Cultivation of mushroom shiitake on wood logs

Shiitake are the button mushroom of Japan and China. Shiitake mushroom cultivation techniques were probably introduced to Japanese farmers by the Chinese between 1500 and 1600 AD.

Historically grown up on logs of the shi tree in Japan, log cultivation remains the easiest method for the home cultivator in the United States. 

Mushroom can be grown on wood logs, providing that they are wood-decaying saprotorphs. In China, Taiwan, Japan and other East-Asian countries it is still practiced for the industrial production of shiitake. 

Logs are cut form trees approximately 5-20 cm in diameter and 1.5 m long with intact bark.

Inoculation can be by several methods, including spore emulsions, compressed spawn inoculum, directly into holes in the wood.

For small scale culturing, inoculation holes are drilled onto the log with a manually operated boring tool, but a boring machine or electric hand drill with a fix-size bit should be used for large scale culturing.

After 9-12 months the wood should be well colonized and the logs are restacked in a more upright stance. 

Log grown mushrooms give sometimes better quality and fetch higher prices than mushroom cultivated on sawdust substrate.
Cultivation of mushroom shiitake on wood logs