“Wide”, “warm”, or “cold” indicates the conditions under which this strain of shiitake will generally produce most prolifically. All three kinds of Shiitake can be grown across Canada! Even if your region has cold winters, you can still grow the warm strain in the summer. When choosing which variety to grow, we recommend that you consider your local climate, and your Shiitake production goals. For instance, here on Vancouver Island, BC the summers are very dry, whereas the spring and fall tend to be rainy and humid. We decided to work with nature, and select strains that tend to fruit in the spring and fall when it is humid here, rather than fight to keep the logs watered during the summer drought. The wide temperature strain is a good all-around choice, and the cold strain helps us to extend our fruiting season as early as possible in the spring and later into the fall.  If your goal is to have mushrooms spring, summer and fall, then a combination of wide and warm strains would be a good choice. In some parts of Canada summer heat is often accompanied by high humidity, and this would be suitable for the warm strain Shiitake, which maximizes the productivity and quality of mushrooms during the summer. “Cold Range”  Fruiting Temperatures: ~7-20C (44-68F). This strain of Shiitake will expand your season by fruiting earlier in the spring and extending later in fall than the wide range variety. Does not respond well to forced fruiting in summer. “Wide Range” Fruiting Temperatures: ~15-25C (59-77F).This strain can be fruited over a wide range of temperatures, though mushroom quality and yields of this variety will be diminished in high heat as compared to the warm temperature variety. “Warm Range”  Fruiting Temperatures: ~13-27C (55-80F). During warm summer months, this variety produces mushrooms of better quality and higher yield than the wide range variety. May fruit naturally or by force in warmer spring and fall months, must be forced to fruit in summer.