Watch them grow
Every species fruits at its own pace, with its own look and flavor. Pick the one that fits your kitchen.
Fastest to harvest
Coral-pink clusters with frilly, shell-shaped caps, and the quickest turnaround of any block we sell. It loves warmth and cooks up smoky and savory, with a bacon-like edge. The pink fades to tan in the pan.
Cascading spines
Ivory pins stretch into a soft cluster of white spines that looks more like coral than a mushroom. Pull it into thumb-size pieces, brown them in butter and finish with garlic and thyme.
Deepest umami
Dense, cracked brown caps with the deepest umami of the five. It asks for one extra step, a browning phase and a 48-hour cold shock before the first flush. The caps stay firm and meaty in a stir-fry.
A chef's rare find
Glossy caramel caps with a mild, nutty sweetness and a warm, cinnamon-like aroma (no actual cinnamon involved). Grocery stores almost never carry it because it keeps only two to four days, so fresh means homegrown.
Seasonal release
Chestnut-brown caps on slim pale stems, grown in the same chamber as the rest. Pioppino is one of our limited runs, so it comes and goes with the season.
Fully colonized 5lb fruiting blocks, lab-prepared and ready to fruit the day they arrive.
A mushroom fruiting block is a brick of pasteurized hardwood sawdust, bran, and water that has been fully colonized with mushroom mycelium. Cut a slit in the bag, place the block in a humid chamber, and you will see pins within 5 to 14 days. Lykyn fruiting blocks are 5lb each (much larger than the typical 2lb hobby block), pre-colonized in our lab, and matched to specific cultivars chosen for first-flush reliability.
Mushroom grow bags and mushroom fruiting blocks are the same product under two names. Home growers and hobbyists tend to call them mushroom grow bags; suppliers and commercial cultivators call them fruiting blocks. Lykyn ships pre-colonized 5 lb fruiting blocks (also sold as mushroom grow bags) in five gourmet species. Every block is lab-verified, cold-stored during transit, and ready to fruit in 5 to 14 days.
Pink Oyster for speed, Lion's Mane for nootropic interest, Shiitake for the kitchen, Black Oyster for the visual drama, Cinnamon Cap for the culinary niche. All five fruit reliably in a clean chamber at 88 to 92% RH.
Most hobby blocks are 2 to 3lb. Our 5lb blocks hold more substrate moisture and typically push 2 strong flushes plus a partial 3rd. That is roughly 1.5 to 2.5lb of fresh mushrooms per block, depending on species.
Set a recurring delivery (every 4, 6, or 8 weeks) and save 15% on every block. The chamber stays busy, the kitchen stays stocked, you stop forgetting to reorder.
Blocks are a perishable, living substrate. Use within 90 days of arrival for best flush size. If you see anything green, contaminated, or smelling sour on arrival, reach out and we replace it.
Tropical strain, bright pink caps, broadest temperature tolerance. The best first grow for new growers.
Shop Pink OysterCascading white spines. Functional mushroom darling. Brain food angle drives most of our subscriber growth.
Shop Lion's ManeWide Range cultivar. The richest umami of the five. Slower to fruit but worth every day in the chamber.
Shop ShiitakeDeep grey-black caps over white stems. Excellent first-flush yields and a strong oyster flavor.
Shop Black OysterChestnut mushroom grow kit (Pholiota adiposa). Nutty clusters and a dense fruiting body. The next step after your first oyster grow.
Shop Cinnamon CapCut a two-inch slit in the top of the bag with a clean knife. Do not remove the block from the bag. Place the whole bag inside your Lykyn chamber or any humid tent with fresh airflow. Room temperature 65 to 75°F works for every species except pink oyster, which prefers 72 to 80°F.
Pins appear within 3 to 10 days depending on species. The chamber holds humidity above 85 percent and swaps fresh air on a schedule, so you do not spray or open the bag during pinning. Fruiting takes another 3 to 5 days from pin to harvest-ready cluster.
Twist the cluster off at the base, do not cut. Soak the block in cool water for 12 hours, drain, then return it to the chamber. A second flush arrives in 7 to 14 days, and most mushroom fruiting blocks give three flushes before the mycelium exhausts the substrate.
Get a fresh 5 lb mushroom fruiting block delivered every 30 days. Rotate species month to month, stick with the same block type, or let us pick a seasonal favorite. Subscribers save 15 percent off single-block pricing and get first access to limited releases like Enoki, King Trumpet, and Pioppino. Pause or cancel from account settings any time.
The subscription cadence is tuned to how the chamber actually works. As one block finishes its third flush and gets composted, the next month's block arrives ready to slot in. No gaps, no reordering, no cold-chain risk.
Sealed and refrigerated (35 to 50°F), a Lykyn block stays dormant for about 90 days. At room temperature it will start trying to fruit on its own within 2 to 3 weeks, so plan to use room-temp blocks promptly.
Commercially we mix hardwood sawdust, soy hulls, and water at controlled ratios, pasteurize the mix at 160°F for 12 hours, fill autoclavable bags with filter patches, sterilize at 250°F under pressure, then inoculate with our master cultures inside a positive-pressure laminar flow bench filtered to ISO Class 5 (0.3 micron). The block colonizes for 14 to 28 days at 70 to 75°F before it ships.
Most blocks stop after 2 to 3 flushes because the easy nutrition is gone. You can usually push a final flush by dunking the block in cool water for 12 to 24 hours, then returning it to the chamber. After that, the block is spent and good for compost or outdoor inoculation.
Not strictly, but it makes everything easier. A clean storage-tote chamber works for hobbyists who do not mind misting 3 times a day. The Lykyn chamber automates humidity and fresh air so you stop losing flushes to dry edges and aborted pins.
Yes, blocks are forgiving. Keep them out of direct sun and away from temperatures above 80°F during transit. Many growers fruit the first flush in the Lykyn chamber and finish the spent block in an outdoor shaded spot.
Most subscribers cycle 2 species at once, alternating fast (Pink Oyster) and slow (Lion's Mane) so the chamber is never empty. Browse complete kits if you do not already own a chamber.
