Golden Enoki

Flammulina velutipes

Available as

Mother cultures (Petri dish)
Grain spawn
Sawdust spawn
Plug spawn

About this strain

A golden enoki variety, grown commercially alongside the classic white one — especially in China and Japan. It forms dense bunches of slender stems topped with golden-yellow to orange, slightly sticky caps. Compared with the white variety it has a slightly richer, nutty flavour and a firmer texture; great in soups, ramen, hot pot and stir-fries.

It is grown much like white enoki — in the cold, in bottles or bags on sterilised substrate — but cap colour is steered with light: the more diffused light, the deeper the golden colour. It can also be grown on hardwood stumps inoculated with plugs; it then fruits from late autumn to early spring, even after frosts.

How to grow it

Preparation

Substrate: blocks: hardwood sawdust (fine and coarse) with approx. 20% supplement, e.g. bran, sterilised; outdoors: willow, poplar or alder stumps and logs
Spawn rate: 1–2% on sterilised sawdust

Growing stages

Spawn run (incubation)
Temperature
21–24°C
Humidity
95–100%
Duration
14–18 days
CO₂
>5,000 ppm
Fresh air
0–1 per hour
Primordia formation
Temperature
4–10°C
Humidity
95–100%
Duration
3–5 days
CO₂
2,000–4,000 ppm
Fresh air
2–4 per hour
Light
100–300 lx (more light — deeper colour)
Pinning is triggered by strong cooling to 4–10°C.
Fruiting
Temperature
10–16°C
Humidity
90–95%
Duration
5–8 days
CO₂
2,000–4,000 ppm
Fresh air
2–4 per hour
Light
100–300 lx

Harvest

Flushes: 2–3
Between flushes: 10–12 days

Keep the substrate very moist between flushes. On stumps it fruits from late autumn to early spring. Yield: approx. 15–20% of fresh substrate weight.

Please note: these growing parameters bring together the experience of practising growers — a starting point, not a guarantee of results. Every grow has its own substrate, climate and equipment, and even small differences can noticeably change the yield. Adjust these values to your own conditions.