I’ve been discussing what I learned at a do-it-yourself mushroom log growing workshop for the last three posts. Did I subsequently create an inoculated mushroom log? No, I did not. I jumped to the “hurry up and wait” portion of the process by purchasing a pre-inoculated log from my instructor (I wonder if he had a hunch that attendees would want to skip to the near-end). I will be twiddling my thumbs, letting the log lean under a shady tree until fall, when the mushrooms begin the reproductive portion of their life cycle.

I’ll get to Phase 4 of the growing process—Production—in a bit. But first, let’s take a look at the previous three phases that got us to this far:

Phase 1 of DIY mushroom log growing is Substrate Acquisition, where you find a suitable log which you’ll inoculate with mushroom spawn. This phase is all about judgement. Choosing the right log and the number of them for your desired harvest, pre-determining a space for keeping the logs, i.e. wood yard, are key steps.

Phase 2 of DIY mushroom log growing is inoculating that log properly, with the right tools and the mushroom spores of your choice. This phase is all about initiating the growing process and is labor intensive.

Phase 3, the spawn run, is the proper placement of the logs and giving the inoculated log time and the proper conditions to fill with mushroom spores. The log in Phase 3 is pretty much doing all of the work.

Doing the Mushroom Production Numbers

As you’ve read or heard in Phase 3, the inoculated logs can take anywhere from six to 18 months to produce the fruiting bodies we know as mushrooms. Also mentioned in the Phase 3 edition, that fruiting process can be accelerated by soaking the log in water for up to 24 hours. Now you know why I bought my pre-inoculated log—I wanted to get a jump on the process and see if my skills at fruiting the logs would be worth the investment of tools and supplies.

I also wanted to see if the amount harvested from the log would be worth the time. Our workshop instructor indicated that each harvest run of mushrooms would give us ½-1½ pounds of shiitakes. This is from a log that is 3-4 ft. long and about 5-7 in. in diameter. The log will produce for a good three years, maybe four, with multiple harvests per year (I’ll say two, to be conservative). Let’s say this log will give me six harvests of 1 pound each. Locally produced (to me) shiitakes are going for $5.99/4 oz, so that’s $24/pound. That would be $144 worth of mushrooms over the course of the lifetime of this inoculated log, for which I paid $30.

Doing the math, it seems as though I would get a return on my investment within a few years should I decide to purchase the DIY mushroom log growing tools and supplies. But that’s just doing the numbers. I shall wait to see how good I am at actually growing the mushrooms.

Harvesting Log-Grown Mushrooms

Okay, so you’ve waited for the logs to pop their mushrooms, or “pins” and you’ve got a bunch of shiitakes getting bigger by the day. Now what? Wait until the gills (the underside of the cap) become exposed and then harvest. Do this while the cap is concave and still a little curled.

Here’s a video I found showing someone doing a great job harvesting mushrooms from a log.

That’s all I have on the topic of growing mushrooms on logs. Intrigued? Want to learn more? I found this great blog post on the USDA site about commercial shiitake mushroom growing as a forest farming enterprise. Maybe you will be the mushroom workshop instructor some day!

Finally, a Recipe

I found this mushroom recipe on the Bon Appetit website a few years ago. It calls for a mix of mushrooms, so those log-grown shiitakes would be at home in this Creamy-ish of Mushroom Soup. Why “creamy-ish”? Because there’s no actual cream in it. You’d never know. Super good. Give it a try.