Even though we live in a place where many edible mushrooms grow wild, there are very few that we feel confident in harvesting. After several years of talking about ordering some to grow here, we finally did it. They finally arrived this afternoon so we will have our work cut out for us over the next few weeks getting the logs prepared,drilling several hundred holes, tapping the plugs into the logs, coating them with wax, letting them rest for a while and then moving them all to their permanent location.Since we are newbies at mushroom growing we purchased an all inclusive kit for hard woods and then a couple other types for soft woods. The kit contained a drill bit, paint brush, a pound of wax and a mallet and a really cool box but that is another post entirely. All types of the shrooms except the shiitake are native to here so hopefully as we learn more about them we can naturalize them and build our own colony here in the woods. We got shiitake and pearl oysters for the hardwood and chicken of the woods and phoenix fir oyster for the soft woods.
This is going to be quite an experience and experiment. Some of those that we bought will not even make mushrooms for up to 3 years. I am hoping to do periodic updates on the process as well as make a video of actually getting the logs prepared, inoculated and placed.
Cool, I love the idea! I've thought about a stack of inoculated oak logs perched in the unused spring house. They'd stay moist and cool in summer. Somehow though, another wheel always squeaks louder!
ReplyDeleteOh I love this!! We've always wanted to try it too but with all our projects, we haven't gotten around to it yet.. I'll be interested to know how this works for you! :)
ReplyDeleteDarius, you gave us a great idea! we have a cool damp cistern room here and we are now thinkin it may be a great place to grow our shroomies.Would certainly keep critters from getting to them before we can!
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