Shiitake mushrooms will also grow on American hophornbeam, ironwood, laurel oak, cherry, sassafras, sycamore, tulip poplar, and hickory. How well the shiitake mushrooms grow on logs from these trees depends on how much care you give the logs and how well you control moisture, temperature, and exposure to other fungi. Other types of trees can be used for growing shiitake mushrooms, but under the best of conditions, you will only harvest a few mushrooms per log. The actual location of the growing tree is also important. The more fertile soils will produce trees with more nutrients and sugars.
Trees located on rocky hillsides and in very wet sites are less nutrient rich.
Since shiitake mushrooms feed primarily on sapwood, trees selected for inoculation should have a large sapwood area. You can determine the area of sapwood by looking at the end of a log after the tree has been cut. Most of the trees in a particular area will have similar sapwood to heartwood ratios. A small amount of sapwood means that the log will probably produce mushrooms for less than 2 years. The lighter, outermost wood is the sapwood and the darker, inner wood is the heartwood.