Included in Your Package
What You’ll Need
How to Use Your Grow Kit
Where to Put Your Mushroom Grow Kit
Mushrooms need four things to grow successfully: Light, humidity, warmth, and fresh air.
- LIGHT – For best results, place your kit somewhere indoors, such as a kitchen counter that gets light during the day and darkness at night. Typical indoor lighting works well.
- HUMIDITY – Preferred humidity levels are created by regular misting and the humidity tent provided.
- WARMTH – The ideal temperature for mushroom growth is between 13°C and 24°C.
- FRESH AIR – Make sure your mushroom kit has lots of fresh air and is not cooped up in a cupboard or closet.
How to Set Up Your Kit (Under 5 Minutes)
- Open your mushroom kit. Remove the plastic triangles, instructions and misting bottle from the box. The white material in the bag is mushroom mycelium growing on “hardwood substrate”.
- Use a clean knife to cut along the black “X” marked on the bag.
- Make a roof using the lid flap by resting it on the top inside-front of the box (See diagram below). Tape the included plastic triangles to the top sides of the roof. This creates a “humidity tent” that you will be able to open and close for misting. (Tape not included)
- Fill the misting bottle with tap water and spritz the grow-bag plastic and insides of the humidity tent until lightly dampened.
How to Grow Your Mushrooms (Up to 4 Weeks)
- Continue misting the mushroom kit twice a day. Use about a half-teaspoon of water per misting session, which is the equivalent of 15 – 20 spritzes from the provided misting bottle.
- Keep an eye on the “X” cut in the bag. In approximately 2 weeks, the mycelium will form baby mushrooms called “pins”. Ignore any “pins” which may grow in other parts of the bag away from the “X”.
- Once these “pins” have formed, remove the humidity tent by opening the box lid to expose the mycelium block. After “pinning”, the mushrooms will grow at a faster pace and should be ready to harvest in 4 to 14 days.
- Continue lightly misting the baby mushrooms twice daily. For Lion’s Mane Mushrooms, mist around your baby mushrooms, but not directly. Direct misting can cause yellowing/browning damage to Lion’s Mane Mushrooms.
How to Harvest Your Mushrooms and Prepare for the Next Flush (Under 5 minutes)
Oyster Mushrooms are best harvested before the mushroom caps start to flatten. They are in their prime when the caps are large but still smooth and round. Phoenix Oyster Mushrooms tend to some large clusters of smaller mushrooms and their caps sometimes curl upwards prematurely. Harvesting Phoenix oysters as the caps are curling works well for timing.
Lion’s Mane Mushrooms will start to form “hairs” as they reach their full size. Once the hairs are 3-4mm long, the Lion’s Mane Mushroom is in its prime and ready for harvest.
- To harvest, simply grab the cluster of mushrooms firmly by it’s base and twist/rock it back and forth until it tears right off the block of mycelium. Clean the mushrooms by cutting off any hardwood substrate remnants.
- Remove any leftover mushroom material from the “fruiting hole” such as any pins which which have stopped growing. This will ensure a healthy follow-up flush.
- Bring forward the box lid and place the humidity tent back into the original set up position.
- The mycelium block will usually rest for around a week before it begins producing the next flush.
- Return to the “How to Grow Your Mushrooms” section and repeat. You can expect multiple harvests from each grow kit. Our mushroom kits average two harvests, but customers have reported up to 4 harvests per kit. Additional flushes are not guaranteed.
How to Dispose of Your Mushroom Kit
The substrate used to grow your mushrooms makes fantastic fertilizer. Remove the plastic from the mushroom kit, shallow bury the leftover substrate in your compost, raised garden bed or any other garden area of your choosing. There’s a good chance the mycelium will establish and continue producing mushrooms for many seasons to come!