Culinary Profile
How to grow Turkey Tail at home
Trametes versicolor, Wild-type
Updated
Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor), also called Coriolus versicolor or yun zhi, takes about 78 days to grow at home, from spawn to the end of the first harvest. Colonize at 24 °C (75 °F) in the dark, then fruit at 20 °C (68 °F) and 86% humidity with moderate fresh air and 12 h of light a day.
Thin polypore. Long fruiting, lots of fresh air, not a thick-fleshed edible.
Use this profile on your chamber
What conditions does Turkey Tail need at each stage?
| Stage | Days | Temperature | Humidity | Fresh air | Light |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colonization | 28 | 24 °C (75 °F) | 88% | little fresh air: fan runs 15 s every 60 min | Dark |
| Primordia | 10 | 21 °C (70 °F) | 90% | moderate fresh air: fan runs 30 s every 15 min | 12 h a day, white 20%, blue 80% |
| Brackets | 40 | 20 °C (68 °F) | 86% | moderate fresh air: fan runs 30 s every 12 min | 12 h a day, white 20%, blue 80% |
How long does Turkey Tail take to grow?
About 78 days from the start of colonization to the end of the first harvest window.
- Day 1 to 28: Colonization
- Day 29 to 38: Primordia
- Day 39 to 78: Brackets
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
No Trametes-specific lux was found. Hours and intensity are the labeled general default.
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 20% | RGB 0 / 0 / 80 |
| pinning | 12 h on | white 20% | RGB 0 / 0 / 80 |
What goes wrong when growing Turkey Tail?
No pins after colonization
Make sure the block is fully colonized first. Then check that the chamber reaches the primordia conditions: 21 °C (70 °F), 90% 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.
Turkey Tail growing FAQ
What temperature does Turkey Tail grow at?
In this profile Turkey Tail colonizes at 24 °C (75 °F) and fruits at 20 °C (68 °F). Colonization: 24 °C (75 °F). Primordia: 21 °C (70 °F). Brackets: 20 °C (68 °F).
What humidity does Turkey Tail need?
86% while fruiting. Colonization: 88%. Primordia: 90%. Brackets: 86%.
How long does Turkey Tail take to grow?
About 78 days with this profile: 28 days of colonization, 10 days of primordia, 40 days of brackets. Real blocks vary, so move on when the block is ready, not only when the days run out.
How much light does Turkey Tail need?
Colonization: dark. Primordia: 12 h a day, white 20%, blue 80%. Brackets: 12 h a day, white 20%, blue 80%.
How much fresh air does Turkey Tail need?
Moderate fresh air: fan runs 30 s every 12 min while fruiting. Colonization runs with little fresh air.
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- How to grow mushrooms at home
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- How much humidity and fresh air do mushrooms need?
- All species and conditions
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Sources
- 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.
- 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.
- General default. No variety-specific photoperiod or lux was found for this species. Colonization is dark (Sakamoto 2018; Penn State oyster spawn run). Fruiting uses 12 h as a labeled default, not a page-cited Stamets value, and 20% white, which is 92 lux on this chamber, inside the Penn State oyster 50 to 300 lux band. Blue 80% approximates the 440 to 470 nm finding. This is a labeled default, not a measured value for this variety.