Prices are accurate at the time of publication. When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.
Growing your own mushrooms is surprisingly simple (and satisfying). Here are the best at-home mushroom grow kits, according to experts. Amazon Mushroom-growing kits are easy, simple ways to grow your own mushrooms at home.
They can give you access to mushrooms you can’t buy nearby, like lion’s mane or pink oyster. We spoke to 3 experts for their tips on growing mushrooms and the best mushroom grow kits. Mushrooms grow in forests, meadows, and on trees — more surprisingly, they can grow in your basement or in a cool area of your home, too.
If you love eating mushrooms (and want more variety than what’s available at your local store), cultivating your own mushrooms may be worth your while. “The typical grocery store generally has one type of mushroom,” explains Gretchen Testa, amateur mycologist and certified forager in Georgia. “It doesn’t matter that [it has] three different names — cremini, button, and portobello – it’s all Agaricus bisporus in three different stages of growth.
” Testa loves growing and having a variety of different mushrooms accessible because she finds “growing mushrooms is both creative and scientific — every part of your brain is engaged while growing mushrooms. “Plus, you get rewarded for your time and care when it comes time to harvest. “I love growing all kinds of food — knowing how it’s been grown, what’s gone into it, caring for it, and the general enjoyment and pleasure of seeing it through to the end,” says Matthew Tutt, a hobby mushroom grower at Mushroom Growing, a resource for people to learn about growing edible mushrooms from home.
“It’s a fun, interesting hobby which gives you a really nice reward in the form of healthy, fresh food. ” Mushrooms in particular are very easy to grow at home. “[They’re] totally unlike plants and even seem other-worldly,” says Andrew Carter, co-founder and CEO of Smallhold, a commercial mushroom farm based in different cities like Brooklyn and Austin.
“You only need to cut the block and spritz it with water 2-3 times a day; you can watch them grow right in front of your eyes. “Are mushroom grow kits worth it?Growing mushrooms doesn’t require too many supplies, so if you’re curious about entering the world of growing edible fungi, consider trying your hand at mushroom-growing kits. “They’re usually a very good, easy, and fairly cheap way to get started,” says Matt Tutt.
“You won’t need any special equipment when you start off with just a grow kit. ” A kit gives you a chance to get a feel for what’s involved to cultivate your own fungi at home and figure out if it’s a hobby you want to pursue in the long term. More professional mushroom-growing can take a bit of trial and error, and many factors play a role to ensure success.
To skip right to the fun, Testa recommends “getting yourself a grow kit to enjoy cool-looking mushrooms without all the commitment. “The best part? “It will more or less guarantee that you will grow mushrooms!” says Tutt. “Many kits are aimed at beginners and the instructions are usually super simple; just add boiling water and place it in the right conditions.
“The 5 best mushroom growing kits, according to experts:A kid-friendly kit to grow oyster mushroomsAmazonOrganic Oyster Mushroom Grow Kit, available at Amazon, $30″Any gray oyster mushroom kit is good for kids because gray oysters or Pleurotus ostreatus are such aggressive colonizers of the substrate that they grow on,” says Tutt. This means you “usually always end up with a good flush of mushrooms from your efforts, [because] there’s nothing worse than trying to grow mushrooms as a kid only to find nothing actually happens!”A beautiful pink oyster mushroom kit that doubles as decorAmazonPink Oyster Mushroom Grow Kit, available at Amazon, $27. 99Pink oyster mushrooms grow quickly and are pretty to look at, too.
“With this particular kit, all you need to do is open it and then spray with water a few times a day to keep things nice and humid,” says Tutt. “Within a few days, you should start to see those mushrooms start to form!” A kit to grow fresh shiitake mushrooms on a log or treeField & ForestShiitake Plug Spawn Starter Kit, available at Field & Forest, from $20″This is a plug spawn kit – plugs [are] small bits of dowel, inoculated with Shiitake mycelium [that] gently get hammered into a wooden log or tree stump,” says Tutt. Bear in mind: Shiitake mushrooms can take several months before they will begin growing on the wood.
“This method requires more patience as it takes the shiitake mycelium a while to colonize the tree — but when it does, you should expect recurring flushes from the logs,” explains Tutt. “This is how shiitake have been farmed for many hundreds of years in Asia. “A lion’s mane kit for truly unique, multi-purpose mushroomsAmazonLions Mane Kit, available at Amazon, $29.
99If you want to grow a different type of mushroom that isn’t readily available at the grocery store or in the wild, Tutt recommends growing lion’s mane. These mushrooms are known for medicinal purposes and “not only are meant to be very nutritious, and tasty, but they look great too, like little pom-poms!” says Tutt. “The mushrooms have a taste similar to lobster, and in the wild, they’re quite rare, often protected according to the location that you find them.
” “Lion’s mane is a great mushroom to grow right on your countertop,” says Testa. Within a week or two, you’ll be ready to harvest lion’s mane mushrooms and have multiple harvests. “They boast a 100% harvest ratio meaning,” adds Testa.
“If you have a five-pound block, you should get five pounds of mushrooms. “A slightly more advanced kit for enoki mushroomsTaylor’s MushroomsEnoki Mushroom Kit, available at Taylor’s Mushrooms, $45 for 2 kitsIf you’ve grown one or two types of mushrooms, but aren’t ready to go beyond kits quite yet, Testa recommends enoki mushroom-growing kits. “They prefer cooler temperatures, but some strains can fruit in warmer conditions.
” Setting up your block is easy — just make sure to keep it moist by spraying it often. Each block usually produces around five pounds of mushrooms over the course of three harvests, if all goes well. Tips for growing mushrooms with kits”My advice is to keep your blocks at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, and in a space with good airflow,” says Carter.
“One of the most common issues we see are blocks placed right in front of cooling or heating vents, which is too extreme and can lead to them drying out. “”I recommend a mushroom kit where the grain spawn is mixed into its substrate as close to where you live as possible,” says Testa. “If you live in California and you buy from someone who lives in Colorado, no big deal.
“All in all, with these beginner-friendly kits, there shouldn’t be mushroom for failure. Read the original article on Insider.
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/guides/hobbies-crafts/best-mushroom-growing-kits
