mushroom cultivation

[rpg52]

Hi,
I'm about to try growing some mushrooms in oak and cottonwood.  I have already received some wooden dowels inoculated with Shitake and Oyster mushroom mycelia.  Here is the question:  to reduce water loss, the log ends and holes for the dowels should be sealed with food-grade wax or beeswax.  Can the wax emulsion for sealing logs be used in its place?  I have some sealer from Bailey's I've had for a while, but hesitate to use it, not knowing if there is any fungicide or other chemicals that might inhibit the fungi, and the label doesn't say anything.  Anyone know?   :P
Ray

[stonebroke]

If it says food grade I would use food grade. I doubt if Baileys is food grade. When you are growing something that people will eat you should err on the side of caution.

Stonebroke

[Burlkraft]

Let us know what ya find out. Jill was thinkin' of doin' the same thing this year  ;D

[SPIKER]

my woods seems to grow shrooms great and I also have thought about buying some spore infested media, costs have been somewhat UP in my thoughts though.   I have a good bit of dead/standing dead elm that should work great for this application and there is plenty of bottom to lay out the wood for the long term investment that it requires.  just wondering if the SPOOR would stay well in my area...

Where did you buy your spore dowels at?   and do you think the sawdust is better or the wood dowels? and or the ground left overs used up wood from other farms?


Mark 

[stonebroke]

The commercial mushroom farms use maure and hay as a medium

Stonebroke

[SPIKER]

stonebroke:
only for certain varieties of mushrooms are grown in the hay/natural fertilizer ;)

some must be grown on wood or in wood fiber, though many are grown in a sawdust stall lineing materail that has both sawdust and the natural fertilizers
mark

[brdmkr]

I have 300 shitakes incubating now.  I keep figuring that they will sprout soon.  I did not water them and it got pretty dry here.   Hopefully it did not get too dry.  This will be my first try.  We'll see.

[Ron Wenrich]

Here's some places to get mushroom spawn:

http://www.fungi.com/index.html

http://www.gmushrooms.com/Plugs/index.htm

http://www.mushroomharvest.com/

http://www.mushroomadventures.com/dowel.html

There's an elm oyster mushroom that is supposed to grow well in elm.  Its similar to the blue oyster mushroom.

I might have to give mushrooms a try.  I've been threatening to do it for years.

[rpg52]

I got mine from Fungi Perfecti (www.fungi.com).  I'm trying the shitake in a couple oak logs (about 6+" diameter, 3-4'long).  The Oyster I'm putting in cottonwood, about the same size.  The how-to is interesting:  drill 5/16" holes about 4" apart, seal the ends and the plugs with wax.  Living in California, it is dry all summer, so I'll be watering them a couple times a month.  If you get rain in the summer, you might not need it so much.  Also, more water loss if the ends aren't sealed.  6-9 months incubation, then soak the log in a tub, and within a week or two it should start to fruit.  You can also do stumps with the plugs.  The media depends on the species,  some grow on straw, some on wood.  The Mycelium Running book is pretty interesting, the author, Paul Stamets talks about "mycoremediation", for erosion control, detoxification of chemical spills, etc.  He's also looking at using some fungi for anti-viral and anti-cancer medicines. 
I also got a used edition of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms by Stamets.  Sheesh, the production of mushroom spawn is a bit more than I'm willing to deal with, pretty interesting though.  It gives you an idea of why the production of pure cultures of spawn is so expensive.  Having said that, people have been growing mushrooms for a long time, but mold and bacteria contamination have always been a problem, to say nothing of all the other critters that want to eat them.  Stamets talks about using mushroom stems for growing on soaked cardboard for the wood digesting ones.  It seems like that is a possibilility that could be done in a backyard, which is more like my scale.  Production for sale is a whole 'nother thing.  Seems like a possible use for all that low quality wood that would otherwise sit in a burn pile.  We'll see though.
Ray

[SPIKER]

ok I had to go and put in an order for some of those fungi just to see how they do, seems most every thing else rotting will grow on my place. :D

Mark

[twobears]

has anybody raised mushrooms for profit?? or even to so-called help pay the land taxes??
i hear some mushrooms can go for a pretty good buck per pound..morels being one and hen of the woods another.

delbert

[Ron Wenrich]

Sawlex had a seminar on raising mushrooms.  There seemed to be 2 different ways of making money.  One was the tried and true growing of them.  In my area, the shitake mushrooms are getting about $1/oz in the stores. You will have a hard time retailing, so you'll either sell to the stores or have to have some sort of outlet. 

The other thing they were doing was selling inoculated logs.  I think the price was $28/log.  They take a small log and put the plugs in them.  They let them sit for 5 months before they sell them.  People put them in their garden or around some landscape and let them grow. 

I like option #2 best.  Not as labor intensive. 

[brdmkr]

I saw this come back up.  It reminded me that my shitakes still have not sprouted.  I was expecting them to sprout long ago.  HMMMM.

[rpg52]

The directions I have say it will be ~6 months or more from innoculation to mushrooms.  It is dependent on weather and moisture.  After sufficient time, soaking the log overnight will prompt them into a "flush".  FYI, I have a problem here in CA with low humidity all summer, so I put them in a mining tunnel that has about 100% humidity.  Now both the cottonwood and the oak are sprouting leaves!  Not sure now whether it will work or not.   >:(  We'll see next fall.
Ray