Just got into growing mushrooms. I really want to do this for a living I did not realize how much I was going to like this. Thank you for all of the great advice and sharing all the videos. I learned a lot and hopefully I'll be able to do what I love in the future at some point.
Hey Renegade, Mark from Charlotte, I did this yrs ago with great results..got about 3 yrs of growth. But sure is a pain to fruit. I would put a tarp in the bed of my truck, fill with water and soak the logs a couple times a yr and stacked in the shade. Had good results but the slugs and bugs were a problem. You are a great teacher!
@@RenegadeMushrooms I thought about doing that but I was under the impression that I needed to continue hosing them down till they pinned. So I guess a good soak is all they need? Then allow them to sit in the garage till they fruit?
@@mse1333 Yeah I do a 24 hour soak in a barrel of cold water, then on to a tarp in the garage. All you may have to do is mist them with a portable spray mister once they're in the garage to keep them happy. Works great and keeps the bugs off.
I'm just starting a small commercial operation. Put in a 170sf bed of Wine Caps, 20 logs of WR46, 2-3 logs each of Halo and Jupiter strains of Shiitake and 4 logs of Chestnut. All the spawn from F&FP. I'm curious if you (or anyone else here) has tried ANY mushroom on Hickory. I have more Hickory than Oak or Maple on my property, 2nd only to Sweet Gum. I've asked F&FP and they said they didn't think Hickory was a good host for Shiitake. But, I'm just wondering if anyone has tried using it for anything. TIA. I've watched a lot of F&FP's vids and some others. Your vids are really good and have a different approach. Subscribed and Thumbs Up!
I have never tried hickory personally, but if all else fails, you could grow Turkey Tail mushroom on it. There is a demand online for dried USA grown Turkey Tail in the medicinal/herbal world. If you are looking to sell Winecaps, make sure you pick them very early. They are very productive but have a tendency to get full of fungus fly larvae pretty quick.
Never grew shiitake, although I've researched cultivating it quite a bit. I've read that after cutting the logs, they should sit for a few months to let some kind of natural antifungal substances break down or diminish.
That's only if you cut the trees during the active growing season, which should be avoided if at all possible. During the growing season, trees secrete antifungal enzymes to protect themselves from infection so you need to give them time for those enzymes to dissipate. The best way is to cut them during the dormant season, basically between leaf drop in the fall and bud swell in the spring. If you do that you can inoculate immediately or let them rest under the snow until temps are conducive for inoculation (spring). This depends on your climate of course. Winter cut logs will also have a higher sugar content so your yields will be better and your bark will stay attached longer.
Small business owned tree services are more than willing to sell or give you logs and/or wood chips. You might have to cut the logs to size after, but if you notice a company cutting down an oak tree and offer to take the logs or cuttings; you're likely to get it for free.
Either is fine, you just want to cut when trees are dormant so after leaf change in the fall to before bud swell in the spring. I prefer to cut mine in late winter, usually in February.
Hey bro, have you ever inoculated birch? I have a bunch of 6-10 inch diameter river birch logs. What mushroom species would you suggest and what method. Totems or drilling? Thank you
You could probably do either with logs that size. Here's a link to the Field & Forest tree suitability chart, it's a great resource: www.fieldforest.net/category/growing-mushrooms-on-logs
So, if the logs get too dry, does the mycelium die, or do you just have to get them wet? Or do contaminants take over? I've got a deep probe moisture meter and some of my logs are 45-55% MC and some are 20%. I'm just wondering if the 20% logs are not worth keeping. Thanks.
The mycelium will die, you can try to completely submerge and hydrate them for 24 hours if they're borderline, but they eventually get to the point where the mycelium dies and the logs won't absorb moisture.
@@RenegadeMushrooms Thanks. Living in Appalachian Virginia, in the forest, I would hope the logs would stay moist enough, since we have lots of natural mushrooms all over; but certainly could have. The other issue I wonder about is contamination. I don't think I have been careful to keep my logs off the ground during the early spawn run, so with our diverse wild mushroom population, the logs may struggle more with competitors. It is surprising to me that sometimes I will cut a poplar tree down in the woods, and within 1-2 years there are wild oysters growing on it, but some of my oyster logs never produce, despite pluggin them! I'm planning to do a neighborhood workshop to plug some logs and tell people to weigh their log when they get home and then keep a record of the log's weight over months. Do you think that is a good way to keep track of moisture too? Thanks.
@@davidmitchell3671 I think monitoring the weight is a great idea. I've never owned one, but I've heard from others that some wood moisture probes can be pretty inaccurate. I used to grow oysters and shiitake commercially outdoors on logs for restaurants, and we always left one end of the log on the ground. Sometimes you'd get a little false turkey tail growing here or there on the ends, but we would just trim an inch off with the chainsaw. For the most part it wasn't an issue. I highly recommend the totem method with larger diameter logs for oysters vs. plugging. That method always gave us much better results for the oyster species we grew.
Hey bud what is the difference between shitake sawdust spawn and a shitake fruiting block? I understand the fruiting blocks have wheat bran and gypsum in them in order to feed the mycelium through the whole fruiting process but is sawdust spawn the same thing or is it just the hardwood fuel pellets and water in sawdust spawn? I'm asking because I want to inoculate some logs like you did here with sawdust spawn but I only have shitake fruiting blocks started. Can I use them to inoculate the logs or should I go online and purchase sawdust spawn specifically?
You can absolutely use fruiting blocks to inoculate your logs. As you mentioned, fruiting blocks are just spawn blocks with some extra nutrients added. One 5 lb. fruiting block should do around 20 logs.
@@coryyounger3313 Yes, typically it is just straight aged sawdust or HWFP. Sometimes, depending on species, there are other additives to help with colonization. But for the most part it is straight sawdust.
Yes it does, but colonization takes a long time and Lions Mane doesn't yield very heavy on logs. Lions Mane is one that is much better to grow indoors on pasteurized hardwood fuel pellets. It's less effort and more return. Here's a video on that if you're interested: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N-Qpb3K8EL0.html
