Your cart is empty!
Price: $12.50
Our Shiitake is a first-generation Lentinula edodes isolate of the Shiitake 75 (Aloha) strain, chosen because it forgives mistakes. It colonizes rye berries well, fruits across an unusually wide temperature range and is the Shiitake we recommend for a first wood-substrate grow.
Shiitake 75 keeps performing in conditions that stall fussier strains, which makes it a good first wood-loving species.
It fruits anywhere from 62 to 85°F, so a garage, basement or spare room works without a climate controller.
Deep, savory flavor that holds up to drying and rehydrating, and multiple flushes per block.
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 62–75°F in the dark. Shake once at about 30% colonization to speed things up.
Wait for the brown: a colonized Shiitake block grows a tough, leathery brown skin before it fruits. That's normal. Let the whole block brown and firm up before you drop the temperature and add fresh air.
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 Shiitake syringe inoculates roughly two to four containers. Using more doesn't speed colonization much; it just uses up the syringe.
About 18 days at 62–75°F, slower than oysters. After spawning to bulk, the block also needs time to brown before it will fruit, so plan for a longer cycle.
Supplemented hardwood sawdust or Master's Mix, by a wide margin. Shiitake grows wild on oak, maple, beech and chestnut; straw technically works, but yields drop and the fruits come out thin.
No. Browning is normal and required. The block forms a leathery brown skin before it fruits, and forcing it early gives poor flushes. Wait until it's evenly brown and firm.
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.
Great genetics. Very healthy culture. Highly recommended.
Very hardy. This has been my first working with Shiitake and it's been fantastic. Puts up with a couple noobie mistakes and bounces back.