Turkey Tail Fungus
Turkey Tail
Trametes versicolor
Available as
Mother cultures (Petri dish)
Grain spawn
Sawdust spawn
Plug spawn
About this strain
Turkey tail is one of the most beautiful wood-growing fungi. It forms thin, leathery, fan-shaped brackets arranged like roof tiles, with distinct concentric bands in shades of brown, grey, blue and cream — resembling a spread turkey's tail, hence its name. The brackets are tough and not eaten fresh; they are dried and used for infusions, and have featured in traditional Asian recipes for centuries.
It grows easily on hardwood — on logs and stumps inoculated with plugs and on sterilised sawdust blocks. On blocks, with the bag cut the right way, it forms striking cascades of tiered shelves. It fruits in the cool, and a full cycle on blocks takes approx. 3 months.
How to grow it
Preparation
- Substrate
- blocks: hardwood sawdust (fine and coarse) with approx. 20% supplement, e.g. bran, sterilised; outdoors: hardwood logs and stumps
- Spawn rate
- 1–2% on sterilised sawdust
Growing stages
Spawn run (incubation)
- Temperature
- 21–27°C
- Humidity
- 95–100%
- Duration
- 10–14 days
- CO₂
- >5,000 ppm
- Fresh air
- 0–1 per hour
Primordia formation
- Temperature
- cool to approx. 10–15°C
- Humidity
- 90–95%
- Fresh air
- high
- Light
- 500–2,000 lx
Pinning is triggered by cooling; pins appear at the slits in the bag.
Fruiting
- Temperature
- 12–20°C
- Humidity
- 85–90%
- CO₂
- <1,000 ppm
- Fresh air
- high air exchange
- Light
- 500–2,000 lx
Harvest
- Flushes
- 2–3
- Between flushes
- approx. 2 weeks
Between flushes raise humidity to approx. 90%. Harvest when the pale growing edge of the brackets disappears. Yield: approx. 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.
Available products
Prices are set individually — tell us what you need and how much, and we will send a quote including delivery.
Mother cultures (Petri dish)
- 1 pc.
Grain spawn
- 5 l
Sawdust spawn
- 5 l
Plug spawn
6 × 30 mm
- 30 pcs.
- 1000 pcs.
Want to order this spawn?
Tell us what you need — we will reply with a quote and a shipping date.