Shiitake

Freshly harvested shiitake mushrooms taste fantastic and are healthy. With our grow kit, it’s really easy to grow lots of delicious mushrooms in no time!

You can harvest up to one kilo of fresh mushrooms per kit or refill pack. Once you’ve bought the kit, you only need to buy the substrate blocks; the base, growing bag and clip are reusable.

The kit consists of:

• 2 x mycelium blocks in a carry bag
• 1 x stand
• 1 x special bag, ‘cultivation bag’
• 1 x sealing clip

If you only harvest the largest mushrooms, you can harvest more than 1,000g of fresh shiitake mushrooms from the two mycelium blocks combined over two growth cycles (Please note: the yield is not guaranteed, but anyone following the instructions should be able to harvest more than 500g).

The refill set consists of 2 substrate blocks; the base, bag and clip are reusable, and the cultivation bag is washable. The substrate blocks can be stored in the fridge at 0°C to 4°C for a few weeks.

Instructions:

1. Place one substrate block in the carry bag in the fridge for later use. The ideal storage temperature is 0°C – but avoid frost below -2°C! It can also be stored for up to 3 weeks at 4°C–6°C.
2. Open the transport bag containing a substrate block and pour in water so that the substrate block is at least half submerged.
3. Place the substrate block in the water-filled transport bag (e.g. in the sink, washbasin or a bucket) so that it cannot tip over; and if any water does spill out, it will not cause any damage.
4. Leave to stand for 30 minutes, then remove the substrate block from the bag and place it back in upside down, so that the other side is submerged. Leave to stand for a further 30 minutes. After soaking, the drained substrate block should weigh 900–1000g.
5. Remove the substrate block from the transport bag, pour the water out of the bag, dry the bag and keep it for later use.
6. Open the growing bag, let in some light, place the base on the floor and lay the drained substrate block horizontally on the base.
7. Seal the bag with the clip and leave it in a place where there is daylight but no direct sunlight. Ideal temperature: 17°C to 23°C
8. As soon as the mushrooms start to grow (either straight away or within about 5 days), open the cultivation bag once a day, squeeze the air out and let fresh air in.
9. It is best to cut off only the largest mushrooms with a knife close to the stem, leaving the smaller ones to grow. To do this, open the bag and remove the substrate block from the bag by hand.
10. Once all the mushrooms have been harvested, remove the substrate block from the growing bag, wash out the growing bag and reuse it for the next block. Rinse the substrate block under running water, place it in the transport bag, seal the bag with adhesive tape and put it in the fridge.
11. For 5 days, take the substrate block out of the bag every day, rinse it under running water, let it drain and put it back in the bag. It can then continue to be stored in the fridge; if any green mould spots appear, simply rinse it again.
12. If you want it to produce mushrooms again, re-moisten the substrate block (continue with step 2)

Enjoy your meal!