Mushroom kits have actually had a fair amount of bad press in recent times with many critics claiming that they provide very poor affordability when you compare the yields of the mushroom kits with the actual price of the mushrooms in the shops. I find this a very unfair comparison and feel that it is wrong to simply compare the two with the amount of mushrooms that they produce.
You can buy mushroom growing kits for just a few different species of mushroom – you may get button mushroom grow kits and you will get oyster mushroom grow kits. Both of these are the most common and can be purchased at most garden centres and usually on garden centre websites. Nevertheless, shroom bars can also grow other varieties from more specialist websites, allowing you to grow your own mushrooms like Shiitake, Portobello and much more. These kits usually cost around �5 to �10 and will probably give you around �5 worth of mushrooms (if grown in the best possible environment, and based on the variety as some mushrooms cost more then others in the shops).
I hardly understand why people moan when it costs more to get a mushroom growing kit then it can to get the mushrooms themselves. The majority of the supermarket mushrooms are grown massively in bulk and so are usually grown in other countries and imported across, where it is so much cheaper for them to grow them. Then theres the point that in a kit you get a box and get the substrate (compost or straw) as well as a small bag of spawn. When you buy mushrooms from the shop you aren’t left with excellent compost for the garden (mushroom compost is probably the most expensive and nutritious types of compost as the mushrooms breakdown and recycle many nutrients present in the substrate). And there’s the fact that you’re growing mushrooms yourself – surely the excitement and fun factor are worth paying for too.
For me mushroom growing kits are an excellent way of growing your personal mushrooms and even if sometimes they don’t really offer amazing value for money when compared to the shop price you will learn so much from carrying it out yourself and will probably take great pride in growing and eating your personal mushrooms. Maybe even once you have learned a bit more about cultivating mushrooms you could cut out the middleman and find your personal substrate (straw, newspaper, manure) and buy or make your own mushroom spawn. That’s where you can get real affordability too, growing hundreds of pounds worth of mushroom from literally a few pounds investm
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