Growing Mushrooms On Logs: Instructions & Tips

Shady places in the garden are ideal locations for growing mushrooms on tree trunks. Here you can find out how you can grow delicious edible mushrooms in a natural way.

Anyone who owns a garden and has to remove a tree from time to time often doesn't know what to do with the wood. With the cultivation of edible mushrooms on tree trunks, the tree is used ideally and is easy to care for. Here you can find out how you can grow fresh mushrooms right on your doorstep without much effort and over several years.

Growing mushrooms on tree trunks

The cultivation of edible mushrooms on wood is the most original and natural form of mushroom cultivation and was developed thousands of years ago in Southeast Asia - especially in Japan and China. Shiitake mushrooms (

Lentinula edodes) as a gift to the kings and emperors of the country. In traditional Chinese medicine, the use of mushrooms still plays an important role today, and medicinal mushrooms were cultivated on tree trunks early on. We have put together for you here how you can cultivate mushrooms with wood in your own garden.

The right wood for mushroom cultivation

Most mushrooms prefer to grow on hardwoods such as beech, oak and birch, as well as on all fruit trees. They feed mainly on cellulose and lignin, the substances that make wood so hard and robust. Over time, they decompose even the thickest trunks and recycle the dead wood into organic matter. However, conifers have viscous, sticky resins that most edible mushrooms prefer to avoid. The exception is the smoke-leaved brimstone (Hypholoma capnoides), which particularly likes to colonize spruces and, more rarely, pines and silver firs.

The wood for the mushroom stems should be freshly felled and then stored for at least two but no longer than four months. The trunk diameter of the wood should be about 20 to 30 centimeters and the length about 50 to 100 centimeters, otherwise the trunk will dry out too quickly. A stem with a diameter of 10 to 15 centimeters is sufficient for shiitake. The bark should be as undamaged as possible, as it later retains moisture better in the wood. The trunk is now watered for two to three days, it should be completely covered with water.

Which types of mushrooms are suitable?

Fungi form an extremely diverse kingdom of living beings. They feed on food, mature compost or even fallen giant trees. For growing your own mushrooms in the garden, you naturally choose those edible mushrooms that tend to decompose wood. Here we have listed the most important types for you.

Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus): One of the best-known arboreal edible mushrooms, forming depressed caps that are curled at the edges when young. It is available in the colors dove blue, grey, white and light brown. Its taste is very fine and mild and is therefore very suitable for soups, sauces and meat dishes.

Enoki/velvet root (Flammulina velutipes): Extremely popular edible mushroom in Japan with shiny honey-colored caps that darken towards the middle. Cultivated without light and in containers, forms elongated, colorless fruiting bodies and is usually only available in stores like this. Wonderfully sweet and mild in taste.

Rose Mushroom (Pleurotus djamor): Also known as Flamingo Oyster because of its soft pink colour. The mushroom is related to the oyster mushrooms and has a fan-like fruiting body covered with lamellae with a velvety surface and a fine mushroom taste.

Lime Oyster Mushroom/Lemon Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus citrinopileatus): Light yellow edible mushroom that is closely related to the oyster mushrooms, which can also be seen in the shape of the fruiting bodies. The taste is reminiscent of lemon, which makes it very interesting as an accompaniment to fish or salads.

Smokeleaf Brimstone (Hypholoma capnoides): As the only edible mushroom, it mainly inhabits coniferous trees such as spruces and pines. The yellow-brownish fruit bodies have a nutty-spicy taste. However, there is a risk of confusion with other, poisonous sulfurhead species, because these colonize the same woods as the edible mushroom.

shiitake (Lentinula edodes): A fawn-colored edible mushroom with light-colored flakes on the round cap and a light-brown-whitish stem, which is very popular in Asian cuisine due to its umami taste. Must be cultivated as an air culture without soil.

Inoculation brood for tree trunks: Recommended sources of supply

Finished mushroom mycelium is often offered as so-called grain spawn or grain spawn. Here, the fungus grows through rye, wheat or other cereals until the mycelium has spread across the board. The grain spawn is particularly easy to dose and colonizes the wood quite quickly. Inoculation dowels are untreated wooden dowels on which the respective type of fungus was cultivated. Here, too, the fungal network has visibly grown through the whole wood when you bought it. Both variants are suitable for cultivation on tree trunks.

Especially on the Internet - but now also in DIY stores and garden centers - ready-made mushroom spawn is also offered especially for cultivation on tree trunks. Here we present some German sources of supply.

mushroom pack has been sending various types of oyster mushrooms from Nuremberg as grain spawn for a number of years. Additionally, the mycelia can be purchased locally in the city.

Mushrooms & Equipment Shop based in Münsterland has been offering a wide variety of species for hobby growers and commercial growers since 2013. Inoculation plugs and grain spawn are available here.

mushroom manfrom Saxony produce grain spawn and seed plugs in organic quality. Propagation packages are now also available in the Dehner garden center.

PilzWald – The mushroom manufactory based in Cologne offers numerous types of mushrooms for cultivation on tree trunks inoculated wooden dowels in their online shop.

inoculation of the wood

Depending on the type of inoculation, you will need the following materials for inoculating the tree trunk:

• A chainsaw
• A wood drill
• A drill or cordless screwdriver
• a hammer
• foil or tape
• The respective mushroom spawn

For the so-called dowel inoculation with mushroom dowels grown through, holes with a diameter of about eight millimeters are drilled into the prepared trunk with the drill all around. However, they should not be deeper than the length of the inoculation plugs. The dowels are then carefully hammered into the hole with a hammer.

In the borehole method you need a wood drill with a drill diameter of about 20 millimeters and grain spawn. The advantage is that this type of mushroom spawn spreads faster and more safely in the trunk than the mushroom dowel spawn. After drilling the holes, fill in the mushroom spawn with a pestle and compact it slightly - the future mushroom stem is ready.

the cutting method requires longer logs by a meter. Here the trunk is sawed two to three times from below or above with the chainsaw along its entire length. The entire area is then wrapped with adhesive tape. The tape can also be stapled for a better hold. To fill in the spawn, cut a small window in the tape, carefully fill in the spawn and compact it a little.

Finally, the inoculated trunk is wrapped in cling film and then generously punctured with a nail or something similar. This step is important so that the stem retains enough moisture for the fungus while also being supplied with oxygen. Alternatively, the trunks can also be stored under a plastic tarpaulin, but the humidity must be checked more often.

store logs

Freshly inoculated wood is not yet hardy until the fungus has had a chance to completely grow through the trunk. At 10 to 25 °C, it takes two to six months, depending on the type of fungus, for the fungus to colonize its new living space. During this time, the trunk is best stored in the dark and checked for moisture from time to time. If mold grows on the surface of the wood, the trunk is too wet or there is not enough ventilation. If you put the trunk in a more airy place, the unwanted fungus will disappear.

Set up tree trunks in the garden

If the wood has grown through completely, you can already see the mycelium of the fungus emerging around the injection point. Now is the ideal time to remove the foil or tape and set up the logs in the garden. All of the species mentioned, with the exception of the shiitake, need contact with the earth in order to form fruiting bodies. To do this, the trunks are buried a third to half into the ground in a shady spot. This type of cultivation is also called soil culture.

Shiitake cultures, on the other hand, do not need any substrate to grow: their stems are leaned upright against a fence or wall - this is also called air culture. Shiitake must be activated in order for them to fruit properly. First, the entire trunk is placed in cold water for 24 hours. Then you push it three to four times on the ground, which promotes the formation of fruiting bodies. Patience is now required, because the trunks usually do not need any further care, but they do need a lot of time. On hot and dry days, however, the mushrooms are happy to have some water around and on the trunk. Now it's time to be patient and wait for the first fruiting bodies. Because depending on the type of mushroom, it now takes a full 6 to 24 months before you can harvest for the first time. By the way, tree trunks that have completely grown through are hardy and provide fresh mushrooms again and again over several years.

Harvest mushrooms properly

When the first fruiting bodies finally appear on the tree trunks, it is soon time to harvest. At the latest when the edges of the mushroom caps tear and bulge upwards or the spores that have already fallen off collect on the wood, the fruiting bodies should go into the kitchen. To do this, either cut off the mushrooms with a sharp knife on the stalk or turn them off with a slight movement. Now nothing stands in the way of culinary enjoyment from your own garden. Fried, as a risotto or fresh, the forest dwellers enrich our menu in a variety of ways.

If you want to know how to grow mushrooms on coffee grounds can, take a look at our special article here.