Shiitake Mushrooms

Ben and I went into the woods this evening to harvest a maple tree for purposes of sporing Shiitakes. We selected a maple tree about 20 feet tall and cut it up into 2-3 foot sections. Ben has started drilling his and inserting the plugs already. Here are some examples of what we are doing.



First, of course, I took the shiitake spore plugs I ordered a few months ago out of the fridge.



As you can see, even in the fridge the mold has started to grow out of the plugs. This is good, and illustrates how fertile these plugs are.



Ben drilled out the holes about 2-3 inches apart in the logs with an electric drill.



He then selected the spores one by one out of the bag. The mold had already grown so much that they plugs were grown together. It was really kinda neat.



He then tapped them in with a hammer so they were flush with the log. Later he is going to put a thin coat of bee's wax over the plug holes to help protect against foreign germs and fungi. Overall this process if fairly easy, but it could take up to two years to see if it works out or not. I am anxious to see what results come of the project. I will be seeding the plugs in the rest of the logs at my house near the end of this week.