Because of the fire at Mountain Gardens, we had to fell some burned trees and ended up with a lot of wood. The trunks went into lumber production, the small branches are drying to be used as firewood and the medium sized branches and tree stumps are inoculated with mycelium to produce edible and medicinal mushrooms.

The trees we had to fell were mostly tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), some hickory (Carya ovata) and white oak (Quercus alba) and one maple tree (Acer sp.).

We ordered mycelium of Shiitake (Lentinula edodes), different Oyster varieties (Pleurotus ostreatus) and Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus). According to the mushrooms preferences, the hardwood (hickory and white oak) was inoculated with Shiitake, the softwood (tulip poplar) with Oyster and the maple with Lion's mane.

To inoculate the logs and the stumps we drilled holes about 6 inches apart all around with a special drill bit on an angular grinder.

While drilling the holes we let paraffin wax melt on a small and mobile rocket stove. Bees wax would also work but is much more expensive. The wax should not get smoking hot as it can easily catch fire.

While one person is drilling the holes, two to three persons can inoculate the wood with a hand inoculator that is stabbed into the bag of myceliated medium (grain seeds or sawdust) until full and then emptied into the drilled holes. Another person can than seal the filled holes with wax using a cotton dauber.

Afterwards we stacked the logs of the same variety in a shady and wind protected place. Make sure to keep enough space between the logs to be able to reach any surface of the logs forharvesting the mushrooms. The softwood may be starting to fruit in the same year, the hardwood will take at least a few years to fully myceliate but will produce for a longer time than the softwood.

The stumps may even take longer until they start fruiting mushrooms.

The Shiitake logs that were inoculated a few years ago tend to fruit quite reliably a few days after it rained.