This is the reference you keep open on brew day: biological efficiency, spawn rate, colonization temperature and days, fruiting temperature and CO₂ behavior, flush count, and cycle time for eight gourmet species, side by side, in one place. Every number below is a typical planning range pulled from the same sources behind the site's calculators — not a guarantee for your strain.
How to read this
A grow-parameter table is only useful if you read the numbers the way they were measured. Three things to keep straight before you plan a batch around anything below:
- BE% is always on DRY substrate weight. A 5 lb hydrated block at 60% moisture is only about 2 lb of dry substrate — divide fresh yield by the wet block weight and you'll overstate every BE number by roughly 2.5×. This is the single most common yield-math mistake in gourmet growing, and it's baked into how every BE figure in this table was measured.
- Colonization and fruiting are different temperatures. The temperature that runs a fast, clean spawn run is not the temperature that triggers good pinning and fruit body formation. Treat "Colonize °F" and "Fruit °F" in the table as two separate settings on two separate days, not one number for the whole cycle.
- Every value is a typical range, not a hard fact. Strain, substrate formulation, and your specific grow room conditions move every number in this table — sometimes a lot. Your own measured results are the final word, not the table.
One honest gap: this table doesn't include per-species relative humidity targets. The verified sourcing behind it covers temperature, CO₂ behavior, BE%, and timing in detail, but not a defensible species-by-species RH figure — so rather than guess, fruiting RH is left out here rather than invented.
Once you've got a real yield number to plan against, run your own block weights and species through the Biological Efficiency calculator → to turn a BE% preset into an actual harvest projection for your farm.
The master table
Rows are species, columns are the parameters that actually drive a production schedule. BE% is the typical figure from the confirmed range; treat the range itself as the honest boundary of what's been reported in the literature.
| Species | BE% typical (range) | Spawn rate | Colonize | Fruit °F (+ CO₂ note) | Flushes | Cycle (inoc→harvest) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue / Pearl Oyster | 75 (65–100+) | 20–25% | 14–21 d | 60–75°F · CO₂-sensitive, <800–1000 ppm | 3–5 | ~3–4 wk |
| Pink Oyster | 60 (25–95, substrate-dep) | 20–25% | 10–18 d | 68–86°F · no cold shock | 2–3 | ~2.5–4 wk (fastest) |
| Golden Oyster | 75 (69–148, substrate-dep) | 20–25% | ~10–21 d | 65–85°F · strain-split | 3–4 | ~3–4 wk |
| King Trumpet | 60 (46–73, strain-dep) | 20–25% | 15–20 d | 55–65°F · raise CO₂ for thick stems | 1–2 | ~4–5 wk |
| Lion's Mane | 55 (22–89, widest) | 20–25% | 21–35 d | 60–70°F · most strain-sensitive | 1–2 | ~3–8 wk (variable) |
| Shiitake | 90 (74–107+, highest) | 20–25% | 42–90 d (6–12 wk) | 55–70°F | 2–3 | ~8–17 wk (slowest) |
| Maitake | 40 (35–40, thin data) | 20–25% | ~3 wk | 59–65°F | ~2 | ~5–8 wk |
| Chestnut (Pholiota) | 50 (49–53, nameko proxy) | 20–25% | 14–21 d | 50–70°F | — | ~5–7 wk |
Flush split runs the same across species as a typical planning assumption: first flush ≈50% of total yield, second ≈30%, and the rest declining sharply after that. Spawn rate of 20–25% is the working range for gourmet supplemented blocks across all eight species — higher spawn rate buys faster, more contamination-resistant colonization, not more total yield.
Species notes
The table gives you the numbers; this is the one quirk per species that the numbers alone won't tell you.
Blue / Pearl OysterCO₂-sensitive — leggy if starved of fresh air
The most forgiving species on this list, but only if fresh-air exchange keeps pace. Let CO₂ climb past roughly 800–1000 ppm in the fruiting room and you get long, leggy stems with small caps instead of a dense, well-formed fruit body — a fresh-air problem that looks like a genetics problem if you don't know to check FAE first.
Pink OysterFastest cycle, no cold shock, degrades fast post-harvest
Pink oyster is the quickest species to a first harvest and doesn't need a temperature drop to trigger pinning — but that speed comes with a wide, substrate-dependent BE range and fruit that loses quality fast after picking. Plan pink oyster around quick turnover to market, not extended cold storage.
Golden OysterFruiting temperature is strain-split
Golden oyster has the least consistent fruiting temperature guidance of any species in this table — different strains and sources report meaningfully different bands within the 65–85°F range. Treat the fruiting temperature for your specific strain as something to confirm on your first few flushes, not something to assume from the chart.
King TrumpetRaise CO₂ deliberately for thick stems
Unlike the CO₂-sensitive oysters, king trumpet is one species where you want fresh-air exchange lower, not higher — a slightly elevated CO₂ environment during fruiting is what produces the thick, substantial stem this species is prized for. Running king trumpet on oyster-style high-FAE settings gives you thin, unremarkable stems.
Lion's ManeWidest BE range, most strain/substrate-sensitive
Lion's mane BE has been reported anywhere from 22% to 89% — by far the widest spread of any species here — because this species is unusually sensitive to strain selection and substrate formulation. Don't plan a wholesale commitment off the table's 55% typical figure until you've measured your own strain across a few real batches.
ShiitakeBy far the slowest, but the highest BE
Shiitake colonization runs 42–90 days typically, and the documented range by strain stretches to 112 days — six to sixteen weeks where an oyster would be finished in two to three. That patience is rewarded with the highest biological efficiency on this list, typically 90% and reported as high as 107%+. High yield and a fast cycle rarely come from the same species; shiitake is the clearest example of that tradeoff.
Maitake & ChestnutThinner data — treat as approximate
Both species have meaningfully less published cultivation data than the oysters, king trumpet, or shiitake. Chestnut's BE figure is sourced from a closely related nameko proxy rather than direct Pholiota data, and maitake's numbers come from a narrower set of sources overall. Treat both as reasonable starting assumptions, and lean harder on your own measured results before scaling either species.
When the standard number is wrong
Every species in this table has at least one figure where the "typical" number hides real, well-documented variation. Here's where to expect it:
- Shiitake colonization spans 42–112 days by strain. That's not a defect or a sign of contamination — it's genuine strain-to-strain variation confirmed across multiple sources. A slow-colonizing shiitake strain isn't broken; compare against your specific strain's documented range, not against oyster-speed expectations.
- Lion's mane BE runs 22–89%. The widest spread in this table, driven by strain and substrate sensitivity more than any other species here. A 55% planning figure can be badly wrong in either direction for your specific setup.
- Golden oyster fruiting temperature conflicts across sources. Different references disagree on the exact band within 65–85°F more than they do for any other oyster variety — confirm your strain's actual response rather than trusting a single source's number.
- These are typical bands, not guarantees. Every range above reflects reported literature and cross-checked farm sources — not a promise about what your genetics and substrate will do. Your farm's numbers are the real reference; this table is the starting point.
I built this table by pulling every number I could source-verify — and the lesson that stuck was less about any single figure and more about how much they move once you're actually running blocks. A species chart tells you shiitake is "90% BE, 42–90 days typical." Your specific strain, on your specific substrate, in your specific grow room, might land anywhere in the documented 42–112 day range — and you don't actually have your own number until you've run it and weighed the harvest. The chart is the starting assumption. Your own logged flush weights are the correction. That's the whole reason a Farm-Ops tracker matters more than a better chart: it's the only thing that tells you where your farm's real numbers diverge from the table's.