Although there's nothing quite like freshly picked mushrooms, growing the things yourself can be quite challenging. That's where the Mella Smart Mushroom Fruiting Chamber comes in, as it's designed to make doing so much easier.
Developed through Kentucky-based co-creation community FirstBuild, Mella consists of a stainless steel main chamber which is joined to a removable/refillable water reservoir. The chamber incorporates a transparent plexiglass door and side panels, a humidity sensor, dimmable LED grow lights, and an air exchange fan.
Users start by placing up to four commercially available "fruiting blocks" inside the chamber – such blocks typically come pre-seeded with mushroom spores. After the reservoir has been filled and attached, the system proceeds to automatically keep the humidity and lighting at the optimum levels for mushroom growth.
From that point on, users refill the reservoir about once a week, and harvest mushrooms off the block as they need them. Once every few "grows," they also have to clean spores out of the air exchange by rinsing out the removable fan and its reusable foam air filter.
Should you be interested, Mella is presently the subject of an Indiegogo campaign. Assuming it reaches production, a pledge of US$349 will get you one – the planned retail price is $479. Shipping is estimated to take place next May. Backers can also opt for a fruiting block subscription service, in which they'll receive three blocks (of various mushroom types) per month for six months.
There's more information in the video below.
Sources: Indiegogo, FirstBuild
