In the cold, dark days of winter, it’s good to be able to grow something so I was pleased to be offered the chance to trial the Dobies’ Windowsill Mushroom Growing Kits.
The firm offers several kits for different mushrooms – chestnut, oyster, king oyster, white button, and shiitake – with most available in two sizes.
I went for the shiitake as that and the oyster are not grown in a base that includes peat, unlike the white and brown mushroom kits.
I was sent a free kit in return for a fair review.
The windowsill mushroom growing kits do not stand storage so getting started as soon as it arrived was important. And that’s where I encountered a problem. The instructions made little sense – possibly because they are likely to have been translated from Dutch (the kits are made in the Netherlands).
An appeal to Dobies PR department gave me different instructions and a link to an online video that made things clearer. Even so, they all mentioned a transparent lid that wasn’t part of my kit.
Inside the box is what is described as ‘substrate’ in a plastic bag. This has to be soaked for 24 hours before use. The instructions were to remove it from the bag first but I decided to put holes in the bottom and place the bag and substrate in the water.
I was glad I did as the substrate broke apart easily and getting it out of the bag was bad enough. Removing it from a bowl of water would have been even harder.
Then it was just a question of putting the substrate back in the box, covering it over – my original instructions suggested keeping it dark for a week but the new instructions said to cover it with the plastic lid I didn’t have. I compromised and kept it dark and then removed the lid.
I don’t think I needed to have worried – those mushrooms wanted to grow. Just two weeks after starting, I had mushrooms – a lot of mushrooms!
Because the substrate had broken a bit when it was transferred, some of the mushrooms were growing underneath other sections but they were easily reached.
The instructions now are to allow it ‘to rest’ somewhere dark for two weeks before starting the process again. I should expect somewhere between five and eight harvests over the next six months.
The windowsill mushroom growing kits are described as “the ultimate gift for hard to buy for loved ones this Christmas!” They would certainly be a fun thing, particularly for someone who doesn’t have much outdoor growing space. Just make sure you direct them to the website and the alternative instructions.
Windowsill Mushroom Growing Kits are available from Dobies. More details are here.
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