I went to a talk over at Richters Herbs a couple weeks ago on growing shiitakes etc that way. It sounded worth a try, except that you have to have the right kind of logs (and they have to be fresh-cut) and I just don't happen to. But if I did, I'd probably give it a whirl.
FWIW, some of the things the guy talked about that struck me as somewhat more memorable than others were:
-- he suggests buying sawdust plugs rather than dowels, to inoculate the logs, as having a higher success rate. Mind, he also *sells* sawdust plugs himself, but still
-- the logs have to be fresh cut (well, no more than a month old) from a living tree.
-- at least for shiitakes, which is mostly what he was addressing, leave the logs lying on the ground or raised just barely above it, in a shady damp place where they get no more than an hour or two of dappled light (preferably NO direct sunlight), for the first year and a bit. When you see the white mycelium visible at the cut ends of the logs, they are ready for you to try forcing them to fruit if you want, or you can just let them sit there and work on their own timetable.
-- to force them, soak them thoroughly for a day, then stand them up on end and maybe give them a good solid thump against the ground once or twice in the process. Leave them leaning up, still in a shady area, not letting them dry out too much, til mushrooms appear. This can be done several times per season.
-- although he sells the indoor mushroom kits he is not a fan of them, does not htink they are cost-effective.
Note that two of the audience members were people who had previously bought plugs and inoculated logs and got exactly Zippo out of it (one apparently due to mismanagement, the other who knows), so I would suggest don't spend more than you are willing to potentially lose
I do wish I had some hard maple or beech or oak branches I could cut and use for this, it does sound like a fun thing to try.
Pat
