Anyone grow Mushrooms?

[raiquee]

I have a sneaky feeling Free does, cause that woman does EVERYTHING! Fermenting, Cheese making, piggie raising....

Anyways, was wondering if anyone grows mushrooms! I have a rotting birch stump in my front yard, and want to drill it and innoculate it with oyster mushrooms. It's shaded perfectly by a bush and stays rather moist.

I am looking for some information, tips, and PICTURES on what species you raise, ease of raising, how you do it and more!!

I tried searching online, and although I have found helpful places, I had to weed through the "special" mushroom posts if you get what i'm saying. Not intrested in that at all!

 

[Henrietta23]

Yup, Free does! I'm sure she'll chime in soon.

 

[freemotion]

I can't give you an experienced answer, as we just started this spring by innoculating 15 oak logs with three types of shiitake spawn. We will know if we did things correctly NEXT year, and for, hopefully, a few years after that.

You need to get a log that was cut in the winter when the tree was dormant, then innoculate it. The mushrooms will cause the log to rot much more quickly than normal, so you must start with a fresh log or you won't get many mushrooms before the log is a pile of compost. Birch rots very quickly, so it is a poor choice.

Check out www.fieldforest.com for lots of great info. The people there are very helpful, too. You can grow mushrooms on logs, on straw, and in your flower beds on wood chip mulch (fresh, if you have access to road crew chippers or know someone with a chipper and know what they are chipping.)

I find the kits to be enormously expensive for the amount of mushrooms you get, so I started BIG. I have a thread somewhere on it, but it has little info on it....I'll be adding to it next year! Hopefully! Shiitakes are $13-14 per lb in our local grocery stores, and I sometimes find dried ones in the discount stores so those are the only ones I use. Can't wait for fresh ones. Shiitakes are a great way to darken up a gravy or beef stew, etc, as well as adding great flavor. I plan on using them to can lots of cream of mushroom soup for use in quick recipes and meals.

 

[raiquee]

Free)

Ahh, okay. I figured it wasn't rotting fast enough so why not put it to work! haha. It'd been sitting there for a couple years already. Maybe if I have a few extra plugs I'll throw them in the birch stump. Just to see if they do anything. And if they rot the stump for me faster and I get no mushrooms, well at least we got rid of the stump!!

We do have some oak/maple logs my husband just cut down last month after the storm...would these be okay? I would love to innoculate them this year so I can have progress next year. He told me I could have a few, and they are THICK.

I wish I could grow Perchini mushrooms. Those are my favorite. DH loves mushrooms more than I do, and yes they are stupid expensive in the stores!!! I can only find portabellas, ****akes, and buttons in the store. Oysters aren't even found. I figure grow a couple logs and dry what I don't use for the winter. They dry so well, so why not?

Thanks for the site btw, I needed something more "professional" for good results

 

[Henrietta23]

Now if it's possible to grow your own portabellos and porcini I just might try. They're the only mushrooms I'll eat.

 

[xpc]

Now if it's possible to grow your own portabellos and porcini I just might try. They're the only mushrooms I'll eat.

I won't tell you the only kind of mushroom I've only eaten but it did involve a Deep Purple concert.

 

[freemotion]

Ask the people at Field & Forest about the logs cut recently...I don't know why they should be cut while dormant. Also, you don't want them to be huge as you will likely need to move them around. I made this mistake. We have to use a hand truck and dh has to do most of the work, I open gates. We can't control them much, so I hope we don't need to move them when they fruit, but we will likely have to lift them as they are flat on pallets. We won't be able to reach anything that grows on the bottom if we leave them flat during the fruiting season. Next time, I will cut some small maples from my woods that are only 4-6" in diameter.

 

[cjparker]

"I won't tell you the only kind of mushroom I've only eaten but it did involve a Deep Purple concert."

 

[raiquee]

Okay, after doing some research I found why you state they should be cut while dormant.

Logs should be cut one to three months in advance of plugging. Cutting your logs in the late Winter or early Spring helps to insure that they have a high sugar content, although this is not strictly necessary. Freshly-cut logs should not be immediately inoculated; trees naturally produce anti-fungal compounds, which degrade in two to three weeks from cutting. Aged deadwood is also not recommended for plugging, as it has a poor nutrient base for supporting mushroom growth. Logs or stumps with fine cracks (called "checks") running through them are more quickly colonized with mushroom mycelium than those without.

SO. I should be okay with the logs that were cut. It also says on that website that you can inoculate logs up to 2-3 weeks before frost, so that the mycelium has built up enough to survive winter.

Growing mushrooms is a whole different world. I may pick up a package of plugs, take 3 logs (small, so I can move them!) and inoculate them.

I will search for your mushroom thread.
Anyone else growing?

 

[patandchickens]

I have a rotting birch stump in my front yard, and want to drill it and innoculate it with oyster mushrooms. It's shaded perfectly by a bush and stays rather moist.

One difficulty is that spawn plugs generally have to be inoculated into FRESH logs, not ones that are already rotting. They will not reliably "take" in rotting wood, because too many competing fungi are already there.

I went to a shiitake-growing seminar a few months ago, the guy said that you absolutely need to use wood cut when it was LIVE, and it is best not to store it for more than 3-4 months maximum.

Maybe you have something else around that would work?

Good luck, have fun,

Pat