Shiitake Mushroom Logs

Hello folks, I just thought I would post some pictures of our recent addition of Shiitake Mushroom logs. If all goes well, we should have some delicious mushrooms to eat this time next year. We purchased our plugs from Uprising Seeds. You can also find plug spawn from Fungi Perfecti. This time we used maple logs, some of which were down only about 5 weeks, others were down since last December-ish. It's important to use logs that are not too old (one to two months seems perfect), because other fungus might have already inoculated the logs from the natural environment. We took a chance with the older logs, which had been down for about 4 months or so, we'll see what happens. Just about any hard wood can be used for this purpose, as long as the logs are not too large and have not been down more than a few months. We sealed our plugs in with a cheese wax purchased from Fungi Perfecti. You can also use bees wax. Wax seals and protects the plug spawn, helping to insure that the shiitake spawn properly inoculates the log and does not get contaminated. We put these plugs in at the beginning of March. This process was beyond easy and came with detailed instructions. Happy and long lasting mushroom logs are just a few hours of easy labor away!

The Basics:


Drilling holes in the maple logs with 5/16" drill bit:


Here's Kat hammering in some plugs:


Kat sealing the logs with cheese wax (you can also use bees wax):


Presto!! Be sure to keep logs in a damp and shaded area: