Grow Kit – Turkey Tail
Turkey Tail
(Trametes versicolor)
Turkey tail mushrooms get their name from their varying coloured stripes and flat shelf-like shape that resembles the tail of a wild turkey. These mushrooms are very slow growing but relatively easy to grow. These polypores are known for their medicinal properties and their leathery texture make them well suited for use in teas, stocks or powder form. Recommended for intermediate growers.
The Mushroom Grow Kit is intended to be grown inside. The Kit contains a bag of hardwood sawdust inoculated with Turkey Tail mycelium and is ready to ‘fruit’ straight from the bag.

Instructions
Step 1: Inspect your Mushroom Grow Kit
- Examine your bag to make sure it is fully myceliated (white all over). If so, then it is ready to start fruiting! However, if you can see areas of brown sawdust that are not myceliated then place your kit in a dark location (~18-24 C), and check it every day until it is all white.


Step 2: Choose a location for your kit
- When your kit is fully myceliated (all white), choose a location that is bright but out of direct sunlight, at room temperature (~15-24 C), and is well-ventilated to minimize exposure to spores.
Step 3: Prepare for fruiting
- You can grow turkey tail in two ways, either as a rosette from the top of the bag or as shelves from the side of the bag.
For Rosettes out the top of the bag
- Keep the bag closed until white and yellowish/brown mycelium lumps form on the top of the sawdust.
- Then cut off the top of the bag leaving a rim of ~1inch of plastic around the top of the kit.
- Finally, make a ‘Humidity Tent’ to go over your Grow Kit to help create a humid environment for your mushrooms to grow. Get a clear plastic bag (so light can come through) that is large enough to loosely cover the grow kit with enough room for the mushrooms to grow. Cut approximately 10-1.5cm holes to allow for air exchange (CO2 out O2 in) and place it over your grow it.
For Shelves of mushrooms out the side of the bag
- Using a knife, gently cut 2 to 3 slits 5 cm long each the front and side of the bag with as little damage to the mycelium as possible.
- Next, gently squeeze as much air as possible out of the bag through the slits and fold the extra plastic bag (part with the filter in it) under the kit and place the kit upright. The fresh oxygen at the slits will signal the mycelium to start producing mushrooms (usually within 2 weeks or so).
- Then make a ‘Humidity Tent’ to go over your Grow Kit to help create a humid environment for your mushrooms to grow. Get a clear plastic bag (so light can come through) that is large enough to loosely cover the grow kit with enough room for the mushrooms to grow. Cut approximately 10-1.5cm holes to allow for air exchange (CO2 out O2 in) and place it over your grow it.
Step 4: Care for your mushrooms
- Lift up & replace the ‘Humidity Tent’ 2 to 5 times a day to spray the inside of the tent with water and allow for fresh air in.
- Over several weeks you will notice the white mycelium thicken over the areas exposed to the air, get blob like and gradually flatten out into rings of brown velvet mushrooms with a creamy white porous surface below.
- Turkey tails are very slow growing and can take 1-2 months to fully fruit depending on temperature and humidity.


Step 5: Harvest, Storage and Cooking
- You can harvest turkey tails as long as they are in good health (have a white underside) and still growing (1-2 months).
- Harvest by twisting or cutting of the entire cluster or shelf at the based.
- Turkey tails are generally dried in the sun or in a dehydrator and stored in an air tight jar or bag.
- They are too leathery to eat and are usually ground into a powder or used in a tea or broth.
- The book ‘The Fungal Pharmacy’ by Robert Rogers is a good resource for information on the medicinal properties and ways to use turkey tail.

- Once you are done fruiting your kit, break up the sawdust/mycelium and put it in your home or city compost or use as a soil amendment in your garden bed.
- Mushrooms produce airborne spores as they grow. When released from the gills they produce a dusty surface on your grow kit and surrounding area. To reduce exposure fruit your kit in a well ventilated area, use a ‘Humidity Tent’ and harvest mushrooms while they are still young.
- Always cook mushrooms before consuming.
Hi,
I’m interested in your product.
I would like to know;
Where you are based, if you can ship to a Dublin location and what would be the cost.
Thanking you,
Denis
Hello! We are in Alberta, Canada. We are not able to ship outside the country. There are quite a few spawn producers in the Europe. Check out companies like https://mycelia.be/
you can order the grow kits on amazon
It’s true – you can find anything on Amazon! Just be a bit careful as you don’t know how long ago the kit was made etc…
Hello,
thank you for the good article I would like to know more. Where do I write to get a kit? Can you ship to the USA? If not are there other producers who are in the US? Anybody in California ?
Hello! We do not ship outside of Canada. There are many many suppliers in the USA!
Hello! Can you ship to Colombia?
Hello! We do not ship outside of Canada… Hopefully there is someone closer who is selling grow kits!
Hi, I have some questions. what are the components in the bag besides sawdust?
Our kits usually contain hardwood fuel pellets, sawdust from a local furniture maker, bran and a bit of gypsum (and water!) That’s it!
What are the ratios for each component? Thank you!
Typically, we use about:
14% sawdust from a furniture maker
17% hardwood fuel pellets
8% bran
0.1% bran
61% water
There are MANY recipes out there! Try your own with the materials you have!
Hypothetically, could we set this grow kit up over the right medium and grow it, but also start our own ‘colony’ in a garden bed? Could we bury the kit while it grows and would the mushroom spread? Cheers
I don’t know that it would do well in a garden bed. In the wild, they grow on the sides of trees. We have certainly grown them on stacks, but they are slow! We haven’t noticed that they spread.