Growing Procedure

Good breeding success is achieved on a standard recipe for wood decomposers. Especially important is the structure of the substrate, it must be loose-fluffy and can breathe well. Use not only very fine, but also medium-fine sawdust, preferably from beech. Hedgehog spiny beards, like oyster mushrooms, can go into fruiting immediately after colonizing the substrate, they do not need a ripening period.

Hedgehogs are considered to be cheeky and hasty and sometimes fruit completely uncontrollably. Sometimes already on the petri dish, in the brood or on only partially colonized final substrate. Or even in complete darkness. They are very sensitive to too high CO² levels and sometimes even switch back to vegetation mode during fruiting. A cloudy aerial mycelium without substance sometimes develops if CO² levels exceed a critical mark for a longer period of time.

Aim for only single fruiting bodies on the substrate, better leave the culture only a few fruiting windows, ideally only pinpricks in places where primordial growth is already visible, instead of exposing them extensively.

Hericium erinaceus are obtained when the fungus can fructify hanging from the side. Then please weigh down the crop with a weight in time to prevent it from falling over. When fruiting upwards they get spherical mushrooms with beautiful curls, real “pom-poms” or “monkey heads”. Do not let the hedgehogs sit too long on the substrate, such fruiting bodies often taste bitter. For this reason, a rapid course of culture is advantageous.

In China, for the cultivation of Hericium erinaceus, containers made of plastic or glass are used. Sawdust, waste paper, rice straw, corncobs, sugarcane and cotton waste are used as growing medium. Additions of bran, gypsum or sucrose are common; wheat bran in particular results in vigorous and fast-growing mycelia. Green mold (Trichoderma) is a hazard with age. Permethrin treatment after fungus gnat infestation is not recommended, as the insecticide is deposited in the fungus in high quantities.. The mycelium grows best in an acidic pH range between 4 and 5.5.

Growing

Agar Culture: Media MYPA, MEA, PDYA or DFA
Cropping: Every 14 days apart
Containers for fruiting: Tree trunks, growing bags, shotgun chamber
Biological efficiencies: 500 grams fresh from 2kg hardwood. Multiple sitefruiting, maximum yield 1kg.
Substrates: Sterilized sawdust supplemented with soy haul. Hardwood logs and stumps are recommended outdoors. The pH range for fruiting falls between 5,0 and 6,5.

Growing Characteristics

the mane do not branch or just a bit, young white brownish when older

Natural Habitat

Hericium erinaceus is a rare fungus that grows as a wound parasite on older deciduous trees, mostly oaks and beeches. It can be found on both standing and lying old tree trunks and stumps. The fungus prefers to grow in forests with high humidity.

Lions mane is found in the Holarctic, where it has a temperate distribution. In Europe, the mushroom is widespread, but rare everywhere. It occurs from France and Great Britain to Hungary, and from Denmark and southern Norway to Austria and Switzerland. In Germany, the hedgehog spiny beard grows very scattered, but is recorded at least once in almost all German states.

Summer to autumn, deciduous trees: oak, beech, fruit trees, wound parasites, moisture-loving

Gourmet

Unlike most spiny mushrooms, the pom-pom mushroom is edible. To prepare Hericium erinaceus, it is cut into cubes unwashed (otherwise it would become waterlogged) and sautéed in butter or oil. When sliced, the mushroom can also be breaded and prepared like a vegetarian cutlet. In consistency, the mushroom resembles seafood. Its flavor is reminiscent of veal or poultry with slightly fruity aromas of coconut and lemongrass due to 4-octanolide and limonene.

Smell

rich, sweet, and farinaceous

Taste

mild

Flesh

fibrous, whitish

Nutritional content per 100g

other names

other names

Lion’s Mane, Monkey’s Head, Sheep’s Head, Bear’s Head, Old Man’s Beard, Hedgehog Mushroom, Satyr’s Beard, Pom Pom, Yamabushi-take (japanese For “mountain-priest Mushroom”), Houtou, Igelstachelbart, Yamabusitake, Löwenmähne, Pom-pom Blanc, Affenkopfpilz, Hericium Erinaceum, Hericium Erinaceus Forma Caput-medusae, Hydnum Juranum, Martella Hystricinum

Kingdom	Fungi