Culinary Profile
How to grow Wood Ear at home
Auricularia auricula-judae, Black wood ear
Updated
Wood Ear (Auricularia auricula-judae), also called jelly ear or black fungus, takes about 38 days to grow at home, from spawn to the end of the first harvest. Colonize at 26 °C (79 °F) in the dark, then fruit at 24 °C (75 °F) and 92% humidity with moderate fresh air and 12 h of light a day.
Warm, wet jelly fungus. High humidity matters more than light intensity.
Use this profile on your chamber
What conditions does Wood Ear need at each stage?
| Stage | Days | Temperature | Humidity | Fresh air | Light |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colonization | 18 | 26 °C (79 °F) | 90% | little fresh air: fan runs 15 s every 60 min | Dark |
| Pinning | 6 | 24 °C (75 °F) | 94% | moderate fresh air: fan runs 25 s every 20 min | 12 h a day, white 20%, blue 80% |
| Fruiting | 14 | 24 °C (75 °F) | 92% | moderate fresh air: fan runs 25 s every 16 min | 12 h a day, white 20%, blue 80% |
How long does Wood Ear take to grow?
About 38 days from the start of colonization to the end of the first harvest window.
- Day 1 to 18: Colonization
- Day 19 to 24: Pinning
- Day 25 to 38: Fruiting
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 variety-specific light numbers were found. Colonization is dark. Fruiting uses the general default: 12 h, 20% white (92 lux on this chamber), and 80% blue as a WS2812 stand-in for 440 to 470 nm.
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 Wood Ear?
No pins after colonization
Make sure the block is fully colonized first. Then check that the chamber reaches the pinning conditions: 24 °C (75 °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.
Wood Ear growing FAQ
What temperature does Wood Ear grow at?
In this profile Wood Ear colonizes at 26 °C (79 °F) and fruits at 24 °C (75 °F). Colonization: 26 °C (79 °F). Pinning: 24 °C (75 °F). Fruiting: 24 °C (75 °F).
What humidity does Wood Ear need?
92% while fruiting. Colonization: 90%. Pinning: 94%. Fruiting: 92%.
How long does Wood Ear take to grow?
About 38 days with this profile: 18 days of colonization, 6 days of pinning, 14 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 Wood Ear need?
Colonization: dark. Pinning: 12 h a day, white 20%, blue 80%. Fruiting: 12 h a day, white 20%, blue 80%.
How much fresh air does Wood Ear need?
Moderate fresh air: fan runs 25 s every 16 min while fruiting. Colonization runs with little fresh air.
Related grow guides
- How to grow Wood Ear: deep black
- How to grow Golden Oyster
- How to grow Golden Oyster: deep yellow
- How to grow Maitake
- 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
- 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.
- 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.