Growing shiitake at home - preparation, planting and care. Growing shiitake from mycelium Shiitake mushrooms growing at home
Lentinula edible ( Lentinula edodes) is a lamellar mushroom that grows on a tree. Its light or dark brown cap reaches 30 centimeters in diameter. It is mounted on a white fibrous stem, cylindrical in shape. Shiitake can be translated as “mushroom from a broad-leaved tree.” Its growing area is Japan, China, Korea. “Black forest mushroom” can be called one of the main ingredients in most dishes in Southeast Asia. Research has revealed a large number of useful and medicinal elements in it. Growing shiitake mushrooms outdoors takes from 180 to 360 days; in a greenhouse, the ripening period is much shorter.
Organizing a business at home
The name of the cultivated crop indicates the peculiarities of the choice of soil - wood is used for shiitake. To grow mushrooms on your own plot, you can choose intensive or extensive methods. Growing one crop in conditions close to natural takes from six months to a year. Moreover, each square meter of rotten, damp wood used for planting will bring 250 kg of delicious mushroom every year.
The shiitake mycelium easily tolerates frosts down to -25° C. When spring comes, the place where the mushrooms are planted must be covered with a film to quickly warm up and maintain the necessary moisture content of the dead wood.
The optimal humidity of the substrate is 60%; with an increase or decrease in this indicator, the yield of the mushroom area decreases.
Growing Japanese mushrooms on rotten wood trunks with a one-time replanting of mycelium into the trunk is more profitable. Fruiting of the mycelium will last from 3 to 5 seasons. Regardless of where the mushrooms will be planted, in a horizontal or vertical position, in tiers or in one row, it is necessary to maintain the temperature and humidity of the logs.
The intensive method, which requires special conditions for forcing mushrooms, reduces the ripening period to 1-2 months. The accelerated germination method requires strict maintenance of soil (substrate) temperature and humidity. After the first growth, fruiting of the mycelium continues for several more weeks. Only the yield with intensive forcing is no more than 20%, despite the fact that the soil is sawdust from deciduous trees and residues after threshing grain crops.
Attention! Coniferous wood is not used for growing mushrooms. The optimal choice of substrate or logs for planting shiitake mycelium is oak, maple, and beech.
Which mushrooms are more profitable for a home business: shiitake or cherries?
Growing cherries and shiitakes on logs of deciduous trees that have begun to decompose due to high humidity is similar only at first glance. Daily fluctuations in air temperatures in central Russia are not dangerous for the Korean forest mushroom. Fruiting lasts from May until there are no serious frosts on the soil. As a rule, this time coincides with the Feast of the Intercession (November 14). At this time, the last root crops are harvested from the fields.
- Cherries are more demanding, their yield is lower.
- Shiitake mycelium grows significantly slower than oyster mushroom mycelium.
- Due to the long period of formation of Japanese mushrooms, mold begins to compete with mycelium.
- Fruiting of oyster mushrooms is provoked by a decrease in temperature.
- For shiitake, you just need to water the bed regularly.
After weighing all the pros and cons, it turns out that shiitakes are more convenient for home cultivation. Cherries require expensive climate control equipment.
The Chinese method of growing mushrooms on tree trunks is distinguished by the fact that logs with a diameter of 7-15 cm are placed in a horizontal position. They sink into the ground until the middle. For convenience, the trunks of fallen trees are divided into segments of 100-120 cm. If it is necessary to save space on the site, the trunks are folded according to the principle of well rings with the difference that there is a gap between adjacent logs on each side.
Preparing trunks for planting is as follows:
- During the preparation period, the trunks must spend several years outdoors in the rain and snow;
- the constant moisture content of the wood at the time of planting the mycelium should be 38-42%;
- the lack of moisture in the woody soil is compensated by abundant irrigation before adding planting material;
- holes with a diameter of 1.2 cm are drilled on the trunk to a depth of 4 cm;
- the distance between the holes in each row is 10 cm;
- The rows are located at a distance of 7 cm from each other.
The mycelium is introduced into the prepared, sufficiently moistened holes. The height of the woodpiles, which are essentially a mushroom garden, does not matter. For 30 days, this vertical mushroom plantation must be covered with plastic film to create a greenhouse effect under it during the incubation period. The temperature for germination can range from +20 to +26ᵒС.
Advice! Carbon dioxide in wood prevents shiitake from bearing fruit well. Soaking for 12 hours in water t° from +13° to +18°C will help get rid of it. The absence of air bubbles at the end of the water procedure indicates the absence of CO 2.
The readiness of the trunks for fruiting can be determined by the following signs:
- absence of a ringing sound when hitting the barrel with a hammer or other hard object;
- mycelium is visible on sections of the trunk;
- when using trunk halves, white islands of mycelium on the cross section.
Growing mushrooms on trunks buried in the ground makes it easier to maintain the necessary humidity, which promotes natural decay of the wood. Accordingly, the temperature inside the trunk is higher than the surrounding soil. This means that the improvised mushroom ridge is not afraid of frost.
To obtain mushrooms with dense flesh, the caps and tender (to taste) stem are formed at temperatures that are low for this mushroom, from +10 to +16 ° C and air humidity, which is uncharacteristic for many regions with a temperate climate, from 60 to 75%. Daily fluctuations in air temperature also help improve the taste and appearance of shiitake. Therefore, during the fruiting period, the mushrooms are not covered with film.
After collecting the first growth of mushrooms, it is necessary to change the climate for the trunks, lowering their humidity to 30-40% and increasing the air temperature. During the 2-month recovery period, daily temperature fluctuations should range from +16 to +22 °C.
Interesting! You can use the same logs to grow shiitake for 3-5 years. During this period, they will collect mushrooms weighing 5 times less than the weight of the wood used. Conclusion: beech and oak have greater density and weight, which means that with the same area of birch and oak ridges, more mushrooms will be collected from the first.
Growing at home
When used for growing edible lentinula in a room with controlled temperature, humidity, and light conditions, fruiting will be year-round. Accelerating the forcing of mushrooms is largely achieved through heat treatment of the substrate.
Not all stages of industrial bending can be reproduced at home, which affects the result. Stages of work:
- The sawdust substrate is enriched with essential nutrients.
- The soil is poured into bags made of agril, a material for covering beds.
- The bags with the substrate are placed in hot water for a quarter of an hour.
- The soil is sterilized for 24 hours at a temperature of 60°C.
- He must spend 72 hours in an environment with a temperature of 50°C.
- Cooled sawdust, inoculated with mycelium, is transferred to sterile 3-liter jars.
- Glass incubators are sealed with cotton plugs.
- For 2 months, the jars are moved to a room with a temperature varying from +17°C to +20°C.
- The substrate with sprouted mycelium is returned to breathable bags.
- No procedures are carried out for two weeks. During this time, the mycelium substrate will gather into a single dense block.
- After which it must be placed in water for about a day to moisturize.
After soaking the substrate, collected by the mycelium in a dense block, in two weeks you can expect the first harvest.
Making substrate blocks for home mushroom farming
To grow mushrooms, it is wood that is needed, so all leaves are removed before chopping the branches. The processed raw materials do not require additional processing; they are used immediately to prepare the substrate. The amount of soil is determined by the volume of the polypropylene or agril bag used.
The substrate is heated and pasteurized. Only after this the mycelium is planted into it. The bag is an ideal environment for the development of mycelium; it is similar to greenhouse conditions. The size and shape of the bag determine what the substrate block will be.
Approximate calculation:
- when filling a bag with a width of 25.5 cm, the block will be 16 cm in diameter;
- optimal height - 28 cm;
- volume – 5 l;
- the wet mass weighs 2.2 kg.
To moisten 5 liters of sawdust substrate, 200 ml of water is enough.
Attention! Barley in the substrate increases productivity. It is recommended to add 250 grams to each package. barley grains. To moisten sawdust enriched with grain crops, 350 ml of water is required for each block.
You can use blocks that are 2 times smaller in volume for growing shiitake. Low-pressure plastic bags are suitable for them. They can withstand heating temperatures up to +110 °C.
Formation of blocks with mycelium:
- a thoroughly mixed mixture of sawdust, grain, and water is packaged in bags;
- from 30-40 cm strips of padding polyester 5-7 cm wide (not used) are rolled into tight rolls 2-3 cm in diameter;
- they are wrapped with threads;
- a homemade cotton plug is fixed at the top of the bag with twine or twine.
- The sealed bags are left for 8-12 hours to ensure uniform distribution of moisture and swelling of the grain;
- When sterilizing the substrate in an autoclave, it is necessary to set the temperature to + +110°C for 3 hours.
- after the substrate has cooled, it is necessary to introduce mycelium into it and close it again with a cotton plug.
Attention! Sterility must be maintained at all stages of mushroom planting. To transfer the mycelium into the soil, it is better to use a spoon treated with a chlorine-containing compound.
One packet requires 1 tablespoon of grain mycelium. It can be poured into a bag, after tying it around a cotton plug, distribute the mushroom seeds throughout the entire volume of the substrate by vigorous shaking. All that remains is to give the bag of loose soil a certain stable shape. The folded corners at the bottom of the bag can be secured with tape.
Growing in a greenhouse
Growing shiitake in a greenhouse is justified in areas with cold, short summers. After thermal preparation of the substrate, adding nutrients to it, and high-quality moisture, the blocks with mycelium are left closed for germination. After 6-10 weeks of being in greenhouse conditions at temperatures from +17°C to +22°C in an environment with a humidity of ≈ 55%, the bags open and are additionally moistened.
With regular watering, the first growth of mushrooms will not take long to appear. Shiitake will appear in 2 weeks. But before this time, it is necessary to free the substrate bound by shiitake mycelium from polyethylene and lower the air temperature to +10°C to +16°C. Each block kept at this temperature for 3-6 months can be harvested regularly.
The main threat to the harvest is mold inside blocks with mushrooms and other microorganisms that can destroy or weaken the mycelium. It is to combat their pathogens that long-term heat treatment of the substrate is used before planting the mycelium into it.
If it is necessary to sterilize a large mass of substrate, an alternative to heat treatment of packaged soil is to fry it in its entirety. True, to carry out all the other stages, packaging, distribution of mycelium, a sterile room will be required, otherwise all efforts will be in vain, because microorganisms develop much faster than shiitake mycelium.
When growing in greenhouses, as well as at home, thick plastic bags with a volume of 1 to 6 liters and cotton plugs are used to ensure air circulation.
Attention! To plant mycelium, the substrate temperature should be between +20°C and +30°C.
Preparation of planting material
To grow shiitake mushrooms in a greenhouse or at home, they need to infect some organic matter. The most suitable material for this is grain crops. It is most convenient to germinate mycelium in wheat or barley grain. The mycelium envelops the grains, germinating in them, resulting in the formation of dense grain blocks infected with mycelium.
Before inoculation - the introduction of grain mycelium into the substrate, these blocks must be crushed into grains. The proportion of grains to soil mass is 2-5%.
Purchase of mycelium
Mycelium must be purchased from specialized seed stores. Here you can also purchase nutritional compositions to enrich the substrate. In the Leningrad region, shiitake mycelium is sold in seed shops in Peterhof on Red Kursantov Boulevard, building 63, and in Otradnoye at the addresses: Central Street and Novaya Street, building 10.
You can purchase mycelium for growing shiitake in Chelyabinsk and Nizhny Novgorod, Cheboksary and Novosibirsk.
Rules for compiling a substrate for shiitake - base, nutritional supplements, acidity optimizers. The basis is sawdust from deciduous trees; their size should vary between 2-3 mm. Alder, aspen, birch, poplar, maple, beech, oak and other local wood species are suitable for grinding. Mushrooms do not grow on coniferous trees, so pine and spruce sawdust are not allowed in the substrate.
Such a strict criterion for the size of sawdust is justified by the fact that small ones will create a layer that is too dense, impeding air exchange, and there will be a lot of oxygen between large elements of wood soil, which is a favorable environment for the development of competitive microorganisms and mold, if we take into account the necessary humidity and temperature of the growing environment Shiitake.
No fertilizer is required to grow mushrooms! Nutrients for shiitake are cereals (their grains or flour), organic residues after threshing. Depending on what crops grow in the area, you can use beans, corn, rice, and barley. Rye, wheat, millet and so on.
The substrate may contain gypsum or chalk. They are required to normalize soil acidity. They can range from 10 to 40% of the total volume.
Product sales channels
An edible Japanese mushroom, the taste and aroma is reminiscent of white champignon in density. Its peculiarity is that it is spicy, so the shiitake dish does not require the addition of pepper. This makes it possible to sell it to factories that produce semi-finished mushroom soups, sauces, and seasonings for second courses. In dried form, edible lentinula retains its beneficial properties and aroma, but somewhat loses its taste. The sharpness is maintained if the raw material does not undergo repeated soaking in hot water.
In their raw form, mushrooms are used in almost all dishes of national Japanese, Chinese, and Korean cuisine. The second, highest priority sales channel will be restaurants specializing in the preparation of national dishes of Southeast Asia. Shiitake can be used, after pre-soaking, in European dishes as an alternative to porcini mushrooms.
Japanese mushroom is widely used in pharmacology and folk medicine - this is another opportunity to establish a permanent sales channel. The spectrum of action of beneficial substances contained in shiitake is quite wide - these are:
- reduction in fever;
- fight against viruses;
- treatment of the heart and stomach;
- blood purification;
- increasing immunity and stress resistance;
- normalization of blood circulation;
- reduction in sugar;
- cholesterol breakdown;
- removal of toxins from the body;
- strengthening potency.
As an additional remedy to the main drug treatment, shiitake is recommended for the treatment of the upper respiratory tract, polio, smallpox, influenza, and HIV. In Japan, this micronutrient-rich mushroom is called the elixir of longevity. Fungotherapists recommend this mushroom for:
- cleansing the gastrointestinal tract;
- reducing excess body weight;
- to maintain normal blood sugar levels for diabetics.
Catering outlets specializing in dietary nutrition can also be considered as potential clients.
Costs and return on business
Competition for growing shiitake in Russia is extremely low, which currently explains the high cost of the product. The price of fresh mushrooms varies from 700 to 1000 rubles. per kilogram (for wholesale sales). For a kilogram of dried Japanese mushroom you can earn from 2.5 to 3.5 thousand rubles. With maximum return from one square meter of wood at the lowest prices, you can earn 175,000 rubles.
For homeowners in the private sector, harvesting the wood necessary for growing shiitake will cost the same as the cost of firewood. Dead wood is wood for which you will have to pay a purely symbolic price when drawing up a contract for the sale and purchase of forest plantations, provided for by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. For each family living in a house with stove heating, the state assumes the consumption of 15 cubic meters of deciduous wood per year.
Prices in each region are set by local authorities; on average, including delivery, you will have to spend 5-6 thousand rubles to purchase wood.
- To install 3-4 square mushroom “wells”, 1 cubic meter of wood is enough, which in its pure form can be equated to 400 rubles.
- Purchase of mycelium from 180 to 400 rubles,
- oats – 250-350 rub.
- A spacious greenhouse with a polycarbonate coating (if purchased in winter) costs around 15 thousand rubles.
- Agrospan (agril) roll – 360 rub.
- The cost of padding polyester depends on its density. The price of a linear meter varies from 20 to 70 rubles.
All costs for setting up a mushroom plantation are within the 20,000-euro budget, provided the farm has an enclave and a well with drinking water. Under the most unfavorable circumstances, recoupment of all costs is ensured with one successfully completed transaction. Well-established distribution channels guarantee the success of a home-based business.
Technology of planting shiitake on stumps
On a summer cottage it is becoming increasingly popular for a number of understandable reasons. This is an opportunity to organize a family business, and an area of practical application of one’s hobbies, and an activity that allows one to preserve natural resources. One of the promising areas for creating mushroom farms is growing shiitake at home. Today, two methods of artificial reproduction of the culture of this fungus are used, intensive and extensive.
The use of intensive technology makes it possible to obtain environmentally friendly products regardless of weather conditions and changing seasons: all the conditions necessary and mandatory for effective production are provided and strictly controlled by the mushroom grower himself.
The growing process must go through the following stages sequentially.
Substrate preparation
To grow shiitake at home using the intensive method, it is necessary to use multicomponent substrates, the basis of which is certainly sawdust from deciduous trees, preferably hardwood. To increase nutritional properties and improve physical performance, grain, bran, food and agricultural waste, and calcined mineral additives are added. The options for the qualitative composition of the nutrient medium where the mycelium of shiitake mushrooms will develop are varied, but in any case, growing on a substrate containing at least 2-5% oak or beech sawdust will have a positive effect on the future harvest.
The substrate is packaged in polypropylene bags equipped with gas exchange filters, and then sterilized under pressure. A milder disinfection option is also possible - pasteurization for 8 to 12 hours with hot water.
Sterilization is mandatory to increase the resistance of shiitake mycelium to the effects of competing microorganisms and eliminate the possibility of mold development.
Introduction of mycelium
The heat-treated substrate is cooled to a temperature of 20-30 ° C. This is done either in an autoclave using a cotton filter installed at the air inlet, or by passing air through a filter in a special box. Then the substrate is evenly laid out in 3-5 kg pieces in plastic bags. In this case, preliminary treatment of their internal surface with an antiseptic is necessary. Only after this is inoculation carried out: either grain or sawdust mycelium is added there.
Grain mycelium is individual grains of millet or wheat overgrown with mycelium. It crushes well, is evenly distributed throughout the volume of the substrate, and the grain itself feeds the mycelium. The sowing rate for such mycelium is 2% of the volume of the substrate.
Sawdust mycelium is grown on a mixture of sawdust and bran. The mycelium develops quite quickly in the environment to which it is already adapted. It should be applied in an amount of 5-7% of the volume.
At the end of inoculation, the bags are immediately sealed.
Incubation
The optimal temperature at which mycelium grows is 25°C. Overheating of packages (blocks) is unacceptable: at 28-30°C and above, the shiitake mycelium weakens. There are no humidity requirements: throughout the entire period, which lasts 20-40 days, the inoculated substrate is kept in sealed bags. The blocks must be illuminated for 6-8 hours a day at an intensity of 50-100 lux to stimulate the appearance of embryos of fruiting bodies.
During incubation, the mycelium goes through the following stages:
- colonization (“white block” - the color of the package, indicating complete colonization) with the absorption of nutrients from the substrate;
- ripening when the packet enters the “brown block” phase, which means it is ready to bear fruit.
Throughout the incubation period, the bags should be handled with extreme caution, avoiding their rupture and contact with cutting surfaces. It is best to store them individually on shelves, or stagger them on top of each other in 2-3 rows.
Fruiting
With the onset of the “brown block” phase, bags with mycelium are placed in a separate fruiting chamber, where a certain microclimate must be maintained. In this case, the following parameters must be maintained:
- air temperature 14-20°C;
- humidity 80-95% at the initial moment, 50-70% at the collection stage;
- illumination intensity 100-200 lux for at least 8-12 hours;
- CO 2 content in the air is not higher than 0.2%.
The cycle itself consists of the following stages:
- induction of fruit formation;
- fruit formation;
- fruiting;
- rest period.
There may be several periods (waves) of fruiting throughout the year. For each of them, the microclimate is formed individually.
For the first wave, induction is carried out in the fruiting chamber, where blocks from the incubation box are moved. Provide the following conditions:
- the substrate temperature must be reduced to 14-18°C;
- CO 2 level should be from 1000 to 2000 ppm;
- stimulation with lighting with an intensity of 100-200 lux for 8-12 hours.
To carry out induction for the second and subsequent waves, the blocks are soaked for 12-48 hours in water at a temperature of 10 to 16 ° C, ensuring an increase in substrate humidity to 75-80%. If necessary, the water is disinfected; before and after soaking the blocks, the containers must be disinfected. Old and new blocks are induced separately from each other, after which they are dried for several days. Fruit formation begins when the substrate moisture level drops to 65%.
Harvesting
It is best to collect shiitakes at the stage of “technical ripeness”, not quite ripe: their taste at this moment is much better.
4-6 hours before the start of collection, air humidity must be reduced to 60% so that the cuticle of the caps becomes rigid. This increases the shelf life of collected mushrooms. Remove shiitakes in such a way that the stems do not remain in the substrate, attracting pests or activating the formation of mold. At the end of the harvest, the mycelium should accumulate nutrients for the next fruiting period. To speed up this process, the air temperature must be increased to 20-25°C.
Intensive cultivation of shiitake mushrooms at home is financially expensive, technically difficult, and requires sufficiently spacious and specially equipped isolated rooms. Another difficulty is the fact that almost all stages of cultivation require maintaining the sterility of premises, instruments, and personnel clothing.
Another method that allows you to grow these mushrooms on your own is more accessible and quite effective.
Extensive cultivation method
The principle of extensive technology for growing shiitake at home is to create an environment for the growth of the mushroom that is as similar as possible to the natural one.
The introduction of mycelium is done using freshly cut fragments of tree trunks. For this, oak, beech, chestnut, hornbeam, and birch are usually chosen. Preparations are made during the period of the highest concentration of sugars in tree sap: after the leaves have dropped and before the sap begins to flow. Pay attention to the absence of signs of damage by xylotrophs and pests. The trunks are sawn into logs from 1 to 1.5 m long and 10–20 cm in diameter, kept in open space for 1 to 3 months, then inoculated.
Taking into account the climatic conditions of the area where shiitake is grown, it is advisable to inoculate with the appropriate strains.
- Heat-loving (summer) fruits well in a humid, warm climate from May to September at temperatures from 14 to 27°C.
- For cold-loving plants (autumn-spring), the optimal temperature will be from 7 to 16°C. The strain bears fruit from March to May and from September to November. The mushrooms are of good quality, although they develop rather slowly.
- The mycelium of all-season strains grows quickly in wood, fruiting occurs in a wide temperature range from 10 to 25°C from May to November. In enclosed spaces with the ability to control the microclimate, the use of this strain allows you to obtain a year-round harvest.
The inoculation process itself is carried out as follows. In seasoned chocks, holes are made in the floor with a diameter of 2 cm to a depth of 1.5 cm, placing them in a checkerboard pattern. Shiitake grain mycelium is placed in them and filled with wax. The logs sowed in this way are stacked in shaded areas on cleared areas.
The incubation period (time of mycelium growth in wood) depends on the volume of seeded material, the quality of the mycelium, temperature, air humidity and lasts from 6 to 18 months. The optimal air temperature for germination is 24-28°C with a humidity of 70-90%. In the middle zone and southern regions, the mycelium tolerates wintering well: it is enough to cover the logs with straw or move them to the basement.
After complete germination of the mycelium, fruit formation is stimulated. To do this, the logs are soaked in water for 24-72 hours, then placed vertically or at an angle in a shaded area, but not in complete darkness. The first rudiments of fruiting bodies appear after 7-10 days.
The fruiting period of shiitake usually occurs twice a year. At the end of each wave of fruiting (during the dormant period), to maintain stable environmental parameters, the chocks are covered with breathable material. Depending on the size of the chocks, the yield lasts from two to five years. The average number of mushrooms collected using this growing method from 1 m² of wood over the total time ranges from 200 to 250 kg.
This is how shiitake, the imperial mushroom, has been grown for a long time, but has not yet been fully studied, modest in appearance, but possessing an exquisite taste and, due to the totality of its qualities, deserving the close interest of an enthusiastic person.
The mushroom business today occupies a fairly stable position among small businesses. There are several reasons for this, but the main ones are: independent development, small capital investments, lack of a competitive environment, high profits, and the ability to obtain harvests all year round. In addition, the products obtained as a result of minimal investment are environmentally friendly, which, of course, is a big plus when selling goods.
How to make a mushroom business profitable
Successful cultivation of shiitake mushrooms is impossible without knowledge and adherence to the technological process. These Chinese mushrooms grow somewhat slower than champignons or oyster mushrooms, and therefore the basis of the business should be the creation of the most favorable conditions for their growth. For this purpose, it is better if a small suburban area or free space in a house or country house is allocated for the plantation.
The second aspect of building a mushroom business is selling shiitake mushrooms. The mushroom is especially popular in the food, pharmacological and cosmetic industries. You can also find sales points among chains of cafes and restaurants focused on Japanese or Chinese cuisine. The price of shiitake mushrooms significantly exceeds the cost of champignons or oyster mushrooms, so by providing the plant with proper care and comfortable development conditions, you can count on significant profits from the sale of the crop.
Growing shiitake as a business means obtaining stable and high-quality yields, so it is better to equip substrate blocks for the mycelium. According to statistics, they give better results compared to sowing mycelium on logs.
Our business assessment:
Starting investment - 300,000 rubles.
Market saturation is average.
The difficulty of starting a business is 7/10.
Preparatory activities
In order to start growing shiitake mushrooms at home, you need to determine a place for seeding with mycelium. It is important to take into account the fact that shiitake grows well if the temperature rises during the day and remains cool at night. Mushrooms bear fruit intensively in pre-equipped greenhouses or basements, and from March to October - on stumps or logs located in open ground.
You can buy shiitake mushroom blocks that are fully prepared for sowing, or you can do them yourself, eliminating the risks of poor-quality substrate. Such plantations are convenient and good because they can be moved to conditions that are comfortable for mushroom growth, watered, and even lowered into a pool for a while.
The principle of manufacturing a substrate block weighing 5 kg, taking into account the sowing of 40 grams of mycelium:
- The main components of the substrate for shiitake are dry husks of sunflower seeds, chopped or ground branches of alder, oak or willow (can be replaced with sawdust or shavings).
- Amount of substrate mixture ingredients: 1.8 kg of fresh branches (0.5 kg of sawdust), 0.7 kg of husks, 0.3 kg of millet, oats or barley.
- All components are thoroughly mixed and poured with cool water to swell for 30-40 minutes.
- The remaining water must be drained, and the substrate itself must be slightly squeezed by hand. The resulting mixture must have a moisture content of at least 70-75%.
- Prepare a kind of sleeve from polyethylene, about 80 cm long and no more than 30 cm wide, and pour the swollen substrate into it.
- Seal the edges of the sleeve with thick synthetic padding plugs, and then wrap them with twine or wire.
The technology for growing shiitake requires regular treatment of blocks from mold. This is done by pasteurizing the substrate in boiling water for at least 1.5-2 hours. When performing this procedure, do not under any circumstances allow boiled water to spill into the bag with the substrate. To do this, leave the tied ends of the twine above the surface of the water. Pasteurization is performed twice, with an interval of 20-24 hours. At this time, the substrate is cooled at room temperature.
If you are going to pasteurize a ready-made substrate block, prepare a metal tank or barrel. It will be more convenient to place it in the garden and perform the procedure itself over a fire. In this case, the block itself is not lowered into the water, but is kept in steam for 6 hours, thanks to a grate fitted above the tank. Cool the block pasteurized in this way without removing the substrate from the bag.
Mycelium planting and cultivation
The mycelium of shitake mushrooms (no more than 40-45 grams) must be kneaded well with your hands, and then, slightly opening the neck of the bag with the substrate, pour it on top. Having tightly plugged the hole with a synthetic padding stopper, tighten the bag with twine or wrap it with wire.
The incubation period for shiitake is 55-60 days. During this time, the substrate in the bag will acquire a characteristic light or brown color. This indicates that the block is fully prepared for fruiting and you can begin growing shiitake mushrooms at home:
- Remove the plastic bags and rinse the blocks under running water.
- Transfer the substrate to a place allocated for the plantation in the basement or barn, previously equipped for mycelium or to open ground.
- If you grow shiitake in the garden, provide a place in partial shade, among spreading trees.
Caring for shiitake is not difficult when you permanently live in a country house. As soon as the mushrooms appear on the surface, the blocks must be watered every day, covering them with thin plastic film in dry and hot weather.
You need to cut the mushrooms carefully, right up to the cap, only later removing the stalk from the substrate. If after the first wave of fruiting the block significantly decreases in volume (by an average of 3.5-4 times), it must be “refreshed” by keeping it in a container with cool water for 1-2 days.
Before growing shiitake in the country, determine the timing of keeping substrate blocks outdoors, taking into account the fact that from March to October one mycelium can produce up to 6 waves of fruiting. Productivity decreases and then ends completely as soon as the dried substrate begins to crumble.
Use of shiitake in cosmetology and medicine
The benefits of shiitake mushrooms were noted by Chinese healers six thousand years ago. An extract from the mushroom was added to medicine and food, noticing that people who regularly eat it get sick less and live tens of years longer.
Modern medical research suggests that the medicinal properties of shiitake mushrooms are a consequence of a well-combined composition of substances such as iron, vitamin C, protein, selenium, potassium and dietary fiber.
Clinical practice has shown that consuming shiitake helps fight chronic viruses, reduce cholesterol levels, and normalize blood pressure.
Many dosage forms that include the mushroom are used today to combat AIDS, diabetes and some types of cancer. In addition, shiitake complex carbohydrates actively restore a weakened human immune system and have a calming effect in the treatment of neuroses and depression.
It has been noted that complex therapeutic treatment using mushroom-based drugs does not cause side effects or complications, and can be recommended for people of various age categories.
Since the beginning of the century, ointments and creams began to appear on the cosmetic market, which included a new, unknown component - kojic acid from the shiitake mushroom. The effect of using the products was stunning - the skin became smoother and clearer, taking on a healthy tone and color even during the aging process. Studies have shown that the acid obtained during the metabolism of mushrooms prevents excess melanin production and affects the activation of regenerative processes, making the skin healthy and elastic.
All these facts indicate that growing shiitake as a business is an undertaking that brings not only significant profits, but also significant benefits. Today's mushroom market is expanding, covering not only markets, shops and restaurants, but also beauty salons and pharmaceutical enterprises.
When you decide to grow and sell shiitake, pay attention to the planting material. Having decided where to buy shiitake mycelium, be sure to pay attention to where it was imported from and whether it meets the standards. Remember that choosing quality mycelium accounts for almost 80% of the success of your business.
Shiitake is one of the most popular artificially cultivated mushrooms. It is especially loved in the countries of Southeast Asia and especially in Japan and China. This mushroom is loved not only by gourmets for its excellent taste, but also by mushroom growers for its high yield and relative ease of cultivation. In Russia, shiitake is also known, but is inferior in popularity to champignons and oyster mushrooms. In other words, competition among its manufacturers in our country is not yet very high.
The shiitake mushroom (a more correct transcription is shiitake) is also known as Japanese forest mushroom and edible lentinula.
Shiitake is medium in size: the cap is from five to twenty centimeters in diameter, and is brown or coffee in color. The shape of the cap is convex or slightly flattened. The outer skin is dotted with small light scales. Old mushrooms have uneven and bent edges of their caps.
The underside of the cap is covered with white plates, which, when damaged, darken, taking on a brown tint. The leg is also brown, but always noticeably lighter than the cap. Its length ranges from three to nineteen centimeters with an average diameter of about a centimeter.
The pulp has a light creamy or yellowish-whitish hue, as well as a pleasant taste (even when raw) and smell. In the cap the flesh is fleshy, in the stem it is much tougher and fibrous.
In their natural environment, Japanese shiitakes are found in deciduous and mixed forests in Japan, Korea, northern China and Russian Primorye. These are typical saprotrophs living on dead tree trunks, especially preferring Castanopsis acuminate, Mongolian oak and Amur linden. Small groups of shiitake appear after rains throughout the warm season.
On the territory of the Russian Federation, shiitake is found only in Primorye, so it is basically useless to look for it outside this region. In Primorye itself, only three types of mushrooms grow, which theoretically can be confused with shiitake. We are talking about mushrooms of the champignon genus - dark red, forest and August. They have a similar color scheme and scales on their caps.
An experienced mushroom picker will never confuse shiitake with champignons, if only because the Japanese forest mushroom grows only on dead wood, and the mentioned champignons grow on the ground. Their fruiting dates also differ. Champignons appear in the summer and fall, and shiitake is available for harvest in the spring.
However, even if a novice mushroom picker still confuses shiitake with champignons, no big harm will come of it, since all these mushrooms are edible.
The Japanese forest mushroom is deservedly considered the leader in taste characteristics among all artificially cultivated mushrooms. In terms of taste, it is often compared even with boletus. In Korean, Chinese and Japanese cuisine, shiitake is perhaps the main mushroom.
The Japanese mushroom performs well in any mushroom dishes and lends itself to all types of culinary processing. In Asian cuisines, it is also very common to make powder from dried shiitake and then use it in soups. Dried shiitakes retain their natural flavor surprisingly well, making them excellent as an aromatic seasoning. However, when dried, these mushrooms noticeably lose their taste, so many Japanese gourmets prefer them only fresh.
It should be noted that shiitake has a slightly pungent taste, and this often scares away Europeans who are not accustomed to it. But during heat treatment, a significant part of this pungency disappears, so the taste of shiitake cannot be considered completely exotic.
These mushrooms have found no less widespread use in folk and modern medicine. For centuries they have been used as a rejuvenating agent that, among other things, strengthens male potency. Shiitake was also used directly for medicinal purposes: to reduce fever during fever and to cleanse the blood of toxins.
In the modern world, it is also widely used for medical purposes. With its help they fight against viral infections, heart and stomach diseases. In addition, shiitake helps lower blood sugar levels and break down cholesterol in blood vessels.
The great benefits of shiitake also manifest themselves in cosmetology medicine, where products are made on its basis to combat certain skin diseases.
Growing shiitake at home
The Japanese and Chinese grow shiitake on logs, which to a certain extent makes this technique similar to growing oyster mushrooms. But there are significant differences here. Firstly, shiitake mycelium grows much slower than oyster mushroom mycelium, which makes it difficult to fight mold that competes with the mycelium.
Secondly, oyster mushroom fruiting is provoked by a decrease in temperature, which should imitate the arrival of autumn, and shiitake begins to bear fruit after watering the “bed,” which imitates the rainy season. Thus, although growing shiitake requires precise adherence to special technology, growing it at home is easier than oyster mushrooms, which require a climate control system.
There are two approaches to growing shiitake - intensive (industrial) and amateur. The industrial method can significantly reduce the ripening time of the crop and involves heat treatment of the sawdust substrate. Fruiting occurs all year round in a temperature-controlled room.
With the amateur method, mushroom growers try to follow the general outline of the industrial method, but using available materials and having to neglect sterility at some stages.
The basis for the nutrient substrate is formed from oak, maple or beech sawdust. Alder, birch, poplar, aspen sawdust, and in exceptional cases other types of trees are also allowed. Coniferous trees are completely unsuitable for growing shiitake mushrooms.
You should also pay attention to the size of the sawdust: optimally two to three millimeters. Smaller sawdust impedes air exchange in the substrate, which slows down the development of the fungus. But you shouldn’t take too large sawdust either, since an increase in oxygen content turns the substrate into a favorable environment for the development of competitive organisms.
To accelerate the growth of mycelium and increase productivity, sawdust is diluted with nutritional supplements. This role is usually filled with grain or bran of wheat and barley, bean flour, or other organic waste of this type. Gypsum or chalk is also mixed into the substrate to maintain optimal acidity. In general, all these additives can account for from 10 to 40% of the substrate volume.
After adding all additional components to the sawdust, the substrate is thoroughly mixed and then water is added to ensure the humidity of the nutrient medium is not lower than 55%. However, the main difficulty is to create optimal conditions for growing shiitake, while preventing the development of mold and other competitive organisms in the substrate. To combat them, before inoculating the mycelium, the substrate is sterilized or pasteurized. Only after this the mycelium is placed into the disinfected and cooled mixture.
Usually the substrate is sterilized using autoclaves, having previously been packaged in bags. But there are also alternative methods, when the substrate is first sterilized as a whole, allowed to cool, inoculated, and only then placed in bags. True, in this case everything will have to be done under sterile conditions, which will require additional costs.
Speaking of bags. It is best to use thick plastic bags with a volume of one to six liters. Having placed the inoculated mycelium in them, they are closed and sealed with a plug of cotton wool and gauze through which air will circulate.
Inoculation, that is, sowing of mycelium, must be carried out only in a sterile substrate and only under the conditions of a special sterile box in order to avoid the entry into the substrate of competitive organisms that develop faster than shiitake mycelium. It is important that the temperature of the substrate at the time of inoculation is not less than 20 and not more than 30 degrees Celsius.
The properties of the shiitake mushroom are such that it is better to germinate the mycelium in wheat or barley grain. By the time of inoculation, this planting material consists of tightly stuck together blocks. For this reason, grain blocks must be ground back into individual grains before inoculation. The sowing rate of grains infected with mycelium is from two to five percent of the total mass of the substrate.
After sowing, the mycelium develops in a room at room temperature for 6-10 weeks, after which the substrate, formed into dense lumps and overgrown with mycelium, is removed from polyethylene, transferred to a cooler and more humid room, where it is left in this “bare” form. The harvest from these blocks is obtained within three to six months.
Amateur technology
Since it is impossible to achieve complete sterility when growing shiitake mushrooms at home, the effectiveness of amateur technology is significantly lower than industrial technology.
The substrate is made using the same sawdust or shavings of hardwood. It is also recommended to use standard types of additives, since they are not difficult to obtain. The substrate mixture must be packaged in agrilic bags. Agril is a special “breathable” material designed for covering garden beds.
Then these bags should be placed in hot water for 10-15 minutes, after which pasteurization is performed: at a temperature of 60 degrees, the mixture is kept for about a day and another three days at 50 degrees. After the substrate has cooled, it is removed from the bags and placed in sterilized 3-liter jars, having previously inoculated it with mycelium. The jars are sealed with a cotton stopper.
Jars with inoculated substrate are left to become overgrown with mycelium at a temperature of seventeen to twenty-two degrees for two months. After this, the mixture must be removed from the jars again and returned to breathable bags, leaving it like that for another two weeks. During this time, the mycelium will form a dense block from the substrate, which must be soaked in water for several hours (up to a day). After this, after two weeks the first mushrooms should appear.
The most convenient mushroom for growing in the garden is shiitake (). In terms of its healing properties, it ranks first among the edible mushrooms known in the world. In nature, shiitake grows on the trunks and stumps of hardwood trees (oak, beech), does not affect living tree tissue, and is therefore not dangerous for the garden.
Description and biological features
The modern Latin name for the shiitake mushroom is Lentinula edodes. It is more often called by its older Latin name: Lentinus edodes. The word "shiitake" comes from the Japanese name for the shin tree on which the mushroom grows in Japan. "Take" is the Japanese word for mushroom.
In China, the highest quality mushrooms are those whose caps resemble a tortoise shell. Dark brown, lighter when ripe, it can be up to 20 cm in diameter, hemispherical, convex, becoming flat when ripe. In young mushrooms, the plates are protected by a blanket that extends from the stem to the edges of the cap.
Why are there no shiitakes in the forests of central Russia? It turned out that it cannot compete with our mushrooms. In the garden of the author of the article, on some substrate blocks with shiitake, wild mushrooms settled by self-sowing: summer honey fungus and deer spittle.
Growing Shiitake
Shiitake can be grown on substrate and on log scraps.
Shiitake on substrate
Shiitake is ideal for growing in the garden. Capable of producing crops from April to November under a variety of weather conditions. Can be grown on oak cuttings or on substrate blocks made from ground up branches. Unlike most cultivated mushrooms, shiitake mycelium binds substrate particles together well and creates a durable brown crust on the surface of the substrate block, which protects it from drying out and from waterlogging during watering. Ready-to-fruit shiitake substrate blocks are strong enough to be carried by hand by the top, so they don't need to be placed in a plastic bag, and they look natural and beautiful in the garden, especially when mushrooms are growing on them. Shiitake fruiting is initiated not only by cold (like the mushrooms of our forests), but also by seasonal rains. Substrate blocks can even be soaked in water to initiate fruiting and increase yield.
The best material for the future shiitake substrate is oak, willow or alder branches ground with a garden shredder. It is better to harvest ground branches freshly cut from the tree, removing most of the leaves. The resulting chips are used immediately after grinding. In extreme cases, it can be dried in the sun in a thin layer for storage.
The amount of substrate is determined by the size of the plastic bag in which the soaked substrate is heat treated. We recommend using blocks weighing 1.3 kg with a volume of substrate in a block of 2.5 liters for cultivating shiitake in the country or in the garden. The substrate is placed in 3-liter bags for freezing food. The table shows approximate values for the amount of wood chips and water per substrate block.
Substrate preparation
The substrate is filled with water (see table), mixed and after 5 minutes, excess water is drained through a sieve, if any. The squeezed substrate is packaged in bags.
From new padding polyester, which has not been used, plugs with a diameter of 2-3 cm are prepared. To do this, a strip of padding polyester 30-40 cm long and 5-7 cm wide is rolled into a roll and wrapped with thread. You can make such plugs from pure cotton wool. The plugs need to be inserted into the neck of the bags with the substrate and the neck of the bag should be tightened around the plug with twine.
Pasteurization
It is convenient to pasteurize the substrate in a 200-liter barrel placed on a fire. 50 liters of water are poured into it, and a mesh or lattice is installed above the water on bricks, on which substrate blocks are placed in several tiers.
A lidded barrel sits for 24 hours for mold spores to germinate in the substrate. The next day you need to light a fire and boil water for 4-6 hours. In the same way, pasteurization can be done in a steam room at 80-90 °C.
Sowing the substrate with mycelium
Seeding is carried out in a clean room (without dust) or outdoors, all work is carried out in a basin. A clean plastic basin and a tablespoon are wiped with a chlorine-containing preparation before use.
Further procedure:
- Mash the grain mycelium intended for sowing without removing it from the packaging.
- Untie the bag containing the cooled substrate after pasteurization.
- Remove the plug and pour a tablespoon (without top) of grain mycelium onto the substrate. Firm the mycelium onto the surface of the substrate with your fingers or a spoon. Insert the cork back and tie it with twine again.
Mycelium incubation
To allow the mycelium to colonize the substrate block, the package with the substrate is left in a warm place at a temperature of +20...+26 °C for 2 months or more. Through the film of the bag, you can monitor the progress of the mycelium as it captures the substrate. The block should turn white, or white with brown spots, or brown. After the formation of dense dark buds of mushrooms or small fruiting bodies on the surface of the block, the block is ready for fruiting.
Forcing mushrooms
Release the blocks from the plastic packaging. Wash the blocks under running cold water and install them in the place of future fruiting. A place in the garden should be chosen in the shade among plants. Daily watering of the blocks is advisable, especially after the appearance of mushrooms. The mushrooms are cut with a sharp knife, without leaving a stump, flush with the surface of the substrate, being careful not to damage the surface. If this is difficult, harvest the mushrooms by cutting off the caps and then remove the remaining stumps.
After the first wave of fruiting, if a block with a volume of 2.5 liters weighs less than 700 g, it must be soaked in water for a period from a day to a week, until the block gains weight up to 1 kg. You can harvest up to 6 harvests per season. Fruiting ends when the blocks begin to crumble. Spent substrate is a good fertilizer.
Growing shiitake on logs
The yield on logs is significantly lower than on substrate blocks made from ground branches. The mycelium consumption for seeding logs should be quite high, at least 200 g per linear meter of log. It is better to cut down trees in the period between the fall of leaves in autumn and the beginning of the movement of sap in the spring. The wood should have a relative humidity of 40 to 50% (the ratio of the mass of water in the tree to the total mass). It is better to choose oak, but you can sow willow, alder and birch. Sections of logs with a diameter of 8 to 20 cm are made 80-150 cm long. Thanks to tannase (an enzyme that decomposes tannins), shiitake has an advantage over other mushrooms when developing oak wood.
Drilling holes and seeding logs is done on clean polyethylene film. You can make holes with a diameter of 20 mm and a depth of 6 cm, distributed in a fan along the diameter in the middle of the side surface of a piece of log. The distance between the holes around the circumference is 6 cm. With clean hands, fill the holes with grain mycelium and compact it so that 1 cm remains to the edges of the hole. To prevent the mycelium from spilling out, the holes are sealed with construction putty or garden varnish. Logs grafted using this method can be immediately placed in their future fruiting site: shaded by plants on three sides, with the open side facing west or east. It is better to choose a place in the lowlands, where there is high humidity of the soil and air. Incubation period is from 1 year to 3 years. The lifespan of shiitake on logs is 5-7 years.
Healing properties of mushroom
- Shiitake was valued in China and Japan along with ginseng. Among all medicinal mushrooms active against tumors, this is the most studied species. In experiments on mice, the mushrooms showed a high level of inhibition of tumor growth. The antitumor activity of shiitake is associated with an immunomodulatory polysaccharide, which was named lentinan.
- Lentinan shiitake stimulates the formation of perforin in the body of animals and humans. Perforin is believed to destroy cancer cells by perforating them. The formation of perforin in the human body begins to decrease sharply after 35-40 years. Regular consumption of shiitake mushrooms keeps perforin levels high.
- Shiitake spores contain particles that are harmless to humans, similar in structure to the influenza virus. They force the body to produce interferon.
- Shiitake contains both water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins. There is especially a lot of thiamine and vitamin D, which is absent in vegetables. Shiitake grown outdoors in the garden contains more vitamin D by dry weight than cod liver.
- During incubation of the mycelium, as a result of the shiitake fighting mold, if it is present in the substrate, the shiitake releases a healing brown exudate that inhibits the growth of bacteria and fungi.
- To maintain a healthy immune system, you should consume at least 200 grams of fresh mushrooms per week or 30 grams of dried mushroom powder.
Culinary qualities of shiitake
Shiitake mushrooms are quite meaty and have a good flavor. They can be consumed without boiling or any other culinary treatment. The specific, slightly pungent taste of raw shiitake becomes more mushroom-like during cooking.
Fresh mushrooms have a pleasant mushroom smell with a slight admixture of the smell of radish. After heat treatment, the smell resembles the smell of wild mushrooms. Strong and massive caps, cut into several parts, can be placed on skewers - unlike other mushrooms, they do not break when pierced, they are not watery and are suitable for making barbecue.
Clear mushroom soup:
- water - 2 l;
- fresh shiitake mushroom caps - 500 g;
- butter - 50 g;
- carrots - 2 pieces;
- potatoes - 400 g;
- onions - 2 pieces;
- parsley or dill;
- black pepper (peas);
- salt;
- lemon acid.
Blanch the mushrooms and cut them into thin slices. Add a pinch of citric acid to the water on the tip of a knife or a slice of lemon without zest. Place mushrooms in water and cook for 40 minutes. Add butter, peeled carrots, then coarsely chopped potatoes, onions and peppers. Cook the soup until the vegetables are ready, stirring occasionally with oil. Add the greens after cooking.
Shiitake fried under a crust of hard cheese:
- fresh shiitake - 500 g;
- butter - 100 g;
- onions - 200 g;
- processed cheese - 100 g;
- salt;
- ground black pepper;
- hard cheese - 100 g.
Mushrooms are fried in butter. When the liquid released from the mushrooms has evaporated from the pan, add butter, finely chopped onion, salt and ground pepper to taste and fry until tender, 10-20 minutes. Dissolve the processed cheese in 0.5 cups of warm water and pour it over the mushrooms, stir and steam for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle the roast with the prepared cheese crumbles and place in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle the finished dish with herbs.
