Growing Organic Shiitake Mushrooms Indoors

A company called Whole Earth Harvest sent me one of their organic shiitake mushroom kits to review and I created the above video showing all the components that come with the kit and how to set it up.  Here is everything that came in the box:

This is the mushroom block itself.  I weighed it and it was just over 3lbs. when I started.  It is composed of wheat bran, maple saw dust, water, and cs-321 shiitake mushroom mycelium spawn.

Here is the mushroom tray and mat with bamboo sticks. The mat goes under the tray to catch any water that may drip from the sides of the plastic tent.

Here is the tent that goes over the block and a sprayer for misting the block.  The tent has holes through out to allow for gas exchange.

The kit came with instructions and even a bag of dried shiitake mushrooms.

The tray has 1/4 inch of distilled water in it and then the block is placed in the middle of the tray.  You then mist the block with the sprayer and cover it with the tent.  The kit is getting about 12 hours of fluorescent lighting each day but not direct sunlight.  The temperature should be kept between 62 and 70 degrees for the best results.  The block needs to be misted 2 to 4 times per day.

Here is the block after just 3 days.  It really took off fast!

Here is the block on day 7 just before harvest.  You can see the bamboo sticks holding up the tent.  There are holes in all four corners of the tray that the sticks go into.

Here are some photos just before harvest.  I probably should have harvested on day 6 but they did get a little bigger giving it the extra day.

RESULTS OF THE HARVEST

Here is the weight of the first flush of mushrooms. 1lb. 0.61 oz.  That is a lot of mushrooms!  They can be kept in the refrigerator in a paper bag to keep them fresh if you can't eat them all at once. I'm letting the block recover a few weeks before starting it again for a second flush of mushrooms.  I'll be updating this page when I start that.

Special thanks to Whole Earth Harvest for providing me with a kit to review.  It was very impressive!  I looked around the internet at other mushroom blocks and this is absolutely the best deal I have found.  If you'd like to order a kit or even just a block by itself here is the link: SHIITAKE MUSHROOM KIT