Mushroom grow kits are fun easy ways to learn about mushrooms and watch them grow infront of you eyes.
This kit is a 10lb bag where most other grow kits are around 3lb and $30, although 10$ cheaper you will get less than 1/3 the amount of mushrooms to harvest.
With this kit you can get about $100 worth of mushrooms!
All you do is cut the bag open, place in a tote and mist the walls of tote with spray bottle to keep the humidity up.
No special lights or any other equipment is needed.
It is that easy!
Mushrooms will start to sprout and grow to maturity over the next week. It's very fast! Note-Oyster mushrooms are twice as fast growing compared to Lions Mane but you can expect 3-5 harvests over the next month or two. More in depth details below.
About the Bag and Substrate
The bag holds a hard wood based substrate that has been hydrated propper levels for maximum mushroom harvets.
It is then heat steam sterilized for 24 hours to kill any compeditor molds/bacteria. Once it has cooled down it is taken into a special clean room lab where it is inncolulated with the mushroom culture.
The newly innoculated substrate is left to sit and coloise for about a week.
The white filter patch at the top is a .5 micron filter allowing for gas exchange so the mycelium can exchange and get fresh air without the bag taking in a bunch of competitor fungal spores/bacteria, which may result in a contaminated bag.
Growing Instructions
If not fully colonised yet (mostly covered in white with white mycelium) leave the bag somewhere untill mostly/fully colonised.
Lions Mane mycelium is much finer than oyster, meaning it won't look as white, or won't look fully colonised but it actually is.
Once mostly colonized cut a big X (3"x3") into side of bag and put into humidity bin such as plastic tote.
Mist the walls of your humidty dome just enough so there is a light coating of water on it. You don't want a pool of water collecting on the bottom.
Within 1 week small lions mane should form from the cut, OR often they don't grow from the cut you made, but instead at the top of the bag or near your cut.
Just cut the bag open wherever they decide to grow so they don't get squished.
Once they start growing they should be ready to harvest around 2 weeks
Harvest sometime after you see teeth shapped tendrills. (it's where the spores will drop from The longer you wait the longer they grow, and the Mushroom may get a bit larger as well, it is up to you when you want to harvest it.
After the harvest make another cut into the bag where the mushrooms were not growing before. Within a week or 2 you should see more mushrooms starting to grow, so again just open the bag up more if needed to allow them room.
After the 2nd or 3rd harvest you will want to rehydrate your block to get higher yield for next final mushroom flushes.
Some people say to soak the block in a bucket of water but, I recommend using a flavor injector syringe (can be purchased seperately with kit for $5) but can also be found at the dollar store. Just inject water everwhere into the substrate until the block feels heavier or stops absorbing the water.
Finishing The Grow Kit
After 3-5 harvests your block might start looking a little old and it's time to recycle.
Put your spent block in your compost, or mix into garden soil where it can give benefictial organics to your soil. There are so many benefits to adding this to soil, you can read more on this on the " Spent Substrate Compost Product" Page
Problems
Lions Mane does need as much fresh air as Oysters, but make sure the lid isn't on too sealed,
If it's too wet or humid in the bin the mushrooms can abort their growth or look funny. Little dry out periods in the bin are good and should eliminate this this, so again you might need to leave the lid off totally for a bit to allow a bit of a dry out period, but you don't want to too dry for days long which might dry out the mushrooms as they try and grow.
If 2 weeks have passed since you cut into bag and no mushrooms have come up, you can try cutting into the bag again and cut 1/2" into the substrate.
*Mushroom video instruction links*
These are the same links I use for Oyster mushrooms but all will work with Lions Mane too.
Another grow kit company, They have really good instructions and videos so make sure to check it this one out. https://growmushroomscanada.ca/mushroom-grow-kit-instructions/
A decent video for growing oysters but you don't need to cut holes in a bin, I feel leaving the lid on tight and cutting holes in the bin don't allow enough air in and you can regulate it better just by adjusting the lid more on/more off
https://youtu.be/YXsR_vgD_7o
Mushroom Tent
you can use anything for a humidity dome, even a plastic or paper bag
https://youtu.be/iJgmyqjrIHk