How to Use Gourmet Mushroom Grow Kits from Fungi Ally

How to Use Gourmet Mushroom Grow Kits from Fungi Ally

Growing mushrooms with gourmet mushroom grow kits

Growing mushrooms is a really fun and interesting thing to do. Mushrooms are an excellent source of protein, have very distinct flavors and textures, and help to connect us with the natural cycles of the earth. The transformation of dead plant material into rich soil and basic nutrients happens because of fungi. The byproduct is delicious mushrooms which can be consumed for great nutritional and healthful benefits. Mushrooms also help plants grow more efficiently. Mushrooms breathe in the oxygen emitted by plants and exhale CO2, which plants need in order to maintain proper growth. There are so many different ways to grow mushrooms, ranging in difficulty and speed. One of the easiest and fastest is to use gourmet mushroom grow kits inside. lions-mane-grow-kit

How does Fungi Ally make mushroom grow kits?

Here at Fungi Ally we do all the nitty-gritty lab work to get the gourmet mushroom grow kits started. We mix sawdust with wheat bran and gypsum and wet it to 60% moisture content. After thoroughly mixing the substrate, the sawdust is placed into 6 pound special bags with filters on them. At this point we sterilize the bags so no other organisms will grow on the sawdust mixture. After the substrate is sterilized, it is moved into our aseptic lab in order to cool, and then inoculated with a small piece of mycelium of the mushroom we want to grow. We grow a variety of gourmet mushroom grow kits including lion's mane, oyster, chestnut and shiitake. Once the kits have been inoculated, the mycelium grows for about 4 weeks and then they are ready to fruit! This is when we ship them to YOU.

The benefits of using our growing kits

  1. We provide professional-grade kits. Our growing kits are so good that we have used them in our own commercial mushroom farm when we were fruiting thousands of pounds of fresh mushrooms each month. These kits produce high-quality, beautiful and delicious mushrooms like the ones you would find in your local gourmet food store.
  2. We offer an array of interesting strains. For the new mushroom farmer, our kits provide strain options so they can test their hand at whichever mushroom they believe will work the best for their home or farm. For the experienced mushroom farmer, our strain options provide the opportunity to test new strains at small volumes before investing in larger production from the start. It’s a great way to test out ways to evolve the mushroom farm.
  3. Our kits have been designed through research and development efforts. We have tested various substrates and strains to determine which combinations led to the best yields, the biggest mushrooms, and the tastiest harvests. This level of know-how is built into each one of our kits.
  4. Our kits come ready to fruit! You can begin as soon as your mushroom kit arrives in the mail. If you want to wait, you can put the kit in a refrigerated space for a couple of weeks before the fruiting will begin on its own.

How do you care for the grow kit?

Once you purchase a grow kit from Fungi Ally the next steps are very simple. With a shiitake grow kit, (seen at the top of the page) you remove the plastic bag and soak it for 4 hours. This increases the moisture content of the block so that there is plenty of water to support a full flush of mushrooms. With the oyster and lion's mane gourmet mushroom grow kits all you need to do is cut a small U or X in the plastic bag. The mushrooms will grow out towards the high oxygen environment. All three species should be kept out of the direct sunlight but in a well lit room. The most important factor for the next week is to keep the air around the grow kit moist. You can place the grow kits in a plastic tub with the top open or just leave them on your kitchen counter top. Be sure to mist them at least 2 times a day, to keep the air around them moist. After 3 or 4 days you will start to see baby mushroom fruit out of the kit. The next two days when the mushroom is still very small are the most important to keep the environment humid. After about 10 days the mushrooms will be ready to harvest. A shiitake block ready to harvest would look like this! After the first harvest off a grow kit, allow the block to rest; just sit doing nothing, no misting needed, for 2 weeks. The lion's mane and oyster will begin to fruit for a second time. The shiitake will need to be soaked for about 12 hours to initiate a second flush. Usually our gourmet mushroom grow kits will fruit 3-4 times before becoming spent. Once they are no longer producing, place them outside in your compost or garden to create rich beautiful soil. You can expect about 1-2 pounds of gourmet mushrooms to fruit off of our mushroom grow kits. These kits can even be grown outside during the warmer months if you don't want to bring them inside. All they need is some shade and a little bit of misting with a garden hose every day. oyster-grow-kit
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