Help and advice needed - mushrooms.

[sarraceniac]

A friend has just given me a couple of healthy looking birch logs from his wood-burner supply because I admitted that I have never actually grown mushrooms even though we love them in all shapes and sizes (and spend a fortune on them). I suppose I could spend a few hours trolling round the web to find out how (and when) to get them going but nothing beats advice from people who have actually got the t-shirt.

So has anybody GYO'd mushrooms? What varieties should I be looking for apart from a few death-caps for the grand-kids to play with? How do I get the spawn into the logs? What temperature and humidity do they need? Etc. etc.. As you will gather I am totally new to fungiculture so anything anybody can tell me will be gratefully received.

[djhs196]

You can dowels and mushroom spawn from:
mushroom products online by Mycologue, mushroom knives and mushroom picking weekends

It's a case of drilling holes (lots), knocking in the dowels, covering with wax and then waiting for a few years...it takes a while.

I've not grown from logs, but you can get other mushroom kits based on straw that are ready in a month (just add water). I've seen kits in Wyevale too. First time i did it, I keep them under the bed and it was fine...

[Nicos]

Is it this years wood? I understand they do best on fresh hardwood.
We had 3 logs of fresh oak- and 3 types of spores- a couple of years ago- and nothing has happened yet. I'm not sure whether to leave them a while longer or chuck out. We followed all the instructions to the letter which came with the plugs. Bit disappointed to be honest.
...fingers crossed it works out for you!!

[HeyWayne]

Is it this years wood? I understand they do best on fresh hardwood.

That's my understanding too.

I tried a mushroom kit once (the shoe-box type), and failed. It's cheaper and easier to buy mushrooms.

[ginger ninger]

I tried one of those polystyrene box things once, ended up with a house full of tinny black flies, right pain in the aspidistra trying to get rid of the dam things, but on a lighter note, I did hear that the straw kits are good they have Oyster mushrooms in them, come in at around £10 - £12, but considering the price of Oyster mushrooms I think they'd be worth it....if they worked.
Both Kings and T&M do the spawn plugs, Kings at £6.25 for 30 plugs, T&M £18.99 for 100, they have oyster, lion's mane, shiitake.
Let us know how you get on Sarraceniac.

[esrikandan]

I bought a box kit last year (from Wilcos) - followed the instructions exactly and got...



...about 3 muchrooms - as HW says - not worth the bother.

[OllieMartin]

I used some mushroom compost in one of my beds last year. I was forever uprooting huge mushrooms from it. The sad thing is I can't stand them and most of them went on the compost heap! Sorry

[wollyanna]

Ollie You must have got your compost from the same place as we did. We had the suprise of our lives when all these gorgeous mushrooms popped. Can't wait to get another load this year.

[sarraceniac]

@Nicos. Yes, it's fresh cut wood. Very sappy.

@Ollie. You could have sent them here. Although we are looking for different types we don't mind the odd pound or 6 of standard ones. It's the hobbit in us.

@djhs. Love to try Lion's mane, trouble is when the marketing peeps tell me that something tastes like something else, I don't really believe them. A shroom that tastes like lobster? Next thing you'll be telling me that you are going ski-ing with Eddie the Eagle.

[nerdgas]

I was growing them in one of those Unwins kits but after a while the fungus gnats got into them and I spent most of my time killing the beggars everytime I checked on progress.

Got hacked off with it and put it out into the garden and will probably chuck it on the garden beds when it warms up a bit.

I checked it the other day, just out of interest, and even with the stupidly low temps the gnats were still there inside the lid. Not moving much but they still looked like they were alive!

[solway cropper]

It seems most of us have had the same experience. I got two kits from T&M a couple of years ago and followed the instructions to the letter. One kit was dowels which I put into a fresh birch log and the other was spore which I inserted under turfs on the lawn. Result to date....one birch log sawn into suitable lengths and chucked on the fire.

[jayjay giant]

I bought a load of spent mushroom compost to help fill my raised beds and I had tons of mushrooms in spring and autumn. Most of them were welcome but a few uprooted my early carrots etc.... Thats the thing with gardening, sometimes it works and sometimes it don't and there doesn't seem to be any reasoning in it !

[Two_Sheds]

Mum used to grow mushrooms under the bed when we were kids.

I think timing is crucial though: in the 'wild' mushrooms appear in autumn in warm damp places (my bark chip paths, and on an old tree stump).

Sarra, this may interest you: Growing Mushrooms | Food | Channel4.com

[sarraceniac]

Thanks TS. It is more or less all there in a nut shell isn't it. Looks like the greenhouse is going to have a couple of logs in it in a couple of weeks time. Too cold outside to start them and too warm in the house (plus beds are all low divans nowadays). Thanks to everyone who has contributed, it looks as if there are many pitfalls but with the price of shiitake and oyster shrooms, and the fact that we can't get lion's mane at all round here, I think we'll try it. I would have liked to try ceps and morelles too but more research is needed there. I don't really trust my eyes enough to go up to Dolby Forest foraging next autumn. I'll leave that to the HFWs of the world. So I'll report next year with piccies (of whatever).

[snakeshack]

cep are a summer mushroom (as are all the boletus species)and are not cultivated as far as I am aware and have to be picked wild,morels are a spring mushroom and grow on chalky soils only (usually associated with hawthorn).
the next wild mushrooms due to appear are st georges mushrooms (mouserron sp?)which emerge about 23 april or thereabouts depending on weather.
As always when foraging don't pick and eat anything you are not 100 percent about.
If you are new to foraging go out with someone initially,a guide book is not enough,you can't smell or feel a guide book.