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Price: $15.00
Our Maitake is an isolated indoor strain of Grifola frondosa, the hen of the woods. It grows as a rosette of overlapping gray-brown fronds instead of a single cap, and it's one of the most sought-after gourmet mushrooms and one of the harder ones to fruit indoors.
Slow to colonize and particular about substrate. Getting a full rosette indoors is a real accomplishment, and it shows at market.
Dense, layered clusters with an earthy, savory flavor and a firm texture that holds up to roasting and searing.
Selected for indoor fruiting on enriched blocks rather than the old oak stumps it favors in the wild.
Let the syringe reach room temperature, then shake it gently to break up and spread the mycelium through the broth.
Flame the needle until it glows, let it cool a few seconds, and wipe the injection port with the included alcohol pad.
Use 2–3cc per quart jar or 3–5cc per 3–5 lb grain bag. One 10cc syringe inoculates about 2–4 containers.
Keep it at 68–80°F in the dark. Shake once at about 30% colonization to speed things up.
Don't rush it: after the block is colonized, give it a consolidation period before you start fruiting conditions. Forcing Maitake early usually produces nothing.
From our lab to your grainRun it into jars with wide-mouth cultivation lids or your own lids with self-healing injection ports. Spare 16G needles and sterile Luer Lock syringes are sold separately.
Use 2–3cc per quart grain jar and 3–5cc per 3–5 lb spawn bag. One 10cc Maitake syringe inoculates roughly two to four containers. Using more doesn't speed colonization much; it just uses up the syringe.
About 18 days at 68–80°F, then a consolidation period on the bulk block before it will initiate. It's one of the slower cultures we sell.
Master's Mix or heavily supplemented hardwood sawdust. Maitake needs far more nutrition than oysters and won't perform on plain sawdust or straw. Oak-based substrate suits it well.
No. Maitake (hen of the woods) is a gray-brown rosette of small fronds. Chicken of the Woods is a different species: bright orange, shelf-like brackets on wood.
Refrigerate it at 35–45°F in the bag it shipped in and never freeze it; freezing ruptures the cells and kills the culture. Bring it to room temperature and shake gently before you inject.
Liquid culture is living mycelium from an isolated culture, so it skips germination, colonizes days faster and gives genetically consistent fruits. Spores have to germinate and pair up first, which is slower and more variable from grow to grow.
Liquid culture is living mycelium, so every syringe leaves our lab in a foil-lined insulated mailer. The insulation buffers it against summer heat in a delivery truck and against sub-freezing winter temperatures, so it arrives viable either way.
When it arrives: refrigerate the syringe at 35–45°F until you're ready to inoculate. Never freeze it. Bring it to room temperature and shake gently before use.
Sold as a mycological culture for cultivation. Maitake is the subject of ongoing scientific research, but nothing on this page is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Excellent price and excellent clean culture. Every culture Ive bought has been great genetics and no contamination. Definatly going to buy more. Highly recommended.
Shipped fast, culture was healthy, will be back to try some more!