How to Plant and Grow Shiitake Mushrooms At Home! Easy, Cheap and Fun!

these mushroom logs have totally had it they have turned to powder today we're going to show you guys how to inoculate logs and make your own shitake mushroom logs on your own [Music] property fun guy today's fun guy day here I'm a fun guy you're a fun guy or gal or whatever today we're going to be inoculating some logs and making our shitake mushroom logs guys we've had shiitake mushroom logs on the farm for about 4 years now and the logs that I made about four years ago have totally petered out they're not producing any more shii mushrooms so I went I dropped a few trees that I had to drop anyway because we're clearing out for a septic system for a new barn dominium home and right in here are part of the logs that I harvested this is from twoof fun guys.com I'll post a link down the video description they're not sponsoring this video flexi spot however is sponsoring today's video that is an ergonomic desk system we're setting up our office here on the farm and flexi spot is an integral part of that you'll see that in just a minute what we're going to be doing right now is inoculating our mushroom logs so for demonstration purposes we're down here in the woods we can set these mushroom plugs down for just a second as we start to drill out our holes this is a 5/16 inch bit and all these instructions come with the mushroom plugs but I think it's interesting and fun to learn from somebody else that's doing it I will talk to you so stick around to the end we're we're going to talk a little bit about placement of your logs where you want to place them to get your mushrooms to bloom this is going to take months okay guys that's why I say do it year after year after year so what we're going to do basically is take our mushroom logs and we're going to go about every 6 Ines four to 6 in and we're going to drill hole and that's it we're just going to go right on down the line here drill down to our uh perspective spot where our tape stops us from Drilling so what we're doing is inoculating the log okay important to know that you can't put too many you can't put too few but putting too few will probably reduce your chances of getting some good mushrooms out of this log so that's one log fully cut up there's a hole about every 6 in or so all the way around typically what I like to do is do a line up here roll it line line line but I kind of like to displace them a little uneven so we're going to set this one to the side we're going to grab one of our White Oaks and do the same exact thing White Oak takes longer to Decay than that Maple will take and the sap has risen again in these White Oaks so these are live trees you do not want to inoculate trees that we laying on the ground dead it's unfortunate that we had to cut these but I needed to clear them out anyway they're in the way so we're going to go again you can tell that that Woods a little harder virtually everywhere you drill a hole that will be where a mushroom comes out again stick around to the end we're going to talk about placement of the logs cuz that's super [Music] important now Pro tip what would have been smarter drilling all those holes or drilling one test hole and trying to knock it in this is called a dead blow hammer and this dead blow hammer basically when it hits it doesn't bounce so we're going to go ahead and knock one in perfect it's the perfect depth and I'll show you all that here in just a second now Josh why do you have these four to 5ft sections of log because if they were any bigger they would be too big to wrestle they'd be too big to handle you want them anywhere from four to eight even 10 in around you could even inoculate an old stump if you just cut the tree down you can inoculate a stump and try that out you can try all sorts of stuff it's your place you can do what you want to do next step in this process is going to be knocking in our mushroom tabs now make sure either your hands are earthy or you just wash your hands and we're going to knock in our little mushroom dowels pretty simple stuff we're just going to knock them in as flush as we possibly can if you use a big old Hammer you're not going to get them in like you should so if you use a great big hard Hammer you're probably going to damage the mushroom plugs if you use a smaller drill bit you're going to damage the mushroom plug so we're just filling every single hole that we just drilled out guys if you like this kind of content please hit that like button share this content with like-minded people if you got some friends that were talking about growing mushrooms share this with them I think it's interesting content and this is the way I do it and this works guys today's video is brought to you in by the desk that I'm sitting on that's Raising Me Up This is called flexi spot and this is a testimony to how tough this desk is guys we're building a Farm office here on the Stony Ridge Farm and we need office furniture as I'm working in my Farm office and as I'm working out on the farm it puts a tremendous strain on my back nothing worse for your back than sitting in a chair all day so we've got the C7 ergonomic chair and we've got the E7 pro desk right here with wireless charger this is the bamboo top with wireless charger this has a capacity of 440 lbs it just lifted me right up off the ground and also the chair has a capacity of 330 lbs super ergonomic super easy on your back flexi spot there'll be a link down the video description a huge shout out to flexi spot for supporting rural content and supporting my back and keeping my back from being in pain this is what we'll be using for the Farm office once we get everything built here on the farm there'll be a link down the video description for you guys and a link across the bottom of the screen to flexi spot you will love this stuff guys just check it out you can also create an ergonomic workbench so I don't know how many of you guys have experienced the need for a workbench to be up higher most everything is built for the average size person and I'm 6'5 so to be able to have a workbench that I can raise up and I've got one over here built out as a workbench flexi spot is the answer raise up your workbench 4 140lb capacity and tough as Nails guys let's go plant some mushroom logs I will say don't leave these in the refrigerator all winter long like I did you're going to reduce your chances of success these comes in bags of 100 and the bag of 100 is a plenty okay I have four bags of 100 and that's why I have so many logs here on the side by side because I'm going to be doing this for quite some time after we get done with our video portion today this is a fun Sunday project with your family it's a fun Sunday project with anybody and it's just a great time so when you get done watching this video order yourself some of these you'll have some fun with it I'm telling you even if you live on a small property or just have a little backyard you can still grow your own mushrooms we got some mushroom foraging videos coming out soon also guys here's a big chunk of my celium I'm just going to stick that right in that hole there another one right in that hole and you'll see this log is just a little bit smaller it's okay okay it's just not going to last as long some of these will grow some of these won't that's just it it's not like planting tomatoes in your backyard my dad planted his mushroom logs and didn't put them in the right place about two years ago and he's yet to get but one mushroom off of his logs I told him hey bro don't seal the ends there's a lot of videos on YouTube that say to seal off this end of the log don't seal that end off you want the moisture to come in you want it to rot his thought process was it'll rot slower if I seal the end if it rots slower you get mushroom slower right that's two logs inoculated Next Step let's take you guys through the next step we're going to cover each one of these with some wax you can use paraffin wax or you can use beeswax we've got some beeswax over here for my honey bees when we harvested honey last year this is my beeswax it doesn't have to be perfect it doesn't have to be super clean it's just beeswax okay we're just going to take our beeswax move your drill though first and dab it on the tops of each one of these inoculated little holes okay if you're going to do this in the woods I recommend bringing a double boiler uh this is a special container just for cooking down wax uh I did bring it down here earlier and the wax started to uh harden up before I could get it in place guys be sure you subscribe the channel we're going to do some wild mushroom foraging very soon it's morel season we've got some great videos all attach to the the end of this video showing you guys how to forage four wild mushrooms you will absolutely love that if you're into mushrooms or if this is your first introduction to mushrooms you are going to find yourself in a fun adventure with your family get out of the house get into the woods and learn a little bit about nature and mushrooms and melium and fungus because the entire world that we live in it's living is based upon fungus that's one completely covered we got one more here we go that's it let's go ahead and put this back on the heat now let's talk about placement of your inoculated log this log is completely inoculated the ends are not painted and it's a little rotten on the end so this one should produce mushrooms pretty quickly what I've learned okay so first thing I did the first batch of mushrooms that I inoculated here's what I did I took them and I just laid them out on the ground and what that did was allowed the moisture to Wick up from the ground and you want to put these in a shady spot on your property it allowed the moisture to Wick up from the ground and into the log okay but I didn't get any mushrooms on the bottom side of the log because it was laying down so the way that you need to do this and we're going to be building a mushroom area here on the farm up that Hillside right there where it's cool down here on the creek but for ease of operation just sit it down like so and lean it against a tree or lean it against a fence guys just sit it down where you have ground contact right here okay sit it in a place where it will not fall over you can set these all throughout leaned up against trees all throughout the forest but you need for this slowly seep into the ground and to Wick up moisture that's the entire goal so that's how you inoculate mushroom logs it's just super easy guys it's super fun please hit that like button subscribe the channel I'd love to have you back here check out the link to flexi spot I'll post that down here in the video description awesome death situation save your back always save your back try to work smart guys that's how you inoculate mushroom logs here in 2024 on the Stony Ridge Farm we're down here by our beautiful waterfall hope you guys have a great day thank you so much for watching all right pure and sweet that's the way supposed to be Stony r I forgot my hammer but that's okay we've got something down here we can do that with why' I forget my hammer how you going to forget a hammer how you got to make a video about something and forgetting Hammer this morning a I got blasted by Wax