From Kelly Abner:

“Hi Jason- I’m having great success w/ my 2020 log! The yield from the last 3 days’ harvest has already covered the cost of the log. I read that chlorine in city water is not a+ for the shrooms, so I filled a tub and let it sit in the sun for 24 hours, then I soaked the log, about 10 days ago, for 24 hours. One week later, I was able to begin harvesting- yum!!!”

A big flush. Take note of the roofing tiles underneath. Some of my logs are on dirt. Some are on leaves. It’s ok to work with what you have available.

“I saw some tips to use an insecticidal soap on the ground, place roofing tiles or rocks under the logs, and to keep logs 6” off the ground, all of which seems to help. I also made a cage to keep the varmints out. I wish I had purchased another log in March this year!”

This is a cool cage idea! I bet that these mushrooms do not have slug holes like mine.

Last year we had some questions about soaking our logs. So Kelly provided some clear answers!

I asked Kelly to please share her resources. Below are two links that she sent to me. I read both of these articles. They do help us shed light on ways to produce shiitake almost on demand.

If your log is heavy and you cannot lift it easily. Or if you don’t have a good way to submerge your log in water, you do not need to “shock your log”. If you just want to be patient and wait, you will get shiitake mushrooms periodically in the Spring and the Fall after rains or temperature changes. It’s ok to be hands-off about it. You might not get big flushes like Kelly got, but your log will continue to produce for years.

I advise you to place your log where you can see it especially. The mushrooms will arrive quickly and disappear just as quickly.

After seeing what soaking can do, I do plan to try soaking a few of my smaller logs just to see what happens!

FOR 2022 GROWERS: You will not get mushrooms if you shock your logs this year (2022). Your shiitake need more time to colonize the log. When we inoculated in March 2022, we used fresh logs that had plenty of stored moisture. Keep your logs in the shade and allow them to get rain. I sprinkle my logs with water if I have not gotten any recent rains.

Helpful articles:

Article: Everything Mushrooms “A Shocking Logs Blog”

Article: Permies “At What Stage Should Mushroom Logs be Soaked?” see posting #2 Marco Banks