Forest Origins Brown Oyster Mushroom Grow Kit, Harvest Gourmet Mushrooms in 10 Days, Beginner Friendly, Handmade in California USA, Unique Gift

Forest Origins puts out a great Brown Oyster Mushroom grow kit and for such a small kit, it grows great sized Oyster Mushrooms and with only simple starting instructions. Here in Hawaii, from start to finish, it only takes 7 days to grow out the mushrooms. It takes 4 days to pin and from that point, 3 days do grow out and harvest. The key to growing Oysters is the right amount of moisture, humidity, lots of indirect light and lots and lots of air without drying them out.. Here in Hawaii we have lots of humidity. However, I've found that if I put the grow kit in a room that has a temperature that does not exceed 82 degrees, the mushrooms will reach their potential in size. In the beginning stage, I just place it in a clear Steralite 25 quart tote with the cover flipped upside down. This allows cracks on the top of the tub. This will provide the right humidity and moisture to get them to pin. During the day its next to a window where there is lots of indirect light. Once they pin, this is critical as the climate here in Hawaii makes them grow super fast and if you get lazy, your mushrooms will abort or not grow to their potential. Once they pin, I take the lid off the 25 quart Sterilite tub and mist them often. I crack the windows of my room to provide them with lots of air. At the pinning stage, the indirect light will make them grow stronger and faster and the air makes them grow larger caps. Oysters need Air to grow Large Caps. You might think you have enough air at first but it most likely won't be enough. With more air, you need to increase your misting to prevent them from drying out. However, once they form larger caps, they become more resistant to drying out. When you mist them, you mist them from far away and don't blast them so that water is dripping on them. Too much water can cause bacterial intrusion and could kill your mushrooms at this stage. I found that Oysters need this air and misting balance once they start getting out of the pinning stage in order to grow to their potential. First Origins has healthy mycelium in their grow blocks and the 3 I have bought so far, the first Flush for me is like a guarantee. They have a simple vid on YouTube for the set up. However, every home in every State is different. For me, I could not just put in on a counter top, I had to throw the kit in a Steralite tote to provide a good environment for them and in the coolest place in my house. They also have a good vid on Youtube for growing the 2nd Flush. The 2nd Flush is a bit tricky and after 2 fails on 2 grow blocks, I finally achieved a 2nd flush on my 3rd grow block. My 3rd pic shows a 2nd flush which will always be smaller and takes longer to achieve. My successful 2nd flush took 10 days from start to finish. 3 days of this was spent soaking the block in water. The reason for my fails was I did not recognize what the pinning looks like on a depleted grow block. It did not look like anything in the Forest Origins 2nd flush video. By the time I realized what was going on, the mushrooms at this critical stage of pinning aborted and turned into long sausages with no caps. For me, after soaking the block for the 2nd Flush, I did what the instructions said and wrapped the block in paper towels and misted the top where the original opening was. However, after 3 days I take the paper towel off the block at the first sight of very white Mycelium build up around the opening of the grow block. Catching this pinning stage at the right time on the 2nd Flush attempt is very critical. The only thing good about failure is you learn from your mistakes. Forest Origins provides a good kit. It's a bit pricey but with practice, will provide you with at least 2 flushes. I don't think this grow block has enough mycelium in it to give you a 3rd Flush. I'm trying to do that now but really have my doubts of achieving a 3rd Flush.

1week old,I cut hole bigger after started, think not supose to but still working,this 3 days since first picture,next day picture think ready to haverst since mushrooms curling up,what says when ready to harvest,finish and cook with onions and garlic, taste awesome,super easy to grow and eat your own muchrooms,was very fun,recommend you buy and try yourself,I will update after next flush and how it goes.i purchase a second brown mushroom and its fruiting great it's the 5th and 6th picture,I left the cut the size of the x and didnt do it like the first one and open it wider,I'll update the flush on first mushroom as grows ,picture of my second brown oyster cook in olive oil and fresh onion and garlic and again tasty. So easy do this,starting second flush on second mushroom plant,I'll inform updates on that one flush also,just started second flush on first mushroom,soon I'll have update picture on it

I have never tried to grow mushrooms. So, I really didn't know what to expect or what successful growth was supposed to look like. In spite of the research I did, I couldn't find this information. My first attempt at these brown oyster mushrooms was a bust. The first log started to grow, but the mushrooms dried up as they got larger. I probably didn't mist them enough, so this was my fault. For the second block, I followed the instructions of cutting the "X" in the growing bag and adding 2 tbsp. of water, but I also covered the "X" with a folded paper towel that I kept wet in addition to misting the "X" area.. After 5 days, I saw a multitude of baby mushrooms when I removed the paper towel to mist the substrate. This was so much different than what I saw for the 1st block. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd pictures show what the mushrooms looked like at 5 days. At this point, the baby mushrooms needed some light, but the humid environment must be maintained. So, I punched some holes in a gallon zip lock bag to allow air circulation, folded the bottom of the bag to make the area smaller, and placed it over the log. I misted the log and mushrooms and also the inside of the zip lock bag to maintain the humidity. So far this seem to be working. UPDATE 01/04/19: Rather than go through the various stages that I went through to salvage these two mushroom blocks, I thought it would be more helpful to consolidate my experiences with them. I have found these blocks to be extremely resilient in spite of my mistakes in supplying what they needed to grow. If you live in a dry climate or one that the winter heating dries the air, the blocks will dry out and the mushrooms won’t develop. This doesn’t mean that they are dead, but they only go dormant. If you submerge the blocks in water for 3-4 days, wrap them in paper towels and put them in a plastic bag for at least 6 days, they will come alive again. The problem at that point will be supplying them with enough humidity to keep the blocks moist and allow the mushrooms to grow. For me, this meant setting up a greenhouse that I could control the environment and maintain the required humidity. So far this is working, but it depends on how serious you are in growing mushrooms. If you don't plan to grow mushrooms in quantity, it is best to buy these kits when the weather is warm and the humidity is higher. Although growing mushrooms don't demand much, they do need high humidity, low CO2, and fresh air. If you live in a climate that is cold in the winter and the heat is on, you won't be able to supply what the mushrooms need to grow. If you cover the blocks with a plastic bag over them to maintain humidity, mist only the inside of the bag and not the mushrooms. By misting the mushrooms, you can actually drown them as the water may clog their pores. UPDATE 04/06/19: I have bought white, brown, and pink oysters from this seller, and have had problems with all of them. This is not to say that the problems have been caused by the kits I received. Alan has been wonderful in trying to help me find out what the problem is in my growing these oysters, and has gone out of his way in replacing the failing kits. I recently found out that peppermint essential oil kills fungi. I had been using this oil in the basement where my greenhouses are to discourage mice from digging my the flats that I grow veggies. I have since removed the diffuser for peppermint and have also removed my mint plants from my basement. I am now waiting to see if this makes a difference in the mushroom growth. Alan from the mushroom farm has been invaluable for help. He even consulted a mycologist to find out the reasons for my problems. I very much recommend the mushroom kits from this seller as they go out of their way to insure your success. I also believe that their mushrooms are very strong strains as they continue to come back in spite of everything I have put them through. UPDATE 05/03/19: Being tenacious as I am, I bought another brown oyster kit. Since I am growing them in a greenhouse in my basement, I didn't use the growers startup instructions as I had done before. I cut the "X" as indicated, but did not scratch the surface of the block or add the recommended tablespoons of water. since I found that previous block got too wet. After putting the kit in my greenhouse, I misted the top of the "X" twice a day, but not the substrate under the "X". The 11th pictures shows normal mushroom growth. In addition to the previous blocks getting too wet, I also learned that brown and pink oysters require warm temperatures of 75 degrees or more. Since the weather is warming here for Spring, the temperature in the greenhouse is now 73 degrees instead of the previous 64-66 degrees. I believe this has also helped the growth of these mushrooms. Hopefully, this flush does not abort as previous ones have. Although a couple of the lower mushrooms in the picture look like they have aborted, the rest look good at this point. If nothing else, many of the pictures in the review will show you what the mushrooms shouldn't look like. UPDATE 06/17/19: By increasing the heat and humidity in the greenhouse, I was finally getting a multitude of pins and some good growth on all of the oysters, including the browns. Still, they were all aborting before they got full growth. Since I had a few blocks of growing mushrooms in the greenhouse, I believe the problem was that I couldn't keep the CO2 low enough or supply enough fresh air. Growing mushrooms give off CO2 as they grow and without enough fresh air they eventually kill themselves. This process is similar to the yeast in bread. As the yeast grows to raise the bread, it gives off CO2 which is what causes the bread to raise. If you don't punch it down soon enough to release the CO2, the yeast will die and the bread will will not raise the second time. Since it is Spring here, I decided to put all of my oyster mushroom blocks outside in a partially shaded area of the garden that surrounds my patio. I surrounded each block with damp leaves from last Fall to keep the base of the blocks moist. We were getting some day in the 70's, but the nighttime temperatures often dropped into the 50's. All of the blocks started to get pins, so this disproves the temperature requirements found on the internet. We also had record rainstorms during this period of time, and none of the mushrooms drowned - in fact, they seemed to love it. When it finally stopped raining every day, some of the growing mushrooms started to dry up. So, I added a sprinkler on a timer that waters them every 12 hours for 90 minutes. This seems to be working. The 12th picture shows the harvest from one of these brown mushroom kits. The last 3 pictures show my mushroom garden with pink, golden and blue oysters. By growing them outdoors, I have harvested so many mushrooms that I have had to preserve them for future use. To preserve them, after washing of debris and cutting off stems, I steam them for 3 minutes, package them either whole or sliced, and freeze them in packages of 3-5 ounces per package. I take them out as needed and have used them in gravies, in omelets, and over steaks. Since they are already cooked, they should be only thawed and warmed or they may get tough. At this point, I have already frozen enough mushrooms to last us until next Spring, but there are still more growing from the initial blocks. In my opinion, growing outside is the way to go if you want more bang for your buck when buying mushrooms kits. I hope this review is helpful for your in growing your brown oyster mushrooms and that my suggestions are helpful to make your mushroom growing more successful. At this point, I think the pictures of the second block are what you should see from a successful growth. For most of us, this is a learning experience, so I hope my experience helps you to be more successful.

Received the product with the plastic bag leaking. After following instructions, no growth appeared, just a lot of liquid. At least I have the little spray bottle to use for other purposes.