MiNO™ Grow Kit

Work in a small, clean and draught-free room. We always recommend working within a Still-Air Box for inoculating spawn. Clean your hands and forearms with one of the hand wipes for 40-60 seconds, then fit your face mask and gloves.

Prepare your chosen gourmet mushroom spore/culture syringe for use by screwing on a new sterile needle (we give you one for each SpawnPot).

Take the MinoTub from the cardboard box and remove the lid. Now take the SpawnPot out and secure the lid on the MinoTub again, leaving your pot of coir inside to keep it clean.

Your SpawnPot is now exposed to the open air and potential contaminants - this is where working within a SAB will greatly reduce your chances of suffering a contamination.

Use the 70% IPA / 2% Chlorhexidine wipe to clean the grey rubber injection port on the lid of the SpawnPot for 40-60 seconds, then pierce through to inject between 1 - 1.5ml of solution.

When you pierce your needle through, aim it towards the edge of the SpawnPot and inject the full 1 - 1.5ml of solution in that spot. The spore solution will work its way down through the grain and this method will allow you to see the mycelium growth easier as it begins in that area, right on the visible edge of the SpawnPot and not hiding in the centre of the grain where you can't see it!

Store the SpawnPot somewhere which will keep it clean - the cardboard box it arrived in is ideal as this won't be airtight and allows for sufficient airflow. Mycelium is living and needs to breathe, so don't store in an airtight container. Avoid handling the SpawnPot while it's colonising - leave it alone to do its thing!

Temperature is so important for achieving good colonisation results. Being too hot (above 26C) or too cold (below 18C) may result in colonisation issues like contamination or slow / no growth. Aim for 23C (give or take a couple of degrees) and try to maintain the temperature you're able to achieve. Don't let the temperature go up and down too much.

Using a liquid culture, agar or grain-to-grain instead of spores? Aim for 26C - those are live mycelium, not spores.

Consider building or buying an incubator if you're struggling to maintain these temperatures - it's way cheaper than keeping your home heating on all the time and gives much better results too.

At 23C (give or take a couple of degrees), in optimum conditions, it will generally take around 2-3 weeks for the SpawnPot to fully colonise but this does depend on other factors like genetics, etc. and nature being unpredictable! Even once it looks fully colonised, if you have the patience, give it an extra 3-7 days - this will almost guarantee full colonisation in the places you can't see.

When and only when the grain within your SpawnPot is fully colonised, i.e. completely covered in healthy, white mycelium - you are ready to move on.

It's crucial that you don't open your SpawnPot before full colonisation as you will expose uncolonised grains to the open air and hugely risk contamination.

Open your pot of coir and pour all of the coir into the MinoTub. Add 200ml of water.

Place the lid on the MinoTub and slightly raise a section open to allow for steam to escape. Microwave on high for 3 minutes 30 seconds.

Remove the MinoTub from the microwave, click the lid fully down and leave it to cool down to room temp.

Clean your hands thoroughly with soap and water, then open your SpawnPot and tip the colonised grain block out into the coir inside your MinoTub.

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It will be a solid block and you need to break it up - there are lots of photos showing this process on the Mino Grow Kit product page on our website.

Take the time to break up the spawn into individual kernels of grain - each one is an inoculation point.

When you're done, secure the lid on the MinoTub and shake it around to distribute the grains throughout the coir... the better you spread them through the coir substrate, the better your colonisation will be!

Now store the MinoTub somewhere warm. Aim for 23C (give or take a couple of degrees) at this stage, as you want the colonisation to be quick to help avoid contamination.

Getting the temperature right at this point is extremely important for you to have success.

In the right conditions, it will take between 3 - 7 days for the MinoTub colonisation to complete. Even once it looks fully colonised, if you have the patience, give it an extra 3-7 days - this will almost guarantee full colonisation in the places you can't see.

When you're absolutely confident the substrate is fully colonised with strong, healthy mushroom mycelium you are ready to begin fruiting. Do not ever open your MinoTub before full colonisation.

Take the colonised cake out of your MinoTub and place it into a pot of fresh water. Put a couple of plates on top to keep it submerged and a lid on the pot to stop dust and flies getting in. Leave it like this for 6-24 hours, then lift it out, give it a little rinse under the tap (it's been sitting in its own dirty bath water for up to 24 hours) and let the excess water drain off before putting it back into your MinoTub.

Keep the lid off and place your MinoTub into the grow tent. Fold over the opening of the tent to keep the humidity in - a little tape can help keep it closed.

Maintain a temperature of around 21C (give or take a couple of degrees) for this fruiting stage.

When the temperature is right, essential levels of humidity will naturally build up inside the grow tent from the water you just allowed to soak into the substrate.

Mist and fan: Misting 3-6 times a day and fanning is recommended for best results. Don't start misting until at least 24 hours have passed since you dunked, as there will be loads of water in your substrate at this point and you could waterlog it. After that, open the tent, give your cake a fine mist until it glistens, fan in some fresh air (a wave of your hand or a piece of card is plenty) and close it back up. If you notice any excess water, dab it up with tissue paper.

Humidity and FAE (fresh air exchange) are extremely important for pinning and healthy mushroom development, as is temperature and light. They will all need to work in harmony.

We suggest cutting a 1cm slit through both sides of the tent, near to the top and placing an electric fan somewhere in the room on low setting. This will create a gentle air current inside the room which will help increase the FAE inside the grow tent.

Your mushrooms will need light to grow - we recommend indirect sunlight or a 5000-6500K LED or fluorescent light a couple of feet away.

If you notice the inside of your grow tent looking dry, there are a few things which may be causing this: the environment is too cold so humidity is not developing inside your grow tent, the fan is too close, the slits you cut in the tent are too big (cover excess with tape), grow lights are too close and drying out the substrate...

Observe what's happening and adjust your setup as required - fantastic results depend on it.

After around 3-7 days you'll begin to see lots of tiny white dots - these are hyphal knots which will develop into primordia, aka mushroom pins... the exciting part! It'll then only take 4-5 days for them to grow into fully mature mushrooms ready for harvest.

During this time, they'll let you know if something isn't quite right - fuzzy mycelium at the base of the mushrooms and/or thin stems are an indication that more FAE is needed so increasing the fan speed or length of the cuts on the tent might be something to try.

When the veil beneath one of your mushroom caps is about to tear off, this is when you should harvest your first flush. If you don't get there quick enough, spores will begin to drop from your mushroom caps and make a mess!

It's best to cut the mushrooms off with a clean scalpel or knife, you can also just pull them off but be careful not to damage the substrate too much.

After you've harvested all of the mushrooms from your first flush, you should repeat the step of adding more moisture to your cake - take the cake out and dunk it in a pot of fresh water for 6-24 hours, just like before, with a couple of plates on top and a lid on the pot, then give it a little rinse.

Put the cake back into your MinoTub, place it back into your tent, fold it closed and wait for your next flush!

Continue to soak your cake like this after each flush and if you've taken good care of it, you should achieve multiple flushes of mushrooms from your grow kit before the nutrients are all used up.

Thanks so much for ordering our grow kit. We hope you love using it and reap the rewards!

If there's anything you're still unsure about, get in touch through Messages in your account or the chat button at the bottom of any page. We're a friendly bunch!