Mushroom Logs

Yesterday was the perfect day to inoculate some logs. We ordered spawn and a cool inoculation tool that puts sawdust spawn into pre-drilled holes. We cut down the sugar maple wood 10 days ago. That was the first step.

Then we drilled a lot of holes with a special drill bit that attaches to an angle grinder. 

Here is Matt working hard. We used 2 strains of shiitake spawn – one that fruits in late Fall and early Spring and another that fruits during the warmer months. This will extend the harvesting season.

Maple with spawn in the holes:

We used hot wax (with mineral oil in it) to seal the inoculation sites so that other fungi wouldn’t have a chance.

Now we have about 48 logs and hopefully some will fruit this October! See the stacking method Matt used below: