Shiitake Growlog

[Myc]

What I hope to achieve here is a complete growlog from tissue culture to fruiting. I've done a lot of scrounging the internet and haven't found a complete tek anywhere. What follows is the cumulative knowledge I have collected from various sources.

Hopefully this will serve as a meaningful contribution to this site. I have learned so much here I'm hoping I can give something practical and useful back.

[Myc]

Spawn building was done from a plugged mycelial tissue culture syringe which I received as part of a trade.
Live tissue was transferred to Red Winter Wheat Berries and allowed to colonize.
G2G transfers were done to Wild Bird Seed and finally to Rye Berries.

Incubation temps. were between 67*F and 84*F.

[koldjgdaro]

You're gonna be healthy after eating shiitake . Sounds like an edible I'd like to cultivate myself. Does shiitake have gills or this spongy - thing beneath the cap?
Are you going to fruit them on rye? AFAIK it's a wood lover.
GL!

[Myc]

The sawdust block was prepared using:

Fresh cut cottonwood log
Wheat Bran

The hardwood log was run through a jointer to produce a combination of wood shavings and sawdust.

The dry wood shavings were weighed to determine the amount of wheat bran to add for supplementation.
Supplementation was done with a ratio of 4:1 woodshavings: wheat bran
The block consists of 640g of woodshavings and 160g of wheat bran.
The wood shavings were hydrated to field capacity with a short soak. When using fresh cut lumber, the shavings are very near field capacity to begin with. I found soaking may have leached out important nutrients so I started another block which I misted with the water left over from the initial soak rather than soaking it.

Mix the dry wheat bran with the soaked woodshavings.
Load into autoclaveable spawn bags.
Secure top with binder clip.
Protect bag with old t-shirt (may be unnecessary?).
Load bag into PC with filter patch facing up and unobstructed yet protected from taking on moisture.
PC for 90 min. @ 15 PSI
Spawn with one quart of colonized grain spawn in glovebox or flowhood.
Seal bag with tape or impulse sealer.
Knead grain spawn into sterilized, supplemented woodshavings.
Shape substrate into the form of a block.
Incubate.

[Myc]

Here is the home made supplemented woodshaving block after 8 days incubated between 67*F - 84*F. This is the bag which was soaked rather than misted. The misted bag was spawned a few days behind so I'll post results later.

[Myc]

When compared side by side it appears to me that the soaked block is colonizing more rapidly than the misted block.



Since I'm growing from a tissue clone I suppose that the end result will prove which method is better.

The block on the left was soaked and the block on the right was misted and spawned at a later date.

[koldjgdaro]

I remember you brilliant Ps. Weilii grow and I'm sure you're gonna score jackpot yet again!
Sounds and looks really good!

[Myc]

Thanks for the words of encouragement!
I've started cultivating edibles and novelty species exclusively. Since edibles teks are kinda scarce I thought I'd post my experiment here.

In the works are:
Panellus Stipticus
Ganoderma Lucidum (Reishi)
Pleurotus Ostreatus (Oyster)
and Portabello (sp?)

They are all currently on agar and I hope to post growlogs for each one this year.

[hyphaenation]

Glad your doing Shitakes myc. I just fruited my first block and enjoyed the tastey fruits. You will not be disappointed. Only advice I can give is be patient. They take time. Expect 8 weeks colonization possibley more.

The blocks seem to go through distinct stages. Fully colonized, then with age they form a bubble like armor that is biege at first then darker brown. You watch for boil like primordia to form, perhaps a dozen then you cold water soak it for 24 hours and take it in to the fruiter, cut the bag etc.

Looking forward to seeing your results.

good luck



Here's a couple pics from my first ever block.

[GordianHyphae]

nice work myc! i'll be watching and taking notes; hoping to try some shiitakes soon. I've always been impressed with your grows. can't wait to see that block fruiting.

[Myc]

I was pleasantly surprised to see primordia formation today!

Ironically, the bag wich was spawned latest (3/16/08 - four days after the first bag) is showing the primordia formation.
Both blocks appear as though they've been rolled in popcorn.
The block which is forming primordia still has some areas which aren't covered with "bubble armor" - (to use Hyphae's description).
In all, I'm very happy with the results of this experiment.
I suppose I'll let several more primordia form accross the surface of the block before I dunk and induce fruiting.

This experiment gives me great optimism toward my other wood-loving gourmet and novelty species grows which are currently on agar plates just waiting to be tested.

Hoping for Panelus Stipticus "glow-in-the-dark" sawdust blocks for Halloween. I imagine the kids
will love them.

OOPS! Hyphae,
Just went back and looked @ your photos carefully. Was that block brown colored prior to dunking or after? I may be pre-mature in my presumption that what I'm looking at are primordia.
LOL Like a kid at Christmas......

[Hippie3]

sure looks like a pin

[hyphaenation]

Its primordia for sure. Some say wait for 10 or so pins before the 24 hour dunk, but you be the judge. Different strains of Shitake fruit faster than others. Even if you have less mushrooms on the first flush, that just means all the more for the second & third.

Look carefully on those "bubbles" as more of them are likely primordia. Yours will go brown with age also in time. Maybe you have a very fast fruiting strain , and due to a bit of neglect tech and being slower mine got browner before the soak.

Best of luck

H

[Myc]

Thank you for the replies.
I'm satisfied that they are pins.
Don't know what strain this is since I got the tissue culture syringes as part of a trade. Labeling on the syringe looks consistent with Sporeworks methods so I'm assuming that's where they're from.
May wait a few days to dunk just to let some more pop out.

Hippie3,
I'm hoping you can direct me to a tek you posted here awhile back.
It involves a piping system for adapting an ultra-sonic humidifier to a Martha's closet style greenhouse setup.
Can't remember the thread name.
Much appreciated if you could save me some scrounging.

WooHoo! Shiitakes with dinner soon!!

[hyphaenation]

Not meaning to answer for Hip3 , but here's that link ...

http://forums.mycotopia.net/photo-ga...use-build.html

[Myc]

Just what I was looking for. Thanks H!

[Fresh Brewed]

Loving the thread...please keep it updated.

[Myc]

Got busy building a greenhouse. I used a variation of the one so kindly linked by H in the thread. Mine's kinda crude but seems to be working like a charm.


I waited until May 1st to soak the blocks.
They were immersed in a 10% peroxide solution bath and lots of ice cubes in a cooler which I cleaned and sanitized for the purpose.
I chose to dunk the blocks for 72 hours with the bags left on adding ice daily in order to keep the temps in the cooler as low as possible.
Water entered through the filter patches and served to further hydrate the blocks.
They were pretty heavy when the bags were cut away before placement into the greenhouse.

RH is being maintained between 85% - 90%
Temps. are around 69*-71*F
FAE 15 min. cycles four times a day
24 hours later and things are already getting started!

The soaked block now appears to be outperforming the "misted" block since it has more large pins. I suppose the proof will be in the final tally of the yeilds per block.

[dpwishy]

If you don't mind me asking what kind of fan is that and where was it acquired? I really like the idea and so would my gh. Beautiful setup man, and amazing job so far on the block. Can't wait too see this through!

love, peace, compassion and respect
-wishy

[Myc]

DP, fan is from here:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

120v. You'll need to supply your own cord.
Plugged right into a standard 120v lamp timer.

Greenhouse volume is 31.5 cu. ft. (L x W x H)
So @ 65cfm (rating of the fan), air can be totally exchanged in less than one minute.

This fan is overkill for this setup. I'm famous for using leftover parts from other projects. Just something I've had lying around for a few years.....finally put to good use.

BTW, fan was mounted to a piece of leftover plexi-glass. The hole was cut using a roto-zip tool which is about the only effective way to work with plexi-glass.

http://www.rotozip.com/RotoZipCMS/Te...ACHEHINT=Guest

[Myc]

Two days in and I thought I'd post some progress pics.

Purely in the interest of science, I had to try one today......

Loving the new greenhouse.

[hyphaenation]

Excellent progress Myc.

The fruits look so different than the the strain i'm growing and the block is yet to turn brown. Its good to know that the gene pool is so wide with this species.

Thanks for sharing

H

[GordianHyphae]

excellent work myc. looking tasty!

[Myc]

The soaked block produced 505 grams (less the fruit sacrificed for scientific study ).
The misted or "hydrated" block produced 459 grams.

57 days from spawn to harvest......not bad IMHO.

I wish I had paid more attention to the weight of the blocks
post-pc
post spawn
post colonization
post hydration
post harvest
as I wonder what the water content was like during those times. I will, weigh them and put 'em down for a 24 hour cold dunk in a 5% H2O2 solution in order to get 'em ready for the next flush.

It would appear as though pre-soaking the woodchips has little or no effect on yeild. In fact the data, thus far, supports the opposite. I have begun experimenting with other hardwoods and controls have been more carefully observed.

[sooshane]

Sweet growlog Myc! Well Done!

Very nice first flush.

[HumanExperiment]

Originally Posted by Myc

What I hope to achieve here is a complete growlog from tissue culture to fruiting. I've done a lot of scrounging the internet and haven't found a complete tek anywhere. What follows is the cumulative knowledge I have collected from various sources.

Hopefully this will serve as a meaningful contribution to this site. I have learned so much here I'm hoping I can give something practical and useful back.

Hey Myc, thanks for this thread. I'm brand new to this site, and to mushroom growing. I am only interested in growing Shiitake right now, but like you, I was kind of disappointed by the lack of information I found on the web. Sure if you dig hard and long enough, you can scrape together enough info to get started - but I found almost nothing in the way of controlled tests (comparisons) of the various factors important for growing Shiitake.

There are dozens of things that need to be tested (supplements, ratios, humidity levels, species of hardwood, size or mix of sizes of sawdust, compression level on substrate material, starting moisture content of substrate, temperatures, shapes of synthetic logs, shock techniques, etc). Many of the factors are different depending on the stage of growth - ideal temps and humidity are different during mycelial growth, during the "pinning" phase (where the mushrooms first begin to form), during the shocking process, and during actual fruiting (when full size mushrooms grow). One expert has also told me there is often a trade off between quality and quantity - lower temps may take longer to produce a flush for example, and the mushrooms may be smaller, but the mushroom quality is higher. This is yet another thing that would have to be verified using double blind taste tests, preferably using people with discriminating taste buds.

[aumbrellaforainydays]

good luck!

[Myc]

So here are the results of the second flush thus far. Several pins are struggling to catch up.
Both blocks were weighed, dunked in a ice-water (5% peroxide solution) for 20 hours, re-weighed and placed in the greenhouse with RH maintained @ 94-98%

The pre-soaked block took on 446g of water. Pictured on the left followed by a photo of the bottom of the block. The fruits from this block appear more "regular" as opposed to the very irregular appearance of all of the fruits from the first flush (both blocks).

The misted block took on 563g of water. Pictured on the right followed by a photo of the bottom of the block. Very sparse fruiting up top but a couple of nice ones downstairs.

Further experiments are in the works using Russian Olive, Mesquite, Gambel's Oak, and whatever other pure hardwood sawdust I can lay hands on.

I wonder if the irregularity of the first flush was due to supplementation content?
Perhaps the blocks are too nutrient rich to be spawned with a quart of grain spawn?
After I've studied some other hardwoods maybe these questions will answer themselves. Unfortunately, my scientific method suffered because of my excitement to cultivate something new.

HumanExperiment,
Followed your link. Nice start! Looks like you know more than I did when I started! LOL
More valuable information in "The Mushroom Cultivator" pages 177-179. This species has been studied pretty extensively and a copy of the book can be found here:
http://archives.mycotopia.net/discus...tml?1075070998

[HumanExperiment]

That's pretty neat how they even grow out the bottom. I like your fruiting greenhouse, I'll have to build something like that. I know I won't be getting any growth off the bottom with my current setup...

Thanks for the link to the book, I'll definitely check it out. There is another book (print) that I ordered from my local library that someone recommended, called "Growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms" by Paul Stamets.

[Hippie3]

they turned out really well.

[Myc]

Since starting this thread in 2008, I've become quite fond of the Shiitake and continue to cultivate them on a moderate scale.

Spawn production discoveries have made it possible to enjoy a year-around harvest with minimal effort.
I've begun to use the colonized blocks in the above photographs to spawn a second generation of pasteurized woodchips/chunks rather than fruiting them. One colonized block can spawn at least four bags of chunks.
They sit and colonized well in an unused closet.
Further spawn is held in the refrigerator until a second "wave" is needed for production.
Each colonized block will support at least 4 very nice flushes sporting some pretty nice fruitbodies. They are allowed to rest for 14 to 21 days to allow them to dry down and rest between flushes and the next "wave" is put into the greenhouse.
Spent spawnblocks can be further pasteurized and used for production of Oysters.

Here are some Westwind that I've been working with.

[eatyualive]

kickass myc!

[shroom_seeker]

Shiitake!!

Your second flush had some big fruits.. reminds me of the monsters I saw in Stamet's grow room last year. Great work!

[OZZZ]

Right F***ing on ......... this is what I have planned. The fact you can grow oysters on the spent blocks is even more intriguing!

So how many fruiting blocks do you have in place at any one time to keep yourself constantly "supplied" ??

Good stuff here bud! AWESOME!

[Myc]

Originally Posted by OZZZ

So how many fruiting blocks do you have in place at any one time to keep yourself constantly "supplied" ??

I currently have five but one or two are on their fifth and sixth flushes - very low production and not worth repeating.
From now on, fourth flush is el fin.
Two blocks will keep me in shiitake just fine but I like to share.
I also dry and freeze some of the surplus. These can be used in soup-stock, roasts, etc. Nothing is wasted.
Or they can be dried, ground and encapsulated for a daily medicinal dose.

I'll be experimenting with some of Stamet's culture this year. So far, I have three distinct sub-strains of warm fruiting cultures. The first fruiting pics are my first, the second set of fruiting photos is the other (notice the darker caps - much different appearance than the first group). I can't wait to see how they size up against the latest one.
Will keep posting in this thread.

[OZZZ]

Good to know! So is that an ultrasonic piped in or a coolmist? Im assuming ultrasonic in my experience coolmists dont seem to have enough umph to keep the humidity up when piped in like that. Ive been trying to get my greenhouse dialed in. Forgive me if you mention that in the thread I dont recall seeing it anywhere.

I do see you have the fan on 15 minute increments for FAE, but what about the ultrasonic .... what kind of cycle do you have it on?

Thanks for the details, it helps me to analyze my GH and get it up and running!

[fucgubarn]

Wow, very very well!!