Growing mushrooms?

[Blaundee]

Have any of yall grown mushrooms? What kind of mushrooms, what sort of setup, etc? (I dont mean the little boxes you buy from the seed catalogs)

 

[Emerald]

The best I can tell ya is that I bought a box of pearl oyster mushrooms at the market and we ate half and put half on the big log that was left from the tree that broke in half and left it there to rot during the summer and that fall after a small cold snap the log had several blooms of pearl oysters. that was two years ago and a couple of times a year that log still blooms out a couple of nice flushes of oyster mushrooms. and some of the bark from that tree peeled off and my son put it out on a pile of logs in the back yard and they also bloomed a small flush this last fall.

Here is a picture of the first flush

I have big yellow morels that come up on their own in our yard almost every year.
I'm sure that I did everything wrong but it worked for me. I was just going on what another forum member(different forum) said to try and it worked beautiful.

 

[Hinotori]

You can buy spawn plugs of all sorts of mushrooms from Fungi Perfecti. http://www.fungi.com/

I have some old logs sitting back under the douglas fir trees that I think I need to find out what grows best in them and order some from them. They aren't that far from me and should have a booth at the Mother Earth News Fair here again this year.

 

[Emerald]

You can buy spawn plugs of all sorts of mushrooms from Fungi Perfecti. http://www.fungi.com/

I have some old logs sitting back under the douglas fir trees that I think I need to find out what grows best in them and order some from them. They aren't that far from me and should have a booth at the Mother Earth News Fair here again this year.

I have drooled over their site before! My mother has about 4 acres of oak and she told me if I want to cut it I can for black forest mushrooms or better known ****ake mushrooms.. I so wanna start a nice rack of them! and if you dry them in the sun the vitamin D goes up more than I can remember percentage wise!

 

[Denim Deb]

That looks like an interesting site. I'll have to check into it more when I have the time.

 

[k15n1]

I understand there are kits you can purchase with your money from the internet. I think I even saw something like that at the grocery store a few months ago...

A friend of mine does this semi-professionally. Here's a few things he's taught me:

1. The fungus is eating the carbohydrates in the wood which is a slow process.
2. We eat the flowers (sort of) of the fungus, which are produced only under certain conditions
3. If you want to grow a particular type of mushroom, you need to get a jump on other fungi; starting with smaller healthy logs helps

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Its a project I have long been interested in starting. Now that Basic Herbology is in my life, I have a new reason for wanting to do this and it is also to grow ****ake. As far as I can see, I would save on expenses, have my fill on mushrooms (which for me, might not be possible), and enjoy mega health benefits. If ya'll don't have a preference on mushroom types.......go ****ake.

 

[Emerald]

Its a project I have long been interested in starting. Now that Basic Herbology is in my life, I have a new reason for wanting to do this and it is also to grow ****ake. As far as I can see, I would save on expenses, have my fill on mushrooms (which for me, might not be possible), and enjoy mega health benefits. If ya'll don't have a preference on mushroom types.......go ****ake.

It is one of my favorites for sure. I buy them in bulk and vac pac in mason jars. so easy to just grab a few out and pour hot soaking liquid over them and the chop into stuff. I even put them in my spaghetti sauce and they are like bits of meat-the grandkids even eat them.
I like all types of mushrooms and have learned from others(who knew what they were doing for sure) how to find the good ones in the woods. I know how to identify at least 6 in our area and there are a couple more that I know how to identify but have not brought myself to pick by my self right now. always better safe than sorry! lol

 

[Blaundee]

Its a project I have long been interested in starting. Now that Basic Herbology is in my life, I have a new reason for wanting to do this and it is also to grow ****ake. As far as I can see, I would save on expenses, have my fill on mushrooms (which for me, might not be possible), and enjoy mega health benefits. If ya'll don't have a preference on mushroom types.......go ****ake.

How do you grow ****ake mushrooms?

The main kind of edible mushroom that grows wild here is the Puffball. We've eaten it many times, but never tried to cultivate it. I was thinking of maybe using one of those plastic totes you get at Walmart, putting potting soil in it, mixing in the spores from old dried up Puffballs found in the woods, and keep it damp, cool, dark, and lid on it.

 

[Emerald]

I've read up on this as I really want to try it. Basically you cut fresh oak(or hardwood) logs and buy spawn plugs and you drill into the log and pound the spawn plugs in. I've read both ways too.. some seal the plug with wax and some do not and then they stack them up off the ground and keep them damp in the summer(I'm sure it should be in the shade) during hot dry spells and in a year or a bit more they should start to fruit. I know that north of me here in Michigan is a small company that is growing them commercially(saw it on one of the pbs cooking shows just in mi.) and to me that means it should be able to do them as experiments here for me.
Now that being said -I'm sure that there is a bit more to it than that.. like how many plugs for log and how damp and etc...
There are so many blogs and sites on growing mushrooms that you kinda have to read them all and then piece together which technique would work best for you.