Have you always wanted to grow your own pink oyster mushrooms in your garden? But you were afraid you’d mess up? Well, I messed up so you wouldn’t have to! That’s right, a somewhat seasoned mushroom grower goofed a beginner’s level pink oyster growing kit fortunately to discover it’s mistake proof!
In this blog post, I’m going to give you all the way too simple steps to plant your pink oyster garden block from North Spore. So you too can enjoy tasty and healthy pink oyster mushrooms, from garden to table!
Plus I’ll show you how I cooked mine at the end!
Please Note: There are some affiliate links in this article, in which I may get a small commission, at zero extra cost to you. I have always kept this website completely ad free, as you’ll notice, for a user-friendly experience. Thanks for being here with me!
Steps to Plant Pink Oyster Mushroom Growing Kit for Your Garden
North Spore gives a detailed yet simple run down on their website under ‘How to Grow.’ But I’ll give you a quick run down and my experience trying this product. (Use the code SPORULOVE10 at checkout to get 10% off your purchase!)
Before you get started with growing pink oyster mushrooms, know that you’ll want to grow them outside in the summer. Their ideal growing temperature range is 70-80°F, according to North Spore.
Step 1. Dig a hole in a shaded location, about one foot deep.
Here is a super short video, 7 seconds, of me planting the pink oyster growing kit block into the ground.
Truly, the hardest part was digging the hole with all the rocks in the dirt. And I had injured my back and had someone else dig the hole for me.
Then we put some dirt on top, covering it with 1″ of soil. And quite a few rocks. Rocks aren’t ideal, but that didn’t stop these pink oysters from springing up.
Step 2. Water your block! Give it a good soak. I used about a 1/2 gallon to 3/4 gallon of water for the first water. North Spore says to water it 1-2 times/day in dry weather. I only ever gave it a good soak, especially the first three weeks, 1x/day.
Because I didn’t grow these pink oyster mushrooms at my house. This worked fine! Just make sure you give them a good soak, particularly in dry weather.
Step 3. Patiently wait during this initial watering phase for signs of fruiting.
But What if an Animal Decides Your Mushroom Bed is a Tasty Snack?
But wait, only just after day one, disaster struck my pink oyster mushroom bed. I didn’t take photos, because I went immediately into emergency mode…
So what happened? I’m sure you can take a good guess…
Yes, an animal dug into my freshly buried pink oyster bed! It even managed to rip some chunks of the oyster block out onto the surrounding lawn.
What Not to Do with Your Pink Oyster Mushroom Growing Kit
So what did I do? I panicked, and let my stepmom put hot sauce on the bed. And way too much of it came out when she dispersed it.
Mushrooms don’t like acid, and hot sauce is highly acidic. That’s right, folks, I messed this thing up.
And then I probably made it worse? My dad suggested I add sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to it to balance out the pH. Also a mistake, because mushrooms don’t like high concentrations of salt. Yeah, this was not my finest hour of mushroom growing. Don’t judge me. Or do, it’s fine. I’ll never know.
But it’s okay, because this kit was silly-beginner’s proof!
Quick Note: What Should You Do to Protect Your Bed from Wild Animals?
It’s okay to use hot sauce or cayenne pepper to ward off mushroom-eating beasts. But put the hot sauce or cayenne pepper only as a border, around your mushroom bed, not in it.
If for some reason you realize you need to raise the pH for your mushroom bed, ideally, you should use calcium carbonate. Know that pure calcium carbonate is not sold at your local home improvement or garden supply store. So order it ahead of time if you think you’ll need it.
Nineteen days after first burying the pink oyster mushroom growing kit, I started to see it fruiting. I didn’t catch them at peak perfection. So keep in mind, it’s good to check the beds every day, especially after the 14 day mark.
Five days later, I could see the bed was starting to fruit again.
And three days after that, the pink oyster flushes were ready to harvest.
You Can Stir-Fry Your Pink Oysters
Other mushroom enthusiasts don’t recommend this necessarily, but I tend to like to soak my mushrooms in water before cooking. I feel like there clean and it gets any bugs out of them.
And then I drained them and stir-fried them with some lemon, ginger, and tamari sauce. And some yummy herbs like fennel and basil, with some pink Himalayan sea salt. There’s a little blue oyster and shiitake in the mix too. Soo good.
Here’s a quick 6 second clip of the magic happening, and you can see I chose to steam-fry these mushrooms. Again, I’m not an expert cook. Don’t be intimidated by getting it “right” if you haven’t cooked mushrooms a lot. They are incredibly forgiving, and taste amazing no matter what. Even if there is a better way to cook them.
So That’s Both How to and How Not to Use Your Pink Oyster Growing Kit
Now that you know you can’t really mess this up, well, unless you forget to water, you can rest easy trying one of these kits out!
This pink oyster mushroom garden kit from North Spore is specifically for summer weather temperatures. But if it’s spring or fall where you live, they have other easy, beginner’s level garden kits available now. Use the code SPORULOVE10 at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase!
If you want to read about another way I grew oyster mushrooms in a straw bed, that was a bit more involved, but worked great, check out this article. Happy mushroom growing! 🙂