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CULTIVATING LION'S MANE
>From the June 1994 issue of:
     The Mushroom Growers' Newsletter
     P.O. Box 5065
     Klamath Falls, OR  97601
Copyright 1994 - All Rights Reserved
(Posted at gopher.teleport.com with permission)

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There are three species of Hericium  currently of interest to cultivators:
 abietis, coralloides, and erinaceus. Hericium abietis is a mushroom of many
names.  These include: conifer coral, goat's beard, Pom Pom du Blanc, or
pom-pom for short.  Pom-pom [1] and bear's head [3] is also a name applied to
Hericium erinaceus (lion's mane) so it gets a little confusing. Furthermore,
there appears to be some debate among taxonomists concerning the difference
between H. abietis and H.coralloides [2]. 

By any name these are beautiful and delicious fungi.  In the wild, H. abietis
grows in the pacific northwest on dead logs and stumps.  H. erinaceus is more
widely distributed and seems to prefer hardwoods.  We happened upon an
abietis cascading off of a dead fir log in late October while out picking
shaggy manes. Our rather undistinguished specimen probably weighed in at 1.5
pounds.  The squirrels had already attacked it and we were only able to
salvage about 11 ounces.  
 
Unlike typical mushrooms, Hericium is a tooth fungus.  Unlike the hedgehog,
which is also a tooth fungus, it has no cap.  Instead it looks like a mass of
small icicles.  Abietis has what we'd call "cascading" icicles with a pink or
coral tinge to them.  Erinaceus has more uniformly appearing straight icicles
and is white, tending toward yellow when older.  The fact that Hericium is
found growing on dead wood is the clue that it is saprophytic - a decayer -
and a prime candidate for cultivation.

Hericium erinaceus is the most widely cultivated Hericium species and we'll
focus on it.  We spoke with Patricia Stafford, the Mycological Technician for
Mushrooms in Style.  They have started cultivating lion's mane and Patricia
offered us the benefit of her experience.  We'll combine her information with
what we found in our library research.  First, though, a little more
background.

Lion's mane was the eighth most popular mushroom in the world in 1990 based
upon weight of production [4].  About 90,000 fresh weight metric tons were
produced in 1990 and that accounted for about 2.4% of the total mushroom
production of the world.  Its popularity stems  both from its flavor -
likened to lobster - and from its medicinal uses (in treatments for cancer,
ulcers, and inflammation as reported in Chinese studies) [3,5].  It was
domesticated in 1959 at the Shanghai Agricultural Academy of Science and is
now grown using plastic bag or bottle culture techniques on a variety of
substrates including sawdust, sugar cane bagasse, cottonseed hulls, corn cobs
and straw  [3].  These substrates are typically amended with various
combinations of bran, sucrose, and gypsum.  Cottonseed hulls seem to be
preferred where they are available.  One substrate recipe is as follows [3]:
 
    
     Sawdust  78 kg
     Rice bran  20 kg
     Sucrose  1 kg
     Gypsum  1 kg
     Water to make 65% moisture content

Patricia tells us that millet seems to suppress mushroom growth and increases
problems with contamination. She also reports that when grown with shiitake,
lion's mane tends to immediately pick up any green mold (Trichoderma) that
appears on the shiitake.  

Cultivation proceeds using a process something like that for shiitake, but
mushroom growth is faster: 
  -  mix the substrate and place in autoclavable bags
  -  sterilize with pressurized steam
  - cool then inoculate each bag of substrate with grain-based spawn
  - let the spawn run through the substrate at room temperature for a couple
weeks
  - initiate formation of mushrooms
  - encourage development of the fruiting body by raising the temperature
back up to around 70 degrees F for a few more days until the mushroom is
ready to pick.  

Initiation involves puncturing the bag at a couple locations or stripping off
the bag entirely and cooling to around 55 degrees F for 4 days, if the
mushrooms don't initiate on their own.  The whole process requires humidities
over 90%, but lowering the humidity for a few hours [5] prior to harvest will
improve the shelf life of the mushrooms.  Mushrooms can be produced within
about a month and subsequent flushes can be obtained by providing a couple
days rest and initiating growth again. Hand misting of the blocks between
flushes seems to help, but the mushrooms do not like to get dripped on.

The size of the mushrooms can be controlled by limiting the number of holes
poked in the bag or by pruning back unwanted fruit bodies. Patricia prefers
to remove the bag entirely and prune the unwanted mushrooms. She has found
that the mushrooms have a tendency to rot off at the hole if the puncture
method is used. Being uncooperative, like most mushrooms, they also tend to
fruit everywhere except at the puncture hole. Stamets [5] reports yields of
up to 2 pounds of mushrooms to a bag of substrate.  Patricia reports a single
mushroom that weighed7/8 pound, but 1/4 to 1/2 pound is more typical.

>From a marketing perspective, this mushroom can be quite appealing although
you may need to educate your customers as it isn't often seen in the grocery
stores. One of our contacts has been marketing these mushrooms directly to
restaurants in the Portland area.  The chef's are quite amazed that he can
provide these mushrooms throughout the year as they normally see them only
when they are available in the wild.  The mushrooms are fragile and bruise
easily so care in picking and packaging is essential.  Typically mushrooms of
around 1/4 pound can be packaged individually in pint cartons with dome lids
for retail sale.  Wholesale prices are similar to those for shiitake (around
$6.50 per pound in San Francisco, when they are available), but since this is
such a new mushroom on the market, you will probably be able to get
considerably more with proper packaging and salesmanship.  Mushrooms in Style
gets around $6.00 per pound in standard boxes delivered to restaurants in
their area.  Patricia has also provided free samples to local restaurants who
have been experimenting with recipes.  We hope to be able to share some of
those with you in a future issue.  For esthetics, the shelf life seems to be
about a week.  The mushrooms tend to dry out in a cooler and can be usable in
sauces for up to a couple of weeks.

REFERENCES
1. Arora, David. 1991. All that the rain promises and more.... Berkeley, CA:
Ten Speed Press; 263 p.
2. Arora, David. 1979. Mushrooms demystified, Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press;
959 p.
3. Chang, Shu-Ting and Philip G. Miles. 1989. Edible mushrooms and their
cultivation. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Inc.; 345 p.
4. Chang, Shu-Ting; John A. Buswell and Philip G. Miles. 1993. Genetics and
breeding of edible mushrooms. Philadelphia: Gorden and Breach Science
Publishers, 329 p.  
5. Stamets, Paul, 1993, Growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. Berkeley,
CA: Ten Speed Press; 552 p.


