The Artist's Conk mushroom (Ganoderma sp.) is a serious heavyweight in the realm of functional fungi. It is a close relative of a more famous mushroom in the same family - Reishi / Ling Zhi (Ganoderma lucidum) and contains the same types of compounds. 
 
When boiled as a tea (one hour of light simmer for good extraction) and/or extracted with alcohol (often a combination of both is used), it is a potent functional mushroom that has been used for centuries in various parts of the world, particularly Asia and Siberia. 

With well researched effectiveness, this mushroom is one to not go without in your personal health toolkit. 
 
It gets its name, 'Artist's conk', from the fact that the smooth white underside of the fungus can be drawn on using any sharp object like a stick or nail, and when the fungus is dried, this imprint remains. The fruit bodies have been used as a natural drawing medium for centuries. 
 
This species is best grown on logs using dowel spawn. It is not a fast growing mushroom and conks can take a year or more to be ready for harvest after they first begin to grow. We currently only offer dowels of this species due to the fact that it is difficult / 'advanced' to fruit from sawdust blocks. Grain spawn is available by request - just email us and we can prepare some for you.
 
DOWELS:
Fully colonised, high quality dowel plugs of Artist's Conk (Ganoderma sp). These dowels are perfect for inoculating fresh cut logs of deciduous trees.
 
Simply drill some holes slightly deeper and slightly wider than the dowels, spaced about 15cm apart all around the log, tap them in with a hammer and seal the holes with melted wax. A log generally requires 15-50 dowels, depending on its size. 
 
Logs take a year or so to begin fruiting, but after that, they will continue to produce several crops of mushrooms per year (when weather conditions are right) for up to five or six years. They are generally very low maintenance. A humid, shady corner of the garden is perfect for them. 
 
Dowels are 8mm wide so a 8.5mm to 9mm drill bit is ideal for drilling the holes for them. Comes with instructions or check out our tips and advice page for more info. 
 
50 Dowels $24.90
100 Dowels $34.90
500 Dowels $134.90
1000 Dowels $239.90
Select quantity when adding to cart