Mushroom growing kits

[demographic]

The plug spawn dowell things for drilling into logs.

Has anyone on here used them? Any good?

Am I right in thinking that you could just use wild mushrooms to get the spores and just bung them into holes in the timber and that would get the spores going?

Mebbe plug the holes afterwards

Mind the kits are not exactly expensive either.
I am thinking about geting some for a mates parents who quite often feed me when I am there and have provided garage space for a couple of my motocrossers for a while.

They have a few acres of woodland that had a mature beech tree thats fallen down so might be worth "seeding".

Any opinions?

Oh and I don't mean the little mushrooms with the pointy tops either

 

[janiepopps]

Demo, do you have a link to those? Ive never heard of them but they sound great

j

 

[demographic]

Demo, do you have a link to those? Ive never heard of them but they sound great

j

Link thing

 

[demographic]

Nobody used the edible mushroom growing kits?

I am NOT asking about the now illegal kits that get you wasted either, just the normal ones that grow Shiitake, Pearl Oyster and so on types.

I can see that I am just going to have to buy a kit and see what they are like.

 

[White Elf]

We got two impregnated logs last year but nothing has happened yet so i can't exactly say i recommend them. But we still got hope.

 

[gregorach]

Not used them, but I'm pretty sure they're exactly the same as the ones used by commercial growers, so you'd figure they must be pretty reliable.

I'm not sure whether they're just impregnated with spores, or whether the mycelium has been started off already. The big problem with growing mushrooms from wild spores is contamination, so I'd expect that the plugs have been sterilised, then impregnated with highly controlled spores in a sterile environment, then allowed to get established. All just supposition on my part though...

 

[ESpy]

The plugs I've seen have been fairly well riddled with mycelia by the time they get to the customer; so for DIY, there's no reason why not. Right about the sterilised plugs though - and the spores are usually brought on initially on agar slides.

 

[demographic]

agar slides.

I was with you right upto that bit, whats an agar slide

 

[led]

Agar is a growth medium for bacteria and fungi.

 

[ESpy]

Yup, and to complete it - I'm talking about agar in a petri dish .

Added -

Found this on spore propagation:
http://www.cce.cornell.edu/clinton/ag/forestry/mushrooms/Growing Gourmet Mushrooms bw.pdf
http://mushroomspawn.cas.psu.edu/SpawnGrowth.htm
http://www.mycosource.com/homecult.htm

Be warned that a lot of the propagation advice on the net seems to be geared towards inedible mushrooms - and therefore potentially NSFW. The links above look OK.

 

[Martyn]

...an intersting link, grow your own tinder fungus....

http://www.fungiperfecti.com/plugs/plugs.html

http://www2.mailordercentral.com/fungi/Prodinfo.ASP?NUMBER=PSFF1000&VARIATION=&AITEM=1&MITEM=1

 

[dave k]

Also this place advertise :

http://www.mycologue.co.uk/xcart/customer/homecu.php?cat=3

They also have field, blewit and parasol kits!

 

[demographic]

Anyway, I think I will get them one of the dowell kits as the rest looks to much like hard work.

The links that ESpy posted were interesting stuff though.

 

[dtalbot]

Also this place advertise :

http://www.mycologue.co.uk/xcart/customer/homecu.php?cat=3

They also have field, blewit and parasol kits!

Brill link thanks, though a bit hard on my wallet

 

[Porcupine]

i have bought a set of tinderfungus from fungiperfecti a while ago,didnt have any problem with them. they also checked with me if postage cost would be to high for me since they normaly didnt ship that far out

package arrived nicely wrapped with clear enough instructions and a zipbag filled with wooden plugs and some white goo (prolly myecelium jelly)

now if only i had used the stuff directly instead of forgetting about it and finding it back 3 months later (in my defense,i became daddy the same week the package arrived )