About This Plant
Maitake (Grifola frondosa), or hen of the woods, is a prized edible and medicinal wood-decay fungus that forms overlapping gray-brown fronds in a large cluster. Commercial production colonizes a sterilized, supplemented hardwood-sawdust block with liquid or grain spawn in polypropylene bags, then fruits it under cool, humid, fresh-air conditions; a traditional outdoor wood-log method also exists. Spawn run and fruiting need different temperature, humidity, light, and gas-exchange settings, and fruiting is triggered by a temperature drop rather than by feeding. Nutrition is incorporated into the solid substrate before sterilization, not supplied through plant-style NPK fertigation.
How to Grow Maitake
Learn how to grow Maitake from seed to harvest in 69 days. Advanced difficulty. Complete nutrient guide, pH/EC requirements, and growing conditions for soil & container.
Backed by 10 peer-reviewed citations.
Nutrient Requirements by Growth Stage
Maitake is fed through a supplemented solid-substrate block prepared before inoculation, not by stage-specific NPK fertigation. A proven base is roughly 68-75% hardwood sawdust with 18-23% wheat bran and 1-2% calcium carbonate or gypsum; corn cob is a validated sawdust substitute…
Sign in to view nutrient requirements
A free account unlocks NPK targets for all four growth stages, micronutrient levels, a per-stage nutrient calculator, and the full nutrition guide. Signing up takes one click. Truleaf is a free, non-profit project, and every new account helps it grow. No spam, ever.
Growing Environments
Commercial maitake is produced indoors in controlled incubation and fruiting rooms using bagged sawdust blocks, and in greenhouses on shelf racks. A traditional outdoor inoculated-wood-log method also exists but is slow, often taking many months to over a year to first fruiting…
Temperature
Maitake needs two temperature regimes. Colonize the block (spawn run) in darkness at about 23-26 C, then drop the temperature by at least 5-11 C (10-20 F) to trigger pinning and hold the fruiting room cool, roughly 15-21 C, with primordium growth the coolest at 16-18 C. The single 23 C optimum in older data is misleading because maitake never fruits well that warm; the optimal field is set to 18 C to describe the fruiting stage.
Humidity
Keep the spawn run drier, around 60-70% relative humidity. During fruiting, hold high humidity of 85-97%, rising toward 95%+ as the pileus differentiates, and mist the chamber walls rather than the block…
Light
Keep the spawn run dark. During fruiting, give diffuse light of about 100-500 lux on a 12-hour photoperiod; the stored intensity of 200 is lux, not PPFD…
Airflow
Maitake fruiting is driven by fresh air. Provide about 4-8 fresh-air exchanges per day during fruiting to hold CO2 low, and increase exchanges if the cluster stalls as unbranched antlers…
Sign in to view environmental requirements
A free account unlocks exact temperature, humidity, light and airflow targets, including germination and growth ranges, DLI, photoperiod and PPFD, plus the full environment guide. Signing up takes one click. Truleaf is a free, non-profit project, and every new account helps it grow. No spam, ever.
Hydroponic System Compatibility
Maitake is grown by fruiting a colonized solid sawdust block, never in a hydroponic system, because it is a rootless wood-decay fungus with no root zone for a nutrient solution. Yield is driven by environmental control: drop the temperature to trigger pinning, hold 85-97% humidity, keep CO2 low with 4-8 fresh-air…
Growing Media
The plant growing-media enum has no mushroom-substrate slug, so suitable is an empty array. Grow maitake on a sterilized, supplemented hardwood-sawdust block: about 68-75% hardwood sawdust with 18-23% wheat bran and 1-2% calcium carbonate or gypsum, at 60-65% moisture and pH ~7.0; corn cob is a validated sawdust…
Container Specs
Use a heat-tolerant polypropylene cultivation bag: about 33 x 17.5 cm holding 300 g dry (800 g wet) substrate, with a collar and breathable filter patch, autoclaved at 121 C before inoculation; a 175 x 380 mm PP bag is comparable, and shelf-rack logs are filled to ~2.7-2.9 kg. Bags are sealed and non-draining because…
Training & Support
Training and support do not apply to a fungus. The equivalent cultivation controls are a spawn-run-then-cooling regime and a cold-shock temperature drop to trigger pinning, fresh-air exchange to shape the cluster, a soil or sand casing to support a second flush, and bag opening and orientation to position the flush…
Sign in to view system compatibility
A free account unlocks why each of the six systems fits or fails, plus growing media, container sizes, training methods, companion plants, and the full systems guide. Signing up takes one click. Truleaf is a free, non-profit project, and every new account helps it grow. No spam, ever.
Propagation
Propagate maitake vegetatively from maintained mycelial culture, not from sown spores. Keep a pure culture on PDA, grow liquid spawn from mycelial plugs in yeast-malt broth (about 25 C, 120 rpm, ~20 days, or 24 C, ~9 days), then inject about 10 mL per substrate bag…
Harvesting
Harvest maitake as a whole cluster when the overlapping fronds are fully expanded but still firm, edges slightly rolled under, and gray-brown rather than pale or yellowing; the cluster should feel dense and springy. Cut cleanly at the base with a sharp knife instead of twisting or pulling, which tears substrate and…
Planting Calendar
Schedule fungal stages, not plant sowing. Indoor supplemented-sawdust bag and shelf-rack cultivation is aseptic and effectively year-round: inoculate any time, allow about 40-50 days of spawn run plus 10-15 days of after-ripening, then induce fruiting; first harvest is about 63-100 days after inoculation.
Common Issues
The two biggest problems are contamination and a block that refuses to pin. Because maitake colonizes slowly, watch for Trichoderma green mold (dark-green sporulating patches on white) and bacterial wet spot (slimy, translucent or yellow, sour-smelling areas); remove and bag green-mold blocks before spores spread and…
Get the full science-backed guide
By signing up, you help keep Truleaf free and support the growth of our nonprofit project. Your account unlocks full details for every plant issue—including symptoms, causes, step-by-step solutions, and prevention—plus the month-by-month planting calendar, the complete guide, and all research sources. It only takes one click. No spam, ever.