Back to the Roots Organic Shiitake Mushroom Kit; Great Gift; Easy for Beginners, For Indoor Growing (Start Growing Right Away)USDA Organic

So, first, if you are expecting to grow the best mushrooms ever, or save a mad amount of money over the grocery store, this is not for you. This is more of a science project, craft kit type deal. You are buying a kit that has everything you need, is easy to use, to amuse, entertain, and learn. I have bought probably 10 of these over the years, because they do indeed amuse and entertain my son. I had never had an issues with them growing. If you have trouble, I'd suggest resoaking, scraping, and water them more like a child excited for them to grow and watching in amazement how they are so much bigger than they were two hours ago. They say mist like twice a day, my son is misting every couple hours, and it is not a light mist at all. Also, when you can no longer see them growing, time to harvest. And don't forget to repeat with all the sides, you might be surprised. Even when I think it is all done, I break it up into a dish, and I will usually still get one more.Now, one of the more recent kits I bought from Amazon was a different story. ok normally, there is a brick of dry substrate, coated with this kind of white or pinkish or brownish crunchy fuzz layer. yeah, it is not pretty but that is why it grows so well. This more recent bag was sealed, but worse, more of a wet sludge, jello, and a little bit of brick left. I knew this wasn't right, but gave it a go. I took pictures in case, because hey, everywhere they say guaranteed to grow, reach out to us, yada yada. needless to say this did not work. So on a Sunday, I emailed the company with the picture, and the lack of growth, expecting I might hear back in a week, probably have to jump through some hoops, after a form letter or two, from someone who doesn't speak the same English I speak. Instead, I got an email that day from a very pleasant woman, in the US, who confirmed that was not healthy, looked really old, and entered an order to send me a new kit right away. No receipt request, no hoop jumping. It left the next day, and within 7 days from my email, not only had I heard back on I email, I already had mushrooms growing on the replacement kit, as you can see from the picture. I have not been these pleased and impressed with customer service in like 20 years.So yes, not only does the core product meet the manufacturer's description, with grow indoors, convenient, and easy, but I can now say that they really do honor that part of the description "GUARANTEED TO GROW: Made in the USA and 100% Guaranteed to grow. If you are not satisfied, simply message us and we will send you a Back To The Roots replacement". It really was that easy and super fast. And again, this was just one problem out of like 10 kits. I can also say the give one grow one is honored as well. I find the entire description to be very accurate. Well, except maybe beautiful packaging. It is good packaging, well printed, well worded, but it is still a cardboard box, beautifully packaged is a stretch. Economical, well designed, and very representative of the purpose is more apt.In short, If you or your child likes natural science, and would find it interesting, and get a kick out of how fast they grow once they get going (it is amazing), this is a great product. As long as go in expecting a science kit and not a grocery store or farmers market cost effective replacement, you should be happy.

Worked so well and the kids had so much fun growing mushrooms! We kept it in our kitchen on the cabinet and it grew so well! I think it’s worth the money. I can’t believe I broke my phone and lost all of my pictures so I don’t have any to post but it works. The instructions were easy to understand too.

Summary: product quality is hit or miss, customer service directly with Back to the Roots is a struggle. Support a small business and order a larger, better-priced grow bag from Etsy (there are tons of mushroom growers on there).Review:When the product arrived the mushrooms had already grown inside the bag and decomposed. I completely understand this is a live product and things like this are possible. I contacted the company directly with photos and had them confirm the block was not in a state to continue producing mushrooms (as it had used most of its energy fruiting in the bag during storage/shipping).They agreed the block had gone bad and asked where to ship a replacement, but responses from the company were delayed 5-7 days. I had to reach back out to them twice to confirm the product could be replaced, then again to confirm if a replacement had actually been shipped. I never got confirmation of shipment for the replacement as they said they would send.During the first week of downtime in communication from Back to the Roots, I decided to contact Amazon directly for a refund, as I was unsure the product was actually being replaced. Amazon insisted that I ship them the bag of decomposed mushroom juice in order to be refunded. Not only is it nonsensical to ship a bag of decomposed organic material to be disposed of upon receipt, but I had thrown the bag away earlier in the week because of the odor. After explaining this to Amazon multiple times (going in circles), I was able to get this resolved.Earlier today - to my surprise - a replacement arrived that was shipped from Back to the Roots directly, but it was a different item than I originally ordered. Again, there is a significant amount of mushroom growth/decomposition in the bag, but this block is much healthier looking with near full mycelium coverage so I anticipate (hope) it will provide a successful yield.

Best shitakis we have ever eaten! It grew great and was super fun for the family to observe. We kept our log in a clear lidded tote bin to ensure adequate moisture levels.

Loved watching these grow. I tried to do a time lapse video & it never captured, so idk when it actually grew. It was fun for the whole family. Wish it would grow again, but seemed to be a onetime use thing. In the instructions you're supposed to soak your block in water. After we did that, I poured the water down the side of the tree & now have tiny mushrooms growing in the side of my tree.