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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 24, 2013 0:21:39 GMT -5
Most commonly in the grocery store (on those unusual occasions when I can find anything other than button mushrooms) I come across oyster mushrooms and Enoki mushrooms. Oysters are well known for growing on trees. I sometimes find Reishi or Shiitake, but I haven't had much luck culturing them indoors. Enoki would look much different if cultured on a tree than in a bottle.
I'll join you in the experiment. I have an old culture of Lions Mane that seems like its not going to fruit again for me. I might as well stuff it into a log.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 23, 2013 20:51:08 GMT -5
I stuck some oyster mushroom plugs into a log last fall. I think that this was a mulberry log. It looks like the spawn is growing fine.  |
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 23, 2013 22:53:55 GMT -5
Yep, that's grown stuff! Good job! Wouldn't it be great if you could breed in the ability to jump off the log and walk into the house... o.O
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Post by steev on May 25, 2013 1:24:57 GMT -5
Only if it would climb into the frypan and NOT turn on the burner without giving notice!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 13, 2013 19:49:48 GMT -5
About one year ago I inoculated some logs with oyster mushrooms and with lion's mane mushrooms. A few weeks ago it turned cloudy, rainy, and cold. Today when I was walking through the garden I saw a sight that made me laugh and run in to bring the family out to see:  I had soaked the logs in water about a month ago, but that wasn't enough to trigger fruiting. The cooler damper weather seems to have done the trick. I inoculated about a two dozen logs. So far only the largest oyster mushroom log has fruited. |
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Post by steev on Oct 13, 2013 22:57:52 GMT -5
Mighty fine!
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Post by homegrower on Nov 5, 2013 0:54:16 GMT -5
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Nov 5, 2013 1:48:42 GMT -5
Does anyone have any experience with Wine Cap / Garden Giant / King Stropharia by any chance ? I grew them this spring in straw and wood chips under a shade tree on the edge of the garden. They fruited, but in my arid climate they would be more appropriately called "Garden Midget". The fruits were approximately as tall and big around as a wine cork. I have some spawn I collected from the (failed) planting. I'm intending to plant it in the next few days into a different garden that gets more water. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 1, 2014 16:01:12 GMT -5
This fall was so dry that I didn't get a fall flush of mushrooms. But they made a feeble attempt to fruit. So about a week or two ago, I took a log, and soaked it in a tub of water, and set it in the greenhouse.  |
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Post by flowerweaver on Dec 1, 2014 16:19:21 GMT -5
Joseph Lofthouse decades ago when I was still living in a big city I had a very large weekend garden at a friend's semi-arid country place. He had leased it to the green grocers that supplied the original little Whole Foods store with shitake mushrooms. They were growing them on inoculated oak logs in tubs of water under tree cover.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 14, 2014 12:24:49 GMT -5
After the success with soaking one log and putting it in the moist humid greenhouse I repeated the procedure on more logs. Woo Hoo! Mushrooms are coming on like crazy! It's just too dry around here for them to fruit successfully outside. A closed up greenhouse is just what they needed. Here is yesterday's harvest.  These aught to be ready to harvest today.  I am making hybrid mushrooms. The parents in the photo on the left are both commercial strains. The mushroom in the photo on the right is a strain that was collected growing wild in the nearby mountains. I'm saving the spores together, and intend to plant them and allow them to hybridize however they will. Commercial Cultivars | Wild Strain |  |  |
I've been taking the butt ends of the harvested mushrooms and planting them into bales of straw. Indoor growing was way difficult for me due to contamination. Outdoor grows seem like the way to go. This week I'm intending to inoculate more logs by using the chainsaw to make sawdust out of a portion of the logs that are currently fruiting, and stuffing that into holes drilled in fresh logs. |
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Post by 12540dumont on Dec 15, 2014 14:12:32 GMT -5
I'm so happy you are having good luck with mushrooms! My garden after a year without rain has mushrooms coming up everywhere!
If I could grow mushrooms at will, I would grow, Candy caps, Lactarius rubidus,is commonly found only on the west coast of North America. Its favorite habitat seems to be near the sides of the road, particularly where a cut has been made in the side of the road, as shown to the right. It also seems to like other disturbed areas. Given this odd habitat, it may be surprising that, like other members of the genus such as Lactarius indigo, it is a mycorrhizal fungus, having a mutualistic association with the roots of trees. Typically Lactarius rubidus is found in association with conifers.
In Oregon, Leo got out of the car and found morels growing on the side of the road! I didn't have my frying pan with me...
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Post by 12540dumont on Dec 15, 2014 14:20:04 GMT -5
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 17, 2014 20:05:50 GMT -5
I inoculated the logs a couple days ago. It was even easier than I had imagined. Drilled holes about 5/16" in diameter.  Chopped up the butt ends and dirty fruits of oyster mushrooms. Poked pieces into holes with chopstick.  Covered holes with wax from a candle to keep inoculant moister.  Stacked up aspen and alder logs to incubate in the moister greenhouse until I need the space in the spring. The aspen logs were cut this fall. The alder log was cut in the spring... Sure it might be weedy and dry, but that's just my garden in general.  |
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Post by starry on Dec 18, 2014 13:30:03 GMT -5
I inoculated the logs a couple days ago. It was even easier than I had imagined. Drilled holes about 5/16" in diameter. Chopped up the butt ends and dirty fruits of oyster mushrooms. Poked pieces into holes with chopstick. Covered holes with wax from a candle to keep inoculant moister. Stacked up aspen and alder logs to incubate in the moister greenhouse until I need the space in the spring. The aspen logs were cut this fall. The alder log was cut in the spring... Sure it might be weedy and dry, but that's just my garden in general. Does this technique work Joseph or are you just experimenting to see? I have never heard of anyone just chopping up the end of the mushroom and sticking in a log....I hope it works...would be way easier. My shiitake logs finally fruited this year after 2 years of waiting. Had to soak them in a bucket to get them to fruit. Soooo tasty. |
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