I am a wild mushroom forager but have never tried growing my own fungi. I would like to try growing oyster mushrooms as well as shiitakes. This would strictly be a hobby for home consumption (please no jokes about psilocybins). Since they are both decaying wood eating fungi I have heard they can be propagated in logs made of Alder or Maple wood BBQ pellets. There is a lot of somewhat chaotic info on the internet as well as mushroom kits but it would be nice to hear some experiences of actual "from scratch"growers. Any info would be appreciated.
I haven't tried it, aside from my parents bought a 5 gallon bucket type white button mushroom farm when I was growing up. There's someone on here that has a whole side business of shrooms logs. chittake? Iirc or crimini?
A few years back I got a kit for a christmas present. It was a box with soil that was mostly peat moss and a bag of some other dirt that you added water to and spread it on top of the first bag of dirt. They actually did really well and produced a good amount. I don't recall what company it was but they did offer many types and different ways to grow them with a lot of different choices.
Several times I have thought about setting some small trees/limbs aside and getting the spawn plugs and trying. I imagine i would put the work into making up the logs, and then forget to keep them moist enough later in the year. When I was looking at the sites for supplies, you could buy bags/boxes of the spore material, or plugs to put in holes drilled in the small logs. Perhaps I should start with the bag/box method.....if those are the kinds I would want to eat.
I raised my own chitakes for quite a few years. A friend and I cleared five acres of his land in South Carolina years ago. We bucked up the red oaks and a few water oaks into 5 foot lengths and drilled out and tapped in 1000's of spore impregnated dowels into them. Took about 6 months to start haversting. We hit peak harvest about two years in. We had to keep them shaded and ran well water sprinklers on them to keep them moist. SO many mushrooms.
I am more interested in growing shrooms in bags in the garage. My understanding is you can have them all year round then. Apparently, you mix the pellets with a specific amount of water and a few additives such as wheat germ or soybean hulls. At this point directions vary. Some say you must sterilize the mix, others say that BBQ pellets are per-sterilized by the heat of forming them and if you use food grade wheat germ it is also contamination free. At any rate, either sterilize, or not, then mix in purchased mushroom spawn in a straw or similar medium then stuff them into mushroom propagation bags at @ 5-7 lbs per bag and store in a shady, moderate temperature area. I would start with about 15 Lbs of mix or two bags. I will keep researching this until I have a definite plan before proceeding.
https://m.youtube.com/c/SouthwestMushrooms/videos This guy has a ton of videos about mushroom farming.
So I pulled the trigger on a bag of PoHo strain of oyster mushrooms from Field and Forest: Oyster Mushroom Grain Spawn and Grow Kits . A gentleman named Derrick instantly took my call and answered all my questions and took the order. They have an A+ so far. Other places had "leave a message I will call you back/mailbox is full" contact info or no contact mechanism at all. I intend to grow in two 5 gallon buckets with holes drilled in them similar to this Youtube clip: Instead of straw I will be using Alder BBQ wood pellets with 1.5 cups of wheat germ per bucket added as a substrate. The treatment of the pellets is similar to the straw for pasteurization and packing into the buckets. I have read and Derrick confirmed that the wood pellets will give a much longer life of harvesting than straw. I will be growing in the garage rather than outside. If this all works out I want to try Shiitakes next. Will keep progress posted!
That is fascinating. I did try a kit once. It worked but the cost was way more than what I got from it. With just the two of us, I just buy them at the market.
No different than paying for gas, tires, oil, insurance, wear and tear and time to go to the mountains to hunt wild mushrooms or even to hunt deer or elk for that matter. Most expensive meat or shrooms ever! But if it is interesting and satisfying then why not? Probably end up like a past hobby of making hard cider. I was very into it for several years then I kind of grew out of it. I'll give the mushrooms a whirl and see how it goes. It should be fun and interesting at least for a while.
I think it was worth it. I don't believe we spent more than 40 bucks with shipping for all the dowels we put in, but that was over 20 years ago. Once the chitakes started to take off, we couldn't keep up. I ended up taking a few paper grocery sacks to work to give away twice a week, except in July and August. I do remember we had little pieces of aluminum flashing engraved with the different varietes nailed on the logs.
Camber your operation is very interesting. I would try it around here but don't have any softwood trees in the yard. I could haul in a Cottonwood log and lay it behind the stacks in the shade and use the dowels........now you have me off on another tangent!
We didn't have too many under much cover. Most of the stacks were under just hardwoods. I did use smoke tarps, or mess tarps from work that were too torn to go over the road. I had to adjust them, because once they got going, it was twice a day picking. It actually got to being quite a chore.
Buckets are filled with hydrated wood pellet substrate and inoculated with oyster mushroom spawn for about two weeks now. Also have two 2 gallon zip top bags filled. Things have seemed to start off slow but the garage is fairly cold so I started putting a 500 watt shop light under the table that the bags and buckets are on. The buckets both have white mycelium showing at most the holes and some of the holes are showing signs of pinning (getting ready to fruit). The bags seem to be moving more slowly. I made them from the last of the spawn so the spawn to substrate ratio was much lower. The mycelium is growing but not as fast as the buckets. It is kind of cool because you can watch the progress through the clear bags. I am hoping to have sprouting shrooms within the week in the buckets. Can't wait for sauteed mushrooms and onions with my steak!
Very cool! Now I want to grow some. I find shrooms at work all the time. These were some of the last of the season back in November growing off Colorado blue spruce…
This place is just down the road from me. I have bought several of their kits for my mom. She loves them. When they "wear out" she throws them in a pile in the shade and often gets more mushrooms. I am sure that with more care, one could extend the life of the kits. https://the-river-valley-farm-store.square.site/
