Would you like more information about our Sawdust & Plug Spawn? We’ve put together a list of the most FAQ’S.
Plugs are affordable for modest jobs and simply require a drill and hammer as equipment. These work well for bigger jobs, but if you want to do the task more quickly, you’ll also need other tools and an inoculation tool. While they take longer to colonise, plugs are quite robust. Around 30% quicker than plugs, sawdust colonises drilled logs. No unique equipment is required for sawdust spawn. The sawdust-based totem approach works well in cities and other places without easy access to wooded or shaded areas.
You may use this log inoculation calculator to get the precise amount of spawn you’d need, depending on the size of the wood and the distance between the holes.
One 5-pound bag of sawdust spawn should be sufficient to inoculate three to four 10 to 12 stacks when using the totem approach.
After cutting, the logs should be vaccinated within a week or two. This gives the tree cells time to decompose, but not long enough for the wood to dry up or for rival fungus to take hold. Logs that were felled the previous year or logs with cracked bark should not be used. The maximum amount of time that might reasonably pass between cutting and immunising is one month.
As a general rule, one year of output is equivalent to one inch of log diameter. Nevertheless, depending on the mushroom strain, the type of tree utilised, and the weather, yields will differ significantly from season to season.
With 2-3 flushes every season, a decent output per log is between 14 and 12 pounds per flush. The greatest flushes on shiitake logs often occur in the second and third years of production.
You must use a drill with a 5/16 bit Use a (8mm) bit to drill holes into the log, a hammer to insert the plugs, and wax to seal the holes to encourage plug spawn. The process of immunising several logs may be sped up by utilising an angle grinder adapter and an 8.5mm drill bit.
Using a drill with a 7/16 bit to pack the sawdust into the holes for the sawdust spawn Drill bit measuring 12 mm and vaccination tool. The procedure of immunising several logs may be sped up by utilising an adjustable wrench adapter and a 12mm distal end. However using an immunization instrument accelerates up the procedure and enables the sawdust to be stuffed more densely, sawdust may be manually placed into the holes, increasing the likelihood that the inoculation will be successful.
In order to prevent drying out and contaminating (cheese wax, food grade paraffin wax, beeswax, etc) all of the holes must be coated with hot wax.
Around six months to a year, plug and sawdust spawn can be kept in the fridge. Mycelium is quite robust, but the youthful it is, the more. If you don’t immediately get around to immunising it, keep it in the fridge until you’re finished.
This is quite common and shows that the spawn is strong. Mushroom spawn in white (or yellow for Chicken of the Woods) will naturally be coated by mycelium. Break apart your spawn bags appropriately before utilising them. Use logs that were cut no more than four weeks after the immunization.
It works well in garden path areas or other locations where sawdust, wood chips, or straw beds may be maintained. No, the Wine Cap only develops on substrate that has previously been broken down, such as sawdust.
The size of your logs, and the surrounding environment will all have an impact on the cultivation of your species. On typical size logs in temperate areas before fruiting most mushrooms take about a year to completely colonise, may be anything between six months and two years. Softer hardwoods and shorter size logs have a shorter lifespan but produce fruit more quickly & frequently.
Summer heat causes growth to slow. Mushrooms frequently require chilly temperatures and moisture to fruit. If you inoculate in the spring, it will probably take a year to observe your first fruiting. But you could get your first flush of mushrooms in the autumn. It should be fine, if you can maintain the mycelium from falling inactive & inoculate in the fall. If you fully protect in the fall and can prevent the mycelium from falling dormant, you could see mushrooms as soon as the next spring, but it’s more probable that you’ll see them the following fall.
We advise holding off for no more than a few months. Just be sure to vaccinate your logs no later than 4 weeks after they are cut. Once you’re ready, keep the spawn in the refrigerator. We advise against harvesting logs between bud well and full leaf out in the spring as nutrients are channelled towards flower and foliage growth, and the bark is loose. Checkout our guide on www.edumushroom.com when to gather logs for more details.
Mycelium, a coating that resembles mould and grows naturally on mushroom spawn, is often white (or yellow for Chicken of the Woods. The main body, or vegetative structure, of fungus is this branching web of threads. A relevant illustration is that if a mushroom has the appearance of an apple, then mycelium resembles an apple tree. It’s usual to notice mycelium extending through your bag, which denotes a healthy mushroom spawn. If your spawn appears green or black, you should reject the culture since it may be infected. For confirmation, get in touch with us.
You may observe healthy spawn plugs with various levels of mushroom culture in the accompanying pictures. The plugs in the first image have very little mycelial development. They may be used without any issues and remain just as powerful. The second image shows how the mycelium eventually encircles the plugs as it continues to expand. Although you might need to break apart the plugs within the bag before usage to remove them from the mycelial mass, this is also typical and has no impact on how the plugs are used. To disperse the mycelial clump, compress the bag without opening it. The identical plug bag is seen in the third image after it has been damaged. Mycelium is frequently fragmented during transportation, which might make it seem less myceliated. If you give it a handful of days to settle it should heal.
These are completely natural and won’t affect your immunisation procedure. Millet! To facilitate their transition to wood, we grow out our mushroom cultures on a variety of nutrient rich cereals.
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