”I had the pleasure of supporting London Wild Fruits (Ru) at the request of Nomadic Dinners lately to inoculate shiitake onsite. It was a lot of fun. Check out the video!
GeorgeFlavour Fred
A fantastic day learing about how to inoculate Shiitake!
SHIITAKE INOCULATION
Armed with the family heirloom 30year old black power drill I arrived @nomadicdinners mid-March ready to learn on the job from Ru (@londonwildfruits).
It was not long after storm Eunice and we needed some 2 week seasoned disease-free green timber. Matt the tree surgeon at Nomadic had kindly provided in advance from a recently fallen Oak. Ru had a kit including 8mm drill bit, tape measure, wax (some from the exterior of mini baby bell cheeses), hand saw, rubber mallet, inoculated shiitake dowls and much more.
Oak, Alder, Chestnut, Hornbeam are generally the best candidates but other wood is available. The need for 2 week seasoned green timber is to give the shiitake the best chance to colonise as anti-fungal properties have dissipated. We also needed check for any other fungus present and avoid.
We prepared the logs spacing the drill holes for the most effective inoculation based on the size of the log.
We may be waiting 18months before we see a shiitake mushroom but after that 7 years of fruiting is possible. So totally worth it!
Loved the day! Thanks to Ru & Nomadic I think I have another new addiction.
