Saturday, August 1, 2020

More EcoEcho Forest Cultivation Shiitake Inoculation

We had a big oak tree come down in a storm - and no one noticed it - except me going back into the woods. It's on a fairly steep hill - 45 degrees - in the back woods - on the back part of group property. So I found a crock pot this morning at Goodwill - luckily - as the Shiitake spawn arrived this morning also. So I melted up a bunch of wax that I brought back from up north - and used a small paint brush. I kept the crock pot plugged into the lithium generator in the woods - and then used a smaller pot to dip into the crock pot. So I carried the smaller pot along the tree - with the paint brush in it. So I could wax over the shiitake spawn holes - to keep them from drying out.

So I drilled down along the tree - and then used a small metal bucket to hold a bunch of shiitake spawn. The rest I kept in the refrigerator. I used the palm inoculator to push into the sawdust spawn and then pushed it into the tree holes.

So I got a good start and it is supposed to rain. So then I hauled everything back and I used a bow saw to clear out buckthorn along the tree. So now I have space to do the rest of the tree. I'm planning on this to take several days if not till Friday. Just do a few hours a day since the crock pot is 75 watts on the 350 watt generator. Then I need to recharge the drill batteries also.

So far it has gone very smoothly. Maybe it won't get enough water. I could haul back water if I need to. Maybe it will take a few years to fruit into shiitake shrooms. But if I do get shrooms then the tree should keep fruiting for possibly eight years.

Since I got two bags for 25 logs - potentially this could be a huge harvest.

Oak trees are the best for Shiitake shrooms. This could be excellent.


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