John Suavecito

Eric Hanson wrote:I see nothing wrong with adding compost.  But do it after letting the water sit.  The reason: compost will shade the water—especially the lower part—and the chlorine might not get fully irradiated by the sun.  But after 2 days, go for it!

And regarding the logs—frustrating trying to isolate the logs from everything that might try to compete.  But then these did exist in the wild far earlier than any human tried to make the process work for himself.  So it can deal with some pressure.

Great point on the waiting.  I will take note of that.

Your second point would be helpful if I were trying to increase the evolutionary power of the shiitake species.  However, my goal is to increase the yield of my shiitake mushrooms.  Making preferable habitat for other fungi won't help that.  Same with wet paper.  

Newspaper is an interesting idea.  It might, over time, attract spores from weed fungi, which is a real problem with shiitake. It is amazing to see how many spores flow through the air that we can't see.   I agree that leaving water out for a few hours lets chlorine drift off.  I do that.  Elaine Ingham told me that if you put a bit of compost in tap water, enough to see that it has visibly turned brown, it will neutralize the chloramine.

John S
PDX OR

I agree on both counts.
John S
PDX OR

Interesting idea.  You have to put shiitake on pallets because they will be infected by weed fungi. Sawdust would infect them, as would water, probably. They are from a summer rain climate, which I clearly don't live in.

John S
PDX OR

I like these ideas in general.  Specifically, there are problems.

90% of the rain falls in between November and May.  When do you need the most water? In between May and November, so you'd use it all up in the first month, if it would last that long.  I have a small property, so I don't have a good place to store water, and buying the equipment would be very expensive.  

My logs are shiitake. If you bury them or put wood chips around them, you will have weed fungi logs, not shiitake logs.  

These are very good ideas, and they will probably help someone reading this, but I don't think they'll help me very much.  Thanks though.
John S
PDX OR

Here in the PNW, we have exceedingly dry and hot summers.  Not good for mycelium.  I have read for years that people took out a hose and watered their mushroom log stacks.  I can see how that's convenient, but the water probably contains both chlorine and chloramine, both which are anti-fungal chemicals. Seems to miss the point. It also seems to waste water.  The water doesn't stay very efficiently on the logs. Almost all of it rolls off right away.  Then I read that some put water in a 5 gallon bucket, add compost or a bit of dirt to neutralize the chlorine and chloramine, then pour it on the logs.  I think that's better for the logs, but still wasting water.  

For years, I decided to use a 5 gallon bucket with compost/dirt, but I would dunk each log in the water once a month.  It was better for the logs and avoided the wasting water problem.  However, it was a ton of work and also a long time between dunkings.  Then I thought of a new solution.  I would use a normal spray bottle to water them.  Easier on the back and also efficient with water.  Problem? It takes forever and doesn't send out enough water.  So I went down to the sporting goods store and bought one of those kid toy squirt bottles that they blast each other with.  Better, but still takes a long time and emits limited water.

Luckily I was able to consult with a cute girl I happen to be married to.  She said, "Why don't you use the sprayer that you use for compost tea? They are pretty big. You can get them at a big box store for $20 or so, and I already owned one.  I made sure the water had been composted/dirted? so it was slightly brown.  I filtered it so it wouldn't clog the sprayer.  It covered the logs quickly and with very little effort.  I had to uncover the tarps on the logs to do it, because during these mid summer months, even on the North side of the house, the logs get some sun. Sun is not good for mycelium.  I did it in the morning so they could dry off before being recovered in the late afternoon NW sunshine.

This way works way better for me, and I'm going to keep doing this until one of you clever people comes up with a new, innovative way that works better than this.

John S
PDX OR

I don't have data on that.  I dig it in as a dripline around the trees and bushes, from 1" to 6" deep.
John S
PDX OR

As Archie Bunker used to say, "You know Edith, you don't really buy beer.  You just rent it for awhile!"

John S
PDX OR

I mainly charge my biochar with liquid inoculants because it's faster.   Warning: this post might make you slightly uncomfortable. The main liquid inoculant that I use is urine.  I used to store it in plastic fruit juice containers on the back patio.  Then I realized that it was more convenient to have it in the bathroom.  Then I realized that I might not want to have so much plastic in my soil.  I started storing the urine in wine bottles.  I realized that pouring it into the wine bottles was somewhat difficult. Then I started saving up spaghetti sauce jars, which are glass.  Now there isn't any urine stored in plastic jars, but I may transfer it from the bathroom to outside in a plastic jar.  I am considering leaving more old glass spaghetti sauce jars in the bathroom to avoid the plastic altogether.  As always, I welcome anyone with a better idea.

John S
PDX OR

Yes, as r ransom said,
There are a lot of people getting excited about Big Leaf Maple syrup out here.  It's purportedly more savory and more expensive than the sugar maple.  

I tried to eat mature maple leaves. I just couldn't do it.

Linden leaves from the little leaf linden are really good tasting. I planted the tree to make the leaves my vegetable. Apparently, you can grow shiitakes on them too when they get big enough to cut down. Little leaf linden is a common street tree. I was skateboarding by them and noticed them, so I gathered the seeds and now I have the trees.   I also eat birch leaves. Not too bad. They have natural aspirin like compounds in them.  If I can diversify my gut microbiome for free and it doesn't taste bad, why not?  Hawthorn has heart protective compounds in them so I eat those leaves too. The fruit as well, of course. Some hawthorns have much better tasting and larger fruit than others. I grafted the better fruited ones onto the ones with worse fruit. You can also graft pears on them, which I've done.  I also eat Rose of Sharon leaves.  Not just a pretty shrub.  Will grow easily from cuttings as well.

These are good strategies for saving money and being healthy.

JohN S
PDX OR