Growing Shiitake at Home

Logs inoculated with shiitake mycelium.

The Pacific Northwest is known for it's dark/damp forest floor, a perfect environment for growing our own shiitake. My daughter and I begun inoculating logs with mycelium spawn plugs from Puget Sound Mushrooms. We love the idea of fresh organic gourmet mushrooms coming from our backyard. We've been avid gardeners and dabble in organic, hydroponic gardening, but this was something brand new.

Easy to gather supplies for inoculating shiitake logs.

Getting started was actually amazingly easy. We'd been hit by a winter storm that knocked down several alders around our property. Conveniently, it was the hardwood of choice, here in the PNW for growing shiitake.

We gathered a rubber mallet, drill with a 5/16 bit and stop, ordered a couple of pounds of bees wax (cheese wax is good, too), a small paintbrush, a tin can and a small portable burner.

My maintenance team was kind enough to cut trees into four foot lengths as they cleared trails around our facility. After collecting trees, we allowed the logs to sit for about a month to allow the natural anti-fungicides, within the tree, to die. then, we started the simple inoculation process.


The Process of Inoculating Logs with Shiitake Spawn

Drill holes in a diamond pattern 4"-8" apart.

1. Clean extra debris from the exterior of the logs. Lichens and mosses can suck energy from the wood and cause competition for the mycelium.

2. Drill holes for spawn plugs. We used a 5/16 drill bit with a bit stop set to 1 and 1/14" depth. There seems to be conflicting spacing recommendations, but we went with 6 inches apart and alternating diamond pattern between the rows. A good way to select the number of "rows" that you would use is one row for every inch of diameter.

3. Insert the spawn plugs or inoculated sterile sawdust. We went with the pre-purchased spawn plugs (we may make our own in the future). Each four foot log used about 50-60 spawn plugs. these were tapped in easily with a rubber mallet (a great project for my 11 year old daughter-actually all of it was).

4. Seal the holes/plugs with bee's wax, heated to a relatively high temperature (heat assists in eliminating potentially harmful microbes). the wax seals minimize the opportunity for bugs and other naturally occurring fungi to enter the holes. We sealed the bottom of the logs to minimize the same issues with the bottom of the log.

I've left the logs overnight (with a small sprinkler on them) in order to ensure enough moisture.

That's it. Your logs are ready to go.

Most of my research has suggested that logs need to be stored in about 80-90% shade and kept at 30-50% moisture level (easy in the PNW).

Log inoculated with shiitake mycelium spawn.

We are currently selecting our spot for the 6-18 month wait for the mycelium to take over the logs and for the shiitake to "fruit."

We'll keep you in the loop.