Climate Requirements

Lion's Mane

Skill Level: Beginner Temperature: 65°-70°F Light: Indirect Sunlight CO2: 600-700 PPM Humidity: 85%-90%

Blue Oyster

Skill Level: Beginner Temperature: 65°-70°F Light: Indirect Sunlight CO2: > 700 PPM Humidity: 85%-90%

Pink Oyster

Skill Level: Beginner Temperature: 68°-85°F Light: Indirect Sunlight CO2: 600-700 PPM Humidity: 85%-90%

Yellow Oyster

Skill Level: Beginner Temperature: 70°-85°F Light: Indirect Sunlight CO2: 600-700 PPM Humidity: 85%-90%

Supplies

Like any good chef, we need to practice mise en place, which means to pull out everything we are going to need to finish getting the fruiting kit ready to grow.

  • Fruiting Kit
  • Alcohol Wipe
  • Sterilized Blade
  • Spray Bottle with water
  • Zip Tie or Tape
  • Fruiting Chamber

Fruiting Chamber Recommended

Mini Mushroom Fruiting Chamber

Use a fruiting chamber for best results.

Mini Mushroom Fruiting Chamber

This controlled environment will increase your chances of success. If you don’t have one on hand, but want to try one with your growing kit, we sell these as part of our growing supplies!

While you can grow mushrooms from our fruiting kits without a fruiting chamber, you greatly increase your odds of success with this simple way to create a controlled microclimate.

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Growing Instructions

Preparing the Fruiting Kit

  1. With clean hands, using the included alcohol wipe, clean the outside of your bag where you plan to make a cut. We recommend side fruiting and its how we grow Lion’s Mane at our farm. Side fruiting means encouraging the fruiting body to develop on the side of the bag versus the top. We suggest making one long, diagonal cut on the long, wide, rectangular side of the bag. Make sure to end the cut at least 2 inches from the edge of the block. Cutting a hole too big will cause the block to lose important moisture. Be careful when making the cut, trying not to cut into the block. If you do cut the block, don’t worry, it will just take a little bit longer to fruit.
  2. Twist the top of the bag, squeezing out excess air. Cinching the top of the bag tightly is very important. The mushrooms will try to grow towards the air. If there is extra air space in the top of the bag your mushrooms could try growing in there with no where to go.
  3. The mushroom fruiting body will grow towards the air so it is important to remove excess air, tightly securing the extra bag.

Preparing the Fruiting Chamber

  1. Thoroughly clean your fruiting chamber. We recommend spraying the inside with alcohol but a simple rinse with warm water and soap would would well too. If you do not have a fruiting chamber, skip this step. There are a lot of other ways to increase humidity high enough to initiate fruiting. This is just our recommended method for home growers.
  2. Using a spray bottle with fresh spring or distilled water, generously spray the inside of the lid for your fruiting chamber. Usually repeating this twice daily is ideal. 
  3. Mushrooms are very temperature sensitive. Lion’s Mane mushrooms are particularly sensitive to heat. While they can grow at colder temperatures, the ideal growing range is 60°-70°F. The colder it is the slower they will grow. We aim to keep the fruiting room at our farm around 68°-70°F. You will want to choose an environment that is within this temperature range.
  4. Set up your fruiting chamber in an area of your home with ample indirect sunlight. The mycelium will sense the humidity and oxygen in the air and produce primordia, a term for baby mushrooms. This primordial phase will usually begin to happen within about seven days of exposure to air and proper humidity levels.

When should I harvest my mushrooms?

  1. Approximately five to seven days after the primordia form your mushrooms will be ready to harvest! Lion’s Mane is ready for harvest when spines are 1/4" to 1/8" long and look similar to picture in the brochure.

How to store Lions Mane Mushrooms

When kept in a paper bag in the fridge, fresh mushrooms will last about 7 days. If you harvest more than you can eat, then dehydrate the extra mushrooms. Stored in an airtight container with a desiccant pack, dehydrated mushrooms will stay fresh for up to two years.

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What to do if your fruiting kit block is broken

If your block arrives broken, gently press it together at the cracks. Move the block to a 100% dark space with fresh air flow like a closet or a cabinet with no light. The ideal temperature for this resting phase is between 65°-70°F. At this temperature the mycelium in the block should mend the breaks in 5-8 days. If you have questions about a broken block send us a message with a picture to info@circularfarm.com

How to delay mushroom growth

While we do recommend using your kit withing two weeks, Lion’s Mane store well in a cool dark place for up to 4 weeks. Make sure that the white filter patch is facing up with space around it for airflow, allowing the mycelium to breathe. During this time, the mycelium may try fruiting in the bag. With Lion’s Mane, this usually means that it will try to grow up into the open air space of the bag. If this happens, with clean hands, open the top of the bag to remove the extra white groth on top. This mycelium could be dehydrated and used for medicinal powders or composted.