2nd Growth Instructions

After you have successfully harvested your mushrooms, it is possible that you may get a second harvest from your kit. Although the first harvest is much simpler to grow and guaranteed to grow, the second harvest is more challenging but still easy to do; it just takes a little bit more patience and may not work.
Second harvest is all about restoring the moisture in the soil. There is enough nutrition in the soil left for a second harvest but restoring the water is the critical factor in determining if you will get a second harvest or not and how much.

 

Prepare

Make sure there are no mushrooms left on the soil. Look carefully to remove all the tiny mushrooms that may still be attached to the soil or might have grown inside the bag. You will now submerge your mushroom bag in clean cold water for 24 hours. The bag should be fully submerged in water and stay underwater for 24 hours. You will need to put a weight on the bag to make sure it stays underwater and not float. You can use any heavy object, brick, rock or tupperware filled with water to place on top of the bag so that the soil stays under water. Just make sure the weight is not too heavy that it squeezes the soil and presses it to the bottom. Don't throw away the paper box, you will need it for second growth as well.

 

Recovery

Take the bag out of the water after 24 ours, drain and dry the outside of the plastic bag. Put the plastic grow bag in another plastic bag, e.g. a grocery bag or small trash bag. Make sure the bag is clean. Gently wrap the grow bag in the new grocery bag and put it in your kitchen cabinet where it is room temperature and dark. Keep the bag in the cabinet for 7-10 days. This step helps the mushroom mycelium recover from the first harvest.

 

Repeat

Remove the grow bag from the grocery bag. Make sure it is not moldy (green or black spots), and the soil looks white. Healthy mycelium (the actual mushroom) is white and smells nice like mushrooms.
Submerge your bag under water again, just like you did in the “Prepare” step above, but for only 12 hours this time.
For the second harvest, you will use the other side of the grow bag. Simply follow the same 1st grow instructions but this time you will cut the X on the other side. You can also skip the soak step since you already submerged your kit. You may want to put a tape on the X from the first growth so that the soil does not lose moisture from this opening. Since the moisture content is critical, you can spray more than twice a day to keep the surface moist. You will see initial mushroom growth in 7-10 days if all goes well. Sometimes it may take more than 10 days to see the little mushrooms. As long as the soil is healthy and white, keep spraying water daily until you see the 2nd growth.
Good luck!

 

What’s Next?

You can try to get a 3rd harvest by following the exact steps as 2nd Growth. However, your yield will decrease significantly this time. When you are finally done, you can continue to grow mushrooms in your backyard outside. Simply take the mushroom soil from its bag completely.
Dig a big enough hole in a very shady part of your yard that doesn’t receive any sunlight but still gets rain. Place the soil block, intact, in the hole and cover with dirt. The mushroom soil should only be covered with half an inch of soil. Soak well the entire area with water. That’s it, look out for oyster mushrooms during spring, fall and winter after a nice rain. They will surprise you if you are lucky and observant.