← Mushrooms H18-03 · Module 3 of 7 · Pages: 21 · Worksheets: 6

Shiitake and oyster mushrooms on logs

From winter felling to harvest: choosing wood, drilling and inoculating logs, waxing, colonisation, soaking and picking 3–5 years running, plus oysters on poplar and stumps

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Shiitake and oyster mushrooms on logs

In short

  • Shiitake: oak, hornbeam, beech (in North America also sugar maple and ironwood), 8–20 cm across, roughly 1 m long, felled while dormant (December–March), with undamaged bark.
  • Inoculate within 2–6 weeks of felling (best 2–4). Roughly 40–60 holes per 1 m log (diameter in cm × 4), in a diamond pattern.
  • Seal the holes with wax at 70–90 °C, and the log ends too if they are cracked.
  • Colonisation takes 6–18 months in shade, watered in drought. Then soak for 12–24 h and pick within 7–12 days; rest 8–12 weeks.
  • Wild mushrooms, including deadly ones, can grow on logs. Pick only your own species, recognised beyond doubt.

What's inside

Chapters

  1. Why logs
  2. Wood: species, size and felling
  3. Spawn for logs
  4. Inoculating step by step
  5. Colonisation
  6. Fruiting and soaking
  7. Oysters on logs and stumps
  8. How much and for how long
  9. Common mistakes
  10. Printable checklist

Worksheets

  • Log calendar
  • Holes and materials calculator
  • Date calculator
  • Log register
  • Soaking and harvest log
  • Log labels

Fields and checkboxes can be filled in with Adobe Acrobat Reader (desktop and mobile), and the calculator adds up by itself. Filling in may not work in some browsers. A print version comes with the screen PDF.

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