Skip to content
    All grow guidesGrow guide

    How to grow enoki mushrooms

    Flammulina velutipes

    Enoki fruits on supplemented hardwood sawdust at 50–61°F (10–16°C), about 4–6 weeks after spawning. It needs a cold room to pin, and a collar and stale air to grow the long white stems sold in stores.

    By Derick · October 24, 2026

    Fruiting temperature
    50–61°F (10–16°C); pins form at 45–50°F (7–10°C)
    Humidity
    85–95% RH; 95–100% while pinning
    Spawn to first harvest
    About 4–6 weeks
    Grows on
    Supplemented hardwood sawdust in bottles, jars or bags

    Difficulty: Moderate. Enoki needs 45–50°F (7–10°C) to pin and 50–61°F (10–16°C) to fruit, colder than most homes, and GroCycle notes some kit sellers suggest growing oysters first (GroCycle).

    Enoki growing conditions at a glance

    StageTemperatureHumidityFresh air / CO2LightDays
    Spawn run64–77°F (18–25°C); farms 64–68°F (18–20°C)Sealed bottle or bagNot statedDark2–4 weeks; farms 20–25 days
    Pinning45–50°F (7–10°C); farms 50–54°F (10–12°C)95–100%Not statedIndirect, bright enough to read by; white store enoki is grown dark3–5 days, up to 1–2 weeks; farms 10–14 days
    Fruiting50–61°F (10–16°C); farms 37–46°F (3–8°C)85–95%Kept low with a collar or sleeve for long stemsLow; 300 lux for 8 hours a day in one study5–8 days after pins; farms pick at 13–14 cm
    Where these numbers come from
    • Home figures: every unlabeled number is GroCycle's, including pins in 3–5 days; its kit instructions say 1–2 weeks (GroCycle). They rest on GroCycle, a company that sells growing kits and courses.
    • Farm figures: Penn State's account of Japanese bottle production (Penn State).
    • Light: a 2025 study fruited enoki at 57–61°F (14–16°C) under about 300 lux for 8 hours a day (PMC). White store enoki is grown in the dark (Tom Volk, UW–La Crosse).
    • Grain spawn adds 2–3 weeks before all of this (GroCycle).

    What does enoki grow on?

    • Supplemented hardwood sawdust

      Gives the highest yields, as does masters mix (GroCycle). Japanese farms use sawdust and rice bran at 4:1; US farms mostly use bran-supplemented corncobs (Penn State).

    • Cottonseed hulls and bran

      A 2017 Chinese study grew enoki on cottonseed hulls and wheat bran with added ramie stalk (AMB Express).

    • Straw, cardboard or coffee grounds

      Enoki grows on these too, and the leaner ones can be pasteurized instead of sterilized (GroCycle).

    • Hardwood logs

      Outdoors in a cool climate, logs give the short, brown wild form, not store-style enoki (GroCycle).

    How to grow enoki, step by step

    1. Get grain spawn

      Buy enoki spawn or make grain spawn from a culture. It's ready when the grain is completely covered and uniformly white, after 2–3 weeks (GroCycle).

    2. Sterilize and inoculate

      Fill jars, bottles or bags with hydrated supplemented sawdust and sterilize at 250°F (121°C) for at least 2 hours. Once it's cool, add spawn at 5–10% of the wet substrate weight (GroCycle).

    3. Incubate in the dark

      Keep containers dark at 64–77°F (18–25°C) for 2–4 weeks. Colonization is done when white mycelium covers the surface and starts bunching into knots or bumps (GroCycle).

    4. Chill to start pins

      Drop the block to 45–50°F (7–10°C) at 95–100% humidity (GroCycle). Farms scrape the old spawn off the surface at this point (Penn State). Done when pins form.

    5. Collar and grow cold

      After pinning, slide a sleeve around the jar mouth to trap CO2, so the stems stretch toward air. Keep it at 50–61°F (10–16°C) and 85–95% (GroCycle). Done when stems reach the length you want; farms pull at 13–14 cm (Penn State).

    6. Pull the bunch

      Farms remove the collar and pull the whole bunch at once (Penn State). A 2017 study picked before the caps started to turn up (AMB Express).

    What's different about growing enoki?

    Store enoki and wild enoki look nothing alike

    Wild enoki has a glossy brown cap and a dark, velvety stem base, and fruits on dead hardwood in cold weather (GroCycle). The white supermarket form "bears little resemblance": it's grown in jars in the dark, and the stems stretch long and thin looking for light (Tom Volk, UW–La Crosse). Grown outdoors, it turns caramel brown (Mushroom Mountain). Wild enoki often grows beside the deadly funeral bell (Galerina). GroCycle doesn't recommend foraging it for beginners and says to spore-print every mushroom: white for enoki, rusty brown for funeral bell (GroCycle).

    Taxonomists now separate the East Asian crop from the European wild species: a 2018 study concluded that all cultivated East Asian strains of "F. velutipes" are in fact Flammulina filiformis (Mycological Progress).

    Collars and stale air make the long stems

    Cornell names enoki and maitake as mushrooms that can fruit in high CO2 and still be high quality (Cornell Small Farms and Fungi Ally). Farms collar each bottle to keep stems "long and straight" (Penn State). In a 2025 study, enoki grown at 10,000 ppm had caps less than half as wide as enoki at 1,000 ppm, though stem length didn't differ (PMC). For bigger caps, give more fresh air; for store-style needles, keep the collar on.

    It fruits cold

    Enoki pins at 45–50°F (7–10°C) (GroCycle), below the 55–75°F (13–24°C) that suits most gourmet mushrooms (Cornell Small Farms and Fungi Ally). Farms finish it at 37–46°F (3–8°C) (Penn State). Cornell groups enoki with king oyster and chestnut as cold-preferring, and suggests growing those in the cold season to cut heating and cooling (Cornell Small Farms and Fungi Ally). See our fruiting temperature guide for keeping a chamber steady.

    When and how do you harvest enoki?

    Enoki is ready when the stems reach the length you want and before the caps turn up; a 2017 study picked before the caps started to invert (AMB Express). Farms pull the whole bunch at 13–14 cm, about 5–5.5 inches (Penn State).

    That study picked two flushes over 80 days and got about 100–120% biological efficiency on most of its mixes (AMB Express). Our sources give no rest time between flushes; see our second-flush guide.

    Common enoki problems

    No pins after two weeks in fruiting

    Check the temperature first: enoki needs 45–50°F (7–10°C) to start pins. For a kit, GroCycle passes on suppliers' advice to chill it in the fridge overnight before cutting the bag (GroCycle). See our pinning guide.

    Short stems and wide brown caps

    That's the wild form: wild enoki grows short and colored in sun and fresh air (GroCycle). Add a collar and keep the light low.

    Long stems with pinhead caps

    High CO2 shrinks caps (PMC). If you want more cap, shorten or remove the collar and add fresh air exchange.

    Green patches in the jar or bag

    Often trichoderma. Check the contamination ID table before you toss it.

    Tracking a enoki grow in Hypha

    Hypha tracks each enoki jar or bag from inoculation through harvest. It sets reminders from typical timings, and you can adjust them for each block to fit enoki's cold pinning step. If you clone a culture, Hypha links each culture and block to its parent, and the photo journal lets you compare collared and open jars side by side. Download Hypha to start.

    Get Hypha free

    Free forever · 60 days of Pro included · No credit card · iOS, Android & web

    Enoki growing FAQ

    How long does enoki take to grow?

    Enoki takes about 4–6 weeks from spawning to harvest: 2–4 weeks to colonize, then pins in 3–5 days and mushrooms 5–8 days later (GroCycle). Add 2–3 weeks for grain spawn (GroCycle). A ready-to-fruit kit can be picked in under two weeks (GroCycle).

    Can you grow enoki from store-bought enoki?

    Growing enoki from a store pack means cloning it, not planting the base. GroCycle puts stem offcuts into a sterile, nutritious medium (GroCycle). In practice that's tissue on agar in a still air box or flow hood, then grain spawn from the clean culture (GroCycle). Expect failures: thin-fleshed mushrooms are harder to get clean tissue from, and older ones are harder to grow out, so GroCycle says to clone within 48 hours, keeping the mushroom in the fridge until then (GroCycle). After that, it's the same cold, collared grow as from bought spawn.

    Can you grow enoki indoors?

    Enoki grows indoors in jars, bottles or bags, which is how farms grow it (GroCycle). The hard part is a spot that holds 50–61°F (10–16°C) while it fruits.

    What temperature does enoki need?

    Enoki colonizes at 64–77°F (18–25°C), pins at 45–50°F (7–10°C) and fruits at 50–61°F (10–16°C) (GroCycle). Mushroom Mountain lists 40–55°F (4–13°C) for fruiting (Mushroom Mountain).

    Is enoki hard to grow?

    Enoki isn't especially hard, but it needs cool temperatures, and high CO2 for long stems (GroCycle). Keeping a fruiting space cold is the main hurdle.

    Sources

    1. GroCycle (grocycle.com/enoki-mushrooms)
    2. Penn State (plantpath.psu.edu/about/facilities/mushroom/resources/specialty-…)
    3. PMC (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12387923)
    4. Tom Volk, UW–La Crosse (botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/march97.html)
    5. GroCycle (grocycle.com/how-to-make-grain-spawn)
    6. AMB Express (amb-express.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s13568-017-0480-4)
    7. Mushroom Mountain (mushroommountain.com/enoki-velvet-foot-flammulina-velutipes)
    8. Mycological Progress (link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11557-018-1409-2)
    9. Cornell Small Farms and Fungi Ally (projects.sare.org/media/pdf/S/p/e/Specialty_Mushroom_Farm_Book__…)
    10. GroCycle (grocycle.com/how-to-clone-mushrooms)

    Spotted something out of date? Email support@demetermycolabs.com and we'll fix it.

    More grow guides

    From the blog