Turkey tail mushroom is a highly potent medicinal fungus that is very easy to grow. It requires a little babysitting and can be grown both indoors and outdoors.
Dead and decaying conifer or pine logs are drilled and inoculated with the spawn and sealed with the wax to avoid other fungi infecting the same log. Other favorable woods are oak, alder, poplar, aspen, elm, ironwood, and eucalyptus. The log may be buried horizontally after incubation to conserve water during the formation of fruiting bodies.
For sawdust, the spawn is introduced and the growing bag or container can be placed indoors or outdoor during spring or fall.
Turkey tail requires an optimum temperature of 65–75 °F to let out fruiting bodies in spring and fall. Both the logs and sawdust require plenty of water to grow mycelia and pave the path for the highly cherished fruiting bodies.
Turkey Tail is a polypore fungus and its lifecycle initiates with the blowing of haploid spores in the air. These haploid spores are attracted to a favorable region where everything is desirable. It grows into a germling and fuses with the other one to undergo the process of plasmogamy.
Eventually, the fungus develops into a fruiting body, where its underside has pore surface, lined with basidia. These basidia are responsible for carryout the meiosis of diploid cells into four haploid cells. These haploid cells then fulfill the legacy of the perpetuation of the turkey tail’s lifecycle.