Shiitake 370 mushroom — a tasty, edible mushroom that can (and should) be eaten raw or with sour cream and salt, as a salad. It has medicinal properties and is successfully used in medicine.
Grows: on dead wood of broad-leaved trees, mostly from beech, oak, chestnut families, etc.
Cap: 5-20 cm in diameter, convex and flattening with age, dark brown, lightening with age.
Edges are even, then curl and flatten, often wavy in mature mushrooms.
Gills: white, smooth in young mushrooms, toothed with age. In young mushrooms, the gills are covered by a thin membrane extending from the stem to the cap edges. As the mushroom matures, the spore covering breaks, and remnants appear as fringes on the cap and stem edges.
Stem: fibrous, central or slightly eccentric.
Flesh: thick in the center of the cap, slightly thinning towards the edges, turns brown upon damage. Stem flesh is fibrous and white in young mushrooms, brown in mature, dark brown in overripe.
For growing shiitake mushrooms, the following compost compositions are used:
Option 1. Fresh, unspoiled, dry straw — 12 kg, fresh poultry manure — 8 kg, preparation time — 24-26 days.
Option 2. Fresh, unspoiled, dry straw — 12 kg, fresh horse manure — 8 kg, preparation time — 22-24 days.
Option 3. Fresh, unspoiled, dry straw — 12 kg, fresh cow manure — 8 kg, preparation time — 23-25 days.
Compost preparation: layering straw and manure to form a pile (burrow). After layering, the pile is watered daily to prevent drying, without forming a swamp. Shake the pile 4-5 times during the entire substrate preparation period, so that outer layers are inside and inner layers are outside.
Readiness of the substrate is indicated by the absence of ammonia odor. Ready compost is laid in trenches (open ground) at a layer of at least 10 cm, in boxes and polyethylene bags — at least 20 cm. Option 4 (no preparation required): 20 kg of ready compost (manure, aged over a year, without ammonia odor) of any kind except swine.
Planting norms: Planting depth 5-7 cm. Inoculation is performed by sprinkling mycelium into holes spaced 15-18 cm apart. During mycelium colonization, the bed is covered with straw or burlap to prevent drying. After mycelium colonization (12-15 days), the bed surface (compost) is covered with a protective layer of soil (soil mixed with peat in a 1:1 ratio or regular garden soil) 2 cm thick (6-7 kg).
Fruit production: optimal temperature range 16-29°C, lighting regime day-night or 4 hours daily in enclosed spaces, air humidity should be at least 85% (if necessary, drip irrigation). First mushrooms appear approximately after 20-30 days. Fruit production occurs in waves and lasts for 6 weeks, with 7-10 days between waves.
Yield: 18 kg per three waves. Consumption norm: one package is intended for 20 kg of compost. Growing mushrooms on a homestead plot. On open plots, they grow in shaded areas, in partial shade under trees, shrubs, in raspberry patches, on strawberry beds, on shaded sides of buildings and fences, where they are not exposed to direct sunlight. Soil on S=2.5-3 m2 must be loosened. During this process, weed plants and grass roots, if they do not harm other crops, should not be removed. Sow mycelium on the loosened surface. Then spread compost evenly to a layer of 5-7 cm. The mycelium will begin fruiting after 2-2.5 months; during this time, no visible changes on the soil surface will be noticed. Fruiting occurs from early spring to late autumn.
