Growing Shiitake, Nameko, and Oyster mushrooms - inoculation video included.
If you've got access to freshly cut logs and stumps, harvesting mushrooms could be in your future.
Cliff notes:
-Mushrooms are an excellent use of shady space.
-Mushrooms often fruit during the time of year when little else is freshly available.
-The cost of spawn quickly pays for itself.
-I’ve had the most success with shiitake and oyster on logs of red alder, big-leaf maple, and native hazelnut.
-There are other tree species you could try, along with other methods of growing mushrooms besides growing them on logs.
What’s worked (and not) for me on logs:
Shiitakes are, hands down the easiest, most prolific, and best tasting to grow from logs in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve fruited them from Red Alder, which grows most abundantly here. Big-leaf maple has also worked. Also successful for me - if you can find them thick enough (over 5”) - are logs of corylus cornuta - our native California beaked hazelnut.
Though shiitakes are my favorite, I have had success growing namekos on weedy cherry species. They taste delicious! But they fruit sparsely, and if you miss their fruiting window they go past prime condition for eating. Also, be careful on this one, as the deadly galerina species could be confused with it. If you have an abundance of that non-native weedy cherry and want to give it a shot, this could be a good option for you with precaution.
Oysters are also wickedly easy to grow, but I don’t personally care for their flavor. Many people do, and you can easily find out if you like oysters by buying some at the store or farmer’s market and tasting.
The Elm Oysters taste better, but the fruits hide and are difficult to see. This spawn is also difficult to find.
I’ve tried growing lion’s mane and bear’s head on logs, but can’t get them to fruit.
Caution:
Even though shiitakes and oysters don’t look like deadly galerinas, it is a good practice to learn to identify it if you are growing those species of mushrooms on logs. For identification, there’s about a zillion websites that have this info, but easiest for me is to whip out my tried and true field guide called All That the Rain Promises and More by David Arora.
If you are ever looking to get into mushroom hunting, you will want this book at a minimum on hand. Trust me. I have all the books and none are easier to use than David Arora’s book.
You will not find all commonly grown species of mushrooms in this book, other than oysters because they are native here. Rather, the book will help you identify what else *could* have infected from your logs. Though, that phenomenon is unlikely if you follow instructions.
Just be sure your’re familiar with what you’re trying to grow so you don’t accidentally eat something you weren’t intending on ingesting. For example: get familiar with the woodiness of the shiitakes’ stalk, or the way that oysters grow in clumps with gills running down their stalk.
Easy ways to familiarize yourself with the species you’re considering growing: buy from the grocery store or farmer’s markets. You can also purchase most species as pre-made fruiting blocks, and grow them indoors!
There are other methods you can use to grow mushrooms besides using logs. I’ve tried winecap mushrooms in garden soil and mulch, but I don’t personally care for the flavor. I’ve tried almond agaricus, but I’ve never gotten it to go in my garden, and it requires special inputs. I’ve also tried blewits that grow in leafy piles, and they never fruited for me. For more info about mushroom growing not using logs, there are several books, and Field and Forest has an excellent page on the topic. Maybe you’ll have better luck than me - please do let me know!
The reason I’m fond of log growing is that I have an abundance of trees that needs removing from my food growing areas. Also a reduction of ladder fuels in case of a wildfire is a priority for me. Re-purposing this wood is an excellent way to make use of it.
First, a video of me inoculating a log. I thought it would be best to give you a visual of the method I use, which will give you a sense of what I’m referring to in the steps I’ve outlined below.
Steps to inoculating logs:
Start with a suitable species of wood at least 4” diameter, 4’ long, freshly cut during the correct season (but aged at least a week).
-Suitable species: I have had success with Red Alder, native Hazelnut, and Bigleaf Maple. For other species in our area that I don’t have experience with, you could consult the book Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Paul Stamets. For an easy-to-read chart not specific to our area, check the graphic on this page.
-Correct cutting season: late fall/winter is best. Again consult the Field and Forest page for a graphic on best timing.
-Aging for at least a week will allow the anti-fungal properties of the wood to die off.Select inoculation method and buy quality spawn.
-Inoculation method: easiest for me is to drill and pound in a wooden dowel with a hammer. There is also “sawdust” spawn, that ends up being cheaper if you do a lot of logs, but it does require special equipment that is initiallyexpensive.
-Quality spawn: I’ve had the best luck with products purchased from the east coast supplier Field and Forest. I selected West Wind because of it’s drought tolerance, as our area experiences considerable drought in the summer (though I do water my logs in summer). I am also trailing a few other strains that are known to fruit in either very hot or very cold weather to extend my harvest period.
-If you’ve got stumps: you can inoculate them using sawdust spawn. Scroll to the bottom of this page to see how it is done using the “totem” method.Drill, fill, and seal.
Drill: I use a drill bit with a stopper that I purchased long ago from Fungi Perfecti. It came as a kit that has other products I don’t like. It’s probably just as easy to use an appropriate size drill. Drill one hole every four to six inches, in a diamond pattern all over the log, as I show in the the video.
Fill: the kit I purchased some years ago came with a rubber mallet. That mallet doesn’t get the dowel all the way in the hole. Better to use just a regular hammer and tap in gently so the dowel doesn’t split.
Seal: this step helps the spawn not dry out while it is inoculating. Most literature and suppliers will have you melting a wax to apply to the filled holes. You have to be careful that the wax is not too hot to kill the spawn. And fiddling with melting wax it isn’t my jam. Far simpler and a cheap alternative is the pliable wax that Field and Forest offers, where you just take a pinch and rub it over the hole.Inoculate & keep moist.
Inoculate: some strains take a few years to fruit, while others take only a few months. Refer to the supplier’s info.
As for how to store the logs, I know there are special ways you can do it, but I don’t know exactly what the benefits are. What’s worked for me is laying a pallet on the ground (to keep the logs up from weeds that block my view of the mushrooms). Start a layer with two logs on either end of the pallet where the grooves are (which holds the logs in pace). Then lay another two or three logs on top, crosswise. Keep alternating layers criss-cross, until they are five feet or so in height. This can be challenging if the logs are of alternate diameter. Play with it until you have something that won’t tumble down on you. You want to be able to reach into all areas of the logs to collect fruits, like this:
Keep moist: when summer drought comes along, water the logs. The general advice is to make sure the logs get at least 1” of water per week.
The Harvest:
You can wait until the logs fruit naturally, or, if you’ve got shiitake logs you can soak them in cool water to force them to fruit. I’ve never done that as I’ve got too many things to do. I like their natural harvest season - which is often when nothing else is freshly available.
If you’ve got so many you don’t know what to do with them all, I recommend saute and freeze for all mushroom species. Easy to reheat and eat whenever you want. You can also dehydrate shiitake easily, should you wish to stock up on shelf-stable foods. But not all mushrooms dehydrate well - notably chanterelles - do your research.
Slugs and other creepy crawlies are the only trouble I’ve had growing mushrooms.
Slugs: our area of Western Oregon is prime slug habitat. Particularly my property, which has a high amount of shade and quite a bit of which is wetland.
When I first started growing, I was super annoyed by how much slugs will eat. But that was when I only had a few logs. Now I have a few dozen, and the slugs can’t keep up. Slugs will still much on the mushrooms, but I find the damage acceptable and still eat most of them.
Commercial growers in our area would probably find their products unmarketable with too many holes.
And if you’re only planning on growing a few - like 5 logs - you’re probably going to frustrated by the amount of slug damage.
Other creepy crawlies: there’s various other insects that seem to love feeding on mushrooms. Just wash them off well. Yes, washing will make your mushrooms soggy. You can dry them on a towel overnight, squeeze them like a sponge into the sink, or simply cook them longer to drive the water off.
The information that is provided here is free for gardeners of all financial means. If you’d like to financially support this site, you can make one-time donations or monthly subscriptions on this link. All proceeds will fund more garden projects to share here with you, dear readers!
Have you tried growing mushrooms before? What’s worked (or not) for you?