Shiitake Mushroom Dowel Spawn Innoculation and Lessons

This weekend I used up all my soy wax innoculating white oak logs with shiitake mushroom dowel spawn. I bought 1000 from Fungi Perfecti.

I made several purchases from Fungi Perfecti to create our first shiitake mushroom garden. First, I bought 100 plugs and one pound of soy wax.

The 100 plugs were not even enough to innoculate one 7 inch diameter, four foot log.  Therefore, I called and ordered 1000 plugs.

I used the 1000 plugs to innoculate the rest of the first log, and three more.  Then, I ran out of wax and gifted the rest of the spawn to my neighbor.  I think I had around 300-400 plugs left.

It is a pretty good bit of work to make a shiitake mushroom garden.  I'm talking about just the drilling and innoculation process after you gather the logs.  I have a pretty good drill and it still took several hours to do all the work.

Here are the steps you should follow to efficiently innoculate logs.  (These steps were discovered to be the most efficient after trial and error.)

• Drill all of the 5/16 inch holes in a log.   Each hole is 4 inches from the next laterally.  Go down the log drilling holes.  Turn the log and drill holes about 2 inches below the first line, staggered so the new row lines up roughly in the middle of the previous row.  Turn and drill. Turn and drill.  Do this until you have rows of 5/16 inch holes all around the log.
• Hammer in the plugs with a rubber mallet.  Hammer plugs into all holes.
• Melt about 3 ounces of wax in a metal container.  Apply the was with a brush on each of the plug spawn to seal the log.  If you need more wax, refill and keep covering your spawn plugs.
• Repeat the process log by log.

I used an empty bean can for my wax container and heated at very low over my gas stove.  If you try to cover too many plugs your wax will cool down before you can finish.

I like to do one log at a time because it gives a sense of accomplishment with each log. Also, my hands got tired of drilling after so many holes in a log.

I discovered that chickens like the taste of soy wax.  Keep your chickens away from your project or they may decide to eat your wax off your logs in your garden location.  Hopefully, my chickens do not decide to eat my wax!

I ran out of wax after four logs.  One pound is not enough.  I recommend you purchase the ten pound bag of wax and 1000 spawn.  That should insure you have enough wax to cover all your spawn.  1000 spawn will innoculate about seven or eight logs (6-7 inch diameter) cut to four foot lengths.

I stacked my logs horizontally about twenty feet into my zone five edge under the canopy of a large oak. Fungi Perfecti recommends a vertical stack, but I did not want to risk getting invasive fungus into my logs before the shiitake spreads throughout the wood.

I will need to move my stack from its present location.  I discovered that even though they are located under a large oak, my logs are getting some sun in their present location in the noon sun. The sunbeams shine right down through a hole in the canopy on top of my stack.  

No problem.  It just takes some manpower to move them.

Hopefully, we have shiitake next year around this time.  

Disbudding Kids

Our young bucklings are now going on two weeks old. At age four days, we undertook to disbud the young kids.

There are arguments for not disbudding goats. One, the horns are defensive and help to deter predators. Two, and more importantly, the horns aid the goat's circulatory system. A lot of blood flows through a goat's fully developed horns. The system helps a goat body adjust to extremely hot and cold weather. These are good reasons why a person would choose not to disbud her goat.

However, there are some negative aspects of horns. First, horns can be dangerous to other animals and people. Second, horns can be dangerous to goats in that they may cause a goat to become hung in fences or other objects.

We chose to disbud our kids for several reasons. First, our two adult does are disbudded so they would be disadvantaged in a herd of goats some of which have horns and some of which do not. Secod, we live in the temperate climate of the North Carolina piedmont so the circulatory system benefits of horns are less necessary at our homestead than in a more extreme environment. The primary factor for us was safety. We do intend to apply a paddock shift with the goats and they will encounter lots of fences. They also will be on pasture with our horses. The risk of a veternarian bill to treat a potentially disemboweled horse would be a problem for our family.

The procedure is to burn the young kid's head where the horns are just beginning to grow. The burning, if done successfully, destroys the goat's glands that cause the horns to grow. Our bucklings were disbudded at day five. Even at day five, you could feel the developing horns growing in the kids.

We gave our goats Ow-eze before the process. This herb intoxicated the animal. The procedure involved a small, narrow box. The four-day old kid was inserted into the box, which had an opening and lip on one end for his head. The kid's head was held against the lip and the tool, a hot iron made into a small circular ring, applied to and around the horn area. After burning the head, a spray was applied to the injury and the kid was returned to the herd.

Immediately after the procedure, one of the two kids seemed a bit disoriented (perhaps partially from the effects of the Ow-eez), but within an hour, the two bucklings were both running and jumping as if the experience and injury were totally forgotten.

Chick Update

Goat Babies

Geoff Lawton: Surviving Collapse--The Property Purchase Checklist

I just finished watching Geoff Lawton's second free video in his survival permaculture series.  This one is really good. I am happy I watched it before I started working on the earthworks on my homestead.  

Unfortunately, our home is located on the top of the hill, a site that is criticized in the video because its access to pressurized water is limited.

The image to the right is one of the graphics Geoff uses to illustrate basic permaculture design principles.  There is plenty of action shots, white board discussion, and generallized planning considerations for a new property.  

I liked the discussion on the impervious roadway.  I have one that bisects my property and it is causing some erosion problems.  

Highly recommend the video. To see the video, you must sign up for Geoff's email list. He promises to keep your email confidential.   The link to gain access to the video his here.