Four shiitake kits compared by price, size and stated days to first harvest. The sellers that give a figure say 10 to 14 days.
Ranked from those figures, not grow tests.
Shiitake10 to 14 days
0102030 days
Days to first harvest as sellers state it: Far West Fungi and Field & Forest. North Spore and Back to the Roots do not state one. Checked November 11, 2026.
Shiitake kits side by side
Scroll sideways to see every column.
Specs are the sellers' stated figures. Prices checked on November 11, 2026.
Kit
Species
First harvest
Stated yield
Price
Buy
North Spore Organic Shiitake Fruiting Block Fruiting block in a bag
Who it suits. Someone who already trusts Back to the Roots and wants a shiitake kit in stock. It showed add to cart when we checked.
Who should skip it. You want specs. The listing we checked gave no yield, timing or weight.
What to know before you buy
Shiitake is slower to show a figure than oyster, and fewer sellers publish one. Where a seller does, it is the number on the ruler above. Where it does not, the page says so rather than guessing.
Block handling differs from oyster. North Spore says to remove a shiitake block from the bag and not to put it back after a soak. Read the seller's instructions before you open the kit.
Probably a little. North Spore says its shiitake block has to come out of the bag before it goes into a fruiting chamber, which oyster and lion's mane blocks do not need. That is an extra step for a first-timer.
How long does a shiitake kit take to fruit?
Field & Forest says 10 to 14 days after the kit comes out of cold storage, and Far West Fungi states 10 to 14 days for its Mini-Farm kits. North Spore and Back to the Roots do not state a figure on the pages we checked.
What temperature does shiitake like?
Field & Forest gives a fruiting range of 55 to 70°F for its Table Top Farm. The other sellers did not state a range on the pages we checked.
What is popcorning?
It is a bumpy, lumpy stage that one food-forest writer describes on shiitake sawdust blocks before pins form. North Spore's FAQ does not cover it. See our guide to shiitake popcorning for what the sellers say to do with a shiitake block.
Cedrick Reese compared four shiitake kits and blocks from North Spore, Back to the Roots, Far West Fungi and Field & Forest. Where a seller gives no days to first harvest, the table says 'Not stated by the seller' instead of filling the gap. Prices, block weights and yields are copied from the sellers' pages, which are linked below with their check date, and we have not grown these kits ourselves.