The last couple of days I have been cutting down some oak trees on my property. I do not like them for they are such a mess. A few less will help with the amount of leaves I have to clean up in the spring. These trees were fairly close to the house and up hill from it. I wanted to eliminate any chance that they would fall on the house. I intend to use the oak for growing shitake and oyster mushrooms. Are there any forum members out ther who are also growig mushrooms? I would like informaton about the process. I have read some articles online but it is always nice to hear from others who have tried doing this.

Swizzle never tried to,
Google search may be of help .

By coincidence, I picked my first shiitakes of the season for dinner tonight!  I had some big oaks taken down last Spring and ordered sawdust spawn from https://www.fieldforest.net/ .  Followed their instructions - drilled holes, packed the spawn in, waxed over the top, and then left them alone.  I had a few 'shrooms last fall and more started pinning about a week ago.  I'm not an expert but this was pretty easy.  Unfortunately the local squirrels have good taste, but I am protecting the logs with bird netting now.  Good luck!

 

i shouldn't have read this post.. urgh.. i don't need another hobby... 

Put Maitake in the stumps. I would not waste Oak on Oysters, more Shiitake! 

now i'm googling on how to grow truffles and morel shrooms.. 

They look delicious!

there are shiitake table kits from $20 or so.. i might give it ago.. 

Maitake are much better than shitake.  Both are better than oysters.  Lion's mane and chicken of the woods are great also.  The morel kits are fairly unreliable.  If you want to grow oysters get some used coffee grounds from your favorite shop and grow the oysters on the coffee grounds.

Truffles are much harder.  They're mycorhizal with certain trees.  Perigord is the best studied.  You have to fumigate your soil then keep it at pH 8 for years while your oaks or hazelnuts grow.  At that pH the hazelnut trees wont produce nuts.  You missed the Oregon Truffle Festival for 2014 but they have it at the end of January every year in Eugene, OR.  Charles LeFevre is probably the go to guy if you want to grow truffles.  If you talk to him tell him I said hi. Princess and I were going to hunt truffles for him one year but I was out of town when he needed us.

Oysters are easy, but, I've found that it isn't as easy as they make it out to be. Logs take a lot longer than sawdust... don't even try cardboard. Kits make expensive mushrooms, but, it's a way to get the ones that don't ship well. I've got a friend that set up a clean-room and he's supplying me with innoculant. I have logs going with maitake, lion's mane, and oyster. I'm getting a room ready to put sawdust cultures in. I'll be able to tell you more in a month or two.

Thank you all for your input. It will be another growing adventure, just like the fig adventure I'm on. I believe I should try to get as much as I can from the property I have. I try to use all my space to grow something that is beneficial to me and my family. My wife loves mushrooms and over the years I have grown to love them just as much. There is nothing better than going out to your garden and picking fresh fruit, vegetables, and hopefully soon fresh mushrooms.

Bump to ask how's it going?  Did you do it?  I grew indoors for a few years and finally did the logs last fall and stored them in the garage over winter.  Kept them under shade cloth all spring and summer until just recently a storm shredded my cloth but Hershell sent a new one.   I have harvested quite a lot of Turkey Tail for extracting and have mostly Shiitake with a few Reishi, Pearl Oyster and Chicken of  the Woods that should all begin to fruit soon.

I put plugs in oak logs in May. I have been watching them but no mushrooms yet. Although today I picked some chicken of the woods. I'm going to eat them with eggs in the morning for breakfast.

You can force a fruiting by soaking your logs. I can't remember how long your supposed to wait after inoculation of logs before fruiting by soaking. 8 months comes to mind, but that might be off.

Yes eight months is a good minimum for standard spacing plugs. If you drill more holes it will go faster. Producing your own spawn really helps with costs.  Most people cut logs in the fall after dormancy, inoculate and wait a whole year.  Good chance they will fruit by the next fall. 

My log ends are sealed with food grade cheese wax since cutting.  It's clear to see the colonization through the wax but some like Shiitake require a cold shock to force fruit, otherwise it is recommended for unsealed end logs to be soaked every two weeks at air temperature water while the spawn runs.  I do not really want to handle the logs that much so they were sealed to keep in moisture and bad things out.

The high speed angle grinder bits sold by Field & Forest are a real time and labor saver.  Just touch the log with it and you have an instant hole.  Kind of scary actually till one gets used to it. 

Turkey Tail was incredibly fast and has fruited all summer.  I'm waiting for a natural fruiting first on Shiitake according to lower fall temperatures and will likely force fruit next year.  Once forced and harvested, a log needs to rest for two months.  If you have many logs you can enjoy harvest continually.  Thanks for bringing that up Calvin.

I agree with Bob about the Morel kits not being reliable.
If anyone has used a morel kit and been happy with it I'd love a link.

Pete you crack me up.

Some pics of the mushrooms I collected recently. The first is a coral mushroom and the second is the chicken of the woods. They were delicious.

Nice finds! 

Stop this, right now!!! You've got me so fired up that I want to go out and collect wild mushrooms..... in Florida??? I love to cook with mushrooms and have them raw on salads.

has anyone bought mushrooms dowels  from raintree nursery? I read omnivores dilemma by Michael pollan... interesting that people hunt for morels in California and chanterelles... they have shiitake dowels for 18.00 has anyone grown them successfully?

Last year I inoculated a few logs with shiitake dowels, and this past spring I was able to harvest some. All in all it's an easy process to set up, and the logs are low maintenance. During dry spells in the summer just wet the logs so they dont dry out. Also, shop around for dowels... I think I got 100 for around $12. I forget what site they were from, but I know they specialized in mushrooms.

thanx jim i'll check other sites out ... I thought 18 for 100 wasn't bad ( home depot sells a small kit of white button mushrooms for 18 or so dollars) have you tried or going to try other kinds?

I'll probably try a few more varieties in the spring. Not sure what kind just yet... here is a link with good prices. You'll also need a block of cheese wax to seal the log. Good luck, and have fun. The hardest part is waiting for them to start producing.

http://everythingmushrooms.com/mushroom-plug-spawn/

Pete, I'm with you!!  I SHOULD NOT HAVE READ THIS POST!  It sounds so easy AND good!  But...okay, I'm here!

I bought my plugs from Oyster Creek Mushroom Company in Wiscasset Maine. I bought 300 Shittake plugs for $30. I inoculated 4 6 foot logs. I did that in 2014. This summer I picked around 40 pounds of mushrooms. They are very delicious. It's nice to know where they are coming from and knowing they are totally organic.

[QUOTE=Smyfigs]Pete, I'm with you!!  I SHOULD NOT HAVE READ THIS POST!  It sounds so easy AND good!  But...okay, I'm here![/QUOTE]



  Meg,  ...PUT DOWN THE MUSHROOM,  AND SLOWLY BACK AWAY!!!

Fungiperfecti is a good source and reference. The soy base wax they sell for sealing plugs and log ends is also what I use on my cuttings.



http://www.fungi.com

I think $14.95/100 for shiitake. If you order 3 or more bags you can get a 34% discount I believe.

I use sawdust spawn and the bit from Field and Forest that fits on an angle grinder, it goes so much quicker than a drill.

Lol...Blue. I really should have backed away but instead I sent the link to my husband who has wanted to grow mushrooms for a long time! Oi vey!

How does one grow mushrooms in the suburbs where we dont have a forest or logs? Curious...

Wonderful thread! This is renewing an interest from a couple of years ago to grow mushrooms, instead of just foraging for them. I've collected wild mushrooms of all types (very carefully identified) for as long as I can remember. Lion's mane, oyster, fairy ring, puffballs of various types, meadow, morel, bolete, inky cap, etc. For years I dreamed of finding Chantrelle, and either Hen or Chicken of the Woods! Part of the fun is hunting and finding them, but growing would have its own advantages. I'm keeping this info so that when getting more settled in a permanent location, will definitely want to look into it further.

Meg, maybe you could edge some of your growing areas with small found log pieces, or place a couple behind a shed or at the edges of your backyard.  Behind your vigorously growing fig trees! :)

smyfigs --

Do you have space on the ground?  Last spring I found Stropharia growing in wood chips under some landscape plants, so decided to try growing it.  I got a local landscaper who was chipping some maples to dump the chips in my yard.  Then I prepared a bed, 20' x 10' x 6-8" deep, inoculated with Stropharia.  That was this past Sept.  I'm hoping for a small harvest next spring / early summer and more later.  These will supposedly also grow underneath garden plants, so maybe you could combine with peppers or tomatoes, raspberries or blueberries.

Separately, I've got some leaves and pine needles that I'll inoculate with Blewit in March/April.

Of course, there's some oak and maple logs inoculated with shiitake and oysters 'cooking' behind the garage.

None of this has produced a single mushroom yet.  But it might help answer your question about what's possible.  Meanwhile I managed to find some oysters growing on a sugar maple down the road. Delicious!

Thanks, Jrdewhirst! Yes, that does answer my question! It really sounds easy. But just ascwith figs, there is a technique that goes with it; some work better than others, I'm sure. Darn it!! Mushrooms are soooo good!

Found this product on Amazon

10 G Seeds Spores Leccinum Aspen Orange Cap Boletus Mushrooms Kit / Fungus

any ideas?????????

The ad is some sort of joke. That species grows on Aspen tree roots, while the ad says grow it on a patio or in your garage and 1-2 square meters is enough space. I doubt this seller actually has any real understanding of growing mushrooms and just offers cheap knockoffs for a little bit less than honest companies can. Mushroom spawn is like fig cuttings in that you don't know right away if you got the real thing or not. In the case of these mushrooms in particular it takes a really long time. So a dishonest seller can buy 5# of oyster spawn for $20 and sell it as harder to get species 10 g for $20 to people who don't know any better. The seller says they are selling spores but they are actually selling dried spawn.

You should only buy from legitimate dealers who have their own websites and explain how to grow them in a specific way before you buy. Only buy Aspen Bolete if you have an aspen grove ;)

http://mushrooms.firelightheritagefarm.com/index.php?option=com_hikashop&ctrl=product&task=show&cid=223&name=aspen-bolete-dried-mushroom-spawn&Itemid=118&category_pathway=16

The Aspen Boletus(Leccinum) and it's subspecies grow all over in this part of the Rocky Mountains, I wouldn't waste my time with it. The taste isn't spectacular and it quickly stains dark after cutting and therefore looks not that all appealing on the plate, there is also a fair amount of people who don't do well digesting it. Years ago I made a bunch of little jars of pickled mushrooms with them, they looked like squid ink was an ingredient, something in my nature tells me to not eat black slime. It reminds of the first season of Helix, eesh.

There are many other mushrooms that taste better and as hoosierbanana pointed out, grow faster.

[QUOTE=rcantor]Maitake are much better than shitake.  Both are better than oysters.  Lion's mane and chicken of the woods are great also.  The morel kits are fairly unreliable.  If you want to grow oysters get some used coffee grounds from your favorite shop and grow the oysters on the coffee grounds.

Truffles are much harder.  They're mycorhizal with certain trees.  Perigord is the best studied.  You have to fumigate your soil then keep it at pH 8 for years while your oaks or hazelnuts grow.  At that pH the hazelnut trees wont produce nuts.  You missed the Oregon Truffle Festival for 2014 but they have it at the end of January every year in Eugene, OR.  Charles LeFevre is probably the go to guy if you want to grow truffles.  If you talk to him tell him I said hi. Princess and I were going to hunt truffles for him one year but I was out of town when he needed us.[/QUOTE]

I have a couple black walnuts that make such a mess.  It took me 5+ days this fall to get the nuts off my front lawn.  I hate them.  If I raise the PH will they too stop producing nuts?  It takes me 2 days to blow leaves and another 3 to back over and get the nuts.  P-I-T-A!

[QUOTE=APORTO] It took me 5+ days this fall to get the nuts off my front lawn.  I hate them.   P-I-T-A![/QUOTE]

   Andrew...  LOL!!!  

    I heard that same thing from my wife when I told her that I had planted Chandler walnuts on our place.  As a girl, she would have to rake the lawn for hours to get up the nuts before she could mow it;  only to have to rake the grass afterwards.

I love black walnuts. It's funny how for some people like some trees and others treat them as a nuisance. I prefer my black walnuts over my oaks because they drop their leaves and nuts so much earlier than the oaks. This allows me time to get them cleaned up before the snow flies and there is nothing better than black walnut ice cream. As for the post by rcantor to each their own. I prefer Shittake over maitake any day.

I didn't know black walnuts were an edible nut.  I might change my opinion on clearing the shells if I can enjoy some nuts.  Its 2 very large and old trees.  I have to figure out how to get up there to harvest the nuts.  The problem I have is the squirrels eat the nuts and leave the shell halves.  They dig into the ground and work their way under the grass.  The grass doesn't grow, it is annoying to step on them and the worse part:  The 1/2 shells will get blown by my leaf blower, but, when they get rolling, they roll on the open edge and curve and end up behind me.  They go in every direction BUT where I am blowing.  I have to do multiple passes and stop and go back 3 feet just to get that single run-away.  Blue, tell your wife I feel her pain.

You can tap a Black Walnut tree for syrup, just like a Maple.

What about

Cep Boletus Edulis mushroom dry Seeds Mycelium


eBay item number:

Are you for real? It looks like the same seller with a different name. 

Boletus edulis and all of the porcini need to connect with the roots of a compatible tree host in order to fruit.  If you don't have the right tree(s), you wont get mushrooms.

If you want to grow mushrooms get a kit from a reliable supplier such as

http://www.fungi.com/

Thank you, good idea.

Swizzle,
I am assuming the pictures are from foraged mushrooms. Do you ever collected the spores from foraged mushrooms to make your own starter plugs?



[QUOTE=swizzle]Some pics of the mushrooms I collected recently. The first is a coral mushroom and the second is the chicken of the woods. They were delicious.[/QUOTE]

rcantor,
what is the taste difference in comparison to maple syrup? 
[QUOTE=rcantor]You can tap a Black Walnut tree for syrup, just like a Maple.[/QUOTE]

Rmulhero,

I have not but I am going to try this fall. I am going to buy a dowel bit and just make plugs.

[QUOTE=rmulhero]rcantor,
what is the taste difference in comparison to maple syrup? 
[QUOTE=rcantor]You can tap a Black Walnut tree for syrup, just like a Maple.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

Here's a quote from someone who's done it: "The taste... sweet, with the essence of walnut."

I wish I had one but here's all the details in very readable form.  It also has a list of other trees known to be tapable.

http://homestead-honey.com/2014/03/10/beyond-maple-syrup-tapping-black-walnut-trees/

Maple and black walnut trees are tapped at the same time but walnut produces less sap.  Paper birch is tapped later and has less than half the sugar but is supposed to taste great.  Here's the definitive work on the subject

http://www.amazon.com/Sugarmakers-Companion-Integrated-Approach-Producing/dp/1603583971/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454395902&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Sugarmaker%E2%80%99s+Companion

[QUOTE=APORTO]I have a couple black walnuts that make such a mess.  It took me 5+ days this fall to get the nuts off my front lawn.  I hate them.  If I raise the PH will they too stop producing nuts?  It takes me 2 days to blow leaves and another 3 to back over and get the nuts.  P-I-T-A![/QUOTE]

You need one of these.  The nuts taste great and cost a fortune.

https://www.google.com/search?q=missouri+compost&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=black+walnut+cracker

rcantor: thanks for the link! I would love to try black walnut syrup.... will keep my eyes out :). Because of the crazy winter people are already starting to tap for maple syrup.

swizzle: Keep us posted on the creating starter plugs or wild mushrooms varieties. I am interested to see if wild varieties require different growing media and incubation periods.



[QUOTE=rcantor][QUOTE=rmulhero]rcantor,
what is the taste difference in comparison to maple syrup? 
[QUOTE=rcantor]You can tap a Black Walnut tree for syrup, just like a Maple.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

Here's a quote from someone who's done it: "The taste... sweet, with the essence of walnut."

I wish I had one but here's all the details in very readable form.  It also has a list of other trees known to be tapable.

http://homestead-honey.com/2014/03/10/beyond-maple-syrup-tapping-black-walnut-trees/

Maple and black walnut trees are tapped at the same time but walnut produces less sap.  Paper birch is tapped later and has less than half the sugar but is supposed to taste great.  Here's the definitive work on the subject

http://www.amazon.com/Sugarmakers-Companion-Integrated-Approach-Producing/dp/1603583971/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454395902&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Sugarmaker%E2%80%99s+Companion[/QUOTE]

All the cultivated varieties we have started as wild.