Growing Shitake Mushrooms OT OOP (was Re: SC - Mushrooms)

[Jehanne Argentee]

At 01:45 AM 3/23/00 -0500, you wrote:
>I'd like to try this. Can one get sufficient spores from store-bought
>'shrooms to start one' sown mushroom factory, or do we have to go to the
>expense of getting one of those kits?
>
>Enquiring minds with dark basements need to know!
>
>Aoife

Shitake mushrooms grow on logs or in sawdust, and from what I was told,
need at least indirect sunlight. Forget most of the kits you see, they give
you 1 or 2 harvests... what you want is a Shitake log (6 harvests/year for
2-3 years). This is usually an oak log that has had holes drilled in it,
the spores injected into the holes, then the holes sealed with paraffin.

You then age the log, giving the chance to let all those spores spread
throughout the log. I've got a source in Northern Florida for innoculated,
aged logs in the $14-$20 range. 

Once you have your prepped log, stick it somewhere where it will get
watered twice a week (I keep mine in the garden so the irrigation
sprinklers get it). 

When you are ready for a harvest, you don't water it for a week. Then soak
it underwater for 24 hours (I submerge mine in an old fishtank, weighed
down with a bag of gravel). After this you want to keep the log damp as
much as possible... mist it as often as you can, and if you can keep it in
a clear plastic bag without boiling it, so much the better. In 3 or so days
you'll see little nubs popping out... almost there. In a few more days
these nubs will be mushrooms.  Stop watering, and harvest them. Waiting
won't make them get bigger once they're open, and they are best before the
gills turn black. Once you've harvested, lest it rest a month or two, then
harvest again... I try for a harvest every-other month with a log.

Some tricks I've found: 

Sink a big eye hook into one end of the log, and you can hang it from a tree.

If you don't get a mushroom harvest, rest the log for 30 days. Then pound
it hard and repeatedly against the concrete. Then soak 24 hours, etc...
don't know why, but it works for me.

Shitake logs give a bigger harvest if you stand it up on an end or hang it
in a tree than if you lay it on its side on the ground.

Some squirrels like shitake mushrooms. If yours develop a taste for
shitakes either make a chickenwire cage and stake it down... or ripen the
log in a greenhouse or sunny enclosed porch. I've had no luck with netting
or plastic bags even slowing squirrels down.
__________________________________________
NetZero - Defenders of the Free World
Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at
http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html