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Home / Mushroom Cultivation / Mushroom Grow Kits / XXL MonoBox / MonoBag Mushroom Grow Kit

EZ-Replacement Mushrooms fruiting inside a sealed grow bag, condensation on the plastic 1 / 12
Show: Mushrooms fruiting inside a sealed grow bag, condensation on the plastic
Show: A sealed grow bag of pale colonising grain held on a steel worktop
Show: A MonoBox grow kit in full flush with Pioppino mushrooms
Show: Grain heavily colonised with white fluffy mycelium filling the jar
Show: A hand holding a MonoBox cake covered in mushrooms fruiting from all sides, on a white background
Show: A MonoBox substrate tub: clear tub of dark coir with two green tabs on the lid
Show: An even bed of hydrated perlite spread across the base of a Cylo Grow Tent, held open from behind
Show: Several sealed green Clinell sachets of 2% chlorhexidine in 70% alcohol wipes
Show: Several sealed blue Clinell antibacterial hand wipe sachets fanned out
Show: A blue disposable pleated face mask with ear loops on a white background
Show: Two sterile 16 gauge 40mm needles in sealed clear packaging
Show: XXL MonoBox / MonoBag Mushroom Grow Kit

XXL MonoBox / MonoBag Mushroom Grow Kit

If you were stranded on a desert Island, this is the mushroom grow kit you'd want by your side.

£31.95 – £34.95

Choose your kit

0-3 working day dispatch or free grow kit if we are late (UK-only pledge). Order and pay before 1pm Monday to Friday.

MonoBox / MonoBag Mushroom Grow Kit

If you're new to this but want to take mushroom growing seriously, this is the grow kit for you. It's unbeatable and that's saying something considering we have around 18 grow kits in this shop.

So, why is this kit well loved? The reason is that it foundation mirrors what's happening in the DIY scene - custom Rye Grain Mason jars with Synthetic Filter Discs (our plastic SpawnTubs with in-built injection ports), semi-pasteurisation of coir substrate in tubs (our MycoWavable coir substrate), big plastic tubs 'monotubs' (our compact MonoBox, able to be fruited on it's side for insane surface area and within a humidity fruiting tent)...

We had the idea of turning the most popular growing method in the DIY grower scene, (shroomery.org) into a feasible commercial grow kit which was easy and cheap enough that anyone could mirror exactly what the 'experienced' cultivators were doing. We've trained an entire generation of UK mushroom growers with this kit, so much so that most, if not all UK shops have inferior versions of this amazing kit.

BUT.

If you are just messing around, you don't want to take this seriously - then take a look at the EZPZ - it's an all-in-one grow kit for a tenner. You aren't going to beat that price and it's easy, you'll have a blast with it and you'll have mushrooms with no fuss at all.

What's Included (MonoBOX):

  • 1L Sterile Multigrain SpawnTub (HEPA-Filterred with Injection Port)
  • MycoWavable Coir Substrate (Expands to 2L of Substrate - add PRECISELY 850ml)
  • Humidity Fruiting Tent with Filter Material (Rated at 100% Humidity)
  • 3.1L MonoBox (Microwavable)
  • 1 x Chlorhexidine Alcohol Wipe
  • 2 x Hand Wipes
  • 1 x Facemask
  • Online Guide available here

What's Included (MonoBAG):

  • 1L Sterile Multigrain SpawnTub (HEPA-Filterred with Injection Port)
  • MycoWavable Coir Substrate (Expands to 2L of Substrate - add PRECISELY 850ml)
  • Humidity Fruiting Tent with Filter Material (Rated at 100% Humidity)
  • 1 x Chlorhexidine Alcohol Wipe
  • 2 x Hand Wipes
  • 1 x Facemask
  • Online Guide available here

Sterile Coir vs MycoWavable Coir:

Microwaving is all your coir substrate needs. You DO NOT need sterile coir substrate, and in fact you do not want it with this kit. Healthy colonised spawn shouldn't be treated like it's alergic to life.

As we all know, if our settings were always sterile then as soon as we went outside and interacted with the world we'd catch every bug going. That's life. Mycelium is life too. Think about how mushroom mycelium interacts with nature - it doesn't ruin and contaminate at the first sight of a rotting worm or thricoderma spores - it grows right over them and thrives, that's because the mycelium has faced and learned from those manky challenges before.

Microwaving or pasteurising coir is plenty - it doesn't kill everything - and guess what? Your mycelium LOVES it that way. It loves a challenge and it learns from it so it's all tooled up to deal with it next time. You just need to make sure the environment is right, good temperature control is important. Once upon a time, our thinking was off on this too... we sold sterile coir and were the only shop selling the stuff. Other shops now copy our sterile coir substrate idea... We can't help feeling responsible.

Contamination risk will increase over time using sterile coir. Microwave your coir - your mycelium will be ripped and ready.

Field Consistency

This is one of the most annoying terms in mushroom cultivation, but it means when you take a hand full of substrate and squeeze it hard that you get a tiny short stream of water releasing. A rather gentle squeeze can release a few droplets of water. We have calculated our substrate mix to take 850ml of water, which will make it expand to around 2L in volume. Then after microwaving it and cooling it, it gets added to your bag or monobox and mixed with your 1000mL of colonised grain - combining to 3L of mixed substrate. If something goes wrong and our 850ml of water isn't enough or it seems too much, it's simple - to remove water just sweeze a handleful at a time. Squeezed too much out? Well, pour a little back in - it's easy to get right.

"I Don't Have A Microwave"

It really surprised us when first selling the MonoBox Grow Kit just how many folk didn't have a microwave, y'know that lab tool invention that went mainstream in most homes since the 80's - there's even a song about them. You can prepare your coir substrate a dozen different ways... Use a Sous Vide? Ok, perfect - why not try proper pasteurisation then - add 850ml water to coir, mix it, put it into a PP5 bag that you already have for your Sous Vide and set your water temp to a proper pasteurisation temp for a couple of hours. Just a have an oven? Ok.. Set your oven to 70-75C then pour your dry substrate onto aluminium foil, fold it into a parcel and leave it there for an hour or so. Then just mix in fresh water, 850ml. Oven broken and you just have a hob? Jeezo, ok so fire the coir and water into a pan, lid on and crank up the heat for 10mins and then leave it to cool. Too much water lost? just pour in some fresh, or squeeze some out - you don't need to recook it either. There are so many different ways to do this. We just say to use a microwave because it's the least work if you already have one.

 

You Will Need:

1.5-2ml of syringe solution.

Features:

  • Excellent success rates for new mushroom cultivators
  • Easier and cleaner inoculation using gourmet spore, culture solution syringe, G2G, or Agar wedge
  • First big harvests in as little as 4 weeks depending on inoculation type, temp and species
  • Multiple harvests until substrate is completely spent
  • Extremely low maintenance cultivation without water misting
  • Overall harvests of 500g+ of fresh mushrooms can be achieved by a beginner
  • Detailed online guide showing you how to achieve big, healthy mushrooms

Inoculation Options:

Spore/Culture Syringe:

This method is explained in the guide. You will inject 1.5-2ml of solution into your SpawnTub through the self-healing injection port in the lid - Easy!

G2G:

If you have a SpawnTub full of colonised grain and wish you had more, fast, then simply open your SpawnTub inside of a clean area, like a home-made Still-Air Box, and shake some of those mycelium-covered grains into a new SpawnTub (or 5 or 20!) and in just a few days watch as those new SpawnTubs explode with white mushroom mycelium.

Agar:

Trading mushroom samples on agar and want to grow that exciting species? No problem, with this Mono Grow Kit, you can simply open the lid and transfer a wedge into the SpawnTub!

Sterility Guaranteed

This grow kit includes a replacement guarantee if anything goes wrong with it for 12 weeks after dispatch. For full terms, read our EZ-Replacements page which is included in the footer or by clicking the 'Guarantee' tab.

Replacement cover, explained

EZ-Replacement

This product is covered.

This product is covered if something goes wrong, so we can make sure you get another kit to try again with. The last thing we want is customers abandoning this hobby because of a mistake. So, if something goes wrong within 12 weeks of us dispatching it to you then follow the steps below to get a new kit on the way.

How a claim works

  1. Open the replacement portal. Sign in, or use the order code we sent you.
  2. Pick the order and the item. If more than one is affected, say how many.
  3. The replacement lands in your basket at £0.
  4. Check out and pay the postage. That is the only thing you pay.

No photos, no explanation, nobody to convince.

We built this shop to be human. When you need a replacement, take it.

Read how it works →

What customers say

Reviews

★★★★★ 4.9 from 353 ratings · 309 written reviews ✓ All from verified purchases

We don't pester for reviews at Cylocybe. We don't give freebies or discounts for them either, because it's just gaming the system - Amazon being the prime example of that which we can all agree on.

★★★★★✓ Verified

A great place to start if you're interested in growing your own medicinal or gourmet mushrooms. Works every time.

1
★★★★★✓ Verified

Great gear. Perfect

1
★★★★★✓ Verified

Professional kit

1
★★★★★✓ Verified

10/10 from me

★★★★★✓ Verified

thanks Cylocybe, good instructions with this kit

1
★★★★★✓ Verified

Great piece of kit, highly recommended

1
Showing 1 to 6 of 309

For cultivating legal gourmet mushroom species only.Sold as a sterile substrate kit for home cultivation. We trust you to be responsible.

MONOBOX GROW KIT
INSTRUCTIONS

v2.217th July, 2026

WHAT'S NEW IN v2.2

  • Larger, single SpawnTub container holding 1 litre of sterile grain.
  • Enhanced substrate recipe.
  • 2L of perlite for greater humidity.
  • Custom Cylo Grow Tent.

GOT AN OLDER KIT?

If your kit is slightly different from the latest version, the following guide pretty much identically applies still - we used to give two smaller SpawnTubs with less grain in each, now we provide a single larger SpawnTub with more grain. There are some other differences, but no changes are drastic enough to make following this guide any more difficult.

INOCULATION

We highly recommend working within a SAB (Still-Air Box), but at the very least, work in a small, very clean and draught-free room. Make sure you're freshly showered and in clean clothes, then thoroughly clean your hands and forearms with a blue Clinell wipe and fit your face mask.

Prepare your chosen gourmet mushroom spore or culture syringe by screwing on a new sterile needle.

Carefully take your SpawnTub out of its packaging. It's now exposed to the open air and potential contaminants - this is where working within a SAB will greatly reduce your chances of suffering a contamination.

Use a green Clinell chlorhexidine wipe to clean the grey rubber injection port on the lid of the SpawnTub, then pierce through it to inject 3ml of solution into the grain.
Never inject through the pink filters!

When you pierce the needle through, we recommend aiming it towards the edge and moving it slowly around the full circumference of the SpawnTub as you push down on the syringe plunger to add the 3ml of solution.

Distributing it evenly like this will speed up the colonisation time. It also makes the mycelium growth easier to see, as it starts on the visible edge of the SpawnTub rather than hiding in the centre of the grain where you can't.

COLONISATION OF THE GRAIN

Now keep your SpawnTub somewhere clean and safe. Mycelium is living and needs to breathe, so don't ever store it in an airtight container - the filter strip in the lid provides the clean air exchange it needs.

Temperature is extremely important for good colonisation. Too hot (above 26Β°C) or too cold (below 18Β°C) will very likely cause problems like contamination, or slow to no growth.

Aim for 23C (give or take a couple of degrees) if you can, and try to hold steady whatever temperature you're able to achieve - don't let it swing up and down too much.

Avoid heat mats, please! It's a very common mistake. They don't spread the warmth evenly, which can cause excessive condensation and water build-up - an easy pathway for contamination to enter your SpawnTub.

Consider building or buying an incubator if you're struggling to hold these temperatures - it's way cheaper than running your home heating constantly, and gives much better results.

At 23C (give or take a couple of degrees), it will generally take around 2-3 weeks for your SpawnTub to fully colonise - meaning the grains are completely covered in healthy, white mushroom mycelium. That said, it depends on a lot of factors, and nature can simply be unpredictable!

Even once it looks fully covered in mycelium, it's best practice to give the grain an extra few days, to make sure the inside is fully colonised too before you move on.

PREPARING THE MONOBOXβ„’

When you're confident you have full colonisation of the grain inside your SpawnTub, you can begin this step.

It's crucial that you don't open your SpawnTub before full colonisation, as you'll expose uncolonised grains to the open air and hugely risk contamination.

Tip the entire contents of the Substrate Mix bag into a large pot, then add 850ml of boiling water. Pop the lid on and heat it on high for 10 minutes - this helps kill off as many nasties as possible, giving your mycelium the cleanest possible head start.

Once the 10 minutes are up, take the pot off the heat and leave it to cool with the lid still on, all the way down to room temperature. Don't rush this! If you mix the substrate with your colonised grain while it's still warm, you risk damaging the mycelium - remember, it's living. It's ready when the pot feels cool to the touch, not just lukewarm.

Once it's cooled, give your MonoBoxβ„’ tub and lid a good clean with hot soapy water, making sure to rinse all the soap off. Now you're ready for Step 4, where you'll mix everything together.

SPAWNING TO SUBSTRATE

When your substrate has cooled and is ready, first clean your hands and forearms - use a blue Clinell wipe again, or wash thoroughly with soap and water. Then take a good handful of the substrate straight from the pot and set it aside for later.

Remove any micropore tape from around the edge of your SpawnTub, then open the lid and tip the colonised grain straight into the pot, on top of the substrate. It'll come out as a solid block that you'll need to break up - it can take a bit of force to get going, so be firm, but careful not to squish any grains.

Take your time breaking the spawn up into individual kernels and mixing them evenly through the substrate. Each kernel is an inoculation point, so the better you spread them, the faster and stronger your colonisation will be!

Once it's all well mixed, transfer everything into your cleaned MonoBox tub.

Turn over for next steps

Finally, take that handful of substrate you set aside earlier and spread it evenly over the top until you can't see any exposed grain. This is called a casing layer.

Secure the lid on the MonoBox and store it somewhere warm. Aim for 23C (give or take a couple of degrees), and getting the temperature right here is absolutely crucial for success - you need colonisation to be quick, or there's a high risk of contamination taking hold. This is the make-or-break stage of your grow.

From around day 5, you can crack one corner of the lid open. Once there's a good amount of mycelium growing, it often wants more fresh air than the filters alone can provide, and giving it that extra air exchange can actually help speed colonisation up.

In the right conditions, full colonisation takes around 7-14 days. As before, once it looks fully colonised, give it a few more days to be sure the centre - where you can't see - has colonised too.

When you're confident the substrate is fully colonised with strong, healthy mushroom mycelium, you're ready to begin fruiting. Don't fully open the MonoBox before then. You now have a colonised block, known as a 'cake'.

PREPARING YOUR CYLO GROW TENT

Push in the bottom corners of the tent and fold in on itself up to the arrow line on the sticker. Put your arm inside the tent and push out the sides.

This creates a gusset in the tent, which allows a flat space in the bottom for sitting your perlite and cake on.

Now you need to hydrate your perlite. Slowly pour it into a strainer (it throws off a lot of dust) and rinse under a tap until it's soaking wet. Shake off some of the excess water and then pour it all into the grow tent. Spread it out into an even layer.

Please cover your mouth and nose when working with perlite and avoid breathing the dust in. If you do breathe some in, move into fresh air and rinse your nose/mouth.

Cut a piece of tin foil slightly larger than your cake and place this on top of the perlite. You don't ever want your cake sitting on the damp perlite, as it can cause contamination.

Remove your cake from the MonoBoxβ„’ and place it on the foil. Fold over the top of the tent and secure with clips or tape, so that humidity can build up inside.

Turn over for fruiting steps

THE BEST BIT... FRUITING YOUR MUSHROOMS!

Maintaining a temperature of around 21C (give or take a couple of degrees) for this stage is crucial for best results.

Humidity and FAE (fresh air exchange) are extremely important for pinning and healthy mushroom development, as is temperature and light. They all need to work in harmony.

Humidity will build up inside the grow tent from the damp perlite and your tent has custom airflow holes to allow for fresh air exchange.

The only time you'll open your tent is when you're ready to harvest your mushrooms - peeking even for a few seconds is enough to lose humidity and cause growth defects (aborted pins, caps breaking, etc).

Placing an electric fan somewhere in the room on a low setting will create a gentle air current and help increase the FAE inside the grow tent.

Your mushrooms will need light to grow. Indirect sunlight is fine, but if you want to use grow lights - a 6-7000K LED or flourescent light a couple of feet away is recommended.

If you notice the inside of your grow tent looking dry, there are a few things which can cause this. Your perlite is not damp enough, the fan is too close, or grow lights are too close and hot.

Observe what's happening and adjust your setup as required - fantastic results depend on it.

After around 3-7 days you'll begin to see lots of tiny white dots - these are hyphal knots which will develop into primordia, aka mushroom pins... the exciting part!

At this point, remove the round stickers at the top of your tent to allow more air exchange through these custom airflow holes.

It should then only take 4-5 days for the pins to grow into fully mature mushrooms ready for harvest.

During this time, they'll let you know if something isn't quite right - fuzzy mycelium at the base of the mushrooms and/or thin stems are an indication that more FAE is needed so increasing the fan speed might be something to try.

Don't worry about any mushrooms growing around the sides and bottom of the cake, you'll still be able to harvest them. If you want to give your mushrooms more room to grow next time (although the Cylo Grow Tent should provide plenty of space!), use a fruiting chamber instead of a grow tent. Check out the photos on our CyLab product page for results when growing inside our CyLab fruiting chamber.

When the veil beneath one of your mushroom caps is about to tear off, this is when you should harvest your first flush. If you don't get there quick enough, spores will begin to drop from your mushroom caps and make a mess! It's best to cut the mushrooms off with a clean scalpel or knife, you can also just pull them off but be careful not to damage the substrate too much.

After you've harvested all the mushrooms from your first flush, you can use a method called 'dunking' to get more moisture into your substrate. Simply fill a container with water deep enough to submerge your cake in and then place it in the water. It will float to the top so you need to use something to weigh it down, as you need it to be fully submerged in water at all times.

Place a lid on the container or cover it to keep everything clean. Leave your cake submerged for anything between 6-24 hours.. depending on how much patience you have! But obviously, the longer you leave it, the better your results will be.

It's best to rehydrate your perlite at this point too. Just repeat the previous steps. Always be careful not to have any water pooling in the bottom of your tent though, as it's a contamination risk. You can also replace the tin foil.

When you remove the cake from the water, give it a rinse under the tap and allow excess water to drain away before placing back into your grow tent.

You should continue to dunk your substrate after each flush and rehydrate the perlite at the same time.

If you've taken good care of it, you should achieve multiple flushes of mushrooms from your grow kit before the nutrients are all used up.

HAPPY SHROOMIN'

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