Shiitake

LATIN NAME: Lentinula edodes

COMMON NAME: Shiitake Mushroom

The shiitake is the round, brown cap of the warm log, and the fine, white pores open beneath the domed caps. The saprophytic fungus grows in the clusters on the hardwood logs, the broad, convex, tan-to-dark-brown caps with the fine, white, velvety flecks and the cream pores on the pale stems, one of the fine, generous sights of the mushroom garden. The caps have a very long record as the fine, smoky mushroom of the warm tables, and the fungus is a fine, historic presence of the old woodlands. It is a fungus of the moist, shaded, woody ground and the prepared logs.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The shiitake is a historic subject of the plant science, and the brown caps keep showing up in the work on the cultivated mushrooms. The way the fungus breaks down the lignin of the hardwood and the fine compounds of the caps has been studied at length, and it keeps appearing in the studies of the cultivated fungi, the wood-rotting mushrooms and the members of the marasmioid fungi. The broad caps and the fine, white pores have also made it a fine study fungus, and the shiitake is a regular subject of the work on the warm-log mushrooms of the world.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

The shiitake is a fine, historic fungus of the mushroom garden and the warm table. The broad, convex, tan-to-dark-brown caps have a very long record as the fine, smoky mushroom of the warm tables, dried into the long-keeping caps of the old stores and simmered into the broths and the stir-fries of the daily kitchen, and the fungus returns the old wood to the forest floor as it works. It is one of the fine choices for the log-grown mushroom garden, the shady corner and the study collection, and it has been written about in the culinary and the botanical papers for the smoky caps and the very long history. It is a fine, historic fungus of the moist, shaded, woody garden.

Soak the new logs overnight before the first flush, and keep the caps from the full sun.

To grow the shiitake from the spawn, the fine spores settle on the prepared logs or the sawdust blocks, and the white mycelium threads through the wood in the moist, shaded spot. Keep the logs damp and out of the direct sun, and the first brown caps will push through within the season, coming in the flushes for the years ahead.

You simply drill holes into a fresh cut hardwood log and tap the plugs into the holes. Place the log in the shade and water a few times a week. Log will be fruiting in 6-9 months, depending on amount of plugs used. Logs will produce for 3-4 years. You can use soft woods as well, but production will be a bit less but will fruit faster on softer woods. Use 30 – 50 plugs per 4″ dia.x 5′ log, No pines or cedar can be used.

Shiitake mushrooms are one of the easiest and most prolific, forgiving mushrooms to grow on logs for all skill levels, and a perfect mushroom for beginners. Shiitake are meaty and savory, hard to beat on flavor!

One of the best warm weather Shiitake strains, this ecotype prefers optimum fruiting temperatures when they fall in between 70-85F. Typically fruits in the warmer, summer months after colonization is complete. Fruits well on oak, sweetgum, poplar, and other hardwood species. Recommended for supplementing summer production in cooler climates or year-round in subtropical/tropical climates.