We would pick all of this at once and either eat them, bag them up for family, or freeze/dehydrate. Especially important to pick the oysters and pioppinos because leaving them for too long can result in major spore dumping which it's good for your lungs and we use a mask if that happens or if spending extended time in the tent.

We've invested a good bit of money into this, maybe a couple thousand or more? We've spent that over about 6 years, mostly outfitting the fruiting tent and HEPA flow hood. I would definitely suggest doing it on a budget at first, totally doable - I used to do lab work lab work in front of an air purifier and the fail rate was surprisingly low. I wouldn't say it takes up a lot of time once you're confident doing sterile work. I spend a lot of time cleaning as well as sterilizing substrate which takes about 3 hrs, but 2.5hrs of that is just babysitting the pressure cooker. I'm not sure if I would say it's hard to get into but there is quite a learning curve and probably my ADHD-fueled love of mushrooms helped me get over that.