DIY Mushroom GROW KIT

Each Bag Can Produce 2 to 3 Harvests: In total, 600 g of oyster mushrooms per bag, or 3 kg for the 5 bags. After each harvest, let the bag rest for 3-5 days before re-moistening it by immersing the bundle overnight in a basin of water.

To spread out the harvests, place some bales in the refrigerator or in a cooler room after colonization.

Precautions and Tips

• Work cleanly, wash work surfaces and your hands before starting.
• Be careful with slaked lime and wash your hands after handling.
• Temperatures influence mushroom growth.
• Use the mycelium quickly or store it neatly in the refrigerator.

Mycelium objects?

You can also test the “ mycomaterials ” mode to make mycelium objects by choosing the “reishi” variety. More information on our tutorial on mycomaterials .

Precautions:

• Work as cleanly as possible: wash work surfaces and your hands before starting.
• Lime, although slaked, can be irritating to the hands. Avoid direct contact or wash your hands immediately.
• Times may vary depending on temperatures. Cold slows down the metabolism of the fungus, which can influence the distribution of harvests.
• It is recommended to use the mycelium all at once. If you still plan to use it several times, be sure to work cleanly and close the bag tightly after use. Store it in the refrigerator and use it within 2-3 weeks.

Important Note: Most mycelia are produced to order. Depending on available stocks, delivery time may take 1 to 3 weeks.

Educational Pack:

You want to organize an activity with your students or children about mushrooms, this is the perfect kit.

Educational goals

• Understand what a mushroom is and its role in nature.
• Explore the life cycle and metabolism of mushrooms.
• Discover the different kingdoms of life and the classification of mushrooms.
• Raise participants’ awareness of the importance of fungi in ecosystems.
• Identify the main families of mushrooms.

Discussed subjects

1. Definition of a Mushroom
   Understand that the mushroom is the fruit of a mycelium, and not a plant.

2. Mushroom Metabolism
   Study how mushrooms feed and grow.

3. Mushroom Reproduction Cycle
   Observe and explain the stages of mushroom growth.

4. Reigns of the Living
   Locate mushrooms in biological classification.

5. Ecological Role
   Discuss the importance of fungi in ecosystems, as decomposers and symbionts.

6. Families of Mushrooms
   Discover the characteristics of the main families: Basidiomycetes (like oyster mushrooms), Ascomycetes, and Zygomycetes. Understand the differences in functioning between saprophytic, symbiotic and parasitic fungi.

Mushroom Science Project Ideas for Kids

• Compare Environments

Obtain two mushroom grow kits of the same type and slightly modify their growing environments. The main factors for mushroom growth are humidity, light and air flow. You can try changing the amount of humidification a kit has, changing the amount of sunlight a kit receives, or changing the amount of airflow a kit has. The kit that receives different conditions is the experimental kit. Keep the other kit in ideal conditions as a control and watch what happens! Remember, only change one factor at a time to get the best data possible! Does this change the number of mushrooms that grow? Does this change the distribution of mushrooms on the block? Do the mushrooms in the experimental kit look different? Record your observations!

• Describing and Identifying Mushrooms

Although you already know what type of mushrooms your kit will grow, you can work on the mushroom identification process using your kit. Photograph or draw your mushrooms through the different stages of growth, and demonstrate how to use the following techniques to identify mushrooms:

Look at the mushroom: What color is the cap? How is the foot formed? Is the hat convex, flat, conical?

Look under the cap for spore-producing structures. Does the fungus have lamellae, pores, or teeth? Does the fungus have warts, a veil, a ring?

Touch the mushroom: Is the top of the mushroom cap smooth? Velvety? Dry ? Scaly? Is the foot (or stipe) downy or fibrous?

Smell the mushroom: Many mushrooms are identified by their smell. These smells may be the normal mushroom smell that we are all accustomed to with button mushrooms, or they may smell rotten or like almonds, or even like cinnamon.

• A spore print

Remove the stem from the hat and place the hat gill side down on a sheet of paper. Some mushrooms (like shiitake) produce white spore prints, so you may want to make one on white paper and one on colored paper. Cover the mushroom caps with a bowl or other lid to prevent drafts from moving the spores and leave them for a few hours. After waiting, you should be able to carefully lift the mushroom caps and see the spores left behind on the paper! Mushrooms leave spore prints of many different colors, so it's a useful technique!

You can also find a wild mushroom (during fall or spring) and compare your observations between your home grown mushrooms and wild mushrooms! Please note: Wild mushrooms should never be consumed without 100% positive identification!

• Reproduce the mycelium

Take a nice piece of mycelium and mix it with different substrates such as coffee grounds, pasteurized straw, cardboard, wood shavings, etc. See how to react and how the mycelium manages to colonize or not these different environments.

• Observe under a microscope

If you have a microscope, you can observe the "hyphae" (filaments of the mycelium), or the spores of the mushroom. Compare with other varieties of mushrooms collected in the wild for example.

These are just a few ideas for mushroom science projects; use your imagination! Be curious! Ask questions, and see if your mushroom growing kits can help you answer them! Mushrooms have much to teach us about their life cycle, their ecosystem, and the global environment. But above all, have fun!