Keep on growin’ Mushroom grow kits have definitely had their moment and jump-started thousands of new at-home cultivators. If you’re looking at your old grow kit and wondering if it will ever again show signs of life, these tips can help you repurpose a grow kit into a potentially endless supply of gourmet mushrooms. The bucket technique: Most mushroom grow kits can be rehydrated and coaxed through multiple flushes … but once the substrate is depleted of nutrients, the mycelium starts to die. Luckily, making your own substrate is straightforward and relatively cost-efficient. Simply drill ¼” holes into a bucket. Then, soak aspen wood chips in hot water for an hour to pasteurize, then drain and let the chips cool. After sterilizing your surroundings, wear gloves to break up your old mycelium into the bucket, creating alternating layers with the woodchips. Make more kits: If you don’t feel like making your own substrate, no worries — pre-sterilized grain substrate blocks are easily available online, but the convenience is often more costly. Once you have your substrate, sanitize your surroundings, glove up, and mix pieces of your old mycelium into the new substrate. Close it with a heat sealer or twist tie, and you’ll have a new mushroom grow kit in minutes. Plant it! Where does mushroom substrate go when it’s spent? Into the garden, of course! Burying your mushroom grow kit in a shaded spot could possibly yield additional mushrooms if the climate and soil in your area are right. Just remember to remove any plastic from the kit first! Even more ways to repurpose a mushroom grow kit.