[Crw-talk] Wood wanted

[Stromberg, James C.]

Dear CRW Members,

 

One of my hobbies beside wood turning, is growing mushrooms, shitakes to be precise.  I had a bunch of logs lined up to inoculate this year, and the deal fell through.  So, I am sitting on 5 lbs of mycelium and have no logs.

 

What I am looking for are logs 3-8" in diameter, 8" is really too large, but...... and about 40" long.  Tree tops is what I often use as they have little value.  Ideally they should have been cut before they budded out this spring.  In a perfect world, they would be oak, but any deciduous variety would  work.   I think I will need somewhere around 20-30 such logs, number depending on the diameter.  If they are on the small side, perhaps as many as 40.

 

If anyone knows of tree tops or smaller trees that might have been harvested this winter and the tops still around, I would appreciate knowing about them and who to contact to get permission to harvest them.  

 

For those of you who might have an inkling of raising mushrooms, the process is easy:  Take the logs, drill a series of holes up and down in a diamond pattern.  Take a syringe like device, (the "needle" is perhaps ½" across), fill it with mycelium sawdust mix, and inject the holes.  Cover the holes and any chain saw wounds with hot cheese wax.  Let them sit, laying down, but not on the ground, a pallet or even a couple 2x4's so you get air circulation is good, for 10-18 months.  In a cattle watering tank submerge the logs after it is clear the mycelium has travelled up the log (you will see gray rings on the end of the log when it finally has penetrated the end of the log) for 24-48 hours.  Now have a rack to keep the logs basically vertical, leaving against the rack made of a couple horizontal 2x4's.  In 2-5 days you will have mushrooms.  However the logs prefer a dark place, so dark grass won't grow, like the deep forests in China and Japan.  I have a simple structure with 4 layers of shade cloth over it,  some air can circulate, but it is calm, rain can get in and help the moisture situation.  

 

If you are interested, www.fieldforest.net will get you to the website I use to buy supplies.  No, as far as I know, they don't have "funny" mushrooms like some used in the 60's, but they do have several different varieties of mushrooms, I happen to like the shitake.

 

If you know of any wood meeting the criteria above, please let me know.  I am moderately desperate.

 

Thanks,

 

 

Jim

 

James Stromberg 
Senior Help Desk Specialist 
Information Technology 
Patient Accounting Ancillary Systems 
Office Location: Rosa Parks Pavilion 3-70-10 
Phone: 507-538-1025 
Pager: 127-07432 
E-mail: Stromberg.James at Mayo.Edu 
__________________________________ 
Mayo Clinic 
200 First Street S.W. 
Rochester, MN  55905 
www.mayoclinic.org 

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