Growing Shiitake (Lentinus edodes) Mushrooms at Home

Photo credits:www.gardentherapy.ca

SHIITAKE are some of the best known and appreciated culinary and medicinal mushrooms. The name Shiitake derives from the Japanese 'shii' which is actually the name of the tree on which they grow in their natural habitat and the word 'take' which in Japanese means 'mushroom' [= shii tree mushroom, or mushroom growing on shii trees].

Read more about Shiitake and its medicinal value checking the post entitled: Lentinus edodes (Shiitake) Mushroom Health Benefits.

I will briefly describe today the cultivation process of Shiitake mushrooms which can be done at home by using ingredients and tools available in any household.

Strains: Shiitake strains are specific for a certain type of substrate, this means that a strain has grows well on a type o wood than on others. Also on the market there are strains with a preference for low (10-18 C/50-64 F) or high temperatures (above 20 C/68 F) or termo-tolerant strains (5-35 C/41-95 F). This is the  reason why always when purchasing a strain in order to cultivate Shiitake is important to ask what about its temperature preference, humidity, spawn run time, substrate, productivity and other such parameters.

You can cultivate Shiitake outdoors on logs or you can grow it on a specially design substrate formula.

Basic ingredients: include sawdust (of oak, poplar, beech, alder, pine spruce, fir, etc), straw (wheat, barley, cotton, etc), corn cobs, leaves and other agricultural wastes. Of all these ingredients the most used substrate is oak sawdust. In some areas where oak sawdust is scarce it can be mixed with conifer sawdust. However if you want to use only conifer sawdust then better would be to leave it outside for a year or two. The conifer wood contains resins and other compounds and this inhibits the mycelium hyphae to spread through the wood mass.

Straw can be used with success to grow Shiitake but better in combination with sawdust; however, important to know is that straw in the compost formula predisposes the compost to infections with Trichoderma spp. Their advantage is that are cheap and available.

Supplements: The substrate formula can be supplemented with nutrients: grains or bran (wheat, corn, barley, sorgum, rice, soy, etc).

Substrate formulas:
sawdust 80%, bran 20% (a standard formula used in Asia to grow Shiitake)
sawdust, 10-20%, corn waste, 1-2% calcium carbonate

Instructions:
1. Weight the basic ingredients of the formula
2. Mix the ingredients
3. Pasteurize the mixed ingredients at 90-95 C/ 194-203 F for an hour.
4. Boil the supplements for two hours (100 C/ 212 F)
5. Leave the ingredients and the supplements to cool down on a clean surface
6. Mix everything together
7. Adjust the humidity of the substrate. [When squeezed in your hands the substrate shouldn't let any water drops]
8. Add mycelium 1-5% to the mix.
9. Throw the mix in plastic bags and make holes on their surface for gas exchange.
10 Store the bags in a clean area [free of dust] and wait until mycelial hyphae colonize the entire substrate.

The optimal temperature for incubation for Shiitake is 25 C/ 77 F. Do not let temperature to get above 30 C/ 86 F, such a temperature could destroy the mycelium. Time needed for the colonization process depends on a complex of factors (temperature, strain, humidity, gas, type of compost ingredients, etc) and generally lasts between 30 to 120 days. Sometimes growers shake the bags in order to spread the mycelium inside the bag, this habit reduces the incubation time but increases the rate of infections to occur in the compost mass.

After full colonization of the bag with mycelium, on the surface of the bag forms a white crust of mycelium of variable dimensions  This crust has a role of protection against infections and moisture loss. One with the maturation of the mycelium the crust changes color to reddish-brown following with formation of 'bumps' which are the precursors of the future Shiitake primordia.

When mushroom primordia starts to form allow them until they get mature and then start to remove the plastic foil around the sac. Fructification time is between 5-7(10) days.

Mushrooms will form and will develop from the mature primordia. Maturation time is from 5 to 8 days. Collect mushrooms when their cap is around 70% opened.

Wait 10 to 30 days for another mushroom crop. The whole cultivation cycle lasts around 3-6 months and depends on a complex of factors.

Note: The substrate can be sterilized (121 C / 249 F for 30 minutes to one hour) if you have at home a pressure cooker or if you have specialized equipment designed especially for the sterilization purpose. This procedure is superior to pasteurization especially when adding to the substrate supplements, because of unproper heat treatment of supplements provides a suitable medium for bacteria and competitor fungi to develop.
Don't forget to spray the mushrooms during their development (one or two times/day).

If you are interested in how to prepare your own shiitake mushroom spawn click here!

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