Part of the process
Logs and outdoor beds
Outdoors the same process runs at the speed of the seasons. A drilled and plugged hardwood log takes about a year to fruit and then produces for several years; a wine cap bed in wood chips or straw fruits in two to ten months.
- Shiitake log
- 4 to 6 in across, 3 to 4 ft long, first crop in about a year
- Wine cap bed
- 3 to 5 in of wood chips, first crop in 2 to 10 months
Log growing swaps the bag for a tree. Freshly cut hardwood logs about 4 to 6 inches across and 3 to 4 feet long are drilled in a diamond pattern, filled with plug or sawdust spawn and sealed with wax. Shiitake prefers oak and sugar maple, oysters softer woods such as poplar and aspen, lion's mane beech and maple; the wood chart lists the matches.
Then the logs wait in the shade, off the ground, for the spawn run: about a year for shiitake, as little as six months or as long as two years depending on the spawn and the log. After that a shiitake log can be soaked in cold water for 12 to 24 hours to force a crop, rested for six to ten weeks, and soaked again. Shiitake on logs has every figure.
A bed is quicker and lower. Wine cap spawn is layered into 3 to 5 inches of fresh hardwood chips, or deeper straw, kept watered, and fruits two to ten months later, often for two or three years if fresh chips are added. Growing mushrooms in the garden covers the bed, and oysters outdoors covers logs, straw and buckets.
Common mistakes at this stage
- Using logs that were cut months ago and have dried out or been claimed by other fungi.
- Stacking inoculated logs in full sun or leaving them in contact with soil.
- Eating anything that comes up in a bed without being certain it is the species you planted.