Growing Procedure

Non-sterile on hardwood logs, preferably beech. Sterile as bottle or bag culture. Hypsizygus tessulatus tolerates highly enriched hardwood substrates. A long maturation period in the substrate of at least 9, but better 12-13 weeks is mandatory.

A typical swarm-forming fungus like oyster or pioppino, fruiting strategies are identical. Small fruiting openings in the substrate pouch = high yield. Bag cultures sometimes benefit from an artificial cover crop, bottle cultures need to be scratched for fruiting initiation.

Growing

Agar Culture Media: MYPA, PDYA, DFA, OMYA
Cropping: 2 harvests, 3 weeks apart
Containers for fruiting: Inoculate trunks or stumps. In general, wide open jars or bags are preferred to encourage stem elongation. Cultivation in open bags results in stunted looking mushrooms.
Biological efficience: –
Substrates: The first two generations of spawn may consist of grain. After that, from sawdust or grain. Good species are oak, alder, beech or elm

Growing Characteristics

Like many oyster mushrooms, this species may behave as a facultative parasite on dying hardwoods or as a true saprophyte on dead trees.

Natural Habitat

Hypsizygus tessulatus, the beech mushroom, is an edible mushroom native to East Asia. It is cultivated locally in temperate climates in Europe, North America and Australia and sold fresh in super markets. In nature, these are gilled mushrooms that grow on wood. Most often the mushroom is found on beech trees, hence the common name. Cultivated versions are often small and thin in appearance and popular in many nations across the world.

In all temperate hardwood forests of Europe, Asia and North America. On elm, beech, poplar, maple, willow, oak and other hardwoods.

Gourmet

Being tough when raw, Hypsizygus tessulatus should be cooked, having a bitter taste when raw which disappears completely upon cooking. The cooked mushroom has a firm, slightly crunchy texture and a nutty flavor. Preparation makes the mushroom easier to digest. It is often eaten with stir-fried foods including wild game and seafood. It is used in soups, stews and sauces. When prepared alone, Shimeji mushrooms can be sautéed as a whole, including the stem or stalk (only the very end cut off), using a higher temperature; or, they can be slow roasted on a low temperature with a small amount of butter or cooking oil. Shimeji is used in soups, nabe and takikomi gohan.

Flesh

white

Taste

slightly sweet, nutty

Smell

sweet, rich, not aniseed, but oystery, pleasant

Nutritional content per 100g

other names

other names

Buchenpilz, Buna-Shimeji, Yamabiko Hon-Shimeji, Tamo – Motashi, The Beech Mushroom Buna-Shimeji (Japanese For “Beech Mushroom”), Yamabiko Hon-Shimeji (“Mountain Echo Mushroom”), Tamo-Motashi (“The Elm Oyster Mushroom”)

Kingdom	Fungi