Reishi(Gamoderma Lucidum) is a slow growing, very hard, beautiful multicoloured Red mushroom that is often confused for many different similar Ganoderma species. When growing Reishi you need patience, it will take the samw time as other gourmet mushrooms to colonise a bag but much longer to fruit. I encourage you to leave bags to colonise in the dark at the right temps and lower humidity(if you are able to control all those parameters). This is because you want to cause fruiting by giving the Reishi(this applies to all mushrooms) all its fruiting conditions when it is ready, this will usually cause much more even and faster pinning, where as if you colonise in the light and at fruiting temos and humidity then you might have difficukty getting your blocks to fruit, getting your blocks to fruit evenly and even contam issues. Reishi will only form a conk structure in high enough oxygen enviroments and will.follow the light. So if you are growing in bags, let the Reishi top fruit until ut starts trying to grow out the filter patch, then cut the top of the bag off, exposing it to higher humidities and fresh air, now there are strains that do not even form a conk, like Reishi antler but the same protocols are recommended, I have found that because Reishi takes so long, if you have it in high humidity itll form mold on the mycelium and you wont get the result you are looking for. So with that said rather have you humidity for Reishi set lower than what it would be for most gourmets mushrooms and reduce the aur exchange and let the mushroom grow for a month+ before harvesting, unless there are aigns of molds starting, then harvest imediately and get rid of the mushroom block(add it to compost or to the garden). Pleaae feel free to ask questions and add suggestions!😁

For those who have researched cordyceps cultivation you know there are a few different methods. The easiest is in a jar that has rice in it and has been pressure cooked(sterilised). If you are a beginner dont confuse yourself with complicated hydration/nutrition recipes, just use plane rice(white or brown but cheaper the better). You are going to rinse the rice until the water you are rinsing it with is clear(it is important to get rid of the excess startch) then boil the rice to the point just before it would be ready to eat and make sure there is a enough water to make "dry rice" not sticky rice. Once it has reached this point (easy way to navigate this is if the rice packet says boil for 20min instead boil for 15min±) then strain the hot water of and place & spread out the rice on a towel to cool down. Once you are able to confortably handle it then olace the rice in your jars. Make the rice even and about 3cm thick. Close the jars(hopefully you have made jars with breathable lids and a silicone innoculation point) and pressure cook at 15psi for 2hrs. When the pressure cooking is over leave the pressure cooker to depressurize and let the jars cool in the pressure cooker. Once everything has reach a comfortable temp(about 3-4hrs after the pressure cooker has finished) take the jars out and plave them in your sterile glove box/SAB or laminar. Let it cool to room temp. Sterilize the jar, the worling area, your hand and the tools with 70% ipa and then innoculate your jars generously(minimum of half a syringe of LC per jar). Noe you leave it in complete darkness to incubate for a few weeks check on it once a week to see how it is doing and once ALL your jars are fully colonised change the temps to fruiting temps and expose them to light. This change will make them start fruiting and 1month after the first pins form you can harvest. Any questions or suggestions welcome!

In indoor cultivation of cannabis, we see a major focus on this subject. People going back and forth comparing ROIs of different lighting fixtures and spectrums. I believe that we need to have the same attitude with commercial/medicinal mushroom cultivation. For example there was a study done on cordyceps cultivation that found that increasing blue light had an effect on the cordycepin lvls. As growers we also see that when we remove light completely we get stretchy, weak floppy mushrooms and in the case of Reishi we can even design our mushrooms to grow in a specific pattern. What are your thoughts on lighting? What have you found? And what do you think needs to be done in the mushroom lighting space?