Edible Wood Farm Journal: 2018 (8)
Inoculation
March and April are usually inoculation months. Inoculation cannot begin directly after the tree has been felled because the tree is still strong enough to fight against the strange fungus. The natural immune system of an oak tree log has to weaken before inoculation with shiitake and that means waiting at least 3 weeks before turning the logs into edible wood. The mycelium is sensitive to temperature and will die when exposed to a temperature under zero. A newly created edible log has also to be protected against the frost for the first couple of weeks. It is a game of chance…. inoculating as early as possible is good for a future edible tree log but is risky because of possible frost and inoculating later in the season when the weather is comfortably warm means that the risk of infection from other fungi is quite high.
Frost
Last Friday was the second inoculation round of the season. The three young men from Wageningen (see “Building muscles”) were back again after having earned a good number of logs and shiitake spawn. This time they helped me move about 80 logs that had been previously inoculated into a large building on the premises of the Edible Wood Farm. A moderate frost was expected the following evening and also the daily temperature was not expected to be above zero. Inside the building the logs were safe from the cold. They could stay there until the frost was over but not any longer because the building was needed for other activities. All plans for further inoculation of other logs had to be postponed until the temperature was suitable to keep the logs outside. Next week it will hopefully be back to work!
