Cordyceps farming: how cordyceps is grown

In short: Most cordyceps sold today is farmed, not wild. Cordyceps militaris is grown on rice or grain in jars and trays until its orange fruiting bodies form, usually in about two months. Cordyceps sinensis can’t easily be fruited on a farm, so wild sinensis is still hand-picked on the Tibetan Plateau, and cultivated sinensis is grown in controlled conditions instead. You can grow militaris at home with a sterile setup, light, cool temperatures and high humidity.

Why cordyceps is farmed at all

In the wild, cordyceps is a parasite. It infects an insect, grows inside it, and pushes a fruiting body up out of the body. Wild Cordyceps sinensis grows this way on ghost moth caterpillars high on the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayas, at around 3,000 to 5,000 metres. Collectors find it by hand each spring, and it’s rare and very expensive.

That’s not a supply anyone can build a supplement on, so almost all cordyceps sold today is cultivated, and none of it needs insects.

The two kinds of cordyceps farming

	Cordyceps militaris	Cordyceps sinensis
What’s grown	orange fruiting bodies	cultivated in controlled conditions (the wild fruiting body is still hand-picked)
Grown on	brown rice or grain mixes (some farms use silkworm pupae)	a nutrient medium, in sterile conditions
Where	widely farmed in China, Korea and Europe	specialist producers
Wild version	grows on moth pupae in Europe and Asia	grows on caterpillars on the Tibetan Plateau

Our Cordyceps drops are made from Cordyceps sinensis, cultivated in Poland.

How a cordyceps farm works

A clean culture. Everything starts from a pure culture of the fungus, kept and expanded in sterile conditions. Contamination by moulds or bacteria is the main thing that ruins a batch.
Substrate. For militaris, brown rice (often with added nutrients) is cooked, put into jars or trays and sterilised.
Inoculation. The culture is added to the substrate, usually as a liquid, in a clean-air hood.
Colonisation in the dark. The fungus grows through the rice over a week or two, turning it white, then orange.
Fruiting in the light. Cordyceps militaris needs light to fruit. With light, cool temperatures (around 18 to 22°C) and high humidity, orange fruiting bodies push up over the following weeks.
Harvest and drying. The fruiting bodies are cut, dried and either sold whole or ground into powder for extracts.

From inoculation to harvest usually takes around two months.

What happens after harvest: extraction

Dried cordyceps is either sold as it is, ground to powder, or extracted. Extraction means soaking it in hot water, alcohol or both and keeping the liquid. That liquid becomes a tincture, like our drops, or is dried into an extract powder for capsules. Our drops are made with ultrasonic-assisted extraction in water and food-grade alcohol.

Can you grow cordyceps at home?

Yes, Cordyceps militaris is one of the more forgiving mushrooms to try, as long as you’re careful about cleanliness. You’ll need:

Jars with filter lids and a pressure cooker to sterilise them.
Brown rice as the substrate, cooked with a little water so it’s moist but not wet.
A liquid culture of C. militaris from a mushroom supplier.
A clean space to inoculate in: a still-air box (a clear plastic tub with arm holes) works.
Light, cool temperatures and humidity once the rice is colonised: a shelf with an LED strip on a timer and a humid tent or tub.

The common mistakes: not sterilising long enough (green or black mould), too much water in the rice, and no light (it colonises but never fruits). Wild-type sinensis can’t realistically be grown at home.

Questions people ask

Is farmed cordyceps the same as wild?

Not exactly. Wild sinensis grows on an insect at altitude; farmed cordyceps grows on grain or a nutrient medium. Farmed cordyceps is consistent and doesn’t involve insects or the pressure that harvesting puts on the wild supply.