Case Study: Growing Shiitake Mushrooms

Substrate Option 1: Hardwood logs 4 to 6 inches in diameter, short enough to carry. Cut the logs during the dormant season and be careful not to damage the bark. Logs can be used for indoor or outdoor growth. The log method is the easiest and cheapest if you have access to space, but it takes longer and doesn’t produce as intensively as the indoor sawdust method.

Substrate Option 2: Compressed sawdust packed into plastic bags. This option is for indoor growth only, as the climate needs to be carefully controlled. But it can be faster than log growing, as the nutrients are more easily available in sawdust than hardwood.

Inoculation:

On hardwood logs:

1. Soak for a day in clean non-chlorinated water. Let bark dry.
2. Drill multiple half-inch holes deep into the logs.
3. With an untreated wooden dowel, paint or brush the inoculant onto the dowel and hammer them into the log.
4. Stack to allow air movement.
5. Keep the substrate out of wind and sun to prevent drying out.
6. If weather is hot, soak the logs in a barrel for 12 hours every couple of weeks as the bark dries out. Failing that, water regularly.
7. When pinhead mushrooms appear, the mycelium is only a few days from blooming.
8. Then either:

1. Soak with water.
2. Shock with cold or hitting the ends with s heavy hammer.
3. Simply leave to fruit on its own.

9. Harvest the caps when the still have a little curl on their brim.

On sawdust:

1. Pack the pasteurized and semi-dry sawdust into the plastic bags.
2. Cut dozens of small holes into the bag.
3. Inset some spore pellets into the sawdust.
4. Keep humidity high by hanging wet rags around the grow house or wetting the floor, and heat with passive or active heaters (see section on energy).

A grow house and steam pasteurizer for the substrate will significantly increase your capital costs but plans for making a pasteurizer out of 55-gallon barrels are easily available online. Home-sized pasteurization units are available from about US$200.

Outdoor or Indoor Growing?

Mushrooms are susceptible to flies that lay larvae on the growing fruiting body. Recipes for organic spray that don’t harm the fungus are available online, the ingredients depend on the variety of mushroom and pest.Pest Management

Some common mushrooms are spectacularly fast-growing once they bloom and can take mere hours or days to reach maturity. Be sure to check our outdoor mushrooms regularly when they are close to blooming as the can mature and die before you get a chance to harvest them.

Market Demand

There is usually a high-end market for gourmet mushrooms and a little local market research on the demand and availability of specific fresh mushrooms will likely yield you plenty of potential options for sales.