ahh, true. Didn't think about that one.
| Mistletoe wrote:
| It says it is the woody core of hemp.
| londons_explore wrote:
| Sounds like a thing you could just make paper and cardboard
| out of directly...
| ac29 wrote:
| The hemp is part of the finished product, so its probably
| intentional they picked something so fibrous.
|
| Per the webpage: "The mycelium binds the agricultural waste
| together, so it can be baked into durable protective
| packaging"
| matsemann wrote:
| How is Mushroom something you can put (r) after?
| fluoridation wrote:
| Well, how is "Windows"?
| sowbug wrote:
| A trademark sets your brand apart from competitors. If your
| competitors are other brands of mushrooms, then "Mushroom" is
| too broad. But if you're trying to distinguish yourself from
| other brands of packaging, it might work.
|
| If it got litigated and I were the judge, I'd be concerned
| they were trying to abuse trademark to get patent-like
| protection. In the narrow packaging market, another mushroom
| packaging competitor would have trouble talking about its
| product without mentioning the word "mushroom" and drawing
| the ire of Mushroom(tm) lawyers.
|
| _Disclaimer: lawyer law blah blah_
| zukzuk wrote:
| Some mushrooms, like many oyster species, are saprotrophs and
| will grow on just about any waste organic material with enough
| cellulose.
| jcims wrote:
| Just a side note. I started growing mushrooms a couple of years
| ago.
|
| Very interesting and fulfilling hobby, they are incredibly
| interesting critters. Takes a little bit of dedication to get
| started but once you start seeing them fruit and making your own
| substrate it's quite inexpensive and a lot of fun. I have a
| feeling lots of folks in this community would really like it.
|
| Basic starter package is a 'monotub', selection of spores, grain
| for spawning, substrate for fruiting and miscellaneous bits and
| bobs for handling, hydrating, maintaining temps and cultivating.
| North Spore and Midwest Grow Kits are both reputable and reliable
| suppliers.
|
| Tons of resources on YouTube as you might expect. One of my
| favorites is Southwest Mushrooms -
| https://www.youtube.com/@SouthwestMushrooms
| SebaSeba wrote:
| A thing I've been wondering, I might be completely lost in
| thinking about this, but do you know: If you grow mushrooms at
| home is there a risk that it spreads as kind of fungi to the
| building, furniture etc.?
| foobiekr wrote:
| Mushrooms are everywhere. There used to be a subreddit of
| "weird mushrooms" like growing out of people's couches or in
| the bathroom, etc. In all cases, this is a sign of rot due to
| water intrusion.
|
| You can grow mushrooms at home, it is fun. The only risk is
| that the mushrooms with high spore production are not great
| to have in a closed residence, especially oyster mushrooms
| which produce very high spore loads. There are vendors who
| produce cultures of sporeless oyster which can be used to
| grow oyster mushrooms indoors.
|
| Outdoors, at least in most temperate areas, you are limited
| to things like shitake on logs or winecaps. The latter are
| incredibly easy to grow, and very good taste wise, but they
| are temperamental and basically grow on their own schedule,
| infrequently.
| steelbrain wrote:
| For the curious: https://www.reddit.com/r/mushroomID/
| ksymph wrote:
| Nope. Edible mushrooms generally need similar conditions as
| mold/mildew/rot to grow, i.e. moisture, low light, and the
| right material -- though they tend to be pickier, and are
| less suited to human-adjacent conditions. So if you find
| mushrooms growing where they shouldn't, there's a much deeper
| moisture and mold issue.
| KarlKode wrote:
| Normally the risk of airborne spores taking over your growing
| material is much more likely than your (most of the time very
| selected and in no way adapted to the "normal" surroundings
| you try to grow them in) taking over your home. Keep in mind
| that almost all fungi like similar conditions and there are
| already loads of spores of fungi that are more adapted to
| your living conditions in the air.
| jcims wrote:
| I agree with the replies so far in that there isn't a major
| risk of the mushrooms spreading.
|
| That said, it's not _completely_ risk free and I think it 's
| important for folks who decide to get into the hobby at least
| take a moment to think about it. If you have someone in the
| household that has respiratory issues, I think it would be
| worthwhile ensuring that you have good containment to prevent
| spores from circulating the home (or do it elsewhere). This
| is particularly true if you decide to scale up (which is
| natural once you have some success, it truly is fun).
|
| Also the growing environment is subject to infection from
| whatever environmental molds/fungus/etc are around, so
| reasonable precautions should be taken when
| handling/disposing. Once you get your procedures down this is
| less of an issue but still something to keep in mind.
|
| Personally I didn't do anything but very basic precautions
| and never had an issue.
| idontwantthis wrote:
| Is there any risk of wild, potentially dangerous, mushrooms
| colonizing your garden?
| 0x1ch wrote:
| I imagine it would require the bad spores to be carried with
| the good ones. Typically you get a slurry solution that you
| carry in distilled water, injecting your substrates. That
| would need to have the bad stuff in it as well.
| idontwantthis wrote:
| Don't they float in the air?
| 0x1ch wrote:
| Wild spores and such yeah. When you purchase spores for
| the intent of growing them, you generally get a kit to
| mix them into a syringe or they already arrive in the
| syringe ready to be used. I tried growing some culinary
| strains and they generally come in the mail like that.
| aram99 wrote:
| only spores I think
| foobiekr wrote:
| There is always a risk of things like this. For example, to
| make my winecap bed, I had to get a bunch of woodchips. There
| is no way woodchips that one will buy in bulk are not
| contaminated with the spores of other wood-eating fungus.
|
| What you learn is how to positively identify the mushrooms
| you intend to produce/eat. It doesn't take long. I've only
| had alien mushrooms show up once.
| Barbing wrote:
| Do people ever try to irradiate or fumigate or however
| they'd treat the woodchips?
|
| Maybe it would cost 10 times as much as the wood chips
| themselves... small batch spore bakeoffs...
| fodkodrasz wrote:
| Adding poisons (fumigation) is definitely not a good
| idea. In mushroom plants the compost/humus used to grow
| mushrooms is often steam boiled to sterilize it, to keep
| the yields high and the production safe from any
| dangerous contamination. It is seeded with the spores of
| the desired species afterwards.
| dnautics wrote:
| you could probably autoclave it with a standard
| dental/tattooing autoclave (~500 USD and requires a gas
| stove)
| eMPee584 wrote:
| "I've only had alien mushrooms show up once" gonna be my
| reassuring quote of the day, thanks : )
| tlavoie wrote:
| On the other hand, the morels that seemed to come with a
| load of wood chips were great for the year or two we had
| them.
|
| I tried growing a little wine cap bed once, and it hadn't
| gone well. Perhaps it was the chickens pecking at it, can't
| say. I do still get wine caps on occasion, but they have
| migrated to more far-flung parts of the yard.
| convolvatron wrote:
| what do you use as a low-cost substrate? I think this would be
| something I'd be into, but the idea of buying 5lb bags to be
| delivered by UPS really kind of takes the magic out of it.
| Flashtoo wrote:
| Coffee grounds
| holly01 wrote:
| Coco coir is very cheap and is what I use. If you want more
| of a project, you can make the inoculation jars and sterilize
| the grain yourself. That way you'll be taking a spore/liquid
| culture syringe from a tiny blob of mycelium to a whole
| network of fruiting bodies. Doing that will also be much
| cheaper in the long run if you stick with the hobby
| lemax wrote:
| Mycelium has been shown to colonize some of the most
| unexpected substrates - cigarette butts [1], sawdust, you
| name it.
|
| https://circulareconomy.europa.eu/platform/en/good-
| practices...
| jcims wrote:
| Certain species do better in different substrates, but for
| the ones I've grown coco coir (also suggested by holly01)
| works great. There are some additional bits you can add to
| improve results but it starts there. You can hydrate it with
| hot water in a 5 gallon bucket. There's lots of tutorials on
| YouTube.
| markvdb wrote:
| Depends on the species. For something easy to grow like
| oyster mushrooms, straw. Do decontaminate the straw. Cooking
| water or hydraulic lime water should work for that.
| holly01 wrote:
| +1
|
| I started a few months ago and it's a great hobby. It's like
| low maintenance gardening that you can do all indoors. It's
| very satisfying to watch something grow. I think my only
| reoccurring cost is the coco coir I use as a substrate and the
| wheat berries, which are both very cheap.
| jcims wrote:
| Couple of pics of lions mane and pink oyster that I had sitting
| around - https://imgur.com/a/ubI3eWt
| intrasight wrote:
| I like the web site. Using on mobile. Not as bland as most. I
| normally don't like animation but this one is done nicely.
| cachius wrote:
| Nice, similar to https://www.traceless.eu who are pioneering
| biopolymers from grain residue, fitting into existing machines
| and workflows.
|
| They already supplied famous Rock am Ring festival with
| friespickers last year!
| kepano wrote:
| There are a few companies in this space, notably Ecovative, who
| have been trying to make mycelium-based packaging for almost two
| decades.
|
| The problem is that it takes around 7 days for each piece of
| packaging to "grow", and the finished part is heavy and not
| compressible so it adds significant cost in manufacturing,
| storage and transit. And these costs don't get any better with
| scale.
|
| For those reasons, mycelium packaging hasn't seen much adoption
| beyond being used as a marketing story for high-priced small
| goods. Environmentally forward companies have tended towards
| paper-based solutions like molded fiber.
| mrsvanwinkle wrote:
| Like real mold on fiber or
| ThePowerOfFuet wrote:
| No. Think what egg cartons are made of.
| Tepix wrote:
| Heavy?
|
| Two packages made from mycelium can behave very differently
| because "mycelium composite" is a category, not a single
| recipe. Particle size, fibre content, and the ratio of
| substrate to mycelium all change density. Higher density
| generally brings higher compressive strength and better edge
| definition, but it also increases weight and can reduce the
| springy cushioning that protective packaging needs.
|
| Source: https://dirobots.com/en/mycelium-strength/
| Barbing wrote:
| Sounds like this might be your area of expertise. For the
| rest of us, take a shoebox. How much ballpark extra weight we
| talkin' to have a livable planet? (Maybe the mushrooms would
| be ~2x as heavy as standard shoeboxes for example, to meet
| existing spec.)
|
| Or how about for the glasses box they show on the site in OP,
| or a plastic sleeve like Americans sell Oreo cookies in.
| Anybody have any guesses?
| Tepix wrote:
| I've done some experiments with mycelium as a construction
| material, but I'm hardly an expert. Mycelium weighs
| anywhere between 50 and 950kg/m3. Usually you won't have
| mycelium as thin as cardboard, because you want use
| mycelium as a 3d buffer, replacing styrofoam. EPS
| (styrofoam) has densities of 15-30kg/m3. So while it's more
| sustainable it's also heavier.
| Reason077 wrote:
| Biodegradable foam packaging, as well has food containers,
| disposable cutlery, etc, has also been made from corn starch
| for decades.
|
| I'm curious what the advantage of mycelium packaging is over
| these existing materials. Presumably, it's not cheaper to
| produce? Is it mainly that the mycelium degrades faster and can
| be recycled more easily in home composting, etc? Or is this
| about creating "hard" plastic-like packaging that resists
| crushing, water, etc?
| nine_k wrote:
| Theoretically fungi can live off sawdust, don't need plenty
| of light or watering, etc, so they _should_ be less expensive
| than corn.
|
| OTOH corn is highly optimized over centuries of breeding,
| harvesting, and processing. Fungi, not nearly so, so by now
| they may be more expensive.
| vicentwu wrote:
| cool
| khat wrote:
| Now if they can get a mushroom that eats plastic to use it as
| fuel to grow the mycelium that would be even better.
| vld_chk wrote:
| By which time should we expect US administration to post a video
| on X about "good classic" plastic bags and ban in the US any
| attempt to replace them? :)
| MaxwellM wrote:
| Very exciting!
| ripharamberip wrote:
| It sounds good but will this ever scale enough? Plastics are just
| so freaking cheap that anything that wants become a serious
| alternative (aside from being a marketing gimmick) needs to be
| very cheap. I honestly have my doubts but I'm excited that people
| are looking for alternatives
| throw567643u8 wrote:
| Truly green governments should outlaw plastic production and
| favour PLA bioplastics and this sort of thing. There's enough
| plastic in the ocean already.
| mikkupikku wrote:
| How flammable are these? I've seen mycelium leather substitutes
| before but from what I understand if even a single spark lands on
| it, it's likely to start a smoldering fire that will consume the
| whole thing. Basically the perfect tinder.
| Barbing wrote:
| What's a Class A Fire Rating?
|
| https://mushroompackaging.com/pages/technical-data
| __MatrixMan__ wrote:
| This seems like a nice stepping stone towards something cool, but
| having the forming happen at a dedicated facility seems to miss
| the point. The promise of this technology is that instead of:
|
| - make packaging
|
| -> ship to where product is packed
|
| -> ship to consumer
|
| -> ship to recycler
|
| you can:
|
| - grow packaging where product is packed
|
| -> ship to consumer
|
| - consumer composts it in their garden
|
| That is, the packaging should just make one trip instead of
| three. Hopefully they eventually figure out how to make kits so
| that shippers can just grow the packaging around the actual
| product. The hard part will be ensuring that the biomass used as
| feedstock (likely a waste product from some process nearby to
| where the product is packed) is actually something that people
| want in their garden. Doable, but maybe not the kind of thing
| markets can be trusted to do on their own.
| lofaszvanitt wrote:
| Are these packagings edible?
| TurkishPoptart wrote:
| I love this. I'm assuming the company is looking for government
| subsidy to replace plastic in frequently disposed plastic
| packaging (like takeout containers or styrofoam packing)
| woah wrote:
| This looks like those rough cardboard inserts. Is it actually any
| better? Especially since they can use the lowest grade of
| recycled cardboard.
| anthk wrote:
| Between Mycellium and intelligent networks communicating nodes
| and 'learning' (and solving mazes' and brain's microtubules with
| fractal frequencies, biology looks like advanced computing
| literally very ahead for its time compared to what we the humans
| were trying to achieve barey half a century ago.
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