Grow kits help you learn the basics of mushroom growing; since someone else does the hard work of preparing the spawn and growing out the mycelium for you.
All you need to give them is water, fresh air, and lots of tender loving care.
You can check out one of these quality kits from Amazon.com. They have a good selection and fair prices.
First Flush
Mushroom Kit
Most mushroom grow kits arrive wrapped in a plastic incubation bag with a filter patch which allows the mycelium to breathe.
Not all mushroom kits come in the form of sawdust blocks. Some are simply mushroom spawn that needs to be “planted” in another material in order to grow mushrooms. Others are a bag of mycelium and pasteurized straw.
Mushroom Kits
A typical mushroom kit comes with instructions on growing a specific kind of mushroom that is easy to follow.
The instructions sometimes even include a helpful troubleshooting section in case you have a problem. Here’s what you can do:
- Leave the sawdust block still wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator for a few days.This is what mushroom growers call “cold shocking”, done to simulate fall temperatures and encourage the mycelium to produce mushrooms before winter.
- After 3 days cut the top off the plastic bag and place the bag and kit in a big container.
- Fill the entire thing with water, and weigh the kit down with some heavy dishes.
- After 24 hours remove the kit from the bag and container, let it drain a little, and set it on a table in the kitchen out of direct sunlight. Put a plate underneath it to catch any water
- These mushroom kits come with a “humidity tent”, which is a bag of clear plastic with small holes in it. Poke the kit with chopsticks so they would stick out and keep the tent inflated.
- Cover the kit with the tent and mist it with water a few times a day. Mushrooms will appear in less than a week.
Subsequent Flushes
Just as you’ll expect more than one flush if you were going through the normal production process, these mushroom kits continue to produce every few weeks for up to 6 months.
After a crop, the kit needs time to dry out and store nutrients for the next flush( for about 2 weeks)
After the kit rests it’s simply a matter of repeating the process over again, with refrigeration being optional. Soak it overnight in water, set up the humidity tent, and resume the misting cycle.
Mushrooms should appear within two weeks. As you’ll notice, the kit takes on a browner, leathery appearance as it gets older.
This is normal and harmless so don’t be alarmed. You can continue this process for months until the kit has shrank, darkened, and stopped producing mushrooms. After that you can put it outside somewhere in a compost pile.
Overall, you should be happy with your purchased kit if it was from a good source.
Mushroom kits make great gifts for both those just learning how to grow mushrooms and the advanced cultivator alike.
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