An Easy Step-By-step DIY Guide On How To Grow Shiitake Mushrooms

4/20/2021 An easy step-by-step DIY guide on how to grow shiitake mushrooms.
GARDENING DUCKS RECIPES FORAGED COB OVEN IN DEPTH PA R E N T I N G GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
GARDENING
D I Y: H O W T O G R O W S H I I TA K E HI THERE!
MUSHROOMS
Posted on October 11, 2018
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This simple, step-by-step guide will show you exactly how to grow shiitake
mushrooms — a delightful gourmet AND medicinal mushroom.
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VITAMIN D, AND BOOST YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM… ALL BY
LEARNING
GARDENING
HOW TO
DUCKS
GROWF OSHIITAKE
RECIPES RAGED
MUSHROOMS!
COB OVEN IN DEPTH PA R E N T I N G GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
You may have noticed from our Instagram photos and other articles, that The Tyrant and I love
mushrooms. That wasn’t always the case.
Pippa the duckling hatching
ORGANIC , GRASS -FED MEAT DELIVERY
We used to think that mushrooms were just the bland white button variety (Agaricus bisporus)
that we saw in the grocery store. The only other mushrooms we knew about were portobellos,
which are actually just a more mature white button mushroom (yep, Agaricus bisporus too).
An introduction to a whole new worldC of gourmet mushrooms GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT 

GARDENING DUCKS RECIPES FORAGED OB OVEN IN DEPTH PA R E N T I N G 
That all changed in 2010 when we got to know mycologist (mushroom scientist) Tradd Cotter.
Since then, we’ve steadily grown in our knowledge of and passion for gourmet, medicinal
mushrooms. Today, we grow our own mushrooms and wild-forage mushrooms as well.
As a result, we know that there are seemingly infinite varieties of delicious edible mushrooms
that come in every imaginable size, shape, color, and flavor.
Gorgeous chanterelle and cinnabar mushrooms from a summer forage in the woods.
GARDENING DUCKS RECIPES GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  

Some of our favorite mushrooms range FinO Rtaste
AGED COB OVEN
from the IN DEPTH
fruity & nutty chanterellesP AtoR Emaple
NTING
syrup flavored parasols to savory & sublime morels.
And, just to give you a proper appreciation for the size that mushrooms can grow, the largest
living organism on earth, is a 4 mile wide edible honey mushroom!
Fruiting Honey mushrooms in the woods behind our home.
Learn the Safety Rules Before You Start Foraging and Eating GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT 
GARDENING DUCKS RECIPES FORAGED COB OVEN IN DEPTH PA R E N T I N G 
Mushrooms
Unless you live in the desert, chances are there are many edible mushroom varieties that grow
wild in your yard or nearby woods.
Just as you shouldn’t get behind the wheel of a car without proper training/education, you
should NEVER eat a mushroom (or anything else) that you’re not 100% sure you’ve correctly
ID’d. Doing so could result in extreme illness or a slow and painful death.
Scared? Good!
Instead of letting your healthy fear of mushrooms keep you off of the mushroom “road” forever,
why not just learn how to drive safely and then enjoy all the places these wonderful organisms
will take you?
If you’re still not convinced that you should consider getting your “driver’s license” in
mushrooms, you might be further swayed by knowing that many varieties of mushrooms have
incredible medicinal benefits: they’re antiviral, antimicrobial, anticancer, antihyperglycemic,
cardioprotective, and anti-inflammatory.
Want to keep reading? Good!
Mycorrhizal mushrooms GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT 

GARDENING DUCKS RECIPES FORAGED COB OVEN IN DEPTH PA R E N T I N G 
Many of our favorite gourmet mushrooms can’t be commercially cultivated since they are
“mycorrhizal,” i.e. they form symbiotic relationships with the roots of plants.
Mycorrhizal mushrooms vastly expand the reach of a plant’s root system to help it draw in
additional water and nutrients. In return, the plants provide the mushrooms with a constant
source of carbohydrates via glucose and sucrose. It’s estimated that 95% of all plants are
mycorrhizal.
So, when you’re walking through the woods and you see mushrooms, you’re seeing a very
small portion of the actual organism — the visible fruiting body. Meanwhile, a massively
complex, interconnected web of organisms are dancing invisibly underneath your feet.
A mushroom is to its fungal body what an apple is to a tree. Isn’t nature cool?
The Easiest Mushrooms to Grow At Home
Not all mushrooms are mycorrhizal. Many of the best edible mushrooms in the world can easily
be cultivated without needing living tree roots to associate with.
At Tyrant Farms, we’re currently growing oyster, shiitake, king stropharia, chicken of the woods,
and blewit mushrooms, not to mention at least 15 native edible varieties we’ve enjoyed from
our lawn and/or Dthe

GARDENING
woods Rbehind
UCKS ECIPES
our home that wereC Ohere
FORAGED
long before
B OVEN
we were. P A R E N T I N G
IN DEPTH GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
A delicious and very hard to find umbrella polypore.
This particular article is about a revered Asian delicacy with a wide range of medicinal
properties to boot: the shiitake mushroom.
We’ve had some beautiful shiitake harvests over the years, and wow are they a delicious
mushroom. As such, we wanted to let you know how to grow shiitake mushrooms, too!
Another cool DIY

GARDENING
trick we’llRteach
DUCKS
you below:
ECIPES
you canC supercharge
FORAGED OB OVEN
your shiitake
IN DEPTH PA R E N T I N G GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
mushrooms with extra Vitamin D before eating them.
Keep reading to find out how!
DIY: HOW TO GROW SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS
A beautiful cluster of shiitake mushrooms from our logs. These are gill-side up and ready
to be charged with Vitamin D in the sun.
The shiitake growing

GARDENING DUCKS
instructions
RECIPES
below Fare very detailed,
ORAGED
so they may
COB OVEN
look complicated
IN DEPTH
at first
PA R E N T I N G GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
glance. However, learning how to grow shiitake mushrooms is actually quite simple.
For reference, think about how complicated instructions for making a peanut butter & jelly
sandwich look when you see them in writing. Same thing here, so don’t be intimidated!
I. HOW TO GROW SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS: MATERIALS LIST

Here’s the materials you’ll need to grow shiitake mushrooms in logs:
100 inoculated shiitake mushroom plugs. You can buy shiitake plugs here.
Two (2) recently cut hardwood tree sections with bark still on. These should be 4-8
inches in diameter and 3-4 feet long. Thick barked hardwoods such as oaks & poplars are
ideal. To make more shiitake logs, get more shiitake mushroom plugs at the same ratio
(roughly 50 plugs per 6″ diameter x 4′ long log).
High speed/power drill with a multi-purpose 5/16″ drill bit. If you want to get more serious
and do a lot of logs, you’ll probably want to upgrade to an angle grinder with specialized
high speed adapter as you can see here.
Rubber mallet (or hammer but mallet is better) for tapping the mushroom plugs into the
holes.
Food grade wax, some beeswax or cheese wax for sealing your mushroom plugs in the
log. Note: canning wax isn’t ideal because it becomes really brittle and can fall off leaving
GARDENING
your logs open
DUCKS
& exposed to being
RECIPES
colonized byC Oother
FORAGED
mushrooms.
B OVEN IN DEPTH PA R E N T I N G GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
Old junk can for melting your wax.
Camping stove or other heat source for melting wax in can. We just use our stove top and
reheat the wax as necessary.
Small paint brush for applying wax.
II. HOW TO GROW SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS: STEP BY STEP

GUIDE
1. Inoculate your shiitake logs in the warm months, ideally spring.
If you inoculate your shiitake logs in the middle of winter when it’s below freezing out, the
spawn won’t be very active. The ideal time to inoculate shiitake logs is after freezing weather
has passed in the spring.
You can continue to inoculate your shiitake logs throughout the warm months up until a couple
months before your first freeze.
2. Order Your Shiitake Mushroom Plugs
Once you’ve got your logs identified or cut, go ahead and order your shiitake mushroom plugs.
Again, 100 shiitake plugs is enough to do two, 6″ diameter logs that are 3-4′ long. If you have
more logs, orderDmore

GARDENING UCKS
shiitake plugs.
RECIPES FORAGED COB OVEN IN DEPTH PA R E N T I N G GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
100 Shiitake 100

Mushroom...
$12.99
Shop now
If you can’t use your shiitake plugs within a week of arrival, stick them in the fridge for up to 6
months.
3. Cut hardwood tree sections or source just-cut hardwood logs.
Select two suitable living hardwood tree sections or tree branches that are 4-8 inches in
diameter and 3-4 feet long. Oak is ideal, but other hardwoods are fine too.
100 mushroom plugs will adequately inoculate two logs with the above dimensions.
We used to recommend letting your logs “cure” for 2-4 weeks in a shaded, dry environment off
of the dirt or forest floor (like a garage or shed floor). That’s because healthy, living trees have
anti-fungal agents in their sap, so 2 weeks allows time for these compounds to dissipate.
However,
GARDENING
our mycologist
DUCKS
friend who originally
RECIPES FORAGED
made that recommendation
COB OVEN
to us years
IN DEPTH
ago now
says that he inoculates his logs immediately after cutting. Apparently, the mushroom spawn will
“hang out and wait,” then start to inoculate the logs as soon as the wood’s anti-fungal
compounds break down.
The longer you let your logs sit without inoculating them with your shiitake mushroom
plugs, the more time you give fungal spores from other species to land on your logs and
start to grow.
So don’t wait more than one month before inoculating your logs or your mushrooms will likely
have increased competition.
4. Drill Holes In Your Shiitake Mushroom Logs
Use a power drill with a 5/16″ drill bit attachment to drill offsetting, parallel rows of holes in each
log. This should look like a diamond pattern.
Each hole should be about 1 1/4″ deep and no more than 3-4″ apart.
Ideally on a 3ft log, you should have 50 holes per log. On a 6ft. log, you should have 100 holes.
We prefer the shorter 3ft logs because they’re much easier to carry and move.
5. Insert Your Shiitake Mushroom Plugs Into Logs

Time for mushroom

GARDENING
surgery!
DUCKS
Wash yourF Ohands
RECIPES RAGED
to make sure you’reI Nnot
COB OVEN
infectingPyour
DEPTH
shiitake
ARENTING GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
plugs with any competing fungi.
In a shaded area, separate your plugs into two piles of 50 plugs (assuming you’re using 3ft
logs). Put the plugs on a clean surface, like a washed plate or a ziplock bag.
Put your logs on newspaper or plastic if you don’t want melted wax on the floor/ground. Insert
your shiitake plugs into each hole. Immediately tap them in with your rubber mallet or hammer.
Make sure each shiitake plug is well set into the hole so that the surface of the plug is at or
below the surface level of the log.
Don’t leave any drilled holes empty! If needed fill any empty holes with wax, or another
species of mushroom will take hold there.
6. Melt and Apply Wax to Your Shiitake Logs
On a stove top, grill, or camp stove, heat your wax until fully melted.
Using a cheap paint brush, seal each cut end of the log completely with melted wax. Next, seal
each hole thoroughly with wax so that each shiitake plug has its own tight little “house,” safe
from other competing fungi that might come knocking.
7. Incubate Your Shiitake Logs for 6-12 Months

Place your shiitake logs in a shady, moist location off of the ground but within reach of a garden
hose. You don’t want too much sunlight to hit the logs, and you don’t want the logs touching the
ground, which encourages other competing fungi to come aboard.
An old palette, bricks, or concrete blocks are good for this purpose. Ideally, you can also cover
your logs with a breathable cloth (such as a shade cloth or weed blocker) to help keep out sun
while allowing moisture to come through, Don’t use plastic since this will make your logs mold!
Once you have your logs stored, it’s time to think about their water needs…
Wet climate – If you live in a moist climate like we do, you can water your shiitake logs
once per week for about 10 minutes during a dry week in which it doesn’t rain. If you get a
good soaking rain, don’t worry about watering them).
Dry climate – If you live in a dry/arid climate, you should plan to water your logs twice per
week for 10+ minutes each time. Don’t water your logs if the outside temps are below
freezing as this can cause your logs to split or loose their bark.
To help remember to water your shiitake logs, we recommend setting up a recurring calendar
event with an alert so that your technology can help you take care of your biology.
8. When Ready, “Initiate” Your Shiitake Logs
Under ideal conditions,

GARDENING DUCKS
your shiitake logs
RECIPES
will be ready
FORAGED
to fruit after
COB OVEN
6 months,P Abut
IN DEPTH
it’s
RENTING GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
recommended that you wait at least 9-12 months before “initiating” them. “Initiating” them
means forcing them to fruit and produce mushrooms.
It takes a lot of energy for the shiitake colony to produce mushrooms (like having a baby).
Waiting to initiate them ensures that the colony is really strong.
Your logs will do a pretty good job of telling you when they’re ready: keep an eye on the cut
ends of the logs that you sealed with wax, and if the surface area looks dark and mottled,
then you know the colony has taken over the log and is ready to fruit.
Sometimes, under ideal conditions, your logs will go ahead and fruit on their own without your
help.
Once you’ve determined that your shiitake logs are ready to be initiated, you’ll want to
submerge them in water for 24 hours. You can use a bathtub, a pail, a contractor bag, a natural
(clean) body of water, or whatever else you can come up with that’s big enough.
Ideally, you can use non-chlorinated water (rain, spring, boiled tap water, creek, etc), but we’ve
found that water straight out of the hose will work fine if that’s your only option.
Since we originally wrote this article, we’ve built our own backyard duck pond for our egg-laying Welsh
G A R Harlequin
DENING ducks.
D U CAs
K Syou can
R Esee
C I Phere,
ES ourF duck
O R A Gpond
E D makes
COB anOideal
V E N spot Ito
N soak/initiate
DEPTH Pour
AREshiitake
NTING GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
mushroom logs – although our ducks might disagree! We usually soak our shiitake logs overnight so our
girls can enjoy log-free swimming during the day.
After 24 hours of soaking, place your logs back in a shady area and in an upright, vertical
position. This insures that when mushrooms start forming, they don’t get dirty.
You’ll see “primordia” (baby mushrooms) form sometime between 2-14 days. Make sure the
shiitake logs stay moist during this waiting period by watering them 1-2 times per day
for about 5 minutes each time.
Soon, your whole log will be covered with beautiful shiitake mushrooms! There’s not a “right”
size to eat them—you can pick them when they’re small or let them get huge.
9. Harvest Sunlight to Boost Vitamin D, Then Cook & Eat Your Shiitake
Mushrooms!
We learned an incredibly cool, simple technique courtesy of famed mushroom expert, Paul
Stamets, that literally allows you to harvest sunlight to produce Vitamin D.
Vitamin D3 is produced from animals and used in most D vitamin supplements. Vitamin D2 is
the type of D vitamin found in mushrooms and plants.
As Stamets says,
GARDENING
“Vitamin RDE is
DUCKS
an essential
CIPES
vitamin that
FORAGED
boosts the immune
COB OVEN IN DEPTH
system and plays
vital roles in human metabolism.”
Vitamin D is incredibly good for you, and you need it regularly to stay healthy, especially in the
northern hemisphere or during the fall, winter, and early spring when there is less sunlight,
preventing your body from producing its own Vitamin D.
How to grow shiitake mushrooms and turn them into Vitamin D powerhouses:
Once you’ve harvested your shiitake mushrooms, put them in a sunny location gill side up for
24-48 hours.
This has been proven to drastically boost the shiitake’s natural Vitamin D2 levels from
around 100 IU/100 grams to nearly 46,000 IU/100 grams!
Cooking with shiitake mushrooms
Now that you know how to grow shiitake mushrooms, we recommend you learn how to cook
them! Not to worry.
There are infiniteD Unumbers

GARDENING CKS
of ways to cook
RECIPES
your delicious
FORAGED
and versatile
COB OVEN
shiitake mushroom.
IN DEPTH PA R E N T I N G
Just GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
do a google search and start experimenting. We just made this easy shiitake mushroom green
bean stir fry recipe courtesy of Jaden Hair over at Steamy Kitchen.
If you have too many shiitkae mushrooms to eat, don’t worry. Dry them and put them in an
airtight container. Yes, the elevated Vitamin D levels will last for over one year – and you
can also put dry shiitakes out in the sun gill-side up to charge back up!
We hope this How To Grow Shiitake Mushrooms Guide will inspire you to grow and enjoy your
own shiitake mushrooms at home, year round!
Warning:
GARDENING
Don’t Dever
UCKS
eat anything
RECIPES
that you can’t identify
FORAGED
with 100% certainty.
COB OVEN IN DEPTH
Also,P Ait’s estimated
RENTING GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
that 1-2% of the population may experience an allergic reaction to mushrooms due to their
body’s inability to digest them (they don’t have the necessary enzymes).
So, the first time you eat a shiitake or any other edible mushroom, just try a small amount. Wait
24-48 hours and if you haven’t experienced an allergic reaction, it’s safe to assume that your
body is perfectly capable of digesting them.
KIGI,
More fun fungi articles you might enjoy:
How to identify and use chanterelle mushrooms
6 gourmet and medicinal mushrooms you can easily grow in your garden
How to find, identify, grow, and cook chicken of the woods mushrooms
The hunt for the elusive morel mushroom
How to find and prepare maitake mushrooms
A delicious indigo milkcap recipe
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H OW T O G R OW M U S H R O O M S H OW T O G R OW S H I I TA K E M U S H R O O M S MUSHROOM DIY N ATU R A L F O O D S T O F I G H T CA N C E R
S H I I TA K E M U S H R O O M S VI TA M I N D VI TA M I N D 2
7 Comments By AARON VON FRANK
AARON VON FRANK
Food explorer, seed & soil geek, duck evangelist, writer, health nut, and
entrepreneur. In addition to their collaboration on Tyrant Farms, Aaron and his
wife, Susan, are cofounders of GrowJourney.com, a USDA certified organic
seed & gardening education company. Aaron also writes for Edible Upcountry
Magazine, WordPress (.com), Daily Harvest Express, and other food and tech-
related organizations. Aaron is the former farm manager at Oak Hill Cafe &
Farm, a no-till, permaculture, farm-to-table restaurant & farm located right

GARDENING
down the street
DUCKS RECIPES
from his alma mater,CFurman
FORAGED OB OVEN
University,
IN DEPTH
in Greenville, SC. He
also serves on the board of the Diversified Agriculture Committee for the South
Carolina Farm Bureau.
 
7 COMMENTS
SARAH Reply
January 17, 2019 at 2:44 pm
Thanks for the detailed instructions. Approximately how much will

each log produce? How long will they continue to produce?
BAZ DANIELS Reply
Thank you so much! I’m getting started now.
CYNTHIA Reply

When you put your mushrooms in the sun to harvest vitamin D, how
long do you leave them out and do you need to be concerned about
animals bothering them?
JONATHAN Reply
October 24, 2013 at 6:25 pm
How long will your mushroom log keep producing fruit?
This sounds like something I am going to try out!
SUSAN Reply
October 25, 2013 at 12:07 pm
They should produce for several years, but you can also
capture the spore from your mushrooms and inoculate new
GARDENING logs with

DUCKS R E them
C I P E S to F
keep
O R A G Ethem
D Cgoing
O B O V Efor
N asI Nlong
D E P T as
H you
P A Rwant
ENTING GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
them. Sometimes that process happens accidentally too!
THE EASIEST WAY TO MAKE YOUR SOLAR PANELS-UNDERSTAND THE PROPER WAY TO Reply
BUILD YOUR OWN SOLAR PANELS
December 22, 2012 at 2:24 pm
[…] way Feather Tresses ExtensionsA Review Of Solar Stirling PlantWho

Says Calculators Can’t Be FunAn easy step-by-step DIY guide on how to
grow shiitake mushrooms.Who Says Calculators Can’t Be FunAn easy step-
by-step DIY guide on how to grow shiitake […]
THE EASIEST WAY TO MAKE YOUR SOLAR PANELS-UNDERSTAND THE PROPER WAY TO Reply
BUILD YOUR OWN SOLAR PANELS
December 22, 2012 at 2:24 pm
[…] way Feather Tresses ExtensionsA Review Of Solar Stirling PlantWho

Says Calculators Can’t Be FunAn easy step-by-step DIY guide on how to
grow shiitakeD mushrooms.Who

GARDENING UCKS RECIPES Says
F O R A G ECalculators
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A R E N T Istep-
NG GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  
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4/20/2021 An easy step-by-step DIY guide on how to grow shiitake mushrooms.

Posted on October 11, 2018

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read our

We also write for Edible Upcountry Magazine, so

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING?

Facebook Pinterest Twitter Reddit Yummly

April 16, 2021

Ep. 2: Week 2 Baby w/

April 14, 2021

Is it safe to raise human

April 12, 2021

Solomon’s seal & hosta

FIGHT CANCER, HARVEST SUNLIGHT TO PRODUCE YOUR OWN

mushrooms. That wasn’t always the case.

Pippa the duckling hatching

ORGANIC , GRASS -FED MEAT DELIVERY

An introduction to a whole new worldC of gourmet mushrooms GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT 

that come in every imaginable size, shape, color, and flavor.

GARDENING DUCKS RECIPES GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT  

syrup flavored parasols to savory & sublime morels.

living organism on earth, is a 4 mile wide edible honey mushroom!

Fruiting Honey mushrooms in the woods behind our home.

wild in your yard or nearby woods.

incredible medicinal benefits: they’re antiviral, antimicrobial, anticancer, antihyperglycemic,

cardioprotective, and anti-inflammatory.

Want to keep reading? Good!

Mycorrhizal mushrooms GIFT GUIDES  ABOUT 

The Easiest Mushrooms to Grow At Home

be cultivated without needing living tree roots to associate with.

our lawn and/or Dthe

A delicious and very hard to find umbrella polypore.

properties to boot: the shiitake mushroom.

Another cool DIY

Keep reading to find out how!

DIY: HOW TO GROW SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS

The shiitake growing

I. HOW TO GROW SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS: MATERIALS LIST

Old junk can for melting your wax.

Small paint brush for applying wax.

II. HOW TO GROW SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS: STEP BY STEP

1. Inoculate your shiitake logs in the warm months, ideally spring.

has passed in the spring.

months before your first freeze.

2. Order Your Shiitake Mushroom Plugs

more logs, orderDmore

100 Shiitake 100

3. Cut hardwood tree sections or source just-cut hardwood logs.

compounds break down.

have increased competition.

4. Drill Holes In Your Shiitake Mushroom Logs

log. This should look like a diamond pattern.

5. Insert Your Shiitake Mushroom Plugs Into Logs

Time for mushroom

plugs with any competing fungi.

below the surface level of the log.

species of mushroom will take hold there.

6. Melt and Apply Wax to Your Shiitake Logs

from other competing fungi that might come knocking.

7. Incubate Your Shiitake Logs for 6-12 Months

ground, which encourages other competing fungi to come aboard.

8. When Ready, “Initiate” Your Shiitake Logs

Under ideal conditions,

means forcing them to fruit and produce mushrooms.