How to Refresh (Rehydrate) for Second Harvest

After you harvest your first crop of Mushrooms, make sure to remove any dried or smaller mushrooms with inverted caps. Mushrooms with inverted caps will slowly dry up and provide possible contamination points. Next, you’ll want to remove the Mushroom Grow Block from the packaging and gently submerge it in cool tap water. You may have to weigh it down as the Grow Blocks tend to float. Let the blocks soak for 3 to 4 hours while you leave the water running at a trickle, this is to help wash away and eliminate contaminants that may be present. While the Grow Blocks are soaking, you can rinse the bag out with water and prepare to place the grow block back in. The purpose of placing the grow block back into the plastic bag is to provide minimal areas exposed to fresh air and to focus on growing bigger mushrooms. Alternatively, you could leave the plastic bag off and allow mushrooms to grow out from all over the Grow Block. After 3 to 4 hours has elapse you will want to place the Grow Block back into your Fruiting Chamber or Previous Mushroom Fruiting Setup.

For best results use non-chlorinated water. You can achieve this with a facet aerator, boiling water for 15 minutes, or letting it sit in an open pot for 24 hours.

Faucet Aerator - Violently agitates water to quickly evaporate Chlorine.

Purpose:

The Purpose of “Rehydrating” the Mushroom Grow Block is to provide much needed moisture to the mycelium as well as to the substrate material (the food the mycelium/mushroom is digesting). Even though we regularly water/mist the Mushroom Grow Block it does dry out overtime and when we complete our first harvest, we’re removing a lot of water from the mycelium as Mushrooms are roughly 92% Water! Lastly, we rehydrate the blocks with cold water to shock/promote regrowth of the next “Flush” of Mushrooms.

1. Rehydrates the Mycelium and Grow Block

2. Shocks and Promotes Mushroom growth

Summary:

1. Harvest Mushrooms

2. Clean off Grow Block of any dried or leftover Inverted Mushrooms

3. Remove the plastic bag packaging from the Grow Block

4. Submerge the Grow Block under running cool water for 3 to 4 hours

5. Clean, Replace, or Discard the Plastic Bag (The bag the Grow Kit was in)

6. Place Grow Block back into your Mushroom Fruiting Setup

Troubleshooting Second Harvest:

If the mushroom mycelium looks to have shriveled, it is best to place the grow block back inside a clean bag and allow the mushroom mycelium to regrow. Once the mycelium block starts forming primordial or pin formations you can replace the Mushroom Block back into your fruiting chamber.

Note: Always keep an eye out for possible contamination as everyone’s growing conditions are different.