Please note that we only send dowels via courier on Monday and Tuesday for regional deliveries, and up to Wednesday for Cape Town local (not applicable to collections or sending your own courier) to manage goods arriving prior to a weekend and so that it does not lie in a warehouse over a weekend. This is also due to our standard courier being Economy Service with The Courier Guy, and is 2-3 days from collection. Stock is on a first-come-first-shipped basis UNLESS you have a production arrangement with us. Should our fridge stock sell out before you order, orders MIGHT take 2 weeks depending on what is in incubation.

We have both cold and warm fruiting species, please indicate in the comment box in the shop when checking out, which strain you require. Please read the below to understand which strain you need to order!

To make your Shiitake Dowels, we first produce a Shiitake Agar Culture from our Ganoderma lucidum Agar Culture. Then we transfer segments of the tissue culture into sterilised Sorghum and make master grain. Once the master grain is fully colonised, we transfer the spawn to Dowels that have been soaked and sterilised, to create dowel spawn.

Twice a year we change the strain of Shiitake we use for the dowels, to accommodate different fruiting temperatures. In June each year, we start a cold temperature Shiitake (fruiting temperature 12 to 19 degrees Celsius) and in November we start a warm temperature Shiitake (LE3782) (fruiting temperature 18 to 25 degrees Celsius). This way when you inoculate a log of about 20-25cm's in diameter IN ANY SEASON it will take about 12 months to fully colonise and the strain matches the ambient temperature for fruiting. Should you have a log 10-15cm's in diameter, available to inoculate in Winter, then inoculate them with warm temperature dowels, as they will take 6-8 months to colonise, and therefore be ready to fruit in Summer.

Growing instructions are not provided with this grain spawn. We offer FREE training via video tutorials and downloadable training materials in our online Learning Centre in Module 4. Click here to learn more-> https://www.learn.mushroomguru.co.za