FOR-80: Shiitake Production: Spawn Selection

Deborah Hill | Feb. 3, 2011 (Minor Revision)

Shiitake mushrooms are like any other plant crop--they must be started from "seed." For mushrooms, this process begins when the mushroom's spores (normally located in the cap on the underside between the gills) are mixed with nutrients and a cellulose source, usually hardwood sawdust.

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FOR-82: Shiitake Production: Monitoring Moisture Content of Logs

Deborah Hill | Feb. 3, 2011 (Minor Revision)

Shiitake spawn cannot survive in logs that have a moisture content of less than 23%. Ideal moisture conditions for shiitake growth are log moisture content of 35% or more. If logs are left in the open air and are not monitored for moisture content, and climatic conditions are dry, the moisture content of the logs can fall to 20% to 25%.

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FOR-77: Shiitake Production on Logs: Step by Step in Pictures

Deborah Hill | Jun. 17, 2010 (Minor Revision)

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FOR-118: Have Maples Will Sugar

Deborah Hill | May. 20, 2010 (New)

Woodland owners may find that they have many maple trees in their woodlots. If these trees are larger than 10 inches in diameter, and if there are 25 to 40 maple trees per acre, woodland owners might want to think about making maple syrup as a possibility for increased income from their woodlots.

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FOR-96: Forest Water Quality Plan: Preparing an Agriculture Water Quality Plan for Your Woodlands

Jeff Stringer | May. 18, 2010 (Reprinted)

All parties involved in woodland operations are responsible for water quality protection. One of the most effective methods of protecting water quality during forestry operations is to use BMPs. BMPs are guidelines and techniques that, when used properly, can help reduce impact to our waters. They do this by decreasing erosion and the creation of muddy water, keeping chemicals and fluids out of streams, and limiting changes in the woods next to streams.

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FOR-107: Site Preparation and Competition Control Guidelines for Hardwood Tree Plantings

Jeff Stringer | Aug. 13, 2009 (New)

This publication presents recommendations for key factors associated with hardwood planting success. The publication also provides competition control and site preparation alternatives for a number of common planting sites and conditions. For each site and condition, several alternatives provide a range of options, allowing users to select the alternative that best fits their objectives and timetables.

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FOR-110: Non-Timber Forest Products and Agroforestry

Deborah Hill | Aug. 11, 2009 (New)

Agroforestry is the practice of integrating long-term tree crops with annual agronomic crops and/or livestock. This type of integrated agriculture has been successfully practiced for thousands of years in many parts of the world, especially in the tropics. Temperate regions have been a bit slower to adopt agroforestry practices, but in the past decade or so, there has been increasing interest in using agroforestry techniques in temperate countries around the world.

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FOR-113: Argoforestry: Silvopasture

Deborah Hill | Aug. 11, 2009 (New)

In the practice of silvopasture, you have three simultaneous crops: the tree crop, the forage crop, and the livestock crop. As with other agroforestry practices, if you plan to use biocides (pesticides, fungicides, insecticides) and/or chemical fertilizers, you must be sure that all of the component parts of the proposed system can tolerate the additives. Foresters have a long-standing attitude that cattle and trees do not mix (because of soil compaction and rubbing around and on the trees by the livestock), but in this case, you are intentionally putting them together, ideally for mutual benefit.

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FOR-116: Agroforestry: Christmas Trees

Deborah Hill | Aug. 11, 2009 (New)

Kentucky has always had a Christmas tree industry, although at a very small scale. The benefits of producing Christmas trees include guaranteed market every year, a short growing period relative to other tree crops, periodic intensive management (planting, shearing, marketing) but otherwise not much time required in management, and a good return on investment.

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FOR-111: Agroforestry: Alley Cropping

Deborah Hill | Aug. 11, 2009 (New)

Alley cropping is probably the most commonly used technique of agroforestry. It simply involves planting single or double lines of trees and/or shrubs intercropped with a wide "alley" of either row crops or pasture grasses. The width of the alley is determined by the size of the harvesting equipment needed for the crop grown in the alley.