Fun Ways to Grow Fungi

If you have a green thumb or are a mushroom-loving home cook, purchasing a mushroom growing kit is worth it. It allows you to learn the process of mushroom cultivation, expose your palate to new mushrooms and even find a new hobby. Mushroom growing kits come in a variety of mushroom varietals, from white button mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms to specialty morels and oyster mushrooms. Fresh homegrown mushrooms are a versatile ingredient for topping pizza or adding a meaty element to a vegetarian ramen. They're also packed with multiple health benefits. “One cup of raw sliced mushrooms has about 20 calories, but is packed with nutrients like potassium, selenium, copper and B vitamins depending on the variety," says Stefani Sassos, MS, RDN, CDN, deputy director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Nutrition Lab. "They make a great low-calorie but nutrient-dense choice to add to any meal.”

In the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Culinary Innovation Lab, we test a wide variety of kitchen gear, everything from indoor gardens to s’mores makers. Since we’ve only road tested a couple of mushroom growing kits, we reached out to specialty mushrooms and agroforestry specialist Steve Gabriel to help inform our testing criteria and to provide an expert opinion on what to look for when buying a mushroom kit. To determine which mushroom growing kits are the best, we considered price point, mushroom variety, level of difficulty and how long kits would keep producing until they had to be composted.

These are the best mushroom growing kits to buy in 2022, according to our pros: