North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Evan <kodama@riseup.net>]

Hey all,

In April/May 2009, a friend of mine and I got some Prunus serotina logs from 
a neighbor clearing a fence row. These logs, ranging in diameter from 4-8", 
we inoculated with shiitake sawdust spawn leftover from a previous 
inoculation of sweetgum. Now, whereas sweetgum and oaks seem to be the 
preferred substrate for shiitake in all the literature I've run across, we 
figured it was no loss if nothing took from our little experiment. We had no 
mushrooms in 2009, and in 2010 I think one or maybe two of the logs put out a 
mushroom. I believed the experiment had proven unsuccessful until this past 
year (2011) when the rains off one of those Hurricanes came through induced 
at least 70% of the logs to fruit! There were many gorgeous and delicious 
shiitakes jumping off these logs, and even later in the season I had a few 
other logs give off a few more mushrooms.

We'll see how it goes through the next few years, but I feel comfortable 
saying that P. serotina makes an acceptable if not good substrate for 
Shiitake. Hope this helps!

cheers,
Evan
Southern Appalachians
elevation 2800-3000'
zone 6b