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How dominant is turkey tail?

 
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Short version: Is there any hope of shiitake, lions mane or blue oyster outcompeting turkey tail in maple wood?

This winter we had to cut down 2 old sugar maples. It took a while to get spawn and the spring was very warm but I went ahead and did sawdust spawn inoculation and sealed with wax.
There were signs, on the done longs, that there was some mycelium growth, so I was hopeful. We got some heavy rains last week and when I checked there are the starts of what are clearly turkey tails fruiting bodies all over both the stuff I did and all the logs I didn't do.

I am just wondering if there is any hope for any of what I wanted to grow through? ( I think I have a buyer for the turkey tail, so it's not a total loss but....)
 
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I've had similar problems before. Turkey tail is one of the most common "weeds" of mushroom logs. They will definitely decrease your yield of shiitake, lion's mane and oysters. but there is an excellent chance that you will still get some mushrooms of the desired species- just not as many. In this situation, I remove the turkey tail, dry it and then continue monitoring the logs and keeping them moist. Time will tell. Good luck!
 
Dian Green
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Had my first Shiitake show up on my logs! Nothing yet on the lions mane but I did get 2 small blue oysters last fall.
20250505_184040.jpg
first Shiitake mushroom, May 2025
first Shiitake mushroom, May 2025
20250505_184045.jpg
back of Shiitake mushroom
back of Shiitake mushroom
 
M.K. Dorje Sr.
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Dian, that's awesome, thank you for keeping us posted!
 
Dian Green
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Just to further update: even with this being a very dry year, the shiitake have been giving us small amounts on the regular and now are doing a bigger flush.
I cooked a big group last night, took a trio today and the logs have lots of buds. Also got blue oysters both from one of stacked logs and they are showing up on several of the huge sections that just got a few innoculation points.
Very excited and enjoying how delicious they all are!
20250914_192847.jpg
Last nights mushrooms
Last nights mushrooms
20250915_171322.jpg
shiitake stack today, Sept 15,2025
shiitake stack today, Sept 15,2025
20250915_172740.jpg
today's garden haul
today's garden haul
 
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Location: The Deep Valley, Northern California
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I take it you're doing this as a cottage industry? You mentioned possible buyer for the t tails, which implies that. Have you considered sterilized straw innoculations? You'll get much quicker and sure fire fruiting. Did the lions mane ever fruit? I have found sometimes logs will take a while before they finally fruit.
 
Dian Green
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I'm not actually trying to sell, just wanted lots to eat and to use the wood when we had to take down a couple of old maples.
There is lots of wood that didn't get inoculated and is showing turkey tail so I was willing to sell to a guy who asked but it looks like that won't be happening.

No fruits yet on the lions mane, but after some more reading, it looks like they generally don't fruit until the second year for this type of set up so I remain hopeful.

 
I agree. Here's the link: http://stoves2.com
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