Unlock the extraordinary world of Lion's Mane mushrooms and bring their unique elegance and astounding health benefits into your very own home. Lion's Mane mushrooms, scientifically known as Hericium erinaceus, are a captivating variety of edible fungi with an appearance reminiscent of a lion's mane.
Not only are Lion's Mane mushrooms visually stunning, but they also boast a remarkable flavor profile that can elevate your culinary creations to new heights. With a subtle seafood-like taste and a tender, almost meaty texture, Lion's Mane mushrooms can be used in a myriad of dishes, including vegan steaks (see picture below), stews, stir-fries, and even vegetarian alternatives to seafood. Their delicate flavor, and pull-apart meaty texture make them a true delight for the discerning palate.
However, the allure of Lion's Mane mushrooms extends far beyond their culinary appeal. These remarkable fungi are packed with an array of essential nutrients that can contribute to your overall well-being. They are a rich source of protein, fiber, and various vitamins and minerals, including potassium, zinc, and selenium. Moreover, Lion's Mane mushrooms are renowned for their potential neural regenerative benefits, as they have been suggested to support memory, focus, and overall brain health. Lion's mane mushrooms have shown promising results in clinical trials to treat and prevent Alzheimer's and dementia.
By embarking on the journey of growing your own Lion's Mane mushrooms using the guidance and expertise of the Myterra Labs Easy Mushroom Grow Kit, you can experience the magic of cultivating this extraordinary superfood right in the comfort of your own home. Join us as we delve into the step-by-step process of cultivating Lion's Mane mushrooms, and unlock a world of culinary delight and potential health benefits along the way.
Why Grow Lion's Mane Mushrooms?
Are you ready to discover the incredible benefits of growing your own Lion's Mane mushrooms? Get ready for a journey that combines exclusivity, freshness, and the potential for neural regeneration.
First and foremost, let's talk about the medicinal wonders of Lion's Mane mushrooms. These remarkable fungi contain compounds called hericinones and erinacines, which have been the subject of scientific research due to their potential role in promoting neural regeneration. Yes, you heard it right! Lion's Mane mushrooms may have the ability to support the growth and development of nerve cells, making them a fascinating ally for brain health.
Now, imagine having the power to cultivate these remarkable mushrooms in the comfort of your own home. By growing your own Lion's Mane mushrooms with the Myterra Labs Easy Mushroom Grow Kit, you gain access to their extraordinary medicinal potential. You'll have the freshest supply of Lion's Mane mushrooms, ensuring that you can benefit from their neural-regenerative properties to the fullest.
But that's not all—by nurturing these captivating fungi, you'll also enjoy the exclusivity that comes with growing a mushroom variety that's not commonly found in stores. Lion's Mane mushrooms are like hidden treasures, and by growing them yourself, you're granted the privilege of experiencing their delicate flavors and exceptional health benefits that are not readily available to the average shopper.
Moreover, cultivating Lion's Mane mushrooms can be a delightful and rewarding hobby. It allows you to connect with nature, explore the mysteries of fungi, and witness the magic of growth and regeneration right before your eyes. With the Myterra Labs Easy Mushroom Grow Kit, you don't need a vast garden or specialized equipment. You can embark on this adventure in the cozy confines of your own home.
So, if you're intrigued by the potential for neural regeneration and excited about the exclusivity and freshness that come with growing Lion's Mane mushrooms, it's time to seize the opportunity. Discover the world of Lion's Mane mushrooms, unlock their medicinal secrets, and witness the awe-inspiring power of nature at work. Let's embark on this extraordinary journey together!
What is included in the Myterra Labs Easy Grow Kit?
A full list of the contents is included in your grow kit, but let's go over each item to make sure that you have everything you need to get growing.
- Mushroom Substrate: This is an all-in-one mushroom grow kit which includes Myterra Labs Organic Rye Grain and Woodlovers fruiting substrate. The substrate is packaged in a white bag, which prevents your kit from losing moisture and degrading in UV light - this ensure that your mushroom substrate is perfectly hydrated whenever you are ready to grow.
- Liquid Culture Syringe: We've selected the best, easy-to-grow mushroom varieties. A liquid culture is simply mushroom mycelium that is grown in a nutrient-rich broth. Store your culture in the fridge if you don't plan on using the kit straight away.
- Sterilized Needle: For mushrooms to be cultivated to the best of their potential, there can be no competing organisms/contaminants (eg. bacteria, mould, fungi). We've included a pre-sterilized needle to inject your mushroom culture into your kit and ensure perfect mushroom growth.
- Alcohol Wipe: Keeping everything clean is crucial for the success of your mushrooms. Alcohol is an effective disinfectant that will remove any unwanted contaminants from your bag and injection port.
- Injection Port: This stick-on injection port can easily be attached to your grow kit. The injection port is self-healing, so once you've added your liquid culture into the kit, you will be able to grow without worrying about any contaminants affecting your mushrooms.
- Humidity Bag: Mushrooms thrive in humid environments (70-85% RH) and this bag will help retain a humid environment around your kit. The humidity bag will only need to be used once your kit is ready to produce mushrooms (also known as fruiting).
- Misting Bottle: Fill this bottle with clean water when your kit is ready to produce mushrooms and use it to mist the inside of the humidity bag. Do not spray the mushroom kit directly with water.
- Clean area: Your kit does not require a sterile environment, but it does help to have a clean area when injecting the mushroom culture into the bag.
STEP 1: Preparing to Grow
Are you ready to start growing your own beautiful Lion's mane? Then let's get started!
- Preparing your liquid culture syringe: Work quickly during this step to minimize any unclean air from getting into your syringe. Remove the blue cap from liquid culture syringe and hold the syringe in one hand. Do not allow the tip of the syringe to touch anything - including your hands. Remove the sterile needle from its packaging by peeling one end apart. Twist the capped needle onto the tip of your syringe. Place the syringe on clean surface. You've completed the hardest part and can relax for a bit while you get everything else set up.
- Remove packaging: Use scissors to carefully open the white kit bag. To avoid puncturing the clear inner bag, pull the top of the bag upwards and cut as close to the seal as possible.
STEP 2: Inoculation
Inoculation means to add a culture into a growing medium - in this case, you will be adding your liquid culture into the rye grains in the lower portion of your kit where the X is marked on the picture below.
- Disinfect kit: Wipe the front of the kit with the alcohol wipe where the X is marked in the picture above. This will disinfect the area where you will be placing your injection port. Hold onto the wipe, you'll be using it again in just a moment.
- Add injection port: Remove the backing on the injection port and stick the injection port in the area marked by an X in the image above. You're aiming to have the injection port over the grains rather than the wood substrate.
- Disinfect injection port: Wipe the injection port with the alcohol wipe. This will disinfect the port and prevent any unwanted contaminants from getting into your kit. Avoid touching the injection port, but if you do accidentally touch it, simply wipe the port again.
- Inject: Remove the cap on the syringe needle by pulling it away from the syringe (Don't twist it off). Push the needle through the injection port so that the tip of the needle is in the center of the grains. Slowly depress the syringe, moving the needle side-to-side while doing so. This will spread the mycelium among the grains, increasing the speed of your mushroom mycelium growth. Once the syringe is empty, recap the needle and safely dispose.
Not too sure how to complete this process? Watch the video below to see how we do it.
STEP 3: Incubation
Patience is the hardest part of growing mushrooms. The excitement and anticipation will grow as you watch the white threads of mycelium growing through you kit.
For this stage of growth, you are aiming to get the mushroom mycelium growing through all the grains - don't worry, the mushrooms will know which way to go to find the grains. Grains are packed full of nutrition and are the perfect food to start growing mushrooms on. Think of the grains as baby food and the hardwood substrate as adult food. Mushrooms will need as much nutrition as possible while they are establishing themselves before moving onto a different food source: wood.
Keep the bag upright and follow these tips to get the best growth from your mushrooms:
- Sunlight: Place your bag in an area that does not receive direct sunlight. The extra light and warmth can cause your kit to lose more moisture than it needs to. Mushrooms consist of about 90% water so it is crucial that your kit is perfectly hydrated in order to achieve a large harvest of mushrooms.
- Temperature: Lion's Mane mushrooms will grow well at room temperature, but they grow optimally between 65-75F. Cooler temperatures will cause slower growth and longer fruiting times, and warmer temperatures can result in malformed mushrooms and may stop the fruiting process.
- Humidity: At this stage, you will not need to worry about humidity. The Myterra Labs Easy Mushroom Grow Kit contains the perfect amount of moisture to keep your mushrooms growing well.
- Time: This stage will take 7-14 days or until about 90% of your grains have white mycelium on them. In the mushroom world, having mushroom mycelium grown through all of the grains would change the terminology from "grains" to "colonized grains", and your colonized grains would be referred to as "grain spawn" if that was all that was in the bag.
- Spot check: Check on your bag during this stage. You should only see white growth in your bag. Lion's mane mycelium can be very whispy and barely visible so look closely under good lighting. If you see any unusual colors growing in the bag, there is a chance that the bag is growing more than just mushrooms. Don't panic if this happens, we're here to help. Send us an email with a picture of your kit and any questions to info@myterralabs.com. We'll work together to figure out any issues until you are successfully growing mushrooms.
You will know that this step is complete when your bag looks like the photo below, or when the grains are 90% colonized.
STEP 4: Shake it up!
When your grains are white/colonized, it is time to shake the bag.
- Squish the grains gently to break them apart - mushroom mycelium will be rather thick between the grains, holding them together. Breaking up this congealed mass of grains and mycelium will help spread the grains among the hardwood.
- Shake the bag up and down or hold the bag on its side and shake the bag - whichever method works best for you.
- Avoid pulling off the injection port during this process. If you are worried that it will be pulled off, you can tape over the injection port to keep it in place.
- Be gentle, but firm. Long/sharp fingernails can poke holes in the bag while you are shaking it, so be aware of what your hands are doing or simply wear gloves if you are worried about puncturing the bag.
- Your bag should look like a nice blend of wood and grains at this point. Place the bag in an upright position and tap off any excess wood that may have stuck to the filter patch.
- Gently press the top of the substrate down to lightly compress the wood/grain blend.
- Place the bag back on the shelf and watch as each colonized grain sends mycelium into the wood. Leave it on the shelf for no more than 10 days until the wood is completely colonized or until you start to see small white lumps forming in the bag. See the image below.
STEP 5: Fruiting
Fruiting is the phase of growth in which visible mushrooms begin to appear on your kit. Mushroom mycelium is triggered into the fruiting stage by two factors: full colonization of the growing medium (kit) and an increase in fresh air. This is why your kit needs to be fully colonized before starting the fruiting process.
When growing mushrooms, you can direct where you want the mushrooms (or fruits) to form and here's how:
- Stick the Fruiting Patch over your filter. Ensure that there are absolutely no gaps between the filter patch and sticker - mushrooms will find these air gaps and grow towards and out of them. If this happens, you will still get mushrooms, but most of the energy that the mushroom mycelium has will be used in an attempt to reach towards fresh air instead of producing mushrooms, resulting in smaller mushrooms.
- Cut the bag: Using a clean knife or scissors, cut a two inch wide "X" into the side of the kit. The placement of the cut isn't too important, but you will want it at least 2 inches above the bottom of the bag to avoid having your mushrooms growing into your shelf. If there are any areas where you can already see mushrooms forming on the sides of the bag, make the cut over this area.
- Breathe. It is very difficult to "mess up" this part of the fruiting process. It's perfectly fine to cut into the hardwood substrate. All you are doing during this stage is providing a single spot where fresh air is coming into contact with the mushroom mycelium. This will trigger the mycelium to produce mushrooms and nature will take care of the rest.
- Humidity: Your mushrooms are going to want a good environment to grow in. It is important to keep the humidity fairly high during the fruiting stage. Mist the inside of your humidity bag using the misting bottle. Place the humidity bag, upside-down, over your kit. If you have a fruiting tent, you can place the cut kit into your fruiting tent without needing the humidity bag.
- If the mushroom starts forming branches instead of a thick solid mass, you mushroom is telling you that it needs more air. Allow more air under the humidity bag, and if that isn't enough, make a few cuts into the humidity bag. If you add more air into the bag, you will need to spray the humidity bag more regularly. In the image below, you can see the mushroom branching.
- If your mushroom is looking dry or yellow/brown, your mushroom is either drying out or undergoing heat stress. As soon as you see a color change in any part of the mushroom you will need to take action as the mushroom with discontinue growth in areas that are dried out. Mist the bag more frequently or, if the issue persists, you can get a bit more creative. Either move the bag to a more humid area, like the bathroom, or you can tear 2 strips of fabric that are slightly longer than the height of the bag. Staple one end of each strip of fabric to the top of the bag on either side of the bag. Hang these strips in a small bowl of water. The fabric will wick up the water and increase the humidity around the bag. Replace the humidity bag and continue to monitor your mushroom. In the image below you can see a healthy mushroom on the left and a dry mushroom on the right.
STEP 6: Harvesting
Knowing when to harvest your mushrooms is a quick skill to learn. It is very tempting to let your mushrooms grow for longer than they should. We are big advocates for experimentation so if this is your first time growing and you simply want to see how big they can grow then by all means have some fun and try it out. Mushrooms will also produce a prolific amount of spores if they are left to grow for too long. People who are sensitive to spores or have respiratory conditions are at risk of irritation to their respiratory pathways while the mushroom is producing spores.
If you want to harvest your mushrooms at their prime for cooking and before they release their spores then follow the steps below.
- Spines: As lions mane mushrooms grow they will start to produce thick hair-like protrusions on the surface of the mushroom, these are called spines. Lions mane mushrooms produce spores on these spines. You will want to harvest your mushroom before these spines are too long (<1/4"). Below is an example of mushroom spines:
- Color: Lion's mane mushrooms will turn yellow with age. Yellow lion's mane tends to have a more bitter flavor than lion's mane that is still beautifully white. Harvest your mushroom if you can visibly see spines and the mushroom is starting to turn yellow.
When you are ready to harvest, gently grab the base of the mushroom and twist the mushroom while pulling it away from the kit. Use two hands if necessary. Remove any sawdust that sticks to the base of the mushroom.
Can I get a Second Harvest from my kit?
Once you've harvested your mushrooms, you'll be able to get a second harvest or "flush" of mushrooms. Mushrooms can continue to grow as long as they have all of the requirements for growth such as: water and nutrition. The Myterra Labs Easy Mushroom Grow Kit has more than enough of both to sustain your mushrooms for a second round of mushrooms to form. Here's what you need to do:
- Tape over the hole that you cut in the kit. You want to avoid leaving any air gaps between the bag and the tape. If there is a gap between the tape and the bag, the mushrooms will find it and your next harvest will be a lot smaller and you will have a tiny mushroom form in the gap.
- On the opposite side of the bag, cut another X into the bag.
- Mist the inside of the humidity bag and place it over the kit.
It's as simple as that. Wait for 1-2 weeks to see fully mature mushrooms before harvesting.
After Harvesting
Well done! You've successfully grown your own mushrooms. The options for what to do next are endless.
There are numerous ways to cook lion's mane mushrooms with an abundant number of recipes online. The most simple way to enjoy lion's mane mushrooms is to fry them on high heat without any oil. Press down on the mushroom to release any moisture that might be stored inside - use a heavy skillet on top of the mushroom for extra weight. When the mushroom starts to turn brown and there is no more moisture in the pan, add a bit of oil/butter and some garlic. Lion's mane is so delicious and flavorful! Here is one of our favorite recipes for lion's mane steak: Click Here.
If you grow multiple kits at once or if you're going away for a week, you can dry your harvested mushrooms by slicing the mushrooms into strips. Mushrooms can be dried whole, but they take longer to dry. Airdry at 115F for 24-28 hours or until they are dry enough to snap apart. Store in an air-tight container.
Share your growing success with us on instagram (Click Here) and let us showcase your skills.
If you liked growing lion's mane mushrooms and want to expand your mushroom growing skills, we suggest growing Pink Oyster mushrooms. Click here to learn more. Pink oyster mushrooms are an eye-catching mushroom with vibrant pink clusters. Pink oyster mushrooms require slightly more advanced growing skills because the pink oyster mushroom is a sub-tropical species, preferring warmer conditions. This mushroom can be used to make delicious vegan bacon.
Click here to buy the Pink Oyster Easy Mushroom Grow Kit.
