Log or Bag Cultivation? Which One of Them is Better and Why?

Log or bag cultivation? I was wandering what is the best way to cultivate wood inhabiting mushrooms and why? I launched these questions on a forum and I've got some answers from other growers. You may see them here
Let's see first what are the advantages and disadvantages of bag and log cultivation (I will list just some of them that are on my mind right now but you may add some more in the comments if you wish), and then let's find the right answers to these questions.

BAG CULTIVATION

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It's faster. Takes 2-4 weeks until pinning induction (depending on the species to be grown and environmental conditions)
Cultivation success. You may easily observe if you'll have mushrooms or not. Through the transparent bag foil you may see the spawn run throughout the substrate and notice if there occurs any contamination.
Mushroom yield. Bag cultivation allows you to easily weight all necessary ingredients needed for your formula and calculate the overall yield.
High quality mushrooms. Mushrooms in order to grow need nutrients. By using a mix of several ingredients into your substrate (e.g., oak sawdust, poplar wood chips, corn cobs, and supplements) you will provide enough protein, vitamins and minerals for you mushrooms in order to grow healthy and finally you'll harvest high quality mushrooms.
Resources. You may find plenty resources to grow your mushrooms on. Even if you are living in the city, you may find them in your own kitchen (peanut shells, paper, coffee grounds,..) or outside in the park (leaves, twigs, or any other dry plant,..)
Spent substrate recycling. Several types of spent substrates can be recycled and are suitable for cattle feed or soil improvement. For instance the spent straw used in oyster mushroom cultivation is used for cattle feed or the spent coffee grounds are used as additives for soil. Such habits may increase growers income and protect the environment.

Shiitake grown indoor. Photo: www.greenling.com 

Cultivation process. As I think the cultivation procedure is a bit harder then in log cultivation because you actually need to manipulate and pasteurize the substrate, you need to weight ingredients, add gypsum and more.
More effort. Obviously bag cultivation requires more effort for the same amount of mushrooms as you can get from log cultivation.
Grow room. You need actually a room designed for mushroom cultivation, and this is also because you need to provide them the proper conditions to fruit such as: temperature and humidity.

LOG CULTIVATION

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Long-term harvest potential. This is probably the main cause why some growers choose to cultivate their mushrooms on logs. Once a log inoculated you may harvest mushrooms from it up to 2 to 4 years (depending on several factors).
Stable environmental conditions. Within a log temperature and humidity are rather constant (now this depends on the log size as well and cultivation technique to be used).
Less effort. Compared to bag cultivation of mushrooms this requires less effort for the same amount of mushrooms.
Grow room. For log cultivation you don't need a grow room.
Spent substrate it's good for fire. Some growers increase their income by selling the spent wood that might be used in order to provide heat.
Stump degradation. It's a great way to get rid of huge stumps when you have no other choices.

Photo credits: www.3businessidea.blogspot.com

You have to wait until the first harvest. Depending on the used type of wood you will need actually to wait up to 14 months (when using hardwoods) and 8 months (when using softwood) until you'll have mushrooms.
Humidity. You have to maintain humidity within your logs by spraying them from time to time.
Cultivation success. It's obviously less then in bag cultivation because your logs are predisposed to a higher degree of contamination (let's remember that they are left outside where the alien sporeload in the air is much higher than in a grow room). In addition, if contamination occurs you may hardly see it, and probably when you will realize that  another mushroom is growing on your log it's going to be late. The competition of two species for the same substrate equals with poor harvest or no harvest at all
Danger of contamination spread. Once a log infected, contamination may spread to the other logs.
Resources. If you don't have trees around, then probably you'll need to bring some from other places.
Doesn't work easily for some species. Here I must quote someones opinion in the forum: "Maitake is one I have had no success with on logs, so I would not recommend log culture for that species." (M.K. Dorie). Looks like there are some species that are more suitable for bag cultivation than for log cultivation; however, there is a need of several opinions to sustain this point. Please feel free to add your personal experience in the comments section bellow.
Surrounding tree contamination. Obviously each time when you grow mushrooms outside in your backyard garden you endanger the other healthy trees in the area because when your mushrooms are mature they spread billions of spores around being taken by the wind and they have all the chances to infect your cherry or apple tress that you care about.
No recycling available for spent substrate. You may not use spent wood for animal feed.
Encourages deforestation. Now, this is a real concern among those involved into environmental protection, since growing mushrooms on logs for profit leads to mass deforestation habits that are against law and respect for nature: think twice before choosing to grow mushrooms on logs.

CONCLUSION
What I like to believe, is that depends on what's the purpose of your mushroom cultivation. Do you cultivate them as a hobby for your personal needs or do you wish to sell them to markets and restaurants? If you want   quality mushrooms quick, then probably you should choose bag cultivation. This requires more effort then log cultivation, but the chances to succeed are higher. On the opposite, if you consider harvesting mushrooms for a long time with less efforts for your personal and your family needs and you have plenty of resources around then probably you should choose log cultivation. However, keep in mind that the latter option is not really environment friendly especially when you choose to to this for profit and you use alien species to cultivate.
Generally, bag cultivation is suitable for commercial mushroom growing with few exception. This point of view is also sustained by the worldwide scientific community.

Interested in Oyster mushrooms cultivation? see The Beginner's Guide To Oyster Mushroom Cultivation at Home. This guide was designed for those wanting to cultivate oyster mushrooms in plastic bags in their household. If you need a more natural way of cultivating mushrooms have a look over: How To Grow Oyster Mushrooms on Logs

If you consider this article helpful please give it a 'like' and share it with your friends that need this information. Feel free to add your comments bellow, probably you have your opinion about this subject and I would be more than happy to read it.

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7. How To Grow Oyster Mushrooms On Logs

Log cultivation of oyster mushrooms is a bit different then bag cultivation, however, is practically based on the same concept and above all is easy and doesn't require much effort. It is largely applied especially in the countryside, where wood is plenty. I will present here a standard technique (without getting deeper into details) including several steps as follows:

1. Selecting the proper wood substrate
For growing oysters on logs you may use deciduous wood such as: beech, poplar, oak, alder, birch, maple, etc). You have to avoid cultivating oyster mushrooms on conifer wood substrates (pine, spruce, fir, etc) because such substrate type contain tanines, resins and other type of wood constituents that inhibit mycelium growth and development through the wood mass. However, some other type of fungi may develop on conifer logs, oyster mushrooms cannot. You should fell the logs when the sapwood is full of nutrients: late autumn or early spring. Inoculate them after felling because water content inside them is higher than in logs left for several months. In the latter case, you have to re-hydrate them by leaving them in water for several days.
If you will use softwood (poplar, aspen, etc) logs then you should know that you will get mushroom fruitbodies faster but of lower quality and lower overall mushroom production compared to what you get when using hardwood (oak, maple, beech, cherry, etc). However, the disadvantage is that it is going to take a longer period of time until mushroom fruitbody formation if you will choose hardwood.
Log size is also important and is directly connected to mushroom fruitbody production and time necesarry for the first flush.

2. Tools necessary for the inoculation process.
You will need the following tools:

• a drilling machine;
• a hammer;
• mycelium, spores or dowels colonized with mycelium;
• wax;
• a paint brush or a piece of sponge.
• a pot
• and a heat source

Fig. 1. Tools needed for log cultivation of oyster mushrooms. Photo: www. google.com

3. Inoculation.
Drill holes over the log surface 3-5 cm in depth and 5-10 mm thick (or as thick as your wood dowels are). You can purchase plug spawn or dowels at Fungi Perfecti or instead you may use mycelium grown on wheat or other support or spores. If you will use one of the latter,  you will need cotton to cover up the mycelium when you'll introduce it into the holes. Remember that you have to inoculate only moist logs (see above). If their not freshly felled, then keep them in water for 2 to 3 days.  To a log of 1.5 x 0.3 m wide you should apply around 40 holes in zig-zag covering its entire surface.
Steps to follow:
a) Take a pot and melt the wax;
b) Introduce the freshly purchased dowels into the holes by using a hammer;
c) Isolate each dowel by applying a thin layer of wax above it.

Fig. 2. Drilling holes over the log surface. Photo: www.google.com

Fig.3 Wood dowels colonized by mushroom  mycelium. Photo: www.google.com

Fig. 4. Inoculating holes with wood dowels colonized with mushroom mycelium. Photo: www.google.com

Fig. 5. Isolating the dowels with wax.  Photo: www.google.com

4. Log placement.
Place the freshly inoculated logs outside in the shade away from direct sunlight. Moisture during incubation is essential therefore you must allow rainfall over your logs or to find some other ingenious method to keep your logs moist. In case of poor rainfall you should water your logs from time to time. However, in order to keep logs at an optimal level of moisture and temperature there are several techniques available. One of them is burying the logs into the sand: this technique prevents moisture loss and keeps temperature at a constant level. You should bury the logs vertically at 10-20 cm distance one from another with the inoculated side up and with up to 20 % of log length above ground level. Otherwise, use a hose to spray down the inoculated logs in order to keep moisture.

Fig. 6. Inoculated logs placed outside in the shade.

5.  Pinning induction.
Pinning induction occurs generally after 8-12 months depending on wood type, log size, hole number, strain, environmental conditions and other factors involved into mycelium colonization process. If you inoculated hardwood logs then you should be able to expect pinhead induction in about 12 to 14 months and you will harvest mushrooms for 3 to 4 years. If you used softwood, you will be able to harvest your mushrooms earlier: after 6 to 9 months and you'll harvest mushrooms for 1 to 2 years. Now, there are several methods to stimulate pinning induction such as cold-shock or or log soaking into water. As a general rule stimulating fruitbody formation requires spraying enough water over each inoculated log.

6. Harvesting fresh oyster mushrooms.
Harvest oyster mushrooms 4 to 6 days after pinning induction. During this time keep moisture at an optimal level for fruitbody development. After harvest, keep logs moist and wait up to 2 weeks for the second flush.

If you consider useful this article, please share it with your friends, and if you liked it, I would greatly appreciate if  you would give it a 'like' up there. Probably you have your own tricks or techniques in cultivating oyster mushrooms on logs, feel free to comment and to share them with us, because only this way we can help each other in order to succeed.

Find Out More!

1. Some of the Most Important Cultivated Oyster Mushroom Species
2. Preparing the Chamber and Tools Needed for Oyster Mushroom Cultivation

3. Compost Making for Oyster Mushrooms
4. Compost Heat Treatment and Inoculation
5. Incubation, Fruitbody Development and Harvest
6. Oyster Mushroom Culture Pests
7. How to Grow Oyster Mushrooms on Logs

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