Shiitake Mushroom Grain Spawn 1.5kg (950)

Description :

Shiitake (Lentinula edodes) is a nutritious mushroom that produces medium-to-large, brown, umbrella-shaped caps that tend to fruit throughout the summer to fall growing season. They are a delicious edible fungus from East Asia and their flavor is often described as rich, savory, buttery, and umami. Shiitake tends to produce generous flushes and they are great for mushroom lovers. They colonize quickly and are the most reliable producers of any species.

Indoor Cultivation

Step 1: Getting Prepared

Before you can start growing shiitake mushrooms, you’ll need to decide what substrate you plan to grow your mushrooms on and buy the supplies needed.

Picking A Substrate

A substrate is a growing medium where your mushrooms will first establish themselves as mycelium and use it as a food source to produce their fruiting bodies.

Shiitake mushrooms are a bit pickier about what they will eat when compared to oyster mushrooms, which will grow on coffee grounds, cardboard, or pretty much anything.

Shiitake really need a wood-based growing medium to thrive and get the nutrients they need. So your options are usually limited to either growing them on logs or blocks of sawdust.

Getting Spawn

Spawn is live mycelium culture, and is what you use to grow mushrooms. Much like you use seeds to grow fruits or vegetables.

Shiitake mushroom strains don’t have the same pronounced differences that you can see in different oyster mushroom strains and subspecies.

The color, shape, and size of the shiitake are mostly the same. Strain mostly affects the conditions that the mushrooms prefer.

There are cold weather, warm weather, and wide range of strains. A wide range is best for beginners and is most used for year-round commercial cultivation.

Step 2: Prepare Your Shiitake Mushroom Substrate

Some of the substrates that shiitake mushrooms grow on will already be pasteurized and won’t need sterilization.

• If you’re using sawdust pellets, they’ve already been pasteurized during the pellet production process where they’re put under extreme heat and pressure.
• If you’re using sawdust pellets, all you need to do is soak them for 30 minutes and break the pellets apart into sawdust.
• If you’re using fresh logs, pasteurization isn’t necessary.

• If you’re using straw or fresh sawdust, you’ll want to pasteurize your substrate. You can do this by soaking your sawdust or straw in hot water (149 – 176 degrees F or 65 – 80 degrees C) for 1-2 hours. You can also use a high-pH lime bath for 12-18 hours if preferred.

Step 3: Inoculation

Inoculating Logs

If you’re inoculating logs with your shiitake spawn for growing outdoors, you’ll want to do so in spring after the last danger of frost has passed.

Use a power drill to drill holes in your log that are slightly larger than the spawn you plan on inserting into the log.

Usually, for sawdust spawn, a 12 mm drill bit is used, and for plug spawn, a 12 mm drill bit is used. Your spawn supplier can confirm the drill bit size you should use if you’re not sure.

Be sure you’re wearing protective ear and eye gear.

Drill holes about one inch deep every six inches down the entire length of the log. Once you’ve completed one row, rotate your log and drill another row a few inches over.

You’ll want to alternate your holes in a checkerboard or polka dot-type pattern to leave room between each plug.

Keep drilling rows of holes into your log until you cover the entire circumference of the log.

If you’re using spawn dowels, it’s as easy as inserting them into the holes you’ve drilled and hammering them until they’re flush with the log. It will take about 50 plugs to fill a 3 foot log.

If you’re using sawdust spawn, you’ll place some of it in your inoculating tool and then use the tool to force it into the holes in the log.

After each hole is filled with spawn, you’ll want to seal them up using wax.

Sawdust,  Straw, or Grain

If you’re growing indoor, wipe down all of the surfaces you’ll be working on and wash your hands well with soap before starting Start by making sure your substrate is not too wet or too dry. Do a squeeze test by slightly squeezing your sawdust or straw. A couple of drops of water should come out.

If too much water comes out, it’s too wet. If no water comes out and the substrate isn’t staying together in your hand, it’s too dry.

Next mix your substrate and mushroom spawn together. It’s easier to do this in a large box or container than trying to mix together inside your bag.

Once your substrate and spawn are mixed, load them into your grow bags and close them with tape or a rubber band.

Step 4: Incubation

Shiitake mushrooms have a longer incubation time than other varieties such as oyster mushrooms.

Logs And Wood Chips

If you’re using logs, they’ll need to incubate for 6 to 12 months. Put them in a shady location off the ground. You can use a wooden pallet or bricks to raise them up. This can help prevent competing fungi from getting onto the logs as well.

You should cover your logs with shade cloth or some other type of breathable fabric to keep them out of the sun while letting moisture come through. Don’t cover your logs with a plastic tarp, as this will encourage mold.

If you live in a moist climate, you’ll want to water your shiitake logs for about 10 minutes once per week if it hasn’t rained during the week. If you’ve had a strong rain, you don’t need to water them.

If you live in a dry climate, you should water your logs twice per week for 10 or more minutes each time.

Bags

Store your bags at room temperature in a dark place. You don’t need to do any watering or upkeep while your bags are growing new mycelium.

But unlike with other mushrooms, the white mycelium doesn’t signal that your shiitake are ready to fruit.

You need to allow them to brown for about two weeks longer. All of the white mycelium in your bag will start to turn a brownish color. Once your mycelium is mostly brown, you’re ready to start fruiting.

Step 5: Fruiting

Logs

Sometimes, shiitake logs will fruit on their own when they’re ready. But in most cases, you need to “initiate” them, or shock them into producing fruit. Under ideal conditions, shiitake logs are ready to fruit after 6 months. But it’s best to wait for 9 to 12 months before initiating them to make sure your mycelium colony is nice and strong.

If you have a pond or other natural body of water on your property, that can be a good choice as long as it’s fairly clean. You can also use a kid’s size swimming pool, or even use a bathtub.

Rainwater, boiled water, or other non-chlorinated water is best. But you can use water right out of your garden hose if that’s all you have access to.

Once your logs have soaked for 24 hours, bring them back to your shady area and stand them in a vertical (upright) position.

This way all of your spawn holes will have free space around them so your mushrooms won’t get dirty or fruit into the ground when they start forming.

Between 2 days and 2 weeks, you’ll start to see primordia starting to grow, which are little pins that will eventually form into fully grown mushrooms.

Keep your logs moist during this stage by watering them once or twice per day for at least 5 minutes each time.

Bags

Once your shiitake mycelium has completely colonized your substrate, you can open the bags. Simply place your block of spawn in a humid area with lots of fresh air flow.

Despite taking several months to colonize your substrate, your shiitake grows fast at this stage will have produced the first flush of mushrooms within about a week.

Mist your spawn block several times per day to keep it moist and healthy. Shiitake mushrooms seem to grow faster with more water, so don’t be afraid to water them every few hours.

Each spawn block will produce between 3 to 5 flushes of mushrooms before the mycelium becomes too weak to produce any more mushrooms, at which point your blocks will probably start to become contaminated with mold.

Step 6: Harvesting

It’s best to harvest your shiitake mushrooms with a knife by cutting them at the base of their stem. Twisting can damage the mycelium and potentially have a negative impact on future flushes.

Incubating shiitake logs is a long process, but your patience will be rewarded with 4 to 6 years of fresh mushrooms before your logs need to be replaced!

You can force a new flush of mushrooms by soaking logs in water for 24 hours every 5 or 6 weeks. Make sure to keep watering your logs at least 2 or 3 times per week to maintain the correct moisture level in the wood as well, except once temperatures get below freezing.