Home / Mushroom Cultivation / Mushroom Grow Kits / PF-Tek InocuBox
PF-Tek mushroom grow kit
PF-Tek InocuBox
Our original kit, the classic PF-Tek cake brought up to date. You inject one sterile brown-rice cake through a single port, let it colonise, then dunk and fruit it in the included tent. Hands-on, and the friendliest place to start.
Choose your kit
For cultivating legal gourmet mushroom species only. A gourmet liquid culture or spore syringe is not included.
filled and sterilised fresh to order
arrives sterile or we replace it
any gourmet species, your choice
PF-Tek, refined since 2018
The short version
A single-cake PF-Tek kit and the simplest way in. You inject your own gourmet culture through the one rubber port on a sterile brown-rice-and-vermiculite cake, let it colonise in the box it came in, then dunk the colonised cake in water and fruit it in the included tent over perlite. Regular comes with an XL tent and perlite; Enhanced steps up to an XXL tent with extra perlite and vermiculite for the dunk-and-roll between flushes.
How it works
How a PF-Tek InocuBox grow works
PF-Tek is the brown-rice-cake method that taught a generation to grow. It is one cake, one injection port, and a dunk before fruiting. No grain to spawn, no mixing, no lab. Here is the whole run from sealed box to mushrooms.
Inoculate the cake
Wipe the grey rubber port on the lid, fit a fresh needle, and inject your gourmet culture through the single port. The box has headroom above the substrate, so angle the needle and spread the solution across the surface rather than dropping it all in one spot. Work somewhere clean and draught-free. Use about 3ml, and never more than 6ml.
Colonise the cake
Slide the box back into its bag, leave the bag loose rather than squeezed flat, and zip it shut. Keep it somewhere steady, aiming for around 24 degrees, though anywhere from 18 to 24 is fine as long as it holds. Skip the heat mat. Open the bag once or twice a week for fresh air, then leave it alone until the cake is solid white, which usually takes roughly 4 to 8 weeks, warmer being faster.
Dunk to rehydrate
Once the cake is fully white, lift it out as a solid block and submerge it in clean, room-temperature water. Weigh it down with a plate so it stays under, cover the container, and leave it anywhere from 6 to 24 hours, longer being better. This is the PF-Tek soak that loads the cake with the water it fruits on.
Set up the tent
Rinse the perlite until it runs clear, drain it, and spread it in the base of the grow tent (wear the mask, dry perlite is dusty). Lay a piece of foil on top so the cake never sits directly on the wet perlite, rinse and drain the dunked cake, then set it on the foil and fold the tent shut.
Fruit your mushrooms
Drop the temperature slightly, to around 20 to 22 degrees. The humidity rises off the perlite and the soaked cake, so you do not mist it. A small slit each side of the tent plus a fan in the room gives it the fresh air pinning needs. First pins appear in 3 to 7 days; harvest each mushroom just as the veil under the cap begins to tear, then dunk the cake again between flushes for more.
Why this one
What makes the InocuBox different
This was the first kit we ever made, back in 2018, and the single port is the change that earned it its name. The old version had five ports, which meant five places for microbes to slip in. We cut it to one.
One port colonises a touch slower because the mycelium starts from a single point and runs outward, but it is the right trade. Fewer openings is the single biggest thing you can do to keep a cake clean.
Why it works
How we make it sterile
The cake is the part that has to be perfectly clean, because a brown-rice substrate is rich food and contaminants would happily take it if they got there first. This is how we get the box to you sterile.
Autoclaved
Each filled box is heat-sealed in an autoclave bag and sterilised under pressure at 121 degrees, long enough to kill everything through the dense substrate.
Cleanroom sealed
It passes through a HEPA-filtered corridor to a cleanroom, where a suited operator handles it in front of a laminar flow hood.
Filtered and bagged
The lid carries white air-filter strips so the cake can breathe without letting spores in, and it is rebagged sealed for the journey to you.
Worth noting
No process is ever perfect, which is exactly why every kit is backed by the Sterile Guarantee further down.
In the box
What's included
Two versions, picked when you order. Both arrive sterile and complete bar the culture, which you add yourself. The glove size you choose only changes the gloves.
Regular
Needs about 3ml of culture
- 1 x 1.6L HEPA-filtered InocuBox with a single inject-through port, filled with 1.2L of sterile substrate
- Sterile PF-Tek substrate (organic brown rice flour, vermiculite, gypsum)
- 1 x XL HEPA-filtered grow tent
- 1.5L perlite for fruiting humidity
- Hygiene kit: alcohol wipes, hand wipes, face mask
- Sterile gloves (optional, but advised)
Enhanced
Needs about 3ml of culture
- 1 x 1.6L HEPA-filtered InocuBox with a single inject-through port, filled with 1.2L of sterile substrate
- Sterile PF-Tek substrate (organic brown rice flour, vermiculite, gypsum)
- 1 x XXL HEPA-filtered grow tent, larger for bigger flushes
- 3L perlite for fruiting humidity
- 500ml vermiculite for the dunk-and-roll between flushes
- Hygiene kit: alcohol wipes, hand wipes, face mask
- Sterile gloves (optional, but advised)
The vermiculite lets you do the dunk-and-roll: after a flush you dunk the cake to rehydrate it, then roll the wet cake in vermiculite so it carries a fresh casing of moisture into the next round. With the bigger tent and extra perlite, it is built to push more flushes out of the same cake. Regular leans on the substrate's own moisture and still fruits well; Enhanced is for getting the most out of it.
The one thing you add
What you'll need
An InocuBox is sterile and ready to inoculate, so you supply the living part: a gourmet liquid culture or spore syringe, around 3ml. We make gourmet liquid cultures you can inoculate it with.
Liquid culture has known, predictable genetics, so it tends to colonise faster and more cleanly. Spore syringes are cheaper and offer more variety, but are never fully sterile, so incubate them a little cooler to let the mycelium outrun any stragglers. Either works through the single port.
Whatever you inoculate with, give the mycelium a clean start: wipe the rubber port, work in still, draught-free air, and flame the needle. Most failed grows trace back to a sloppy injection rather than a bad kit. We stock the sterile gear for it (a still-air box, wipes and gloves) in sterile and lab equipment.
Risk, reversed
The Sterile Guarantee
Every kit is made fresh and arrives sterile and sealed. If one shows contamination on arrival, before you have inoculated it, send us photos and we will replace it. What happens after you open it comes down to your technique and conditions, which no reputable seller can promise for you. So we stand fully behind the kit reaching you clean, and the troubleshooting below helps with the rest.
At a glance
The spec sheet
- Kit type
- Single-stage PF-Tek cake, inject, colonise, dunk, fruit
- Vessel
- 1.6L HEPA-filtered InocuBox, plus a grow tent to fruit in
- Substrate
- Sterile PF-Tek mix (organic brown rice flour, vermiculite, gypsum), 1.2L
- Inoculation
- One rubber inject-through port, no grain step
- Culture needed
- About 3ml, up to 6ml maximum, not included
- Colonisation temp
- Around 24 degrees, 18 to 24 is fine if kept steady
- Fruiting temp
- A little cooler, around 20 to 22 degrees
- Time to harvest
- About 5 to 8 weeks from inoculation to the first flush
- Yield
- Several flushes from one cake, the first is the biggest
- Versions
- Regular (XL tent, 1.5L perlite) or Enhanced (XXL tent, 3L perlite, vermiculite)
- Made
- United Kingdom, fresh to order
- Suited to
- Gourmet species: oyster, Lion's Mane, Shiitake and similar
When things look off
Common issues
Because you do the growing, the odd thing can go sideways. Here are the common ones and what they usually mean.
Nothing happening
Usually patience or temperature. The single port means growth starts in one spot and spreads, so it can look slow early. Cold slows it right down.
Yellow liquid
Normal. That is metabolites, the mycelium's own waste, not contamination.
Green, grey or sour
That is contamination. Bin the affected cake and keep it away from your others. Give the filter a sniff, a bad smell is the giveaway.
Thin stems, no pins
Not enough fresh air. Widen the slit in the tent or add a little more airflow in the room.
The full step-by-step lives in the PF-Tek InocuBox grow guide, and the grow-kit troubleshooting guide goes deeper on contamination and temperature.
Other kits
Not sure this is the one?
Common questions
Frequently asked
Aim for about 24 degrees while the cake colonises; anywhere from 18 to 24 is fine as long as it is steady, and keep an eye out for condensation. Drop it a couple of degrees, to around 20 to 22, for fruiting. Avoid heat mats, they cause condensation.
The original had five ports, which meant five places contamination could enter. We cut it to a single port. It colonises a few days slower because growth spreads from one point, but the cleaner odds are well worth it.
Regular comes with an XL grow tent and 1.5L of perlite. Enhanced upgrades to a larger XXL tent, 3L of perlite, and 500ml of vermiculite for the dunk-and-roll, which rehydrates the cake between flushes and tends to get more out of it.
No. You add your own gourmet liquid culture or spore syringe, around 3ml through the single port. We stock gourmet liquid cultures separately.
Any legal gourmet species you have a culture for. The brown-rice substrate suits oyster mushrooms, Lion's Mane, Shiitake and similar.
Roughly 4 to 8 weeks for the cake to colonise depending on how warm you keep it, then a day to dunk and a week or two to fruit. So around 5 to 8 weeks from inoculation to the first flush.
Yes. Once it is fully colonised you submerge the whole cake in clean water for 6 to 24 hours to load it with moisture before fruiting, and dunk it again between flushes to keep it producing.
Send us photos before opening it and we will replace it, that is our Sterile Guarantee. Contamination that appears after you inoculate comes down to technique and conditions, so check the troubleshooting first.
Ask the community
Questions and answers
No questions yet. Yours could be the first.
For cultivating legal gourmet mushroom species only.Sold as a sterile substrate kit for home cultivation. We trust you to be responsible.