Going on holiday with a grow kit at home: what do you do with your block for two weeks?

A grow kit asks for daily attention, which is exactly what you cannot give on holiday. Yet a block does not have to perish because you are off to France for two weeks. Mycelium is excellent at waiting, as long as you do not leave it in fruiting mode. Here is what to do, depending on how long you are away and which phase the block is in.

The principle: put the block on pause

A grow kit has two modes. In fruiting mode, open, in the light, misted, it makes mushrooms and needs moisture every day. In resting mode, closed and cool, it does almost nothing and can wait for weeks. Everything below comes down to one thing: put the block back into resting mode before you leave, and take it out again when you return.

Away for a week or less

Harvest whatever is there, even if it is slightly young; a young oyster mushroom tastes better than one that has hung overripe on the block for a week. Mist the block thoroughly, place a clear box or a large plastic bag with a few holes loosely over it, and put it in the coolest spot in the house, away from the window. That way it holds its moisture and at most grows a new flush that waits for you. A block gets through a week like that without trouble.

Away for two to three weeks

Then the block goes into the fridge. Harvest everything, remove stubs, mist the block wet and put it in a plastic bag folded loosely shut, not airtight. Bottom of the fridge, with the vegetables, around four to seven degrees. Cold pauses the mycelium without harming it, exactly the way we store it at the nursery. Two or three weeks is no problem, four usually still works. When you get home, take the block out, let it come to room temperature for a day, and give it the cold shower: twelve hours submerged in cold water, drain, and back to its bright, cool spot. A new flush usually follows within two weeks.

Exception: the pink oyster. It is tropical and copes badly with the fridge. For the pink: harvest, mist, box over the top, coolest room, and hope the neighbours will mist it once. Beyond ten days it gets dicey.

A block you have not opened yet

The easiest case. A grow kit still sealed simply goes into the fridge in its packaging and waits quietly until you return. If you are ordering just before a holiday, have it delivered when you are back; a block sitting in a warm parcel locker for two weeks is a different story from a block in the fridge.

Away for more than a month

Then the honest advice is: give the block to someone who will enjoy it over the coming weeks, or ask a neighbour to adopt it. A block is not a plant you can hook up to a drip system; it is a harvest with a shelf life. A block that waits four or five weeks often still gets going, but with a smaller flush. If you leave at the end of May and return in July, you are better off ordering a fresh block for September than resuscitating an old one.

And the logs outside?

They manage, with a little preparation. Logs are practically built for neglect, see the weather piece. If you leave during a dry summer spell, give them a night in a tub of water or an hour under the hose the day before, then lay them in the shade with one side on the ground and throw a layer of leaves or wood chips over them against evaporation. That gets them through a dry month. A log that fruits while you are away costs you that harvest; a pity, but the log does not notice and simply does it again in autumn.

And the bucket and the wood chip bed?

A bucket of straw in the colonising phase can go two to three weeks unattended, provided it is not warm and not in the sun. A bucket in the fruiting phase gets the grow kit treatment: harvest, wet, cover, put somewhere cool. Give a wood chip bed a generous watering can before you leave and a blanket of fresh chips or straw; the bed sorts itself out, and anything that grew in the meantime and was not harvested simply goes back into the soil.

The checklist before the door closes

• Harvest everything, even young.
• Grow kit: mist, bag, fridge (except the pink: cool room with a box over it).
• Unopened block: fridge, in its packaging.
• Logs: soak, shade, leaf cover.
• Bucket and bed: wet, cover, cool.
• On return: block to room temperature, cold shower, light and air.

Do this and you come back from holiday and are simply harvesting again a week later. Forget it, and email us with a photo; there is often more to save than it seems.