Shroom farm started

[h20hunter]

Figured this was as good as any place to post. My pops got to talking about growing mushrooms from spore plugs.  Why not I figure. I ran out to a spot locally where folks are putting in a house. Plenty of fresh downed cottonwood which you typically can't give away fast enough. Cut 12 or 13 lengths and brought them home. So far I've only gotten one log done. Drill it, tap in dowel, wax over. Easy peasy. This first log has 50 plugs of pink oyster. I'll work on three other logs next weeken. Got 50 more pinks then 100 *censored*ake plugs. Pic of first log to follow.

[h20hunter]

Log 1

[h20hunter]

Shi ta ke


Silly forum filter. 

[Mark Brenckle]

Let me know if you need some good horse manure, I have PLENTY to spare! 

[h20hunter]

No thanks buddy! Supposedly,  my logs are all I need. Let the spores do their thing and take over the log then grow on their own. No poo scooping needed.

[WildlifeAssassin]

Nice. You may try using a 2 inch paint brush for applying wax. That’s how Paul Stamets and his crew do it, wax goes a little further that way.

[h20hunter]

Great tip. Ty.

[Carl]

Sounds like fun, I would like to try it.  I have a friend in North Carolina that does this. He grows quite a variety.

[jennabug]

Excellent!  we've been talking about doing this too

[WildlifeAssassin]

Looks more like 1 inch, my bad. If you haven’t looked into Paul stamets’ books and site fungi.com you’re missing out. The dude is the mushroom whisperer.

[WildlifeAssassin]

They dip one end in wax to stack them like in photo.  It prevents other fungi species from contaminating your logs as they will if you leave it in direct contact with the dirt.

[jagermiester]

Where do you buy the spores??

[kisfish]

tag

[lokidog]

Where do you buy the spores??

Do a google search for mushroom plug and lots of places pop up.

[h20hunter]

Amazon.  50 or 100 ct bags. Pretty cheap.

[Buckmark]

Cant you buy mushrooms? fungusamongtus?

[Boss .300 winmag]

Interesting.🤔

[Special T]

My mushroom hunting buddy tried to inoculate cotton wood and the wouldn't take. He said cottonwood has antifungal properties....

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[Rubenation1981]

Very cool project.  Do you keep them in the shade?  Underneath other living trees?

[LDennis24]

Alder wood is the best wood for this from what I've heard... I was looking into buying some pre inoculated logs last year and learned a lot about it. Pretty cool stuff! I like those long skinny tiny headed shrooms. Forget the name of them now...

[JimmyHoffa]

Where do you buy the spores??

You can also get from gmushroom and ebay.  I've got morel spores off ebay.  I'm going to put mushroom boxes by apple trees after muzzy elk.

[h20hunter]

Regarding types of woods as I understand it......cottonwood is good, so is alder. Main thing is to not innoculate until at least 2, if not 3 weeks after cutting. Fresh cut still has the natural chemicals that fight off fungas. After a few weeks those break down and the wood is ripe for fungal takeover.

[h20hunter]

Very cool project.  Do you keep them in the shade?  Underneath other living trees?

Behind my house is a marshy greenbelt. I have my logs tucked into a shaded cool spot between growing trees and some stumps and brush.

[jhawk13]

How long will it take until they actually produce? Are certain times of the year better then others to plug logs?

[LDennis24]

Lions Mane is the mushroom I was talking about! It's a huge brain booster!

https://fungi.com/collections/plug-spawn-for-logs-stumps

[h20hunter]

I think 6 months for our climate.  In other regions I think timing isore important.  We are pretty mild here.

[LDennis24]

The fungi website pretty much tells you everything you need to know about it for each species and has great kits. I'm gonna try to do some in Willow wood even though they don't recommend it. But I have tons of willows that fall every year and could make them useful by doing this. Funny I forgot I wanted to do this until you posted this thread! Lol

[viva_che1363]

Ldennis24 are you talking about Enoki mushrooms? Pretty good and versatile with asian cuisine.

[merkaba93]

I did this with 4 smaller white oak logs. Oyster mushrooms and *censored*ake. Did it about a year ago. Still waiting....might take 3 to 5 years as I understand it. I'm hoping to see some activity soon just to confirm that it's working. Good luck dude!

[LDennis24]

Ldennis24 are you talking about Enoki mushrooms? Pretty good and versatile with asian cuisine.

Yep! It looks like my other post didn't get on here so it sounded confusing when I mentioned Lions Mane but I tried reposting and said that another one I really enjoy was enoki and that there was one that can supposedly rebuild your brain cell activity and give you sharper concentration and that was the Lions Mane. I really want to get some and try it...

[Boss .300 winmag]

I did this with 4 smaller white oak logs. Oyster mushrooms and *censored*ake. Did it about a year ago. Still waiting....might take 3 to 5 years as I understand it. I'm hoping to see some activity soon just to confirm that it's working. Good luck dude!

Why so long?

[h20hunter]

Shouldn't take that long based on my Googlefoo.

[pianoman9701]

Shi ta ke


Silly forum filter. 

Two "ii" Shiitake.

[h20hunter]

Well *censored*ake. 

[pianoman9701]

I've found a great many oyster mushrooms on dead cottonwoods down by the river. The trees have been dead for some time, so it may be a problem with how long your logs have been dead.

[headshot5]

We did similar with alder and *censored*ake plugs.  It took 3 years to get them going good, but they would produce in the spring and the fall.  We got around 10 years out of them.  Plus we used pieces of the old log to inoculate new logs.  They are fantastic fresh with tenderloin.