together tightly. Fresh mushrooms will last for about a • Fill in the seams and gaps, week in a paper bag in your fridge. If surrounding the edges of the bed with your harvest is large, you can always dry your loose material. the mushrooms out, and store them in • Water in heavily. an airtight container for future use.
TIP: Using wood chips as your
cover material will give the bed an extra food source, and help retain water for the developing mushrooms when they fruit. Mushrooms should be fruiting within a year, depending on several parameters:
1. What time of the year you planted the
mushrooms.
2. What type of wood you planted the
mushrooms on. Some types of wood are more dense than others.
3. How big in diameter your logs are.
Bigger logs will take longer to colonize.
4. What type of mushroom you planted.
Different mushrooms like to fruit in different seasons. Please consult our ZONE FRUITING MAP in the learn Mushroom Rafts section on our website www.mushroommountain.com Mushrooms suitable for this method: Bricktop, Nameko, Chestnut, Reishi, Black Poplar, Shimeji, Oyster. Some mushroom species that The access to extra ground moisture Method 1 - Trenched and combined with the reduced fruiting surface thrive on wood can benefit on covered with soil area, along with a microclimate provided by logs that are partially buried, the covering of the leaves or straw, triggers This method requires excavating a space rather than being stacked and supports prolific fruiting. half the depth of your logs, large enough to above the ground like shiitake This method does last much shorter compared fit all the inoculated logs snuggly.
mushrooms. to above the ground methods. • Place the logs in a row as close together as possible. • The dirt around can be shoveled back in- between the logs and edges, then watered to allow the dirt to settle in firmly, leaving the top bark surface exposed.
Prepare Your Logs
• Follow the Inoculating Logs Handout,
to get the logs ready for the trench. Method 2 - Covered with • Chose logs that are anywhere from 3-5 wood mulch or sawdust inches across in diameter. • Stack your logs on top of each other This method requires no digging, but you somewhere in the shade, and let them sit will need to cover the logs with wood chips, like that for about 6 months. This will mulch, sawdust or soil. allow them to colonize fully. • Lay down about an inch or two of wood chips, mulch, sawdust or soil..
