Back to the Roots Organic Mini Mushroom Grow Kit, Harvest Gourmet Oyster Mushrooms In 10 days, Top Gardening Gift, Holiday Gift, & Unique Gift

I have already purchased a second one and highly recommend these kits. I'll get that out right away and now the story. My younger sister is growing a garden on the property she shares with my 93 year old mother. Mother is having a harder and harder time getting from her house to the garden, but you can feel the urge to want to participate. I decided to get her involved in growing something I ordered "the kit" Aug 16. Then I got delayed in going to see her for over 2 weeks. It sat in the fridge, bottom bin until I actually got there. We soaked it and I said as I was leaving "do me a favor, spritz this for me and tell me what happens. Gotta go." and left it with her. YIKES Once she quit protesting my having dumped this on her, she spritzed daily and fretted all the time she was going to kill my shrooms. Less than 10 days later I was getting messages from her, what should I do, what should I do. I suggested she review the video since I couldn't get back there right this moment. Bottom line, she cut them when she saw they were shrinking. She cooked them and said they were delish and shes anxious to reboot the package. She did say the stems are tough. I said "Save them. I dehydrate everything and mushroom stalk powder does not bother me." If it doesn't taste good, it can go back into the soil in my garden... or the sister's garden. Moral of this story is: This is an ageless gift and is fascinating to watch. I have since ordered one for myself. It's not fair she's getting ALL the shrooms. ;-)

Got this mostly for personal creative mycelium projects but grew a full batch first to test it out. Really glad I did. The kit looks clean and put together right out of the box. Compact size makes it easy to set anywhere without taking up much space. Watering is simple, just mist it down and let it do its thing. Within a few days you can already see growth happening which makes it way more engaging than most grow kits I have seen. The mushrooms themselves came out looking great. Full white oyster clusters with that natural layered appearance. Ten days is accurate. The box held up through the whole growing process without any wear or deterioration which matters when you are misting it regularly. One thing worth knowing, my box was missing the instruction pamphlet inside. Went to the company website and found the instructions there, actually more detailed than a pamphlet would have been. No problems after that. Fun kit, fast results, looks great on a countertop. Whether you are growing to eat or using it for something more creative this one delivers.

This kit worked good for me, i am annoyed i didnt get any pictures. After it gave me one flush of mushrooms i kept it going hoping for more but no luck after about 2.5 weeks so i put it outside in a garden container and added some straw and after a few more weeks got one more flush. Still hoping i might get more but its been about 3 months now so we will see… now i did recently try another mushroom kit similar to this one and one reason i deducted a star from this kit is i could see that the new kit i have is superior to this one. The new kit i have comes with a little spray bottle for hydrating the block which is a much better way to do it (i recommend using some type of spray bottle if you buy this kit). Also the instructions are a lot more helpful giving a lot of good information which i feel is going to lead me to more success. I wish this kit had come with equally as good instructions. One thing that helps is the troubleshooting that covers many topics, plus it gives extra instructions on how to get success for more than one flush. It lets you know to resoak after the first flush and to even cut a new hole in the block and scrape back some of the mycelium. When you are done with this kit you can actually put it outside and cover it in wood mulch or straw and you might get more mushrooms if you keep it damp and occasionally add more mulch over time. You can also break up the block and sprinkle it around your garden, i know from experience this can lead to occasional mushrooms popping up plus this is beneficial to your plants/soil. To summarize this kit did work and gave me mushrooms but i do feel there is room for improvement based on my experience with buying a different brand.

Very pleased with this oyster mushroom kit. Mushrooms were already growing in 3 days by? 1st harvest on 7th day. 2nd growing is taking place now.

Be careful with this product. You are bringing a food source for contaminants into your home, so this product should not be purchased without a lotta research done beforehand on myco indicators and pathogens. I noticed many yellow blotches forming on the lower end of my block, what I believe to be Aspergillus flavus, a deadly mold if inhaled in large quantities. I went ahead and tossed it out due to these blotches taking over the bottom of the block. I know what mycelium piss looks like, and, those were not. I followed the instructions and read the advice on their website... Yet nature still beat nature in my case. Be careful "undoing food" with this grow kit because it may end up undoing you if you are not careful. I wish it had worked. A wonderful kit that needs a little bit of refinement, and warnings. Edit February 6 2017: My review was from last year! I have since gone through 3 mushroom kits and currently have one fruiting. I am hoping for a third harvest soon, and am just updating because I am so happy with the outcome of this kit and this company's customer service. Unfortunately, the first 3 did not work out. This company is really great though. If you are willing to put in the effort, they will work with you and send you another mushroom block, until you get a harvest! I had contamination issues up until the 4th block, which I believe is a combination of good substrate (via the company) and some methods they advised upon retrying. I'll say what I did here because I believe it makes it foolproof (as long as the substrate is good): -Make sure to put your soaked and ready block in a sterile area! -Sterility is the most imporant thing in in-home mushroom cultivation. Handy to remember when you want to harvest your mushrooms with dirty hands! Always keep it clean -Have a spray bottle handy! Make sure its clean, but these mushrooms really flourish with a good spray, especially if you are in a drier climate -Recommended by BacktotheRoots: put a big clean plastic bag around your block with plenty of holes punched in it, that is the ultimate way to keep the humidity levels at a prime 95-100% for mushroom formation -I personally soaked my block for 12 hours to give it really optimal hydration even though the box says 8. I think this is only good if you are in a drier climate, which would be any without the bag method^ I hope this helps. Definitely contact the company if you have any questions or just want some general advice. And watch their video on starting the block, it shows the proper standard procedure well. UPDATE MAY 11 2017: Changing my rating back to a one star. This company is just not a good substrate provider. I have been through a couple third party companies ordering mushroom substrate and this one is the worst of the two. The other company is extraordinary though and will send you a bomb kit for around the same price as the larger farm from Back to the Roots. They're called Fungi Perfecti. I emailed them about odd growths in the kit, and they said I had to remove the block from the bag (extra instructions) and cut off the odd growths (more extra instructions) to get a flush/fruiting of mushrooms. AND they said it will take several more weeks to grow. GREAT! They lie about the instructions and the time to flush. It's not that they won't replace the kit eventually, it's just that they lie about how easy it is to get it to grow. So, this kit just is not worth your time unless you have months on months to get whatever mushroom project you want to get started, started.

Admittedly, I'm only on step 1 of the process. So, if there are more comments along the way, I will be sure to come back and update. I just want to warn people that there packaging is very confused (I've included picture). It comes in a cute, package looking like an oversized milk carton from school lunch days. The picture shows the mushrooms sprouting from the side of the carton through the "growth panel." The instructions say (Picture 1): 1. Open Grow Panel 2. Soak Kit overnight So, I opened the grow panel on the side to find what looked like a plastic wrapped soil brick inside. Hmmm, next step says to soak the kit overnight. How? The brick panel was too big to remove through the growth panel. I went back and reread every word on the outside of the kit over and over again. Nope, it just says to "soak kit overnight." Hmmm, maybe the kit is waterproof. So, I start pouring water through the open growth panel. Nope, water just starts pouring out the bottom. It needs to soak overnight so there's no way it will hold water. I refer back to the directions on the kit. Nope, it just says to soak the kit. It just doesn't seem to make sense, but what other way to soak the kit. Maybe the kit carton is a special box that can hold up to being soaked in water. I saw no other option to soak it but to throw the whole carton into a bowl of water. As I stood there, I realized, there's no way this is a water proof box so I grabbed it up and headed off to google. A YouTube video popped up and....voila...there's a whole guide of details instructions in the box, but you have to open up the kit in order to find it. If only they mentioned that somewhere before or between steps 1 and 2. So, now my growth block is in a bowl of water and I'm airdrying my sad wilting carton and desperately hoping that it will dry back into shape in time for me to put my growth block inside. Horrible horrible directions. Just an easy thing to mention, that the kit is meant to be opened.

These are the most bizarre things you will ever see grow! When they start growing, everything looks kind of moldy like you've overwatered it and failed at the experiment.... however, the white moldy-looking bumps ARE the mushrooms!!! And they really DO double in size each day. I grow lots of things, but I've never grown mushrooms and they are amazing to see! It took about 7 days for mine to start pinning. Just when I thought I had screwed the whole thing up and it looked super weird, I realized I didn't screw it up, it was just tooo easy!! I'm posting pictures of the first day they started pinning and the VERY next day. The growth was astonishing to say the least. I have probably another week or so before they're ready to eat. If they suck, I'll come back and let you know. If I don't come back, trust me, they were very tasty. Try it and see for yourself!

Really fun and easy growing kit. I kept it in my kitchen and the mushrooms were ready to be used within 2 weeks. Unfortunately I went on vacation before using them and they were mostly dead by the time I got back. Great gift for a gardener of any age. UPDATE: I got another mushroom farm thanks to Back to the Roots. It was a resounding success this time and I'm currently working on growing a second batch. Here are some of the things I did differently that helped: 1. Using the mister. This new farm is the "original" size and included a mister spray bottle that the mini version didn't have. If you get the mini farm I would recommend getting a spray bottle to make watering the mushrooms easier/better. 2. Water more often. I kept the farm and the mister bottle with it in the kitchen. Every time me or my husband walked by we would spray the block to keep it moist. 3. Scrape the block better and cut the hole bigger. I used a knife to scrape the block, I left some white/unscrapped spots though and it seems that the mushrooms sprouted from these sections (the scrapped areas seemed to allow water to penetrate better and is probably what triggers the shrooms to sprout). Also, I cut the X bigger then I did last time because more surface area is better. 4. Harvest at the right time. I followed the recommendations and harvested the mushrooms when the tops started turning white and the edges are brown. I put them in the frig until I was ready to use them. 5. Save the block to get a second (and hopefully a third?) harvest. Also, the mushrooms tasted really good. I marinated them in teriyaki sauce for a couple minutes and then sauteed them. I ate them by itself and the rest was added to the top of a burger. YUM! :)

Die Pilze sind super gewachsen! Nur leider schon in seiner Verpackung, bevor das Paket überhaupt ankam. Der Karton war beschädigt und der Inhalt vergammelt.

Bad quality product. The substrate was not sterilised properly and it had worm eggs. They hatched and ruined the entire batch. Disgusting, waste of money

Super easy, fun to watch grow and then eat. Kids loved it!

Exactly 11days ago, my organic oyster mushroom box arrived (see 1st photo). Soaked it in a water overnight and waiting game begins. After 5 days I began seeing those tiny heads. Then, they just grow a millimeter per hour. Last few photos taken today the 24th of October. 10days of total waiting to harvest time. It worked well with my grow lights. Ready to hit the pan for a stir-fry Chicken with Mushrooms 😉

I bought this item and I did the same thing in the instruction and this is like the fourth week for it drawing nothing happened. I don’t recommend it for anyone.