Go ahead and grow shiitake mushrooms on your own

All it takes is buying a substrate log of 2–2.2 kg of weight, at dimensions of 220x150x120 mm. Within a single week you get fresh mushrooms. Each log will yield from 500 to 700 g of mushrooms in three subsequent harvest periods.

How to go about growing shiitake Unwrap the cultivation log from the plastic packaging and put it in a place where there is: sufficient daylight or artificial light, but not direct sunshine, for approximately 8 hours per high humidity of air (around 90%), or otherwise place the log in a suitable closed space temperature in the range from 10°C to 22° Celsius.

If the cultivation rooms lack sufficient air humidity it is recommended that the log be placed for instance into an empty aquarium or any kind of crate container or case and covered by plastic foil. Alternatively you can make a plastic mini-greenhouse to put the log in – a wooden or metal skeleton covered by polythene (see pictures). The log can be now-and-then sprayed with water from a disperser.

Having been placed in a suitable environment the mushrooms will fruit in about one week. The right time to harvest is when the cap opens thus far as to reveal the lamellas on its reverse side whilst the cap margin is still slightly inrolled. The mushrooms must be cut off as close to the log as possible, otherwise the stipe remnants would begin to disintegrate in a few days and grow mouldy. In the last few days prior to the harvest we no longer spray the logs with water since wet mushrooms are of lower quality, taste worse and their shelf life is shorter.

After the first flush the log must be cleared of all necrotic remnants and left to rest for 2-4 weeks in a humid space at a temperature around 20°C. You can keep it in the original place or put it in a plastic bag which, however, must not be completely closed so that the log could breathe whilst not being allowed to dry out. If any surface infections appear on the log during the rest period, these can be removed by showering them off. The longer the log recuperates, the richer the subsequent flush. To induce the next fruiting, give the log a slight slap. If the log shows loss of weight, submerge it, prior to inducing the second flush, for 12 to 24 hours in cool water. It will be necessary to use a heavier object to keep the log under water to make sure that it is submerged in all of its volume. If, however, the log had dried too much, it will soak water not that easily and therefore it is recommended to punch about 20 holes in it by a larger nail. Following the soaking procedure, place the log again in the cultivation space and the second fruiting will occur in about a week. After the second harvest the log must again be allowed to rest as after the first one, to be ready for the third flush. When the third flush is over, the log can be recycled as compost.