Highly fruitful and easy to grow, shiitake mushrooms are almost fool proof. As a "wide range" plug spawn, it has a wider fruiting range, so in both spring and fall, you can expect a bountiful harvest of meaty mushrooms full of savory flavor and nutritional benefits. Shiitake mushrooms are considered an excellent source of Beta glucan, a soluble fiber linked to improving heart health and reducing blood sugar levels, and can be made into a healthful extract. Making an extract is easy. Check out the simple instructions below to learn how.
Shiitake mushrooms are extremely versatile and one of the most widely cultivated mushrooms around the world. Healthy and delicious, they are high in protein and have a strong, earthy flavor, which make them a popular meat substitute as well as a welcome addition to endless recipes.
Plug spawns, dowels colonized by the shiitake mushroom used for outdoor log cultivation, are the easiest and most basic way to inoculate and grow mushrooms on logs, especially if you only want a few logs of any one species. Each pack of 100 plugs inoculates approximately 10 linear feet of fresh hardwood logs, or 3 logs about 3 feet long. After 8-10 months the logs will start fruiting and will fruit several times a year for 4 to 5 years, typically in the spring and fall.
This ecotype is recommended for temperate climates, with optimum fruiting temperatures between 55 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. You'll know it's time to harvest when the mushroom caps begin to flatten.
Grows well outdoors on the following hardwood logs: oak, pecan, walnut, alder, sweet gum, maple, ironwood, hop hornbeam, cherry, sycamore, tulip poplar, eucalyptus, chestnut, ash, birch, bitternut, and willow. Avoid conifers, fruit trees, elm, hackberry, sassafras, soft maples (red and striped), dogwood, black locust, beech, and hickory.
Some mushrooms can be poisonous, so it's always important to know your mushrooms. An easy way to identify any mushroom is by creating a spore print, so we have provided instructions below.
*Full instructions are included*
*This fruiting kit ships in a 16" x 4" x 4" box. The item requires a plug kit, which is not included. Just follow this link Log Plugging Kit to purchase separately.
These mushrooms are Certified Organic, GLOBAL G.A.P, USDA Organic, Certified South Carolina, and Certified Appalachian Grown™ products.
