January 27, 2023
We need to cut all the logs we want to use for growing mushrooms - and we need to do it soon! The logs have to be from live trees, cut in the wintertime while the trees are still dormant. During the fall, trees stockpile the nutrients they’ll require come spring, and once a tree begins to wake up, it quickly starts drawing down on those reserves. Our mushrooms depend on the nutrients to thrive, so it’s important to harvest the logs when they have the highest level possible. Equally important is preserving the bark on the logs. Logs harvested in the spring have less bark retention, allowing the bark to slip off as it dries and ages. A log without its bark decomposes much sooner. A good shiitake log can last 6-8 years, but one without its bark might decompose in just 2.
The ideal log for us is 4-5 inches in diameter and 3 feet long but the vast majority of our logs are much wider and shorter than that. Unlike the mushrooms we are growing, we are adaptable - we use what wood we have available and adjust accordingly.
Once the logs are cut, they need to rest for at least two weeks, to allow the tree’s natural antifungal properties to die off. A log that is inoculated immediately may still be able to fight off the “invasion” of our chosen mushroom spores. On the other hand, if we wait too long to inoculate, another more aggressive type of mushroom might move in. The emergence of what I refer to as “squatter mushrooms” is discouraging after all the work we put into each log.
Each species of mushrooms has its own distinct personality. Some mushrooms are much more aggressive than others when it comes to colonizing a log. Shiitakes and oysters are very aggressive, which makes them easy to inoculate. They will colonize their logs quickly before another mushroom sets up shop. Maitake and “chicken of the woods” are the other extreme – they are so mellow and incubate so slowly that the logs actually need to be boiled before inoculating, to make sure no other mushroom gets a head start.
Each species of mushroom also has its own distinct preference for the type of tree it grows on. Sometimes I feel like we are trying to satisfy a dinner party of picky eaters, each with their own culinary preferences. Shiitakes prefer oak, Oysters prefer willows, Lions Mane and Comb Tooth prefer beech and sugar maples. I’d like to tell them all “Hey! you get what you get, deal with it” but in the end, Anne and I are just glorified fungi hostesses, so we do our best to keep them all happy.
The inoculating process involves drilling 30-40 holes per log. filling the holes with species specific mushroom spawn and then sealing the holes with wax.
Once inoculated, the logs have to be kept moist, in the shade, and off the ground for 6 to 24 months, depending on the species. That process is referred to as “the spawn run”. Progress of the spawn run’s incubation process can be tracked by the appearance of the mycelium (otherwise known as “hairy white stuff”) on the ends of the logs. Once the mycelium has spread throughout the log and finally covered the ends, the log is ready to produce.
It takes a lot of work and patience but neither bears, hawks, bobcats, raccoons, fox or coyotes attack our mushrooms and even without any fencing at all - the mushrooms never escape. They are always exactly where we left them the night before. Compared to raising animals - raising mushrooms is a relative breeze.