In the days before the Inject and Forget all in one bag, the Dutch kits reigned supreme. The easiest way to inoculate and fruit mushrooms for beginners looking to start growing their own crops, although outdone by the newer inject and forget kit, is still an incredibly simple and easy to use kit.
The box, tucked amongst sterilized vermiculite and sealed in an XL fruiting bag for extra protection, comes with a free, reusable, large easy glide bag sealer to keep your kit safe and sound throughout its lifespan.
The Dutch kit is not a one and done kit. You should get 2-3 harvests from each kit you inoculate with your gourmet health mushroom spores. It’s as simple as adding a cup full of water and sealing the bag back up again! It’s the gift that keeps on giving!
The box can be used time and time again! Simply replace the inoculation ports, substrate and air filters to give your kit a new lease of life! The additional bag sealer can also be used repeatedly!
- Start off by preparing your work surface. Give it a wipe down with some 70% Isopropyl Alcohol Spray. Using an incubation chamber? Give it a wipe down too! Let these surfaces dry and do not spray anything near/on your Dutch kit as it could damage the integrity of the filter patches.
- Turn on your heat source and ensure it gets up to temperature. Your project should be kept between 26-27c. If using one of our 60L all in one fruiting and incubator’s, you don’t need to change any settings as it come’s preset. Simply plug in and play!
- Wash your hands then remove your box from its protective outer plastic bag. Be careful not to touch the air filter or the bag or the inoculation ports too much as the oils from your hands can affect their integrity.
- Pop your Gourmet Health Mushroom syringe out of its silver foil packet, keeping the end cap secured until you’re ready to use the syringe.
- Open your needle packet from the top, remove the end cap from your needle and insert the syringe into the needle, careful not to trigger the plunger early. Keep the protective cap on the needle until you’re ready to inoculate (we’re not there yet!).
- Theres no need to sterilize the injection ports with this kit as it’s already fully sterile. Prepare your syringe by gently tapping it against your hand to shake up the spores. No spores should be left behind!
- Once you feel ready, take the protective cap off the end of the needle, and inoculate the box. Ensure to tilt the syringe so it’s slightly angled downwards as you press the needle into each injection port, stopping halfway into the port. Push down the plunger and release your spores into the bag. Release an equal distribution of spores into each inoculation port. If your plunger is stuck, slowly pull your syringe out (but don’t remove it from the port) and push the plunger down again.
- Pull the needle out and give your box 5-6 seconds for the self-healing injection ports to seal before picking up your box and performing the 360 Tek method. This includes slowly rotating the box 360 degrees to ensure an evenly wide distribution of spores throughout the kit, enabling a much quicker cultivation.
- Then place your box back in the bag provided, seal it up and place it on the heat mat with the temperature probe directly between the two. Put your project in complete darkness and leave it for 3-4 weeks until it’s fully cultivated with healthy, white mycelium.
- Once your project has fully cultivated, you must keep it in the heat, but move it into indirect, low light conditions. Too much light can damage your project. If you’re using artificial light, make sure you don’t have it directly facing your project. If you’re worried about whether your project is too dark/light, pop us an email with some photos at [emailprotected]. We’d be more than happy to help!
- Remove the lid off the box and mist the walls of the bag at least once or twice a day to keep the humidity up. Do not spray the mycelium brick directly. Fan your project daily to keep up with the air circulation your project will need to be successful. You’ll have healthy gourmet mushrooms in no time!
- 10-14 Days after Starting the fruiting cycle you should see tiny dots forming on the cakes surface. These dots will grow over the next few days into tiny mushrooms. Keep humidity inside the bag very high at this time but keep fanning. The more” Spray mist then fan” cycles you give the growing pins at this stage the more dense the pin formation will be. With some strains this time may be as short as 4 days or as long as 21 days.
- As the gourmet health mushroom grow and develop you can ease back on the moisture and increase fanning if the mushrooms develop fuzzy feet. You may increase the moisture but maintain the fanning if the mushroom caps look dry or cracked.
- The mushroom are ready to harvest when the caps start to opens and the thin connecting veil between the stem and cap starts to break and certainly before the mushrooms start to drop spores. Spore drop is indicated by a sudden black sooty covering on the cakes surface (see below).
Once your project is moved into the light and pins are starting to rear their little heads, it’s almost ready to harvest your gourmet health mushrooms! It’s unlikely your mushrooms will mature all at the same time as this is an organic process. However, it’s incredibly important to harvest them before they fully mature and release their spores as that can cause contamination and bring an early end to your project. So, make sure to pick any mushrooms that are ready to pop their hoods whenever they pop up!
Make sure you harvest them between stage 3-4 to ensure your mushrooms don’t drop their spores!
It takes only three steps to promote a further flush (harvest) of your kit. Simply follow these steps below and you’ll have more gourmet health mushrooms in no time:
- After your kits growth has stopped, simply open the bag and add a cup full of cold tap water to the bag. Let this sit (ensure it’s sealed) for 12 hours.
- After 12 hours, slowly drain the water from the Dutch kit over the space of half an hour. Keep it at an angle to allow for the water to run out from the project.
- Place this bag (sealed) in the exact same conditions you had it in before for it to fruit successfully. Wait 7-14 days and you should have the start of another flush.
Rinse and repeat!
Everything you receive will be fully sterilized (therefore we no longer include alcohol swabs), including:
– 250ml Perlite.
– Re-Usable XL 1200ml Dutch Style Mycobox.
– 2x Micron Filter strips in the lid.
– 6 Injection Ports in the lid –do not remove the injection ports unless changingfor re-use!
–Free large easy glide sealer stick. This seals the bag during the sterilization process. Only remove this when you are ready to inoculate.
Please note that our kits do not come with spore syringes included.
Check out our YouTube channel for in depth tutorials on how to use our kits.
Check out our blogs for more information on tips and tricks to get you started on your journey into mycology.
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Disclaimer
Please note that it is illegal to grow magic mushrooms within the UK. We ask that you do not use these spores to grow mushrooms, but instead use them to study under a microscope. We cannot be held liable for any illegal use of these spores. Please check your local regulations as we cannot be responsible for the laws you should follow in your own country.
