How to Grow Enoki

Enoki mushrooms, Flammulina velutipes, sprout white bodies with thin stems and traditional mushroom caps. Like other mushrooms species, including shiitakes and oysters, enokis are sometimes used medicinally, to treat liver infections and boost immune system responses. Some even believe that these tiny mushrooms can help reduce tumors. Growing these enokis at home requires careful application of warmth, cold and humidity at different times during the growth cycle.

Plastic bottles

Soap

Growing medium

Enoki spawn

Clean and sterilize clear plastic bottles or cylinders, each measuring about 8 inches tall. Wash the bottles with antibacterial soap and rinse thoroughly with warm water to ensure that no residual soap remains.

Mix aged hardwood sawdust or professional mushroom growth medium with enoki spawn. You can find the spawn, as well as growing mediums, at garden centers, nurseries or mushroom-specialty retailers. The spawn must be thoroughly mixed into the medium to encourage growth.

Fill the plastic bottles with the inculcated growing medium. Store the bottles in an area with temperatures ranging between 72 and 77 degrees F and a relative humidity above 90 percent. Light exposure does not matter; the humidity and high temperature will encourage the spawn to grow.

Check the bottles after two weeks of growth. You should see thin strands of mycelium starting to spread throughout the bottle; this is essentially the mushroom roots. Keep the enoki spawn in the warm, humid environment until the mycelium has completely covered the growing medium; this can take anywhere from two weeks to a month.

Transport the bottles to a cool area, with temperatures ranging between 50 and 65 degrees F. Humidity can drop as low as is necessary in this cooler place. Again, sun exposure does not matter. The sudden change in atmosphere will cause the mycelium to produce the characteristic mushroom bodies; these can be harvested within 60 days of initial production.