Mushroom/Fungi Cultivation

[William_Montgomery]

I've recently acquired a couple of home grow mushroom kits, pink oyster spawn and substrate and shiitake dowels.
Pink oysters are in and hopefully the mycelium is spreading, shiitake dowels are in the fridge whilst I try to get hold of a suitable log.

I'm reading up on whether I can harvest the spores and continue the cycle in a small scale home set-up.

Has anybody here had experience of these home grow kits? If so, what is reasonable to expect in terms of yield, are there ways to increase that yield and are some species more fruitful than others?

Thanks.

 

[slowworm]

With regard to yield the shiitake I posted an update in this thread: https://bushcraftuk.com/community/threads/fungi-dowel-colonization.155097/#post-2075335

Were started with 100 spawn dowels in about 6 2-3' fresh oak logs. That flush was better than others but you can get several flushes over 3-4 years. I picked, chopped, fried them down for a few minutes and froze the surplus. (Spread out thinly in a bag so chunks can ne broken off and used).

I would say shiitake is the most productive I've tried, and the most reliable.

I'm not sure they will spawn at all but I intend trying to use the pulp from an existing log to see if I can infect another.

 

[William_Montgomery]

With regard to yield the shiitake I posted an update in this thread: https://bushcraftuk.com/community/threads/fungi-dowel-colonization.155097/#post-2075335

Were started with 100 spawn dowels in about 6 2-3' fresh oak logs. That flush was better than others but you can get several flushes over 3-4 years. I picked, chopped, fried them down for a few minutes and froze the surplus. (Spread out thinly in a bag so chunks can ne broken off and used).

I would say shiitake is the most productive I've tried, and the most reliable.

I'm not sure they will spawn at all but I intend trying to use the pulp from an existing log to see if I can infect another.

I'd be interested to hear how you get on with transplanting the spawn to a new log.

How fresh were the oak logs you used?

 

[slowworm]

The oak logs I used were freshly cut from my woodland. The spawn was put in the fridge on delivery and logs cut next day.

 

[William_Montgomery]

Got a few oak logs plugged and ready to go now, not huge but hopefully big enough.

Shiitake, Tarragon Oyster, Summer Oyster and Pearl Oyster.


Also, some Pink Oysters in the house which are beginning to show themselves.

 

[Kirsty]

Could I revive this thread to ask how the mushroom growing went longer term?

 

[Tengu]

How about start with a field mushroom kit from the garden centre? Soon you will have far too many.

 

[Kirsty]

How about start with a field mushroom kit from the garden centre? Soon you will have far too many.

Thanks! I used one of those little countertop box ones and it was excellent, but how to scale up, do they need to be warm, relatively dry (constant rain here, all day every day, everything sodden), under cover, and how not to poison myself...