The “grow your own” mushroom experiment ground to a halt. The kit did produce a few mushrooms, but the container I had them in wasn’t big enough for the fruiting body to fully develop. I moved them to a larger plastic container, put water in the bottom to keep the humidity up, and the whole thing shriveled. Hm. There were a couple of fruiting starts, but they haven’t grown at all.

One of the things the seller said was that the fungus will stop producing mushrooms if it gets too dry in the original container. I opened up the container and added water. Two days later, more fruiting bodies sprouted. We’ll see if they develop into full mushrooms!

The home mushroom kit that I purchased six months ago has fully colonized! The instructions say to keep the plastic wrap on until it turns completely white (which means the mycelium has completely covered the substrate).

The plastic wrap is now off! I’m keeping the moisture around the fungus high by having water in the bottom of a terrarium. The kit is on an upturned bowl to keep it out of the water.

I’m hoping to see the fruiting bodies emerge soon, but really I have no idea how long it takes. I’ll keep you updated.

My mushroom growing kit has active mycelium!

The instructions on the package say to leave the cellophane on until the entire surface is white. When I bought the kit, there was no white to be seen, just a tub of brown. Progress! I’m overly enthused about propagating fungus.