Get ready to grow your own beautiful, delicious mushrooms, right in your home! Open your kit and check to be sure that the mycelium has colonized the whole bag. It should be firm and completely covered in white. If there are still spots of dark brown substrate visible, give it a little more time in a warm place.

If your block is completely colonized, you are ready to go! Remove the perforated section and return the block to the box. Place it in a warm spot where you will see it and it gets ambient light. We usually recommend the kitchen counter! Fill your spritzer bottle with water (tap is fine) and use it to spray your block 2 to 3 times a day, giving it a couple of spritzes each time. This adds moisture and allows for evaporation, which is actually what causes the mushrooms to form!

Within a week, you should start to see little bumps, called pins. These are your baby mushrooms! At this point, only spritz the sides of the bag and the growing medium that is free of pins. DO NOT spray the pins directly!

If it is particularly dry in your home, you can make a little humidity tent using chopsticks or skewers and a produce bag! When you start to see pins, you can spritz the inside of the bag, rather than the block itself. Just remember that it is the evaporation that causes the mushrooms to grow, so don’t soak them!

Twist or cut the cluster off the block and trim off any of the growing medium that might stick to the base of the stems. Keep the mushrooms in a paper bag in the crisper drawer of the fridge. They will stay fresh for a week or so! Cook them in your favorite recipe and enjoy!

After harvesting, fold the cut edges of the bag back down over the block, and rotate it in the box so that the back of the bag is now facing the perforated cut-out. Allow your block to rest for a week or two. Cut an X in the exposed bag, start spritzing your block, and enjoy a second harvest! (the produce bag/humidity tent will probably help with this second flush!)

If you have any questions, feel free to send us an email! Have fun!

As the mushrooms grow, you will need to spritz them less often, just enough to keep the humidity up! About a week after you first see pins, your mushrooms will be ready for harvest! The caps will vary in size, but the largest ones should be at least 3 inches in diameter.