I inoculated five logs with black oyster mushroom spawn this morning. I did quite well with growing mushroom logs in the basement for a number of year s, then nothing worked for several years. I gave up on it for a few years b ut am trying again. I'm currently waiting for the spawn plugs for shiitake and piopinni mushrooms to add to the mushroom farm.
Paul
I've been catching references to this for years, yet have gained no knowledge. What is actually involved in inoculating logs? Do you drill holes and put spores in them?
Also, for having them in your basement, how does moisture work? Do you set them in water? Or spray them? Or what?
I don't actually like *eating* mushrooms, but growing them fascinates me.
You buy short wooden pegs in which the mushroom spawn is growing. These are available at various websites, like fungi.com There are several species of edible mushrooms that grow on wood.
You need logs from trees which have been recently felled. When the pegs arrive, you drill 5/16" holes in the logs and tap in the pegs. I used about 20 pegs per log on this batch, with the logs being about 3" diameter and about 18" long.
I'm currently soaking the logs overnight and will put them in the basement rack tomorrow morning. You have to keep them moist; my mushroom rack is right near the basement sink, so I can hook up a hose and spray wand to wet them down a couple times a week.
Paul
i wanted to do a mushroom farm along the north hedge, but the person who was supposed to bring me some green wood forgot and so it never happened. :(
enjoy! i love mushrooms and would eat more if i could get them growing here. no basement though, they'd have to be outside.
songbird
Thank you.
Boys! Grow Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellar!
snipped-for-privacy@invalid.com wrote: ...
wish i had one Derald! :)
songbird
I remember those ads in comic books in the 50's and 60's. They also suggested raising chinchillas and offered free foreign postage stamps, with the obligatory approval service in small print.
Paul
*former sea monkey purchaser*
songbird
Well, that's a reference to a Ray Bradbury story from a decade long past. If I had a cellar that did not collapse, I'd probably spend more time pumping it dry than growing mushrooms!
that is the problem here, the water table is too high for any kind of basement unless you pump water continually. if i stay longer term i've thought of putting a small divider in this room to give me some storage/pantry space along the north wall, but it still wouldn't be a cellar.
songbird
I've recently taken an interest in mushroom cultivation and I'm working on making my first grain spawn from some mycelia that a friend gave me (pink oysters). I'm planning to grow them on a straw and coffee substrate in a plastic tote. No basement or cellar required.
I've found Fresh Cap Mushrooms to be a great resource for step by step instructions. You can find him on YouTube and they have a good website. He shows how to do it all! How to grow cultured on agar dishes, prepare and inoculate grain spawn, grow in an outdoor bed, build a laminar hood, etc. If you're interested in growing mushrooms, you should really check them out.
Also, northspore.com has a great selection of spawn and other resources.
Thanks, I'll take a look at Fresh Cap.
I started some morel mycelium in jars of rice a few years ago. It grew well but nothing edible has been produced from the beds I inoculated outside.
Paul
Pavel314 wrote: ...
they may take several years to show up.
if you ever get some fresh ones rinse them off and throw the water in various places around the yard. those millions of spores may travel much further and then find a suitable home.
if you've not seen this page it is worth a skim/pics of morels that have shown up here... interesting to me that they've grown where they have. i would never have expected them where they did:
songbird
Sorry I missed the old thread... And sorrier even that I've no idea what-all in the heck a "black oyster" is. Did you by any chance mean Craterellus cornucopioides? Yeah I'm thinking, not. They're not so much wood-devourers. Did you know that P. ostreatus ("oysters") are variable, whose cap color is prone to cap color change due to ambient lighting. I mean cuz if you're talking about Ostreatus, I can't think of anything easier than shaving off a bit of log, dragging it home and then keeping it under the constant mist of a humidifier. I never saw anything other than whitish cap color, in that case.
did quite well with growing mushroom logs in the basement for a number of years, then nothing worked for several years. I gave up on it for a few yea rs but am trying again. I'm currently waiting for the spawn plugs for shiit ake and piopinni mushrooms to add to the mushroom farm.
According to the ad (link below), it's Pleurotus ostreatus. I've grown blue oyster mushrooms before so I thought I's try these.
I was at a store-front restaurant in Chinatown years ago and had a dish tha t contained black mushrooms that I've never seen before or since. They were very good but I haven't been able to find them. They were the usual umbrel la-shaped mushrooms, not oyster mushroom shaped.
Paul
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