Key Tips:

1. Keep your MushGrow growing kit as far as away from the air-conditioner or under blowing of fan - the dry air can prevent or slow down your MushGrow growing kit’s growth.

2. Keep your MushGrow growing kit indoor and avoid direct sunlight – UV radiation in direct sunlight can kill mushroom’s mycelium (whitish “root” in substrate pack).

3. MushGrow growing kit is best to grow under 30°C and 85% humidity.

 

FAQs about MushGrow:

 

What is MushGrow?

MushGrow is a premium brand registered under EKO Agro Biotech Sdn. Bhd. (Reg. No.: 771352-T) which offers premium organic mushroom growing kit. EKO Agro Biotech Sdn. Bhd. is mainly involves in commercial mushroom growing and mushroom-related researches and developments. We own a modern laboratory and commercial mushroom farm based at Juru, Penang.

 

Why we created this kit?

We are always trying our best to serve freshest and organic mushrooms to our customers, right from our farm to your folks. Eventually, we found out the best way to achieve this is inviting you to be part of us!

We created this kit in the hope that everyone can have the fun experience of growing your own freshest organic mushroom. Meanwhile, observe how this magnificent creature grows and recycle every part of it to make this a fully green product!

 

What is our vision and mission?

Our vision is creates a “grow-your-own-mushroom” culture with our premium organic mushroom growing kit.

Our mission is to assure our customers can experience the “education, fun, green” during mushroom growing process, our customer’s satisfaction is our first priority!

 

What is our slogan? How do we achieve it?

Our slogan is education, fun, green.

1. Education

We can understand the importance and functions of fungus in ecosystem. Besides, observe the life cycle of a mushroom, from mycelium to fruit body, until mushroom spore, in just few days.

1. Fun

Everyone can become urban mushroom growers and feel the excitement of growing own mushroom with family members or friends, and eventually, cook it and share it with others.

1. Green

It is one of our main goals to develop our products become 100% eco-friendly, which mean every items are recycleable, or reuseable.

 

Why choose MushGrow?

It is because we provide:

1. 100% satisfaction guarantee

2. 1-to-1 exchange guarantee

3. 100% organic

4. Direct-to-consumer and “refillable” business model

5. Stringent quality control

6. Tracing ability – from breeding in our laboratory until shipping

7. Affordable price - High cost performance ratio

8. Worried-free of growing poisonous mushroom

9. Professional growing advice from professional commercial grower

 

Why we are confident with our products?

It is our passion and ultimate goal to produce premium mushrooms with lowest cost in our commercial farm. In order to achieve it, we understand it is necessary to control the quality of every input. Therefore, we set up our own laboratory for research and development, produce mushroom seed (spawn) and running quality control checks through culturing technique. Our founder holds a first class honor bachelor degree in agricultural science from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). He was awarded by Sultan Selangor as the winner of “Anugerah Pelajaran Diraja” during convocation ceremony.

 

MushGrow offers 1-to-1 exchange guarantee, what is that?

It is one of our promises and guarantee for our valued customers to harvest at least once from each of our MushGrow growing kit or refill substrate pack. For more information, please refer to Terms and Policies section.

 

What is our business model?

MushGrow follows the direct-to-consumer business model, by offering premium grade mushroom growing kit with satisfaction guarantee policies directly from our modern laboratory and mushroom farm. This cut down the middle part of marketing and it allows us to contact and get the feedbacks directly from our valued customers.

Besides, we started the “refillable” business model by selling refill substrate pack. This is not just about money saving to re-use the grow box and misting sprayer, but also our target to reduce carbon footprint!

 

Why the MushGrow grow box is so good in quality? Is it re-useable?

Yes, absolutely! We believed the grow box itself can be sustain for few cycles of substrate pack, and it is a waste to use it just once, therefore, we made our premium grow box with thicker ingredient, covering with a moderate water proof layer and this can help the grow box to last longer from water spraying.

 

What can we contribute to the environment by growing mushroom?

Main ingredient in mushroom substrate pack is saw dust, which is a by-product from saw mill. Prior to mushroom cultivation history in Malaysia, these saw dust normally sent to somewhere for burning. By growing mushroom, we are converting these agricultural by-product (which is suppose sent for burning) to high protein delicate food and the spent substrate pack can be use as organic fertilizer after the mycelium of mushroom break down those saw dust.

 

What type of mushroom does MushGrow grow?

Our growing kit grows gourmet pearl oyster mushrooms, golden mushroom, rose mushroom, snow white mushroom and wood ear. We are currently working on other type of tropical mushrooms, like ling zhi, so stay tuned!

 

How do MushGrow assured it is not poisonous mushroom sprouting from the growing kit?

We have grown tones of mushrooms in our commercial farm, and never have any poisonous mushroom growing from our substrate pack, thanks to our strict quality control throughout our standard operating procedure (SOP), start from our own laboratory.

 

What is inside MushGrow’s growing kit?

There is a MushGrow substrate pack inside the growing kit, which made of 89% saw dust, 10% rice bran and 1% agricultural lime. Saw dust is the by-product of saw mill industry.

 

Are the mushrooms from MushGrow organic?

Yes! All of the ingredients in MushGrow substrate pack are chemical-free and non-genetic modified. It is not necessary to use any chemical, others than water when growing MushGrow growing kit!

 

FAQs about mushroom growing instructions:

Why cut a 4cm wide “+” on the substrate plastic bag? Can I cut wider?

We need to cut a “+” on the substrate plastic bag to provide oxygen, light and humidity to the substrate, as well as space for mushroom to grow afterward. We did a lot of tests and experiments, and found out 4cm wide is the best length for mushroom to sprout to maximum potential and prevent excessive water evaporation.

It is not recommended to cut wider. It is undeniable that more mushrooms will be sprout if larger area is exposed, but due to the limiting factor of nutrient, more mushrooms will end up of earlier maturing stage, which mean mushrooms will start to become old at smaller size. The final weight of less mushrooms with bigger size and more mushrooms with smaller size are the same.

 

Why need to mist water on cut surface at least twice a day?

The objective of spraying water on mushroom is to increase the surrounding humidity and refill the water loss of mushrooms. Spraying more than twice is highly recommended especially during hot and dry weather.

 

How much water needed to spray each time?

We recommend 4-5 times pressing of our misting sprayer for each spraying. It is not recommend to over-spraying each time, as this will cause excessive water and might cause contamination easily under hot weather.

 

How to clear mushroom residue after harvest?

You can clear away all mushroom residue with just your hands. It is highly recommended doing so for hygiene purposes and avoids contamination.

 

Why need to seal the cut surface with cellophane tape after harvest?

After harvesting mushrooms, it takes about 10-15 days before next flush of mushroom start sprouting, we call it “resting period”, similar to human who just gave birth. During this period, sealing the cut surface with cellophane tape can prevent water loss from substrate pack, and prevent contamination source (most of the time is airborne spore) from reaching our substrate pack.

 

Do I need to spray water prior sealing cellophane tape on the cut surface?

Not necessary. In fact, excessive of water during resting stage of mushroom mycelium will cause contamination easily.

 

How long should the cut surface being sealed with cellophane tape before next harvest?

Normally is 10 days, but you can seal for longer period up to 20 days. Tear off cellophane tape if you see any mushroom pin heads sprouting.

 

How many flushes/batches of mushroom can I get from one substrate pack?

Under optimum environment and caring, you can harvest at least three flushes/batches of mushrooms from each substrate pack. If MushGrow substrate pack never sprout any mushroom, we promise to replace it for you.

 

FAQs before growing mushroom:

Where to put my MushGrow growing kit?

Ideally, you want to grow your mushrooms indoors with indirect sunlight/lamp lighting and a bit of fresh air. Indirect sunlight/lamp lighting will help the mushroom caps develop to their full potential. We recommend putting it at the corner of living or dining area; must prevent putting it near to any heat source, like cooking area or heater. Once you see the tiny pinheads pop out, they will multiple in size each day!

 

How long can I store the MushGrow growing kit before I need to start growing it?

We put a label with species name and expired date on every MushGrow substrate pack (include refill substrate pack) for quality control purpose. We promise to ship out our growing kit with minimum three weeks before expired date. Throughout our cultivation experience and experiments data, it is best to grow the mushroom in a month time after it is mature. “Younger” substrate pack is better in disease resistant and able to yield more flushes/batches before it starts to aging. Please make sure you keep your MushGrow growing kit in a cool area/room that does not receive any direct sunlight, like bedroom. Once opened, you just need oxygen, water, and indirect sunlight to get the mushroom to sprout!

 

Can my MushGrow growing kit still sprouting if I start growing (cutting “+”) after expired date?

MushGrow growing kit still has a very high chance to sprout after one month of expired date. However, in term of disease resistant ability and yield potential might decrease from time to time. Besides, the substrate pack is not covered by 1-to-1 exchange guarantee after expired date. It is highly recommend starting to grow before expired date.

 

What is the root-like, white layer thing covering the MushGrow substrate pack?

The white layer is mycelium of mushroom! Its function is similar to the roots of plants.

 

FAQs when growing mushroom:

How easy are the mushrooms to grow with MushGrow growing kit?

As easy as 1) cut, 2) misting and 3) harvesting... normally in just 10-15 days! It's so easy! In order to assure our customers have a pleasant mushroom growing journey, MushGrow offers 1-to-1 exchange guarantee promise if the substrate pack never sprout any mushroom. For more information, please refer to Terms and Policies section.

 

Is growing mushroom in house or office can be harmful to human?

Growing mushroom do not cause adverse effect to human health, either in house or office. However, it is reported that a very small percentage of people is allergy to mushroom spore, please be alert if someone is having allergic reactions when staying near to mushroom.

 

Why my MushGrow growing kit not sprouting?

There are several reasons if the growing kit is not sprouting:

1. Hot environment

Surrounding temperature exceeding 32°C for long period (>3 hours) can cause mushroom’s mycelium to die.

 2.   Insufficient humidity

Increase the spraying frequency especially during hot and dry days.

 3.   Contamination

Please check the substrate pack to assure there is no contamination. For FAQs about contamination, please scroll down for contamination section. If there is contamination detected before expired date, we will replace a new substrate pack for you.

 4.   Direct sunlight

UV radiation in direct sunlight can kill mushroom’s mycelium.

For more technical advice, please kindly contact us through email (mushgrow.com.my@gmail.com) or social messaging apps (Whatsapp, WeChat, LINE).

 

Why the mushroom dried up before mature?

This phenomena is normally caused by low humidity or high temperature (>32°C), try to increase humidity by spraying slightly more water each time and increase spraying frequency each day. Besides, put the growing kit in cooler place, but

 

What to do if the mushroom dried up?

You can harvest it and eat it! It is still edible. After harvesting, clear all the mushrooms residues and follow the mushroom growing instructions for next flush.

 

Do I need to pull up the cut plastic when misting water?

Not necessary, water is able to enter through the cut area.

 

Which part should I misting? Mushroom or substrate pack?

Before mushroom sprouting from the cut surface, spray on the cut surface. If there are mushrooms growing from the cut area, spraying on the mushrooms is enough.

 

Why there are whitish powders from mature mushrooms?

Those are spores from mushrooms. These spores carry the genetic line of mushroom and the amount of spores increase with the maturity of mushroom.

 

What if I have a pet around?

None of our customers have reported that their pets have tried to eat the mushrooms as they grew, they will be fine!

 

FAQs about harvesting:

When is the best time to harvest mushroom? Why?

As soon as you notice that your largest mushroom cap is around 3-6cm size, you can pick off the entire crop. The concept of harvesting mushroom is harvest it before it starts to get old, which happen just in a day time! The mission of a fungus to produce mushroom is to release spore for carry on their genetic line, it is best to harvest it before it release the most spore, and normally it is just before the mushroom cap fully develop and become flat.

 

How to harvest mushroom?

You just pluck them off with your hands with some twisting, and they will come off easy!

 

Can I harvest just one mushroom from a bunch of mushrooms?

Cannot, you must harvest it by plucking the whole bunch of mushrooms off. It is because during harvesting process, we will cause “injury” to the nearby mushrooms, and most of the time, they will stop growing and dry up.

 

FAQs about post-harvest:

What should I do with my MushGrow growing kit after I harvested the mushroom?

After harvesting the mushrooms, clean all the mushroom residues and seal the cut surface with cellophane tape.

 

How to keep the harvested mushroom?

Just store them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator under vegetable section.

 

How long can I keep the harvested fresh mushroom?

Since you have grown them yourself, you can store them for up to four days in the refregerator, but it is best to consume it fresh and we believe that is one of the main reasons you choose to grow your mushrooms at home!

 

How do I cook it?

Try not to wash the fresh organic mushroom before cooking if you are satisfied with the growing environment to preserve its meaty texture. You can cook mushrooms in a lot of ways, please share with us your recipe at our Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/mushgrow.com.my!

 

What does MushGrow’s pearl oyster mushroom taste like?

Pearl oyster mushrooms have a mild flavor that is very versatile when it comes to the food they complement. They have a delicate, velvety texture that pairs well in a lot of dishes!

 

FAQs about MushGrow refill substrate pack:

Can I buy MushGrow refill substrate pack and grow mushroom from it without the grow box?

Yes, you still able to get mushrooms from just the refill substrate pack. The MushGrow grow box is selling as optional add-on, and we made it able to last for few cycles by just replacing substrate pack.

 

FAQs about recycling MushGrow:

How can I recycle the substrate in plastic bag?

You can recycle it by pour out the substrate and crush it, then apply it evenly to your garden or flower pot as organic fertilizer!

 

How can I recycle the plastic bag and plastic cap?

The plastic bag and plastic cap is made of Polypropylene (PP), and you can recycle it by putting them into plastic category of recycle bin. If you have any idea of reusing these, please share with us at our facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/mushgrow.com.my.

 

FAQs about health benefits of mushroom:

What are the health benefits of oyster mushroom?

Oyster mushrooms are extremely healthy and rich, given that one-third of their dry weight is protein. They contain amino acids and enzymes that have been shown to boost the immune system and are rich in vitamin C, vitamin B complex, and most of the mineral salts required by the human body. Calcium, phosphorous and iron content in oyster mushrooms are double the amount found in most meats. They are also known to lower cholesterol, boost the immune system, and may even inhibit tumor growth.

 

FAQs about contamination:

What is contamination?

Contamination is the growth of unwanted microorganisms, like other fungus or bacteria in the substrate pack. It will compete nutrient with the mycelium of mushroom and sometimes cause spoilage of substrate pack.

 

How to detect contamination in substrate pack?

The healthy substrate pack will be in whitish colour (except abalone mushroom) and it is due to the colonization of mycelium of mushroom. If there is some other colour appeared in the substrate bag, for example: greenish colour (caused by Trichoderma sp., also known as green mold), orange colour (caused by Neurospora sp., also known as orange mold) and black colour (caused by several species fungus), it is an indicator that your substrate pack is contaminated. It is highly recommended to send us a photo if you are suspecting contamination in your substrate pack.

 

Why my MushGrow growing kit is contaminated?

It can be due to several reasons. Most of the time, contamination happens during hot weather. Hot weather can reduce the immune system of mushroom itself and causing other types of fungus to grow on it or the substrate. Besides, hygiene is important in avoiding contamination, remember to clean all the mushroom residues after harvesting.

 

What should I do if my MushGrow growing kit is contaminated?

If contamination happens before the expired date, we will replace a new one to you. If contamination happens after first harvest, try to scrap off the infected part. If contamination is severe (more than 30% of substrate surface), then it is adviseable to discard the substrate pack immediately. Please kindly contact us for any enquiry about handling contaminated substrate pack.

 

How MushGrow able to reduce contamination percentage to lowest as possible?

The genetic of the species of mushroom itself plays the most important role in disease resistant and yield potential. Therefore, we breed our own mushroom species by selecting the most disease resistant with highest yield potential strain.

Besides, all of our substrate pack will be went through a 102°C sterilization process to kill all the living microorganisms inside before inoculating the seed (spawn). At the same time, we will randomly pick up some samples from every batch of substrate pack for fungus and bacteria test to assure the mycelium of mushroom can grow healthily.

Others than that, we always run quality check when the mycelium is growing and we will discard the bad one. Currently, our contamination rate stands below 0.5%, and we are trying our best to reduce it further.

 

 

Troubleshooting:

How long can I store the MushGrow growing kit before I need to start growing it?

We put a label with species name and expired date on every MushGrow substrate pack (include refill substrate pack) for quality control purpose. We promise to ship out our growing kit with minimum three weeks before expired date. Throughout our cultivation experience and experiments data, it is best to grow the mushroom in a month time after it is mature. “Younger” substrate pack is better in disease resistant and able to yield more flushes/batches before it starts to aging. Please make sure you keep your MushGrow growing kit in a cool area/room that does not receive any direct sunlight, like bedroom. Once opened, you just need oxygen, water, and indirect sunlight to get the mushroom to sprout!

 

What should I do if I will be away for few days?

Just do what you did after harvesting the mushroom: seal the cut surface with cellophane tape, and store it in dark and cool place. If there are mushrooms growing and you cannot find a “mushroom-sitter”, then it is recommended to harvest the mushrooms and seal the cut surface with cellophane tape before leaving. Do not be worry, harvesting mushrooms before it mature stage do not harm the growing kit.

 

My MushGrow growing kit grew a beautiful first crop but the second one has not come in, what is wrong?

Do not worry. Patience is key! Each subsequent crop will take about two weeks or more to begin growing, it depends on the surrounding environment. Here are couple tips for better success:

1. Temperature: After the first harvest, seal your MushGrow growing kit’s cut surface with cellophane tape and try to keep the kit in an area around 25-29°C if possible.

2. Humidity: Do not let it dry out. After tear off the cellophane tape, it is a must to spray water at least twice a day on cut surface. Do not over-spray each time, it can easily cause contamination with too high water content under hot weather. The best way is to increase spraying frequency during hot weather.

 

What happens if my MushGrow growing kit does not grow?

We absolutely guarantee our product, so if your MushGrow growing kit or refill substrate pack is not growing any mushroom for any reason, please reach out to us at mushgrow.com.my@gmail.com and we will replace you a new MushGrow substrate pack. Customer service is our utmost priority and we have 36 hours response time for emails and calls we receive. For more details, please read our Terms and Policies section.

 

What should I do if my MushGrow growing kit is contaminated?

We absolutely guarantee our product, so if your MushGrow growing kit or refill substrate pack is contaminated before expired date, please reach out to us at mushgrow.com.my@gmail.com and we will replace you a new MushGrow substrate pack. Customer service is our utmost priority and we have 36 hours response time for emails and calls we receive. For more details, please read our Terms and Policies section.

 

How do I know it is time to replace a new MushGrow substrate pack?

You can replace a new MushGrow substrate pack after 3-6 flushes/batches of mushrooms or the weight of substrate pack dropped to below 450g. You can purchase our refill substrate pack by recycling the growing box and misting sprayer.

 

How can I reach MushGrow?

      You can reach us through:

• Official Website – www.mushgrowcommy.wix.com/mushgrow

• Facebook – www.facebook.com/mushgrow.com.my

• Email – mushgrow.com.my@gmail.com

• Phone number - +6012-418980

  • Social messaging apps – Whatsapp, WeChat