Ways to Grow Organic Mushrooms On Logs
Buy organic mushroom spawn. Mushroom spawn is specially harvested and grown fungal tissue that can be used to grow mushrooms. For the log method, select spawn in the plug form, which is basically spawn contained inside short wooden dowels.
Choose a good log. The wood should be taken from a hardwood tree, like oak or sugar maple. If cutting a branch or log from your own tree, make the cut sometime during late fall to mid spring for ideal moisture conditions and select a portion that is 3 to 8 inches (7.6 to 20.3 cm) in width. Each log should be 3 to 5 feet (0.9 to 1.5 meters) long.
( If you do not have trees on your property that you can take wood from, buy logs from sawmills or home improvement stores.)
Inoculate the logs within two weeks. The longer you wait to use your logs, the more you risk having the wood rot. Moreover, logs that have rested for too long can sometimes react poorly to inoculation and may grow inedible fungus, rather than edible mushrooms.
Drill holes in the logs. The spawn plugs should come with instructions about how big the holes should be, but for many plugs, you should use a 5/16 inch (7.9 mm) drill bit.
Drill holes in a diamond pattern. Keep a margin of 2 inches (5 cm) at the top and bottom of the logs. The top and bottom of each diamond should be between 6 and 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) apart and the sides of the diamonds should be about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart. Make as many diamonds as you can fit, or as many diamonds as you have plugs for.
Insert the plugs into the holes. The package should come with instructions, but essentially, you just need to fit the plugs into each hole.
Seal the holes. Heat organic beeswax in a double boiler until it becomes pliable. Remove the wax from the heat and spread a little wax over the top of each plug.
Store the logs. Store your logs outside, in a location that receives partial sun and partial shade. The logs should be stored vertically, leaning against one another or against another object.
Check continually. The mushrooms can take 8 to 16 months to appear.
Harvest quickly. After mushrooms emerge, you only have about one week to harvest them before they go bad. You can either pluck the mushroom by twisting and pulling it up, or you can cut the mushroom at the point where the stem meets the log.
Spur activity after the first harvest. Allow a vertical log to topple over and slam on the ground horizontally. Doing this is said to spur activity and encourage further growth in logs that have already produced mushrooms in the past.
