My wood is no good!

Hey Permies. I have been interested in growing mushrooms for a long while, and this year I did it, however I have hit some walls. The more research I do I find these are the walls many people hit that scare them away from mushroom cultivation. I am looking for some advice and help! This spring I tried growing shiitake and lionsmane on some wood chunks from a nearby lumber yard. This lumber yard makes pallets and they give away hardwood oak blocks for 10$ a truckload, so it is an amazing source of firewood if nothing else! I hoped that I could grow shiitake in them, and I tried the totem method (placing grain spawn between two chunks making a tall totem) I tried dozens of totems and each and every one of them has not fruited, and some have even fruited other fungi, or mold... some in the forest, some behind the house. I read that the best logs to use for shiitake and lionsmane is fresh, two week old cuts in the spring.. The sad fact is that I just cannot be so choosey about where I get my wood. The log chunks that the lumber mill is giving away could be sitting there for weeks or even months, but there is not clear or visible rot on them... So I need help, is there any way to make this wood usable? I know some people pressure sterilize an entire log when trying to grow chicken of the woods. ofcourse on a large scale this would be ridiculous and unfeasible. So any ideas are welcome. Here are some pictures of the failed totems. I considered that perhaps drilling hole sin the logs and inoculating like most people do might make the difference, or maybe they will just have really low success rates.

I did manage to grow oyster mushrooms in hay, not straw! Only one of 6 managed to fruit though. Just straight hay that had been sitting in a loft for a year or so. I was not crazy about the flavor, or lack of flavor, they were very bland, and it was a lot of work, for very little pay off.

Joshua, I am sorry that you had problems growing shiitake and lion mane.

Do you have any idea what kind of wood that is?  I would suspect pine which might not be the best wood for those mushrooms.

Also, I would assume that the wood in those towers might have been too dry, though I don't know.

Luke said, "I inoculated hardwood logs with Shiitake, Lion's Mane and Oyster mushrooms. I used a mixture of hazel, oak, willow and ash logs, all freshly cut to avoid contamination.  5 months on and the logs are colonising well.

https://permies.com/t/189794/Growing-Shiitake-Lion-Mane-logs

His video may help you or others with instructions on growing the mushrooms.

Anne Miller wrote:Joshua, I am sorry that you had problems growing shiitake and lion mane.

Do you have any idea what kind of wood that is?  I would suspect pine which might not be the best wood for those mushrooms.

Also, I would assume that the wood in those towers might have been too dry, though I don't know.

Luke said, "I inoculated hardwood logs with Shiitake, Lion's Mane and Oyster mushrooms. I used a mixture of hazel, oak, willow and ash logs, all freshly cut to avoid contamination.  5 months on and the logs are colonising well.

https://permies.com/t/189794/Growing-Shiitake-Lion-Mane-logs

His video may help you or others with instructions on growing the mushrooms.

It's all oak. So the type of wood is not a factor... The totems I put in the woods are shorter and definitely getting enough moisture, I will show some pictures later.

It might be too early.   I’d let them go another year or so.

Kevin,

I have an idea I would like to try out that might be helpful for you.  Bear in mind that I have not yet tried this technique, but I want to give it a go and it *might* be up your alley if you feel like an experiment.

I would like to start with 4 rounds packed together with some holes drilled in the sides angled down and in to allow water to infiltrate the log.  Fill the center gap with straw, wood chips, or a mixture of both, and then bury the other outside edges in the same straw and/or chip mix.  Moisten the whole pile, inoculate (I want to try oysters, but oaks are not ideal for oysters), and cover.

My thinking is to treat the whole pile like a fire.  The chips and straw act as kindling, eventually spreading into the log rounds which will supply the bulk of the wood for the mushrooms.  The log rounds should protect the initial interior “mushroom kindling” from drying out (still make certain to keep it moist).  The kindling should spread outward which should be further protected by the outer layer of chips & straw.

Like I said, I have not tried this yet so it’s fair game as to whether it will work or not, but at the least, I would think that you could see if the center “kindling” was brewing up and active fungi in the meantime.

For me, waiting on one of these projects is onerous and I was thinking that at very least, this gives a window into whether any fungal activity is happening at all.

If this helps, great!  If it’s too much or too risky or you just don’t want to try it, that’s fine too.

Eric

Eric,
Interesting idea!   I’d give it a try to see how it works.  Let us know.