You just got your Lion's Mane Spray and Grow Kit - congrats and welcome to the mushroom family!
First, inspect your kit upon arrival and keep the packaging. Each kit is packaged with a batch-specific sticker, located somewhere on the substrate bag. We track quality control with these numbers, so it’s helpful to know if you need to be in touch with a member of our team. If there's anything off about your kit (broken, odd colors, no mycelium) head over to our page on troubleshooting. Troubleshooting Your Spray and Grow Kit and Other Common Questions
Make sure to read through all of the instructions included in your kit. When you make the incision into the bag, leave the plastic flaps of the X. They help to keep moisture in and direct the mycelium into a cluster. If you live in a particularly dry area, you may want to consider using a humidity tent, instructions on how to make one are here How do I make a humidity tent? Remember to mist your kit a few times every day!
Once tiny mushrooms, called pins, are starting to form on your block it won’t be long before you have full pompoms of lion’s mane mushrooms! Keep an eye on your block as it grows and keep it moist. Try to avoid spraying the mushroom directly and instead mist from further back 1-2’ distance. When Lion’s mane gets too wet or too dry, it can start to yellow. It may take about a week from pin formation to full maturity.
Harvesting: Lion’s Mane doesn’t have caps and gills, but rather teeth. When they’re young, they form as dense round balls, sometimes growing more mounds and lumps in maturity. The length of their teeth or spines can be used as a good indicator of when to harvest. We like to pick them when teeth are ¼-½” long before any yellowing.
To harvest, reach your hand fully around the mushroom and twist! That should be enough to pop the mushroom off its substrate. Remove any loose debris from the block before spraying again for your second flush. Your first flush could produce anywhere between ½-2 lbs. of mushrooms!
Storage: Lion’s mane mushrooms harvested a little before peak maturity should store for up to two weeks in a paper bag in the refrigerator. Mushrooms stored in plastic tend to rot and mushrooms left out tend to dry up.
Cooking: Always make sure to thoroughly cook your mushrooms before eating them! We’ve got several recipes to give you inspiration here - you can adapt them to use Lion's Mane: Maitake Soup, Simple Oyster Mushroom Sautee, Savory Mushroom Tart, Oyster Mushroom and Corn Empanadas
Getting more flushes: Do not take the block out of the bag. After you’ve harvested your first flush of mushrooms, continue spraying your kit. If you don’t see any baby mushrooms (pins) forming after a week or so, it’s a good idea to soak your block. It’s possible during the first flush the kit got a little too dry. Take your block out of the box and set it cut side down in a bowl of water. Soak your block for 5-10 minutes and keep an eye on it. Lion’s Mane mycelium is very fine, so these blocks tend to break apart if soaked for too long.
After soaking, let the block drain by leaving it cut side down for another 10 minutes or tip it around to let extra water run off. You don't want to leave standing water in your bag. Pat your block dry before placing it back in the box with the cut side facing out or skip the box and leave the block cut side up and keep spraying it 2-3x per day.
Are you hoping for a third, fourth, or fifth flush? We’ve got some ideas for how to get more life out of your kit here.
