Culinary Profile
How to grow Lion's Mane at home
Hericium erinaceus, Standard
Updated
Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus), also called bearded tooth or pom pom mushroom, takes about 33 days to grow at home, from spawn to the end of the first harvest. Colonize at 22 °C (72 °F) in the dark, then fruit at 17 °C (63 °F) and 90% humidity with moderate fresh air and 12 h of light a day.
Tooth fungus. Moderate fresh air, since too much air yellows the spines.
Use this profile on your chamber
What conditions does Lion's Mane need at each stage?
| Stage | Days | Temperature | Humidity | Fresh air | Light |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colonization | 16 | 22 °C (72 °F) | 90% | little fresh air: fan runs 15 s every 60 min | Dark |
| Pinning | 5 | 18 °C (64 °F) | 94% | moderate fresh air: fan runs 25 s every 20 min | 12 h a day, white 26%, blue 80% |
| Fruiting | 12 | 17 °C (63 °F) | 90% | moderate fresh air: fan runs 25 s every 18 min | 12 h a day, white 26%, blue 80% |
How long does Lion's Mane take to grow?
About 33 days from the start of colonization to the end of the first harvest window.
- Day 1 to 16: Colonization
- Day 17 to 21: Pinning
Look for dense white primordia, not fuzzy overlay.
- Day 22 to 33: Fruiting
Harvest when spines elongate but before they yellow.
Get dates for each stage from your own start day with the grow timeline calculator, or compare every species in how long mushrooms take to grow.
Light recipe
Dark while it colonizes, then 12 h a day of cool white with some blue.
Light details
Colonization is dark to limit early pins. Fruiting uses 12 h and 26% white, mapped from Jozifek et al. 2025 additional tests at 200 lux on a 12 h cycle, which produced white basidiocarps. Their main 500 lux treatment was 24 h continuous light and caused pink stress coloring, so that schedule is not used. RGB is the general blue mix; that paper used white fluorescent, not a measured blue ratio.
WS2812 blue is roughly 465 to 475 nm. The RGB mix is an approximation of cited wavelengths, not a measured spectrum.
| Phase | Hours on | White | RGB mix |
|---|---|---|---|
| colonization | 0 h on | white 0% | RGB 0 / 0 / 0 |
| fruiting | 12 h on | white 26% | RGB 0 / 0 / 80 |
| pinning | 12 h on | white 26% | RGB 0 / 0 / 80 |
What goes wrong when growing Lion's Mane?
What does this profile watch for?
If spines brown or yellow, cut fresh air and raise humidity slightly. Original Shrooly lion's mane recipe used a gentle fan ramp.
No pins after colonization
Make sure the block is fully colonized first. Then check that the chamber reaches the pinning conditions: 18 °C (64 °F), 94% humidity, and moderate fresh air. Pins need more fresh air than colonization. More on this.
Green, black, or slimy patches
Patches that are not white mycelium are usually contamination such as green mold or bacteria. Bag the block, take it out of the chamber, and clean the chamber before the next grow. More on this.
Kit or block doing nothing? Work through grow kit not growing. To check your fresh air, put your chamber size and fan into the fresh air planner.
Lion's Mane growing FAQ
What temperature does Lion's Mane grow at?
In this profile Lion's Mane colonizes at 22 °C (72 °F) and fruits at 17 °C (63 °F). Colonization: 22 °C (72 °F). Pinning: 18 °C (64 °F). Fruiting: 17 °C (63 °F).
What humidity does Lion's Mane need?
90% while fruiting. Colonization: 90%. Pinning: 94%. Fruiting: 90%.
How long does Lion's Mane take to grow?
About 33 days with this profile: 16 days of colonization, 5 days of pinning, 12 days of fruiting. Real blocks vary, so move on when the block is ready, not only when the days run out.
How much light does Lion's Mane need?
Colonization: dark. Pinning: 12 h a day, white 26%, blue 80%. Fruiting: 12 h a day, white 26%, blue 80%.
How much fresh air does Lion's Mane need?
Moderate fresh air: fan runs 25 s every 18 min while fruiting. Colonization runs with little fresh air.
Is Lion's Mane good for beginners?
Yes. It is tagged beginner in this library, which means it is one of the more forgiving species to start with.
Related grow guides
- How to grow Lion's Mane: dense white heads
- How to grow Blue Oyster
- How to grow Cordyceps militaris
- How to grow Cordyceps: deep orange under pink light
- How to grow mushrooms at home
- What is the easiest mushroom to grow at home?
- Grow kit vs monotub vs smart chamber
- How much humidity and fresh air do mushrooms need?
- All species and conditions
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Sources
- Jozifek et al. 2025. Miroslav Jozifek et al., Selenium Uptake by Hericium erinaceus Basidiocarps, Agriculture 15 (2025). The main cultivation used 500 lux for 24 h continuous light and caused pink stress coloring. Additional tests at 200 lux or lower on a 12 h cycle produced white basidiocarps. This recipe uses that 200 lux, 12 h schedule. 200 lux maps to 26% white.
- Sakamoto 2018. Yuichi Sakamoto, Influences of environmental factors on fruiting body induction, development and maturation in mushroom-forming fungi, Fungal Biology Reviews 32 (2018). Light is a fruiting cue for many basidiomycetes. Blue light is the usual photomorphogenesis signal. Agaricus bisporus is called out as not needing light for a cap. Flammulina velutipes can fruit in the dark as a long stem with a tiny cap.
- Stamets. Paul Stamets, Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, Ten Speed Press. Used here as a general cultivation reference. This recipe does not take a photoperiod or lux number from a cited page in that book.