Description
Marker fades. Paper turns to mush. A season of sun, wind, rain and frost, and that neat little label on your shiitake log is gone, taking your strain name and inoculation date with it. Come harvest, you are guessing.
These aluminium tags solve that for good. Press your details in with a ballpoint pen and the metal holds the impression permanently. The writing is scored into the surface, not sitting on top of it, so there is nothing to rub off, wash away or bleach out in the sun.
Built for the reality of outdoor log culture:
Aluminium will not rot, rust or degrade in moisture, so it lasts as long as the log does. Full exposure to sun, wind, rain and snow is no problem, the tag reads exactly the same in year three as it did on day one. Just nail one to each end of the log for fast identification across your whole yard, and record the strain, species and inoculation date so you always know what is fruiting and when it is due.
Fixing them to your logs
Use a short galvanised nail on both side. Hardwood is too dense for a hand stapler to bite properly, and a plain steel nail will rust and stain the tag after a few wet seasons. Leave the nail slightly proud rather than driving it flush, so the tag can swing and the log can shrink as it dries without tearing the hole out.
What to write on your tag
Write small, the tag is only so big and you want four pieces of information on it. Record the strain or species name, your spawn supplier, the wood type, and the full date of inoculation including the year. That is everything future you needs to make sense of the log.
For example: Shiitake 5000, Rootlab, Oak, 23/07/26
Do not skip the year. Logs run for three to five seasons and a tag that just says 23/07 is useless by the second summer, because you will not remember which year it went in.
Strain and supplier together tell you what to reorder when a log outperforms the rest. Wood type tells you what pairing worked. The full inoculation date tells you when to expect your first flush and when the log is spent.
If you are running more than a handful of logs, these are the difference between an organised patch and a mystery pile of hardwood. Cheap insurance for months of work.
Set of 10 or 25 aluminium tags. Ballpoint pen and nails not included.
