I've been innoculating logs
 

with mushroom spawn. I wish to grow Shiitake and oyster mushrooms. Man, what a lot of work. I've been drilling holes in oak logs and filling them with sawdust spawn that should in the future grow shiitake mushrooms. I need to cut some popple logs for the oyster mushrooms to grow on.

I really like mushrooms and I love hunting them in the woods. Has anyone here ever grown their own?

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I did it one time without sucess.

Love to see some pics now and then.

How are you handeling the moisture?

E-A

sw

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I will stack them close together and then pile leaves and other materials over them under my trees. Next spring I will stack them on end with butts in the soil under the trees. This is the method that I read about. I got the spawn about 2 months ago and I was real busy with jobs so am just now getting around to the innoculation. I hope the spawn is still viable.

Do you know why your's never took off? I purchased my spawn through Fungi Perfecti. I am really looking forward to some flushes of shrooms. Hope they take.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

My grandfather had horses, and they would pile the straw and crap in the outermost corner of the pasture. There would be hundreds of thousands of wild mushrooms everywhere in the spring. Don't know if they were edible or not.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I used to pick pink-bottom mushrooms in the cow pastures. They come out in July and are unmistakable. Agaricus Campestris if I remember correctly. Closely related to the super market mushroom. The underside of the cap is bright salmon-pink when they are young. Very tasty. The horse mushroom is a very similar one and considered quite a delicacy. They come up where horses are pastured. The giant puffball is also quite good if cooked properly. They get as large as a basketball. It is said that any puff-ball is edible if the inside is white. I have read of hallucinogenic puffballs in the southwest and Mexico but I don't think any around the northeast are poisonous. Damn!

It is said that there are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters but that there are no old, bold mushroom hunters. Make sure of what you ingest.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Puffballs are the only thing I have ever tried from the wild. I have found about 3 or 4 of them in my lifetime.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Make sure you seal the holes with wax. if you don't there's a good chance insects will eat the viable mycelium or more aggressive fungi will take over, especially trametes Versicolor (Turkey tails). I've been to Fungi Perfecti, GOOD GROUP OF PEOPLE!

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Oh using cheese wax is cheaper! Unless you have bees. Mushrooms are cool and a great skill to have under your belt.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Chanterelles I found a good season:

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Cool thread. It's title is very amusing.
Btw great pics too!
As a citizen of the keystone state I should know more about shrooms.
I'm gonna have to try my hand at cap hunting sometime next yr.
Great food source.:ok:

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

You wanna get two books and one for your local area and join the local mycological society. Books:

"Mushrooms Demystified " by David Aurora

"All that the Rain Promises and More" by David Aurora

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

anyone know if sawdust innoculation and growing mushrooms works in the semi-tropics?

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

SUPER GREAT IN SEMI TROPICS.

Get Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets and Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets.

You can start your own little business with 1,000 different mushrooms. PM if you like.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Grown shrooms a few times- in mason jars of vermiculite and brown rice flower as the substrate. Sterile technique is the hard part, the rest is just like a science experiment and quite fun.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I found these last week. Chicken of the Woods , taste like lemon chicken on the grill:

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I found a huge bunch of those on a tree last week. I brought some home but haven't eaten them. They are rather firm and I just wasn't sure. Are they kind of tough?

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

They're not good when tough. You wanna get them when they are soft and wet like, still some firmness, but not hard. When they're hard they taste like chalk. When young and fresh you can't find a better mushroom. Post the pics I can tell you if they're good or not. When they're old you can only eat the perimeter of the mushroom.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Interesting. I've never thought of growing my own mushrooms indoors before.

SilverSalmon, have any experience growing indoors?

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Yep you can grow indoors!

The Stamet's book I listed above.

Glove box or Laminar flow hood

Agar

Scapel

Innoculation loop

Petri Dish

Test tubes

Pressure cooker

Closet space

Gloves

Mushroom cultures, many of which you can get from the wild

Those are the basics ingredients

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Did you get the books?

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I think I'll buy one of the palm innoculators. It is quite a chore to drill bigger holes and stuff the sawdust spawn in by hand. Has anyone used one of the palm innoculators and are they worthy. I'll never complain about the cost of shiitakis again. It is a lot of work cutting, hauling, drilling, stuffing and waxing the logs. I hope they produce some shrooms.

I often find oyster mushrooms in the woods here but they are not a sure thing. Sometimes if the rains aren't right it can be a couple years before I find them. They are good dried though and I crush them up into instant soups and scrambled eggs.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I have a palm innoculator, though I haven't used it yet. My advice would be to stick plug spawn instead of sawdust. You can also make your plug spawn, it makes it fun and it's about self suffciency. THIS IS AN AWESOME SKILL!!! Although the sawdust is cheaper, I'm making some sawdust spawn now, I'll send pictures. Logs are a lot of work! But it's gift that keeps on giving, just keep em wet and of the ground.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

No Kidding! What great news!!!! What are the best places to buy the starter plugs or sawdust? I'll get the books. Thanks!:36_3_12:

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

http://www.fungi.com/plugs/plugs.html

His stuff is a little more expensive, but well worth the extra cost. His cultures are guaranteed and coveted in the industry.

If you want to start a business I would get these two books by paul:

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, 3rd Edition
By Paul Stamets. Expanded to 574 pages and more than 500 photographs and diagrams, this fully updated edition of the internationally acclaimed mushroom grower's guide adds 6 more mushroom species to the 25 species already described. Advanced cultivation techniques for Agaricus brasiliensis, Pleurotus tuberregium, Sparassis crispa, Trametes versicolor, Tremella fuciformis and Agaricus brunnescens ("Portobello") mushrooms are have been added to the Third Edition. This book covers in detail state-of-the-art commercial cultivation techniques, liquid culture inoculation methods, mycological landscaping, growing room and lab designs, troubleshooting and more. Commonly referred to as "The New Testament" by amateur and professional mycologists alike. The best book on mushroom cultivation just keeps getting better!

And

The Mushroom Cultivator
By Paul Stamets and J.S. Chilton. This book details the cultivation of 16 edible (including the Button/Portobello mushrooms) and psychoactive species and control measures for 40 genera of contaminants. 415 pages, with 249 black and white photographs, diagrams and scanning electron micrographs, this book is highly reviewed and used throughout the world as a mycological textbook. Known throughout the world as "The Grower's Bible." Softcover. As Doctor Alexander Smith once said, "This book should be in every mycological laboratory.

If you're really serious, sit down and read all three books, it's an education that money literally can't buy. I know everything I know because of these books!

I have my own sawdust spawn for Shitake growing now. I'll post pics tomorrow.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Thanks SS & woodman ......there's an old tree down by my great grandmothers place that always grows what looks like you call a chicken of the woods, next time I'll check it out closer. I'm going to reread this thread as time permits and see about growing some.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I am going to buy the books you suggest SS. I've had a lifelong fascination with fungi. I am very interested in saprophytic and parasitic organisms and I see close parallels all around me in human society. The web of life constantly brings surprise to the watcher, due to it's intricacy. Everything has it's place and time.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Do your best to not flagrantly disturb that fungi and it will produce fruits for years that you can easily gather. Nature's fungal establishments are way ahead of what humans can try to reproduce.

BTW, here are some very early pictures of my shiitake farm. I have significantly down-sized since moving. I maintained over 250 logs with a constant fruiting rotation that produced roughly 15-20lbs per week (very weather dependent) and supplied 2 grocers and 3 restaurants as well as a local farmer's market.

I now limit my mycology efforts to experiments with exotic edibles (currently hericium and blue foot), profitable medicinals (reishi and cordyceps) and various edible bag cultures for personal consumption (currently pleurotis djamor, pleurotis ostreatus and lentinula edodes).

Funny Story:
In the picture of the soak tank below I had not yet devised a means to control the depth of the soak and had filled the tank with roughly 50 logs so that they would all remain submerged with only some bricks sitting under the pallets being used as cover. I ended up with entirely too many shiitake but it worked out beautifully because I ended up giving a whole bunch away to a whole bunch of people and got immediate attention for more production.

I quickly learned to make a 2X4 Tee that fit between the pallet slats and installed a cross brace with a hole into the pallet then drilled holes down the length long leg of the inverted Tee. Optimum submersion depth (read logs pressed on bottom of tank) could be achieved by loading the desired number of logs and pressing down on the tee and inserting a metal pin to keep it in place. Too bad I don't have pictures of that device. Another quick fix was to load bricks into the unused spaces to reduce the amount of water needed to submerge the logs.

http://goldismoney.info/forums/pictu...&pictureid=251
http://goldismoney.info/forums/pictu...&pictureid=253
http://goldismoney.info/forums/pictu...&pictureid=255
http://goldismoney.info/forums/pictu...&pictureid=254
http://goldismoney.info/forums/pictu...&pictureid=252

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I guess I need to do more research. I was under the impression that after innoculating the logs I should just lay them down on the earth and cover them with stuff like hay or leaves and keep them wet for about 6-8 months, then stack them upright against an horizontal pole till they fruited. Time to order the books I guess.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Very nice pics. Thanks SLV. Those mushrooms look tasty! Most of your logs look to be oak. Do you use any other types of wood? One looks like beech.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

The best book on the subject and also the most brief:
Growing Shiitake Commercially
by Bob Harris

Your method could work but you could also ruin your logs. You can score this book for about $5 and read it in under 2 hours. You will be very far ahead if you observe and practice the principles laid out in that book.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Oak, Beech and Maple. The maple performs the best but has the weakest exterior. The oak lasts the longest but takes the longest to colonize.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Short introductory guide to growing indoors:


http://www.mmgk.com/instructions.html

http://mmgk.com/10-04-05_0843.jpg

http://mmgk.com/06-21-05_1139.jpg

http://mmgk.com/10-08-06_1204.jpg

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

This thread rocks!:553:

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Bump for the Shitake!

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Limited success[maybe 3-4%] years ago attempting to start morel patches. Would wash my wild collected ones in a stale beer and spray the wash water underground a couple inches in suitable locations[tools: a empty catsup bottle and a shovel]. Think I will try it again with some sort of apple concentrate as a starter food, if I can find a concentrate or juice without preservatives.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Try pasteurising your medium. The alcohol in the beer would be deleterious to spores. A lot of success with mycelial starters can be found with wet cardboard. Morels are considered one of the most difficult to establish edible ascomycetes. The best successes I've seen involved washing tree sapling root balls in a mycelium rich nutrient bath and then careful location and spacing of the planted trees. This method has the upside of being extremely likely of success and establishes a long term prolific fruiting base. The downside is the approximate 10 year wait for the mycelial mat to reach proportions that are conducive to fruiting.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I used to have a burn pile out back where the morels would come up every spring. Lots of them. I stopped burning there and no more morels. They taperd off for two years and now, none. I have also noted that local woods fires can stimulate them. Coincidence?

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

This is a fascinating thread with great pics:ok:. I have a lot of room here and plenty of oak trees, a complete metal shop and tractors, makes me wonder if something like SLV>GLD has done couldn't become a viable second income source for us.
Those logs look like they could get heavy after they've been soaked that's why I mention tractors

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I'm in a very hot dry climate (California) with a lot of 100deg. days in summer would I be able to grow shitake here provided I have enough water to keep the logs moist.....we get 12 inches average rainfall.

There are wild mushrooms that grow around here my family used to pick them.....they used to say to check them with a dime in the frying pan if you weren't sure if they were edible.

Out on Point Lobos not all that far from here is where the psilocybin mushroom grows....awh yes those were the days.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I think you would have a difficult time, nub. You would want to store the logs in the shade on a north face of a building. You would likely need to time your fruitings with rain so that you'd be pulling the logs out of soak a day or so before rainfall. I'd say it could be done with several caveats and reduced yield.

PS: You'd need to shop out a strain of Shiitake that was cultured specifically for higher temperatures. I don't know of any bred for arid climates, though.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Yeah it figures .....I've always said that anything with a thorn grows well here

HEY!! are there any shrooms with thorns on um ?:biggrin:

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I think you'll be able to grow well in your climate, just grow species that like it warm. Pink and yellow oysters come to mind. Also you could build a small grow room with a few plastic pvc pipes bend like half hoops and cover the hoops with plastic sheeting, think small green house. My friend did this and installed a cheap mister in his grow room. HE did so well he sold to local farmer markets for 8 dollars a pound. No one else had the species he was growing. EASY AS PIE! Also, if you only wanted to do log cultivaion, you could just have an area covered by shade and sprinklers set up for your logs, nothing to it! I THINK YOU'LL BE SUCCESSFUL!!! GET THOSE BOOKS AND LET THEM BE YOUR GUIDE!!!!!!!! ANY AndsEVERY Scenario is possible with mushroom cultivation

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Have have no fear, we can help you get those morels going. I'll give you some tips but I'll have to write later. Basically Morels like burns, so you'll have to create a burn site, then plant some Morel loving trees (Apple trees). That's a secret to morels, they love burn site, after any big burn go back the next year or in in two years, they'll be there. They also like Apple trees. these two tips should give you much success. Next will talk mycelium and growing substrate. I will follow up soon!!!

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

NO COINCIDENCE!! VERY Observant MAN YOU ARE!!!! THat's the secret to MORELS!!! Creating a BURN SITE. You won't get em without a burn site or in relationship to some tree they love, like Apple trees.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I grow shitaake, tried oysters, they are supposed to be easier but I have had no luck. Fortunately, there are plenty of them in the woods around here. Also I eat wild chanterelles, orange sulfur-shelf and hedgehogs. Lots to eat out there if you know what to look for, though I'm cautious and expanding my repitoire only slowly...

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Can you expound upon that? i have a friend with access to burn sites and apple trees and is very interested in what you have to say.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

When I get home, I'll write it up, still at work.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Wife and I did this today too. Bought them from the same vendor. We received more than they said would be in the bag, prolly 400+ dowel plugs in the 300 count bag.

We had about 30 trees cut down a month and a half ago. Today we inoculated 11 logs. Have about 5 more to do but I broke my drill bit.

Yeah, a lot of work.

Probably do another 15 next weekend.

We have those, oyster, and some kind of portabello variant she bought. She actually studied mycology in college. :P Me, I'm the hired help. lol

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

fyi, the best shiitake strains came from the mushroompeople, a commune in Summertown, TN. I currently propagate fungi that owe their heritage to these strains. Last I checked they weren't selling to the public anymore. I have some phone numbers but don't have a real need to try them. I was curious if the strains currently circulating referenced themselves to the mushroompeople or if maybe they had a public outlet I was heretofore unaware of.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

FYI, this relationship is symbiotic and the fungi requiring a specific symbiotic vegetation are termed mychorrizal. Again, FYI.... this site is probably about the very worst site you could be utilizing for serious mycological study.


I am far too drunk to post further and I hope whatever I just said was at least educational.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

How did you get pictures of the inside of my fridge???

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

You should stop drinking. I know what mychorrizal is in the mycological world! Boletes are mycorrizal, so are chanterelles, and so are masutake, plus many more. What's your point? You're smarter than the rest of us here? As I said before, you should probably stop drinking so much. Take care.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

SS, sorry to have drunkenly responded to you. Had I my wits to note who I was responding to I would not have.
I have no intentions of trying to show up anyone's intelligence. We all have something to learn no matter how much we think we know. I have no qualms with calling out someone's incorrect information but I never intend to assert superiority.
I am a big believer in calling things by their right names and many times my interjections of correct terminology and diction come off as holier than thou even IRL.
Fact is, anyone wanting to look into morel cultivation would need the particular term "mychorrizal" in order to be on the correct path of study.
I am curious if anyone has any online resources for mycology other than shroomery.org or mycotopia.net. Ever since mushworld.com went down there has been a dramatic lack of serious mycological information to be found.

Also, SS, I appreciate your concern for my general health in regards to alcohol consumption. You might be pleased to know that I actually came to terms with my degree of alcoholism this weekend and have committed myself to at least abstaining until my anniversary at the end of November. My wife and I discussed several alternative activities to keep us out of the bottles and I trust that we can support one another through the weak times. The hard part is going to be the circle of friends we have amassed; I suppose we'll be finding out who the real friends are soon enough.

Again, apologies to anyone I may have offended by the tone of my posts.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

You have cable TV wired into your fridge, too?!
:bear_happy::bear_happy::bear_happy:

It's phunny, laff.
Review the picture if need be.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

It has been my understanding that a burn site chases away certain "enemies" from the microscopic organisms that would prohibit growth. I know I do not have the correct termonology here but I think you know what I'm saying and please correct me if I'm wrong.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Woodman, this is the best post on this thread. Very witty.

I'm very happy to see this entire thread. I've come back to reference it several times now. I just ordered Stilton's books and included Myceleum Running. I've got a fresh supply of Poplar logs and have found that they will work for the Pearl Oyster which is one of my favorite mushrooms. I've toyed around with the idea of cultivation for some time now but have not taken the steps. You guys have provided some great sources and I will let you know how things turn out.

I do have one question: I live in MN and we are well beyond the first frost. Is it too late to innoculate the logs (I haven't gotten the books yet and am itching to order the plug spawn) ?

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Wait a minute? When the heck was Silver Salmon banned? Uggghh...

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Not sure, I know shitaake are supposed to be inoculated ONLY on fresh logs in late winter/early spring. My oyster logs didn't do zip, so I'm an expert on not growing them (the shitaake did fabulously though). We do have lots of wild oysters and I've dried a ton of them this fall for use in soups this winter.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I just received all three of Paul Stamet's books. I'm reading Mycelium Running but just started. Great subject matter. I'll be using the Pearl Oyster plug spawn on about 7 poplar logs as soon as I know when to start. I think I've seen it suggested that I do this at the end of March. I might do a garden giant in my compost heap too. I think it could be fun to produce a few of those big honkers. Do any of you grow Reishi?

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Anyone taken mushroom spawn on an airplane out of the country?

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I do, on partially buried oak logs. Was lightly successful at an indoor grow just for sport.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Well, winter has caught me. The snow is 8" deep and my logs are only partially done. I got busy with work (thank God, but none now) and didn't get my poplar cut. I did innoculate about 20 decent size oak logs with shiitake though. They are lying in a heap and covered with snow. Hopefully my work wasn't in vain.

I didn't realize Silversalmon got banned. Wonder what for. Seems alot of nerves are on edge lately. He was knowledgeable and I feel it a loss.

I'm thinking a stint in the tropics would be good for the soul. Bet there are alot of wicked shrooms in the rain forest. Speaking of rainforest; I was hiking the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Upper Michigan and what a rich variety of fungus! Bejeweled with dew and hanging off ancient trees. Made me wonder if all the varieties were known. There is so much out there.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I work at a large corporation. We have industrial size coffee makers (I think they are 1 or 2 pounds per batch) I have managed to get the lady who makes the coffee in all of our buildings to dump the grounds into a bucket for me. One floor of one building and I'm getting 5-6 gallons of grounds a week. WOO HOO!

We are going to have some doozie of an oyster mushroom patch.

Im trying to get the grounds from the other levels of our building, and possibly the other buildings as well. The excess is going into our compost pile. Very happy compost too.

blorp

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

The logs will likely be fine. Depending on their girth and how early they were inoculated you may be looking at 1st fruits in spring. The snow cover is an excellent humidity and temperature insulator. It's dry, freezing winds as well as standing water that you must be aware of. It is best to incubate logs in a basement or garage as the environment is steady and controllable but plenty of success can be had on the ground.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Anyone have an answer to this question: I had a poplar fall in the early fall (sept/oct) and I cut and stacked the logs in about 4 or 5 foot sections. I would like to inoculate them with Pearl Oyster spawn. I am in MN and we are already frozen. I've been told the logs are not fresh enough for the spawn. Can any of you confirm this? Would it still be worth it to inoculate them given the low cost of plug spawn?

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

That's a hard call codger. I'd probably go ahead but only because I have a big block of spawn sitting in the fridge. I had plans but got too busy myself.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

I have a location on our property that comes up with morels every spring. Ah, HEAVEN!

If I figure out how to spread them effectively I would be deliriously happy. I tried buying some spawn years ago, but no dice.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Here's a completely nuts suggestion:
Using a charcoal chimney burn the ground in several places surrounding the growing area. When natural fruits come in wash them in a bucket and apply the resulting spore water to the recently burned sites. Try to locate the sites near tree root systems, preferably trees of the same type growing near the natural patches.

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Bumping for post, And thank you all
I was going to do shitakes back in 93~94 on a cord of oak but the ex�s when nuts and I lost it all.
But not my sons:565:

Re: I've been innoculating logs
 

Glad you didn't lose your "spawn" Nomoss. My shiitake logs fruited last August. I got about 15 mushrooms so far. Not much but maybe more luck next spring and summer, they weren't even a year old yet. I gave one log away to a freind as a gift. He soaked it and only got one mushroom. I told him he'd have better luck next year..

I'm going to try some different types this spring.