Mushroom grow kits are designed to make growing magic mushrooms at home as simple as possible. They provide all the necessary components to get started.
Cheaper kits provide enough material for a single harvest, which can yield a surprising amount of mushrooms over the course of about 3-6weeks. They’re the best option for people looking to get their feet wet with mushroom cultivation and want to optimize their chances of success.
More expensive kits provide several weeks’ worth of mushroom production and various reusable components so you can continue growing over and over again. These kits often come with larger setups, more substrate jars or spawn bags, and more advanced equipment (such as humidifiers and ventilation).
Here, we’ll break down our list of the top 5 mushroom grow kits on the market, along with our suggestions for making your own DIY mushroom grow kit from Amazon to get the most value for your money.
Roundup: Best Mushroom Grow Kits To Buy In 2023
Whether you’re just looking to grow a couple of mushrooms to take with some friends, or are serious about securing a steady supply of psychedelics, the best way to get started is with a grow kit.
Note: Tripsitter may get a commission when you use the links below — but we only recommend products we stand behind.
1. Growing Organic Mushroom Grow Kit
USD $140
This simple mushroom grow kit is a perfect introduction to cultivating magic mushrooms (and other species of mushrooms).
This kit comes with a sterilized grain spawn bag, fruiting substrate, and a nice little fruiting chamber.
This kit doesn’t come with spores, so you’ll need to pick some of these up elsewhere (sources below).
You also won’t be able to reuse anything except the fruiting chamber after the first harvest is complete, so you’d need to buy more rye grain, spawn bags, fruiting substrate, and a pressure cooker to sterilize the substrate if you want to keep going after the first flush. Alternatively, you can order pre-sterilized grain spawn bags from the same vendor.
For people looking to get their feet wet with magic mushroom cultivation and don’t want to break the bank, this is the best place to start.
What the kit includes:
- Fruiting chamber
- Pre-sterilized grain substrate bags with injection port
- Sterilized fruiting substrate
* This kit does not come with mushroom spores.
→ Buy the Growing Organic Mushroom Grow Kit
2. Sporeslab Master Culture Mushroom Kit (Canada)
CAD $150
This kit has everything you need for your first grow. The kit comes with a colonized jar of mycelium, the fruiting chamber, cleaning wipes/sprays/gloves/masks, and a fruiting medium.
Because this kit comes with the live mycelium (rather than just the spores), it isn’t available in the United States yet —however, it is available in Canada.
Once the kit arrives, all you need to do is pasteurize the fruiting substrate (instructions included) and mix it with the colonized mycelium.
The process will take about two weeks total before you can start harvesting mushrooms. It takes one week for the mycelium to colonize the fruiting substrate and another week for the mushrooms to fully form.
This kit will give you an excellent introduction to growing magic mushrooms, and many of the components can be reused for future harvests. In order to continue producing mushrooms long-term, you’ll need to buy some mushroom spores and prepare your own substrate jars.
What the kit includes:
- Fully Colonized Master Culture (mushroom spawn)
- Plastic Growing Chamber (15 L)
- Mushroom Fruiting Medium
- Spray Bottle
- Disinfectant Spray
- Hi-loft Polyfil
- Facemasks
- Nitrile Gloves
* This kit comes with pre-colonized spawn; no spores are needed for the first grow.
→ Buy the Sporeslab Master Culture Mushroom Kit
3. Wholecelium (Europe)
€27.50–€79.00
Wholecelium is located in the Netherlands — one of the few countries that permits the sale of magic mushroom mycelium. This means you can skip the process of preparing, sterilizing, inoculating, and incubating magic mushrooms from spores and just straight to the part where you get mushrooms.
These kits come pre-colonized with your strain of choice. All you need to do once the package arrives is open it up, give it a spray with some distilled water, and place it in the included plastic bag.
You’ll need to open the bag up at least once per day to allow some air exchange and give it a spray with some water. About a week later, you should start to see some mushrooms protruding from the surface of the substrate.
You can order this kit in three different sizes and 9 separate strains.
* This kit comes pre-colonized; there’s no need to order spores.
→ Buy the Wholecelium Mushroom Grow Kit
4. Third Wave’s Mushroom Grow Kit
$200–$249
Third Wave carries a grow kit that comes with an extensive array of components to get you set up for continual mushroom production. You have everything you need right out of the box to get through the first grow cycle (2–3 months) but will need to pick up some more substrate and casing materials for ongoing production.
This kit uses rye grain spawn, which comes pre-sterilized right out of the box. This means you won’t have to worry about the problems with sterilization and preparation for your first grow.
What the kit includes:
- Sterilized grain substrate
- Pre-pasteurized mushroom compost (casing substrate)
- Two extra mycobags (for future grows)
- Reusable mushroom bag clamps
- Alcohol swabs
- Innoculation needles (X2)
- 100 watt light bulb
- Spray bottle
- Hygrometer
- Vinyl gloves
* This kit does not come with mushroom spores.
If you sign up for the company’s newsletter, you’ll get an additional $50 off your kit.
→ Buy The Third Wave Magic Mushroom Grow Kit
5. Planet Grow Kits (Medicinal & Gourmet Mushrooms)
USD $28–$39
Planet Mushroom sells a variety of species of medicinal and gourmet mushroom pre-colonized spawn bags. You can order ready-to-go bags colonized with reishi, shiitake, lion’s mane, oyster mushrooms, turkey tail, wine caps, and more. This company doesn’t carry magic mushrooms, however.
All you need to do is cut open the top or make slits in the side of the bag, soak in some cold water overnight, and store in a cool, humid location. To keep the mycelium moist, you’ll need to spray the bag with some cool water once or twice per day.
Mushrooms will start to form within a few days around the exposed areas in the bags.
→ Buy the Planet Grow Kit
What is a Mushroom Grow Kit?
Mushroom grow kits provide the necessary pieces of kit to grow mushrooms yourself. These kits are simple — usually consisting of a small plastic tub with sterilized or pre-colonized substrates (depending on local laws).
There are two main types of mushroom grow kits to be aware of:
1. Mushroom Growing Supply Bundles
These kits come with all the necessary ingredients to culture mushrooms, including some form of fruiting chamber, substrates and growing mediums (usually some type of grain), and additional materials like thermometers, heat mats, spawn jars, or cleaning supplies.
In most cases, you’ll need to source your own mushroom spores for these kits — they aren’t included in the grow kit directly.
The main advantage of these kits is that they can be reused time and time again for new generations of mushrooms. You’ll just need to refill the substrates and cleaning supplies when they run out.
2. Pre-Colonized Mycelium Grow Kits
These kits come pre-colonized with mushroom mycelium. You can skip the inoculation stage and jump straight to the fruiting stage (the part where mushrooms grow). These kits are the easiest, cheapest, and fastest. The downside is that they’re single-use only —you’ll need to buy another kit when it’s finished.
In countries like Canada and the Netherlands, you can buy pre-colonized magic mushroom grow kits. In the United States, you’ll only be able to buy pre-colonized kits with gourmet or medicinal mushrooms like reishi or lion’s mane.
What to Look For in A Mushroom Grow Kit
There are many top-notch mushroom grow kits available online that haven’t been mentioned above. When vetting whether a mushroom grow kit is worth the money or not, here are a few questions you should be asking:
- Does the kit include spores or live mycelium?
- Does the kit include reusable components, or is it a one-time-use?
- What kind of mushrooms can I grow with the kit?
- How much space does the kit occupy?
- Will I need to buy additional supplies to maintain temperature & light requirements?
If you’re just getting started, it’s a good idea to go with something simpler to begin with. If you can order live mycelium kits, start here first.
Once you’re familiar with the process, it’s easy to upgrade your setup to have a higher capacity or automate certain processes like maintaining humidity levels.
When it comes to mushrooms, simpler is better. I’ve personally seen much more production from a simple plastic tub with holes drilled in it (called a “shotgun fruiting chamber”) than I have from expensive, automated setups.
Are Magic Mushroom Grow Kits Legal?
Supply bundle grow kits (containing substrates and containers but not spores or mycelium) are legal in all countries. You can use these kits to grow a wide range of mushrooms legally.
However, colonized fruiting kits containing psychoactive mushrooms are illegal just about everywhere. The exception is Holland, where the mycelium of psilocybin-containing fungi is perfectly legal (but the mushrooms themselves are not).
The active ingredient in magic mushrooms, psilocybin, is banned in most countries. Magic mushrooms are considered a “container” for psilocybin and are, therefore, illegal to grow or possess.
In the United States, only the state of Oregon, as well as a handful of municipalities, have moved to decriminalize magic mushrooms. This includes Denver, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Oakland, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Port Townsend, Northampton, Eastampton, Somerville, and a growing list of several other municipalities in the US.
Are Magic Mushroom Spores Legal?
The spores of magic mushrooms do not contain psilocybin and are, therefore, legal in most parts of the world today, including the United States. This is what makes mushroom grow kits viable.
Unfortunately, as soon as the spores are germinated into mycelium, it becomes illegal again. This is why mushroom grow kits don’t contain the spores directly but instead require you to order them separately from another company.
Where to Buy Magic Mushroom Spores
Unless you’re buying a pre-colonized mushroom grow kit, you’ll need to order magic mushroom spores separately.
Gourmet mushrooms like oyster mushrooms, lion’s mane, porcini, reishi, and shiitake can be bought in pre-colonized forms online, but magic mushrooms are only available in this form in some countries (such as Canada).
Magic mushroom spores are legal in most US states because they don’t contain any active psilocybin. Check out vendors such as Sporeslab, or Ralphsters.
If you’re not sure what strains to order first, check out our guide to magic mushroom strains.
I recommend starting with golden teacher mushrooms. They’re the easiest to get started with because they colonize quickly, resist contamination better than most strains, and the final mushroom is surprisingly potent.
How To Build Your Own DIY Amazon Mushroom Grow Kit For Cheap
With the exception of pre-colonized fruiting kits, most magic mushroom grows kits classify as supply bundles. They contain jars, plastic tubs, substrates, cleaning wipes, gloves, and masks.
The only ingredient you actually need to get from a specialty source is the mushroom spores themselves.
Everything else you can find at your local hardware store, gardening center, or Amazon.
You can save quite a bit of money by sourcing these materials yourself rather than ordering a prepackaged kit.
Below is our recommended list of items for your own DIY grow kit. The total cost of this kit is less than $250 (including spores) and provides significantly more raw materials than any of the kits listed above.
You’ll be able to reuse most of the components of this kit, and it provides enough substrate and cleaning materials for several harvest cycles.
- Magic mushroom spores —$25
- Disinfectant wipes —$8
- Nitrile gloves —$25
- Surgical masks —$30
- Wide mouth mason jars (500 mL) —$30
- Brown rice flour —$5–$10
- Vermiculite —$20–$30
- Clear plastic storage tub —$0–$50
- Perlite —$30
- Spray bottle — $10–$15
- —$15
- Pressure cooker or Instant Pot (optional, but highly recommended) —$100–$200
1. Disinfectant Wipes/Spray
Maintaining a sterile working environment is critical to growing mushrooms from spores successfully. This can’t be understated.
Contaminants can easily make their way into your sterilized substrate and contaminate it.
Any alcohol-based cleaning wipes will work. Even simple rubbing alcohol and paper towels will do the trick. I personally prefer using Lysol disinfectant wipes because they’re relatively cheap, ready to use right out of the package, and contain a variety of cleaning agents to kill many different kinds of microorganisms.
One of the main downfalls new growers and experienced growers alike run into is contamination. During the inoculation stage, it’s easy for mold or bacterial spores to make their way into your substrate jars and kill your mushrooms before they get a chance to take hold.
Wipe everything down before you innoculate your substrate jars, including any surfaces you’re working on, all the supplies brought into the room with you, and your gloved hands.
2. Nitrile Gloves
Your own body is one of the primary sources of contamination. Our skin is inhabited by countless microorganisms, so it’s important to cover as much of your skin as possible when working with mushrooms. Disposable gloves will also allow you to sterilize your hands with alcohol or Lysol cleaning wipes without irritating your skin.
3. Surgical Masks
Just as our skin is a source of contamination for our mushrooms, so is our mouth. Cover your face with a sterile mask while you work to keep your germs to yourself. Most people at this point have masks kicking around anyway, and they’re widely available at drug stores or places like Amazon and Walmart.
4. Pressure Cooker (Optional)
A pressure cooker or Instant Pot is likely going to be the most expensive part of your mushroom grow kit, but it’s a valuable tool for the DIY grower. This tool will allow you to create your own sterilized substrate jars — significantly reducing the cost over time.
Alternatively, you can buy pre-sterilized grain jars or spawn bags that eliminate the need for a pressure cooker. However, they cost anywhere from $20–$40 each, compared to about $5–$10 when preparing them yourself with a pressure cooker.
5. Wide-Mouth Mason Jars
Glass mason jars are cheap, reusable, and provide the perfect container for your mycelium. You can use any size jars, but the 500 mL (1 pint) jars are a good place to start. They’re large enough to produce relatively large flushes of mushrooms but small enough that you can hedge your grow in case a few jars become contaminated and need to be discarded.
Make sure you only use the wide-mouth jars when using brown rice flour and vermiculite as a substrate — otherwise, you’re going to need to damage the cakes to get them out of the jar.
It’s also a good idea to order some extra lid inserts or synthetic filter discs.
6. Substrate Options
When it comes to buying substrate (your mushrooms food source), you have a few options. I recommend going for either pre-sterilized substrate for your first grow or brown rice flour and vermiculite (BRF Tek) if you plan to make your own substrates (you’ll need a pressure cooker).
Rye grain or other grains are a good option, too but generally better for more experienced mushroom cultivators.
Brown Rice Flour & Vermiculite
The easiest growing medium to get started with is a blend of brown rice flour, vermiculite, and water.
The brown rice flour serves as the food source, while the vermiculite gives the medium the right structure and allows airflow throughout the medium.
The portions are 2 parts brown rice flour, 2 parts vermiculite, and 1 part water.
You can get brown rice flour at just about any grocery store or on Amazon. One bag is 24 oz bag is enough to last several grow cycles.
You can pick up vermiculite at any gardening shop or online from Amazon or other marketplaces. Aim for the coarse vermiculite rather than the fine-ground stuff. For 5 half-pint jars, you’ll need about 1 L of vermiculite.
It’s more cost-effective to get a larger bag of vermiculite. A single 9L bag will provide enough vermiculite for roughly 25–30 500 mL mason jars.
Pre-Sterilized Substrates
If you don’t want to fuss around with preparing and sterilizing substrates or don’t have the money for a pressure cooker quite yet, you can order ready-to-go substrate jars or bags from companies such as Amazon or Magic Mushrooms Shop.
Rye Grain
Rye grain is cheap to buy and offers advantages over the brown rice flour and vermiculite — such as being able to perpetuate your spawn by pouring some of it into a fresh jar of sterilized rye grain to keep the stock going without having to buy new spores.
The downside of this medium is that it has a higher risk of bacterial infection. Bacterial endospores can sometimes survive the sterilization process. It’s also possible to over-sterilize, causing the rye to turn to mush.
Wild Bird Seed
Wild bird seed is another excellent substrate similar to rye grain. It consists of various seeds the mycelium can use as a source of food.
Look for seed that has the least amount of black sunflower seeds. Most wild bird seed (WBS) tek recommend removing these prior to use. Check out brands like Wagners and Pennington.
7. Plastic Storage Tub
The final stage of mushroom cultivation is fruiting. This is when the colonized mycelium will begin to produce mushrooms.
You don’t need to use any complex equipment for fruiting to be successful —a simple plastic tub, some perlite, and a spray bottle are all you need. The goal for this stage is to keep humidity levels high and allow light and air to enter the container.
You can also buy professional growing containers like this one from Sporelab.
Seed propagators work well, too — especially those with little ventilation ports at the top to help with the airflow.
8. Perlite
Perlite is made from a porous volcanic rock. Tiny pores on the surface of the perlite allow it to hold a large amount of water. This quality makes it useful for increasing the water retention of soils.
Many grow kits come with a bag of perlite to fill the bottom of your fruiting chamber to help keep humidity levels high throughout the day.
The amount of perlite you’ll need depends on the size of the fruiting chamber you’re using. Aim for about 1/2 -1 inch of perlite in the bottom of the tub, and use a spray bottle to load it with water. The goal is for the perlite to be wet but for there to be no standing water at the bottom of the tray.
You can find perlite on Amazon or at most local gardening shops.
9. Spray Bottle
You’ll need a spray bottle to keep the mushroom substrate moist (but not wet) as the mushrooms take shape. The spray bottle you use doesn’t matter much as long as it can produce a fine mist of water. You don’t want to have any standing water that could cause bacteria or mold to grow.
I recommend getting a pack of two sprayers — one for water and the other for rubbing alcohol for use during the inoculation stage. Make sure each bottle is clearly labeled before using them!
10. Hygrometer & Thermometer
You can find cheap hygrometer/thermometer combo meters on Amazon or at local hardware or gardening stores.
These devices will help you determine if your fruiting chamber is too dry. If your mycelium dried out, it can lead to significantly lower yields and may even cause your mycelium to die.
Make sure the humidity remains above 75% and that the temperature stays around 20ºC (68ºF). If they’re too hot and the mycelium could start to rot. If it’s too cold, the mushrooms will just grow more slowly.
Where to Buy Mycology Supplies
As you get more into the hobby, you may want to branch out to other techniques, such as isolating rhizomorphic strains in agar cultures, liquid cultures, or other advanced techniques.
Here are some of the best sources for mycological supplies to help with your grow:
1. Fungi.com
This website is owned by the legendary mycologist Paul Stamets — author of several books on the subject of growing, using, and identifying both gourmet and magic mushrooms.
Fungi.com carries everything you’ll need for growing mushrooms at the beginner and advanced levels alike. You can find scalpels, inoculation loops, Petri dishes, agar powder, and even laminar flow hoods.
2. Mycosupply
Mycosupply is located in Pennsylvania and carries a vast array of mycological equipment ranging from the amateur to professional level. You can find simple pieces of kit like spawn bags, substrate, and filter disks, as well as high-tech testing, microscopy, and filtration equipment for commercial operations.
3. Shroom Supply
The Shroom Supply website looks like it hasn’t been updated since 1995 — but they remain one of the best underground suppliers of mushroom-growing equipment. They sell excellent injectable lids to use with your mason jars to reduce the chances of contamination, as well as filters, sterilization equipment, microscopes, dehydrators, substrates, and much more.
4. Amazon.com
Amazon offers a surprising variety of mushroom-growing equipment and an even larger variety of components that can be used to create makeshift setups for cheap.
You can find all kinds of substrate materials, grow tents, spawn bags, pressure cookers, heat mats, and much more.
Magic Mushroom Grow Kit FAQs
If you have any further questions about assembling or ordering mushroom grow kits, feel free to reach out to high@tripsitter.com. We use your questions to enrich this page so everyone can benefit.
1. What Strain of Mushrooms Should I Start With?
There are hundreds of different strains of Psilocybe cubensis to choose from. All of them are going to grow well for most people. With that said, some strains have proven more resistant to contamination and are, therefore, better options for new growers.
The top strains for beginners to consider using include Golden Teacher, Penis Envy, Koh Samui, Orissa India, Cambodian, and Z-strain.
2. What Kind of Mushrooms Are Easiest To Grow At Home?
The easiest mushrooms to grow at home are oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus spp.). They grow extremely quickly, can eat just about anything, and produce copious amounts of mushrooms.
Psilocybe cubensis (magic mushrooms) are also surprisingly easy to cultivate at home.
Other species, such as lion’s mane and reishi can be cultivated easily as well but are pickier with the type of substrate being used.
3. Should I Grow Magic Mushrooms or Truffles?
Truffles are slightly easier to grow but take more time (up to three months) and aren’t as potent as the same weight of magic mushrooms. Most people opt to grow mushrooms when possible. Some parts of the world (namely, Holland) only allow mycelium cultivation (making truffles legal and mushrooms illegal).
Truffles consist of sclerotia (storage structures consisting of hardened mycelium). They’re grown by keeping the colonized mycelium of certain magic mushroom species in the container (no fruiting stage).
Only a few species of magic mushrooms will form sclerotia, such as Psilocybe tampanensis and Psilocybe mexicana.
4. What’s The Best Mushroom Substrate For Beginners?
In general, the best substrate for beginners is BRF tek (brown rice flour and vermiculite). This substrate is very easy to make at home, is resistant to many types of bacteria found in raw grains, and produces copious amounts of mushrooms. You also don’t need to worry about casing with this substrate mix.
Rye grain is another excellent substrate for beginners if you can find pre-sterilized kits. The difficult part comes from preparing rye grain, as it’s easy to overcook or undercook your rye grains during the sterilization process.
Insights, advice, suggestions, feedback and comments from experts
As an expert and enthusiast, I have access to a vast amount of information and can provide insights on various topics, including mushroom grow kits. I can help answer questions, provide guidance, and offer suggestions based on available information. Let's dive into the concepts mentioned in this article.
Mushroom Grow Kits:
Mushroom grow kits are designed to simplify the process of growing mushrooms at home. They typically include all the necessary components to get started, such as sterilized or pre-colonized substrates, fruiting chambers, and sometimes additional equipment like thermometers or heat mats. There are two main types of mushroom grow kits:
-
Mushroom Growing Supply Bundles: These kits provide all the necessary ingredients for mushroom cultivation, including substrates, growing mediums, and additional materials like thermometers or spawn jars. However, they usually do not include mushroom spores, which need to be sourced separately.
-
Pre-Colonized Mycelium Grow Kits: These kits come pre-colonized with mushroom mycelium, allowing growers to skip the inoculation stage and proceed directly to the fruiting stage. These kits are easier to use but are typically single-use only.
Types of Mushroom Grow Kits:
The article mentions several mushroom grow kits available on the market. Here's a breakdown of some of the kits mentioned:
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Growing Organic Mushroom Grow Kit: This kit is a simple introduction to cultivating magic mushrooms and other species. It includes a sterilized grain spawn bag, fruiting substrate, and a fruiting chamber. However, it does not come with mushroom spores.
-
Sporeslab Master Culture Mushroom Kit (Canada): This kit includes a colonized jar of mycelium, a fruiting chamber, cleaning supplies, and a fruiting medium. It does not require mushroom spores for the first grow.
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Wholecelium (Europe): Wholecelium offers mushroom grow kits pre-colonized with different strains. These kits come with pre-colonized mycelium, eliminating the need for spores.
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Third Wave's Mushroom Grow Kit: This kit provides an extensive array of components for continual mushroom production. It includes sterilized grain substrate, pre-pasteurized mushroom compost, extra mycobags, and other reusable components. However, it does not come with mushroom spores.
-
Planet Grow Kits (Medicinal & Gourmet Mushrooms): Planet Mushroom sells pre-colonized spawn bags of various species of medicinal and gourmet mushrooms. However, they do not carry magic mushrooms.
Legal Considerations:
The legality of mushroom grow kits and spores varies depending on the country and the specific type of mushrooms. In general:
- Supply bundle grow kits (containing substrates and containers but not spores or mycelium) are legal in most countries.
- Colonized fruiting kits containing psychoactive mushrooms are illegal in many countries, except for some exceptions like the Netherlands where the mycelium is legal but the mushrooms themselves are not.
- Magic mushroom spores are legal in most parts of the world, including the United States, as they do not contain active psilocybin. However, as soon as the spores are germinated into mycelium, it becomes illegal again.
It's important to research and understand the specific laws and regulations regarding mushroom cultivation in your country or region.
DIY Mushroom Grow Kits:
The article also provides information on building your own DIY mushroom grow kit using readily available materials. It suggests sourcing items like disinfectant wipes, nitrile gloves, surgical masks, wide-mouth mason jars, substrate materials (such as brown rice flour and vermiculite), a plastic storage tub, perlite, a spray bottle, and a hygrometer/thermometer. Additionally, it mentions the option of using a pressure cooker or Instant Pot for sterilizing substrate jars.
Where to Buy Mycology Supplies:
If you're looking to purchase mycology supplies, there are several reputable sources available:
-
Fungi.com: This website, owned by mycologist Paul Stamets, offers a wide range of mycological equipment and supplies for both beginners and advanced growers.
-
Mycosupply: Mycosupply is a Pennsylvania-based supplier that carries a variety of mycological equipment, ranging from amateur to professional level.
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Shroom Supply: Shroom Supply is an underground supplier of mushroom-growing equipment. They offer injectable lids, filters, sterilization equipment, and more.
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Amazon.com: Amazon offers a variety of mushroom-growing equipment and components that can be used to create DIY setups.
Remember to check the legality of purchasing and using mycology supplies in your country or region.
I hope this information helps you understand the concepts mentioned in the article and provides a starting point for your exploration of mushroom grow kits. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask!
