6 Best Mushroom Growing Kits for Home Growers
Expand your garden into the fungal realm with mushroom grow kits that produce right on your counter or in your closet. Join garden expert and mycology enthusiast Logan Hailey to learn the best mushroom grow kits for home gardeners.
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Fruits, vegetables, herbs, ornamentals, and houseplants are the staples of any homestead. But what about fungi? Contrary to popular belief, growing mushrooms at home is easy and beginner-friendly. With a ready-to-go grow kit, you can get everything you need to inoculate outdoor logs, grow mushrooms in buckets, or harvest from a block right on your countertop.
These mushroom growing kits from North Spore have everything you need to get started, regardless of your experience level or circumstances.
Best Mushroom Growing Kits for Home Growers
Mycology is the science of fungi, which are the organisms that produce coveted culinary mushrooms. If you’re not the type to go out mushroom hunting in the woods, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how many safe, edible, and delicious fungal species you can grow right inside your home.
Instead of fumbling around with sterilizing substrate and inoculating with spores, these mushroom growing kits help you get started right away.
Organic Lion’s Mane Fruiting Block
Organic Lion’s Mane Mushroom Grow Kit
- Grows dense, shaggy mushroom clusters
- Versatile for cooking or tea
- Crab meat-like flavor and texture
- Ideal for confident beginner growers
- Benefits from high-humidity environments
If you want to harvest mushrooms as quickly as possible with minimal effort, this is the grow kit for you! Lion’s mane (Hericium erinaceus) is a popular culinary mushroom with shaggy, dense clusters in whitish-tan hues. The unique texture is likened to crab meat when cooked.
Keep in mind that this species needs extra humidity. It may not do as well in homes with low ambient humidity because lion’s mane are very prone to drying out. A humidity-controlled chamber or regular misting can help.
Organic Lion’s Mane ‘Spray & Grow’ Kit
Organic Lion’s Mane ‘Spray & Grow’ Mushroom Growing Kit
- Grows dense, shaggy mushroom clusters
- USDA-certified organic and reliable yields
- Supports brain health and wellness
- Produces multiple flushes with care
- Easy to grow with adequate humidity
It may seem strange to spray mushrooms, but this grow kit allows you to mist lion’s mane spores onto sawdust substrate to grow in any container you’d like. This countertop solution yields delicious crab-textured fruits that provide one to three flushes with minimal care. You can also use them medicinally as teas, tinctures, or dried spice blends.
Once you spray the spores on the sawdust block and they colonize the substrate, it will appear white and moldy looking. Don’t panic! The soft, white threads are mushroom mycelium, and it is perfectly normal to see them growing and expanding over the sawdust. Within a few weeks, the block will begin fruiting with delicious shaggy lion’s manes.
North Spore Organic Shiitake Outdoor Log Kit
Organic Shiitake Mushroom Outdoor Log Kit
- Complete kit for log-grown mushrooms
- Beginner-friendly and easy to use
- Includes 100 plugs of spawn
- Shiitake mushrooms with rich umami flavor
Mimic a natural forest and start growing shiitake mushrooms outdoors with an all-in-one grow kit for inoculating logs. Shiitakes are perfect for beginners and home gardeners because they colonize the wood relatively quickly. Better yet, they produce multiple flushes per year after the first year.
This kit includes a drill bit for drilling holes in the logs, sealing wax and an applicator, 100 plug spawn, and an instruction manual. The only thing you need to purchase is the logs themselves—hardwood like oak or maple is best for shiitakes.
Organic Shiitake Fruiting Block
Organic Shiitake Mushroom Grow Kit
- Produces rich, savory, umami mushrooms
- Generous flushes for confident beginners
- Medium-to-large light brown caps
- Requires consistent humidity for growth
- Ideal for tents or chambers
If you love shiitakes but don’t have the patience for outdoor log colonization, this fruiting block grow kit is ready to start producing within a couple of weeks. The pre-incoluated blocks perform best in humidity-controlled fruiting areas to ensure consistent moisture.
When the kit arrives, all you need to do is remove the blocks from the bags and keep them moist. Allow airflow to reach the organism as it continues to grow through the substrate. They provide continuous harvests as long as they remain humid and warm.
Organic Blue Oyster Mushroom Sawdust Spawn
Organic Blue Oyster Mushroom Sawdust Spawn
- Fast colonizer with bluish-gray hue
- Produces soft, meaty textured mushrooms
- Reliable for logs and containers
- Thrives in cool spring or fall
- Inoculates 20 logs per bag
For more versatility in your mushroom growing area, you can purchase spawn a la carte and use it to inoculate logs, buckets, outdoor beds, or other containers. This blue oyster spawn requires a sterilized substrate (straw is the most popular) or a wood log from aspen, cottonwood, or willow trees. Do not use hemlock, ash, or oak logs or wood chips as the substrate.
Blue oysters are richly umami with a meaty texture and unique blue hue. They pair well with most meals and are more cold-tolerant than other species. When growing outside, they fruit the most reliably in the early spring and late fall.
Organic Pink Oyster Mushroom Sawdust Spawn
Organic Pink Oyster Mushroom Sawdust Spawn
- Vibrant pink caps, tropical strain
- Succulent texture, savory flavor profile
- Thrives in warm, humid conditions
- Fruits prolifically in summer months
- Ideal for beds, containers, buckets
Inoculate outdoor beds or indoor containers with this pre-colonized pink oyster spawn. The bag of mycelium-covered straw is super easy for beginners to spread into buckets, bags, or garden beds. Pink oysters (Pleurotus djamor) are tropical fungi with stunning light pink or pinkish-red fruits that have a dense texture and savory flavor.
They require warmer temperatures and fruit most prolifically in the summer. This oyster is not cold tolerant and cannot be inoculated in logs, so you must use the spawn kit in warm climates or grow indoors.
