Shiitake Mushroom Growing Guide: Planting, Care & Harvest

Lentinula edodes

Growing calendar

Typical timing for central Japan (Kanto region). Shift it for your own climate, and record your actual dates.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Sow / plantGrowingHarvest

Guides

How to Inoculate a Shiitake Log: Cutting, Resting, Drilling and Waxing
Shiitake Log Care During the Spawn Run: The Six to Eighteen Month Wait
When to Harvest Shiitake: Forcing a Flush, Picking, Resting the Log
Shiitake Log Calendar: Cutting, Inoculating, Spawn Run and Flushes by Season
Shiitake Log Problems: Competitor Fungi, Green Mold, Pests and Dead Logs
Growing Shiitake in a Container: Short Logs and Sawdust Blocks on a Balcony

Pests and diseases (2)

Problems recorded for this plant, most serious first.

Slugs

MajorPest

Irregular holes are chewed in leaves and fruit with glistening slime trails nearby. By day they hide under pots and bricks or in dead leaves at the base of the plant.

Pillbugs

CommonPest

Cotyledons and the stem base of young seedlings are gnawed and the seedlings disappear. Fruit resting on the ground gets shallow feeding scars on the surface.

Written byYasuGrowing vegetables and fruit in Chiba, Japan, and building Gadenin. Corrections are welcome. 15 years of growing.