Home fruiting guide to harvesting

 

TO HARVEST:

  • Just take hold of the cluster of mushrooms an gently twist, like you're turning a wheel. 
  • The cluster will come loose from the substrate, and probably a little bit of the growth substrate will be stuck to it and need to be removed
  • If you are finding that a large amount of substrate is breaking free rather than the mushrooms coming loose from it, you may need to use a knife to cut the cluster free

AFTER HARVEST:

  • Store your mushrooms in a paper bag in the refrigerator until you're ready to use them, but the sooner the better. They'll never be better than the day you harvest them. Looking for ideas? Try out our recipes page! 
  • If there is still some mushroom material sticking out from the block at the fruiting site, use a knife to cut it down flush with the blocok.
  • Use the medical tape that came with your home grow kit to re-cover the fruiting slit, then set the fruiting block somewhere OUT OF HIGH-HUMIDITY GROWING CONDITIONS to rest. In a few days (or up to 10 days or so) it will be ready to fruit again and will start to push the tape out just like it did the first time.
  • After the second flush of mushrooms, it's a good idea to use packing tape to seal your original fruiting slit and cut a new fruiting slit on the back of the fruiting block. Again, be sure to use the medical tape to hold open and protect that new slit.

THINK YOUR FRUITING BLOCK IS DONE PRODUCING?

  • You can just set it outside in the shade, and it will probably eventually surprise you with a bonus fruiting when the conditions are just right!
  • You can break up the substrate into a hardwood mulch bed and it will act like spawn, colonizing the mulch and probably eventually producing more mushrooms for you.
  • You can add the substrate to a compost pile. Worms and bugs LOVE mushroom compost.
  • You can use it directly around plants or on your garden. Mushroom substrate is a great soil additive.