Is it feasible to reproduce those Japanese experiments on mushrooms with lightning, using an inexpensive, smaller, impulse voltage generator?
According to the paper only 1-3kV are actually running through the log, yet they apply 1,500kV through the air in order to make a big sparc and simulate a lightning strike.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6463/ab7627