It depends on the cleanliness of the operation. If you were to completely sterilize the straw, 1% would be more than enough. Commercial operations use close to 10%, but 5% is a good number. You next spawn is 1/20 of the current batch (if successful), so it becomes a bit like doing sourdough bread. Unlike sourdough bread, though, your starter will last a few months at least. Let me mention that I have never been successful with in-drum pasteurization (0/2), and always been successful with pressure cooker sterilization (I have a 4 gallons one) (4/4) and 1% inoculation (basically, 2 plugs for 1 qt jar).

Fungi Perfecti, in Olympia, has mushroom spawn. I wasn't able to find Shitake on their site, specifically, but you could probably contact them to see if they know a source. Their website is www.fungi.com

unless you garden on a beach, if you add OM, you will get fungi. I have two main sources, first my compost pile is under some old trees, and second I collect and bury rotten wood in the beds. You could get the fungi also by collecting dead leaves under established shrubs, some dirt from a forest floor, etc. The glomus species needed for veggies or trees are virtually the same. Note that using gloms species plus tilling equals flushing money down the toilet. You use them only in a no-till situation. I have had very good experience with mycorrhizal spores in the past, in particular a planting of strawberries yielded 100% survival for those plants whose roots had been dusted, and close to 0% for those which had not. But then I discovered that putting some rotten wood in the planting hole gave the same results, and of course it is fungi AND fungi food, which is why it is better (and cheaper).

My pond come winter freezes completly. All the way down to the bottom. I guess I could get one of those heaters, but they seem to do fine when I bring them in (except for this year's mishap) Usually around March I have to remove the ice using a shovel so I can ready it for spring. If I didn't that puppy wouldn't fully melt untill May. I decided it would be fun to put my underwater camera in the pond to see if I could see anything interesting. I set it in various spots and clicked record and came back few mminutes later to watch them. Didn't see much, no water beetles which was surprising but I did notice that my white comet is defently a male! From the frames you can clearly see those white bumps on his gills. I didn't notice this on the other bigger comet but boy was she fat. I'm assuming 'she' based on her plumpness and cause I'm hoping her to be one! I did notice the white comet chased her around a bit for a couple seconds a couple of times. It wasn't constant pestering but there was a chase or two. I guess I'll just have to let them be and make nature do its course! Will be easy as I'm going away from two weeks. Thanks.