So in the EARLY spring of 2023, my husband innoculated some sweet gum logs with shitake spores. We forced them to fruit last fall by soaking them in our big wagon filled with water. We did the same thing again this spring, and were aided by TONS of rain this spring.
Here are some photos of how they look as they are fruiting.
We watched a video about how to stack them when they are ready to fruit and we have these stacked on a pallet and have 3 layers of 2 each stacked perpendicularly.
We love shitake mushrooms and they are so expensive at the store and this process takes a while to get started, but it’s pretty easy. I did a blog post a couple of months ago on how we did another batch of logs. Once these are finished fruiting, we will stack them back in the woods where they will stay damp.
Would you try it?
Cathy At Home on the River 