Mushroom cultivation

[Bluefinn]

Last spring I ordered wine cap & shiitake spawn. Wine caps were spread in a prepared bed & in august they started popping, probably over 100 came up over the next month. Also got 250 shiitake plugs that were inoculated in oak logs. They should be fruiting this year.

 

[Sgt Fury]

How did you prepare the bed? I’ve seen kits for morels and wanted to give it a try.

 

[giles]

Interesting. Will they continue year after year or is this something you have to do every year?

Invasive at all or native to Ohio?

 

[Bluefinn]

I took the grass out down to dirt. Soaked some big sheets of cardboard & tore them apart so the corragated part was exposed. Layed that down with soaked straw on top & then covered with oak mulch. Spread the spawn between the layers. Watered it down when my garden needed it. Was very easy & the results blew me away. It will produce for a few years but if you keep adding substrate so the mycelium continues to grow it will produce for ever.

 

[Bluefinn]

Interesting. Will they continue year after year or is this something you have to do every year?

Invasive at all or native to Ohio?

Shiitake's are not native but they are very popular & a lot of guys grow them. Wine caps are native but I have never seen any. That's why I chose them. I bought the spawn from Field & Forest. If you go to their website they have all kinds of mushrooms. They were selling out last spring & other companies were out. You can keep the spawn in the fridge until ready to use.

 

[Reagan]

I’ve grown shiitakes for 6-8 years. Started with oak logs that my neighbor was going to let rot. Last spring I planted in sweet gum and got some shrooms last fall. Should be better this spring. I find it much easier to kill a sweet gum instead of an oak.

 

[Sgt Fury]

I took the grass out down to dirt. Soaked some big sheets of cardboard & tore them apart so the corragated part was exposed. Layed that down with soaked straw on top & then covered with oak mulch. Spread the spawn between the layers. Watered it down when my garden needed it. Was very easy & the results blew me away. It will produce for a few years but if you keep adding substrate so the mycelium continues to grow it will produce for ever.

Did you put the spawn down on the cardboard or on the oak mulch?

 

[Bluefinn]

Did you put the spawn down on the cardboard or on the oak mulch?

I spread it out over the cardboard strips & the straw & then put the oak mulch on top.