Your logs are completely maintenance free, after you find a good location for them.

Here’s a quick checklist:
- Set it outside in a mostly shady spot, like the north or north-east side of a structure or under some trees.
- Don’t put it under cover, since it should get rained on.
- Keep it off the soil by setting it on some rocks, bricks or boards.
- It is very important that your logs do not dry out by prolonged exposure to direct sun or high temperatures.
- Optional: Colonization of a freshly inoculated log is accelerated by keeping it in a cool (room temperature) place indoors, in your basement or in the garage, wrapped in plastic for a month or two during the coldest time of the year. Then set outside in a shady spot as described above.
- Don’t let it freeze hard the first few weeks. A solid week of freezing daytime temps might kill a freshly inoculated log, but you probably won’t see that if you live in WNC.
- After they have incubated for a 8 months or so, you can “force” a flush of mushrooms by soaking them in a stream of tank overnight, or putting a soaker hose on it for several hours. This is a good thing to do too in hot dry weather.
That’s it, they should produce a first flush in 8-12 months, and keep producing sporadically (usually after a wet cycle) for 1 or 2 more years.