Indoor Mushroom Growing Instructions (Lion's Mane; Blue, Elm, Yellow, Pink, and Tree Oysters)
Indoor Grow Kit Instructions
Welcome to the fantastic world of fungi! There’s a lot of information here to cover all of the bases, but simply put: you will need to provide a humid micro-environment along with fresh air to grow this kit to its maximum potential. *Exactly how well you create this environment will determine your mushroom growing success*.
- Please note that these kits come in a semi-dormant state. Depending on how long they’ve been in storage, they make take few days or more to show any activity. This is entirely normal and poses no problems for growing them out. It usually takes 3-7 days after creating your environment for the mushrooms to begin to grow.
- If you live on the coast or it's the rainy season, these kits will grow easily for you. However, if you are in the southern end of the prairies in dry January, you will need to provide a bit more care making your micro-environment for this kit to grow the massive amount of mushrooms it’s capable of growing.
- Note that there may be mycelium growing up the bag and out of the filter patch, or some liquid in the bottom of the bag. This is entirely normal and just what most mushrooms do in kits.
Kit Instructions: Our Goal is to Mimic Nature and the Environment Following Rain
Required materials: A spray bottle. Alternatively, if you live in a dry environment (20-60% humidity) and have a small desktop diffuser/atomizer/cool mist humidifier, you will find growing mushrooms quite easy. With a humidity device and a small “tent”, growing these kits is a breeze, even in dry environments.
2 Options (1. If you live on the coast; 2. If you live in a dry area (prairies):
1. Misting: best for humid environments. a) Cut a small 1" top corner off of the bag. Fold the top over to the back of the block (this will deflate the bag, which is what we want). Secure the flap tightly to the back of the block with an elastic; b) Flip the block on it's back cut an "X" into the label of the kit of approx. 1" x 1"; c) Mist the slit 2-6 times throughout the day. The goal is to keep the "X" wet at all times during the mushroom growth cycle. If you live in a drier environment, very loosely place a large clear bag or tote over top of the kit to decrease evaporation. Be sure to allow some air flow; d) continue spraying often and consistently until the mushrooms have grown out. Lion's Mane are ready to harvest when the "teeth" of the fungi begin to form (You'll know when you see it). Oysters are ready to harvest when the very small (1mm) leading edge of the mushrooms begin to curl up. To harvest, simply grab the mushrooms by the base and rip off of the block. After harvest, continue to mist often, as before, and within a week or so, more mushrooms will begin to form. Repeat until block has dried out, or the kit is spent and starts to grow mold. At this point, you can remove the plastic from the kit and bury it just under the surface in the outdoor garden (or other damp location). Mushrooms will often continue to grow out of the spent kits for a growing season. Spent blocks also make for excellent compost.
- This misting technique is effective if you live in an environment with a decent amount of humidity. However, if it’s winter and you have forced air heating, or live in a semi-arid area (dry areas of the prairies), it’s quite difficult to get optimal results this way. If you live in a dry area, we recommend option #2 or #3 for growing out this kit as most people have some sort of humidity device at home in these environments. Generally speaking, this misting method is wonderful for providing good air flow which helps grow beautiful mushrooms, but staying on top of consistent misting is quite challenging.
2. The Humidity Dome/tent and Diffuser: Best for Dry Environments. Essential oil diffusers, atomizers and desktop cool mist humidifiers generally have the same electronics and can be used to create a fantastic humid-micro-environment for this kit. Placing one of these devices inside of a large clear tote or large clear garbage bag along with the kit works wonders for growing mushrooms. Simply flip the kit on it's back and cut an "X" through the label about 1" x 1" and put the kit on the lid of the tote. Then place the bottom of the tote on top of the lid, and leave a few inches of gap for the kit to breathe. Just remember to keep a the device filled 24/7, and leave a large air gap for the mushrooms to breathe.
3. Get Creative: The goal is to provide consistent humidity without choking out the mushrooms. Many people have come up with many solutions that have surprized us and worked very well for mushrooms compared to the traditional misting technique for dry environments. Some examples of this are: keeping a wet towel wrapped around the kit on a plate near the kitchen sink; allowing the mist from a cool mist humidifier fall down and wash over the kit (this works exceptionally well), or even growing kits in the bathroom. Greenhouses also work wonders (as long as they don’t get too hot). Note that placing the kits on the ground outdoors under vegetable plants in a well irrigated garden is an easy way to grow these kits as long as there's no chance of freezing. Outdoor grown mushrooms cannot be beat for flavour and texture, just make sure you get to them before the bugs do!
Notes and tips:
- From customer feedback, the most common beginner “mistake” with these mushrooms is people end up providing a humid enough environment, however, they do not provide enough airflow (especially in the humidity “tent” with misting). In higher CO2 environments, mushrooms will stretch and grow long and skinny to escape this CO2, much the same way as plants grow tall and thin in low light environments. We refer to this as growing “leggy”. If they are growing this way, you can rip them off and “reset” the kit to grow mushrooms again, just like you would after harvesting. Though your yield may be slightly smaller, it's often best to restart long skinny mushrooms.
- If any green (or any funky coloured) molds form inside the bag before the mushrooms grow, please take a photo and send it our way, then dispose of the kit. We will absolutely replace the kit. It’s rare, and we use all due care, but contaminate spores will sometimes make their microscopic way into a kit before it’s ready to grow mushrooms. Usually from a tiny hole in the filter or bag, or in transport. In the words of a professor of biology from the University of Calgary, “spores happen”.
- This kit will not do well in direct sunlight. Also, mushrooms won’t grow in complete darkness either. The ambient light of a room with a window is plenty.
- 12-18C is the ideal temperature for growing these kits (except for Pink Oyster). They will often grow outside of these temperatures; however, they will do best in cooler temperature ranges. For Pink Oysters, they need tropical warmth, 18-25C+ is their ideal growing temperature.
- These kits can all be refrigerated until you wish to fruit them (except Pink Oysters). They can be stored for up to 3 months in the fridge. Do not refrigerate Pink Oysters as they will get stunted.
Our running goal is to provide you with the best growing experience and we put a lot of love into making these kits. If you’ve enjoyed entering the world of fungi and growing this kit, please give us a 5-star Amazon review, or a shout out on Facebook or other Social Media. In this day and age, it means the world to us! Thank you!!!