I am not an experienced mushroom cultivator. However, I've gotton some logs started this year and last and I inoculated a 7ft stump/snag (softwood) that we left for the purpose with
Chicken of the Woods last year. I have an "associate" who tried logs and took short cuts and worked with what he had, as in he didn't cap the plugs with wax and he wasn't sure how old the cut of his logs was. He did not have any success and it took me 3 years to get us past his dismissals of the process to make my own attempt.
I can see neon orange mycelium growing at plug sites out through/around the wax caps on the snag. I consider that an early sign of success.
The casual dismissal of wax capping surprised me and the statements regarding the benefit of inoculating the freshest logs seem slightly counter to what I've read of Stamets. I'm under the impression that trees produce anti-fungals while alive therefore it is best to allow 4-6wks before inoculation to allow the anti-fungals to dissipate, while making sure to inoculate by 6 months post cut. Does Sepp not worry about this?
So far, it is my
feeling, as I've no real
experience, that wax capping is an investment in the protection of the mycelium from any of the critters that might love to eat it up before it's had a chance to spread into the log. The worry about wasting time and
energy on wax capping is the same worry my "associate" has re: the initial effort one has to put into a
permaculture system; I find such worries misplaced. (Catastrophe!)
Also, I believe there was discussion re: perpetuating the process; my favorite idea to try is to intersperse fresh logs with inoculated (preferably fruiting) logs to inoculate by proximity, thereby eliminating my need to maintain or purchase plug spawn and the work associated with the inoculation process.
RE: Morels, there was a recent
morel post by Stamets, re: the initial success he's having with morel patches. I called and spoke with a Fungi Perfecti associate. He stated that it is FP's
hope that they will have morel patches for sale by August 2012, and that they are taking names and #'s of those interested to be contacted at a later date. When I asked him what I should be doing in the interim he mentioned that morels seem to like sterile land and that I should be burning fires or spreading
ash where ever I wanted my patch and that they also seem to like tended landscaping (which is why we harvested a shovel's worth of soil with a morel growing from it from a barren wood chipped landscape and transplanted it into our wood chipped, but fertile garden patch, haven't seen anything from it yet, one year out).
It is my understanding that you choose the type of wood, soft v hard, based on the mushroom you're working with and since I had both types of wood, I got varieties of plug spawn for both types of wood.
I'm going to end up buying this book just to see how Sepp's advice differs from Stamets', (Ok not just for that). And as I'm very new to permies.com, I'm saddened to hear that the Pauls haven't found a way to blend their Paul Powers as I have found the info provided by both to be invaluable and complementary.