As I understand, it is about now... When the sugary sap is rising. Also heard the ideal is 4 inches in diameter.

Silvia - I saw a number of people that I know during the Leu Gardens plant sale last week but I didn't see Cheryl. Miranda had to work. I went with a gardening friend. I really wanted to go to ECHO Farm Day too but I didn't want to go alone. Hubby had a work meeting he had to attend. Hopefully, next year. sultry - Thanks for the heads-up about the mushroom thread. I'll check it out soon. cfldoc - The mushroom plug vendor sells spawn varieties (strains) that grow well here in Florida. The logs don't have to be fresh cut but they can't be very old either. Reason is, as the log ages other mushroom varieties may get into the log. Some could be poisonous. I'm told that the shiitake mushroom logs can be soaked for about 24 hours five weeks after harvest to encourage a new flush of growth. The logs will only produce a certain amount of mushrooms so soaking will use up the supply faster. That's fine with me. If this works out well, we will probably grow many more. As for the oyster, I'm told not to soak them because they can't be forced. They will produce when they are ready. I'll keep you posted. Christine

Thanks! I'd call Sulphur Polypore the common name (had you used that, I'd have known what was meant!). "Chicken of the woods" definitely isn't a commonly used name, sounds more like someone's attempt at pretentious poetic invention to me, decidedly phoney :-) Looked up in Phillips & Burdekin Diseases of Forest and Ornamental Trees, and Laetiporus sulphureus is listed as an occasional cause of wood decay in hawthorn, so it should work. However, as it is listed as only occasional, it may be a difficult wood for it to use, perhaps with very slow growth in it. Other woods it utilises include oak, chestnut (Castanea, not Aesculus), cherry, and occasionall on pine, larch and beech. "... is commonly found causing serious decay in open-grown oaks and also in larger structural timbers. Even small traces of infection can continue their development in sawn timber, particularly if the wood remains moist" (so might be best not to try growing it indoors!!). No, never grown fungi myself, my interests are in trees, including fungal decay and disease aspects (hence the info sources I use!). Resin

Anna - I can't find any mushroom logs for you. The only tree I can identify in the winter is White Oak and there are plenty of them in the forest next to my house but the branches are all higher up on the tree than my tallest ladder. The recent wind storm did knock down a lot of branches but none of them appear to be from an oak and all of them were old and rotten (which is why they broke and fell). Sorry.