Growing Mushrooms

[Michelle W. Flannery]

I've been interested in growing my own mushrooms for years, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I think this year will be the year I finally do it, but I know nothing about the growing process.

Mail order mushroom kits are the only growing method I know of, and those are for simple button mushrooms. Are you growing mushrooms? Do you use a kit or some other method? Are the kits any good? Is a mushroom harvest from a kit worth the expense? When kits have been fully harvested, do they continue in a seasonal growth pattern or are they unusable? Please tell me everything you know! I'm not very interested in foraging for wild mushrooms as there are no edible mushrooms in my area. Thanks for your input.

[vicki carson]

My husband and I have grown shiitake mushrooms on hardwood logs for about ten years now. We buy the mushroom spawn (mail order) in form resembling 2" sections of 1/4" doweling, which we then insert in holes drilled in logs. We paint over the inserted "dowels" with melted beeswax to seal in moisture and seal out competing fungi. After that, the hard work is over. The logs stay outside year-round in a shady spot here in Zone 6. We water the logs only during really dry spells. After the logs are ready to produce mushrooms (about 6-9 months after inserting the spawn), we soak the logs in water for a day or so, and harvest mushrooms within a week of soaking.
We have always gotten logs from friends who have had limbs blow down in storms. Besides the usual oak, we have found that wild cherry, hickory, and maple also produce pretty well. Locust did not produce at all. A thirty dollar batch of spawn can produce ten pounds or more of mushrooms a year for four or five years, and the mushrooms are of a much better quality than we usually find in the grocery store.

[Marilyn Gang]

August 2008, at a Vesica Institute workshop seminar series in Asheville, North Carolina, I met Andrew Goodheart. Andrew is a permaculture expert and showed me how to grow Oyster Mushrooms --- in a zip loc bag !!!

I was so amazed and astounded that I did a short vid of this --- it was my first youtube video. If you go to our youtube site at:
http://www.youtube.com/dowsersinfo
you can see that video. Its our most watched video !
Simple! (Note: simple does not --- necessarily --- mean --- easy) but:
coffee grounds . . . straw .... spores . ....
If you like mushrooms please DO watch Paul Stamets vid on "6 ways mushrooms can save the world." totally splendiferous! - Marilyn -
PS: also, in Toronto, you can contact the "Fun Guy" at: http://www.mycosource.com/