Mushroom kits.

[Duke Ellington]

Has anyone had success with these. Are they worth it? I would like your valued opinion before I spend £10 for a kit.

Duke

[Duke Ellington]

[lottie lou]

Have tried a couple and once managed to grow 2 reasonable mushrooms.  You can get an awful lot of mushrooms from supermarket for £10.

[Rallychef]

same here, I agree with lottie lou, not much success with mine.

[lottie lou]

I have also bought mushroom spawn but had no success with that either.

[Duke Ellington]

thank you for your replies.....I think I might give it a miss.
Duke

[Vinlander]

I'm gloating here, but I put a big dose of chicken pellets in a big pot, and though the tomato plant I was aiming at was a disappointment this year; I've just had a volunteer flush of shaggy parasol mushrooms! - delicious and (more importantly) unmistakable with the yellow/red/brown sequence on bruising the stem...

Cheers.

[winecap]

If these are white agaricus, then you are very unlikely to get your money's worth, but they might be fun and you can sometimes nearly break even. The only mushrooms which have really paid off for me are oyster mushroom grown on logs and winecaps grown in woodchip. I've also tried, shiitake, lions mane, chicken of the woods, and morels, which varied between very little to show and nothing at all.

[Number Six]

I was given a kit last xmas and am sad to say that I lost the will to live while reading the instructions. Must remember to find it in the shed and spread the spores around somewhere dark and moist - perhaps something will grow of its own accord...

[Digeroo]

I did get one to do quite well, but they all came at once.  Not sure that it paid its way.

If I try again it will be something more exotic..

[chriscross1966]

I had one from Lidl/Aldi a few years ago and it pretty much broke even... usefully it seemed to crop over a long time so I always had a couple or so mushrooms ready to pick, they held OK too... I haven't bothered since cos me've got a supermarket almost next door to work now so I can pick up mushrooms on the way home... at 10 for a kit I doubt you'd make it pay, better off waiting for a special offer on them and freezing a load....

[telboy]

Never tried a kit but did buy a tonne of m. compost a few years ago. I cropped the mushrooms off the top of the bags and did well. I've just bought another tonne and put under cover and am peeking!
It's called 'food for free' if you disregard the initial cost.