I dont think CoW even though parasite ever kills a tree. But how can you tell a sick American cherry from a healthy one in the first place. There always dropping branches. Fortunaly both lean away from the house I even tried several years ago to kill the tree with drills and filling the wholes with rot out, to no success.
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I called the demise of a big old twin trunk ash a few years ago from CoW, but it was pretty obvious as it was attacking the middle and a crack was opening. Would have fallen on my container fig trees had I put them in their normal spot, it just barely missed the water outlet by a few inches. One half is still standing, but not for long as it has hollowed it out and there are hardly any roots left on the side holding back the weight. Luckily it shouldnât fall on anything. But unfortunately the chickens are now mostly on the inside, some below ground so they end up full of dirt and debris.
Iâve got a black cherry I want to kill also, chopped it back a couple years ago and girdle the new trunks to act as an ambrosia beetle trap. Maybe Iâll try putting in some rot from the ash as well.
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Black cherry is very good for smoking meat.
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no need to sterilize the chips as long as theyâre fresh. just mix in the spawn and spread to no thicker than 6in. deep in a shady, moist area. water when your garden needs it. youâre right, wine caps are aggressive. i started spawn 5 yrs. ago and put it under my plants/ trees and Iâm still getting shrooms. i just top dressed with 4in. of fresh chips 2 weeks ago. i have dozens of bunches of them popping up everywhere right now.
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I know but I needed an excuse to get a new pressure cooker. I do need to run this spawn and expand the volume Its a massive pile.
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So for fun and experimentation I filled a second identical tub with unpasteurized chips and spawn. I have half a bag of spawn and 3 liquid culture left, I need to expand more spawn so I am not waiting tow years for shrooms hopefully
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If the wine caps are started in the spring, you should get large flushes in the first fall. If you donât get them this fall, you should be swimming in them next spring. My lions mane, though, gave me a tiny flush after two years.
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donât be stingy on the spawn or it wonât take. i made that mistake the 1st time. a large bag of spawn is good for a 4â by 4â bed size 6in. thick.
I went back and spread the rest 50/50 between the two crates. Hopefully this will run the spawn to cover all the chips.
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Its very hot in NJ so I have been using rain water to keep the chips moist. The lid says closed during the day. Based on the results so far I think the pasteurized/sterilized chips are running faster, but I do see colonization in both containers.
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I got my spawn in on Saturday. I have a bed prepared of fresh hardwood (mostly silver maple) chips approximately 8 feet by 5 feet by 9 inches deep. Cardboard was laid down first, followed by the chips, ( the bes was kept moust with rainwater)
5# of sawdust spawn was spread into the bed in 3 long lines down the middle and 2 lines crossing perpendicular the shorter way. Bed was soaked again (rainwater) and cardboard layered on top and approximately 1.5 inches of more chips were placed on top
The cardboard is from produce boxes and there are long ventalation cuts in it.
Ill keep it watered and keep people here posted.
Anyone see any problems with my preparation?
Scott
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I didnât cover my bed with anything and didnât use any cardboard. I watered it a few times the first summer. I also evenly spread the spawn across the entire bed in several layers. This worked very well for me. I think your plan will work just as well, if not better.
This is what I got from the first flush in the fall from the same size bed and spawn bag. Probably got about 5 times this much the first fall.
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i donât know the folks you got your spawn from but most recommended the mycelium have direct contact with the ground. i did it your way the 1st time and it didnât take. next time i spread some mycelium on the soil then mixed chips with mycelium and it took. for some reason it needs contact with soil. but yet they grow shrooms on sterile substrate? idk but for some reason to grow shrooms outside, it needs soil contact.
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The way I see it its like having an all sugar diet. Sure you have a lot of energy at first but then you run out of everything else you need.
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Last week I covered the chips in the bins with part of a bag of topsoil. A little watering a few rain storms. Today I took a peak and every chip is covered with wonderful white mycelium. At this point it would be hard to guese which one spread faster but I am still giving it to the sterilized spawn. Since we are expecting a lot of rain Friday, I will spread a quart under every few feet. I will need to start more bins and run some more spawn to cover my finaly spread wood chips.
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I pulled back some of the chips and noticed two kinds of mycellium. A white thready kind and a yellow spotted kind.
The yellow spotted kind seems to have pushed forth some dog-vomit slime mold.
These two kinds of mycelluim are on different sides of the bed.
Any suggestions?
Scott
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Straphoria is a fighter and does not like to be the only child. So I suspect it will be just fine.
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Son had 100 dowels of lions mane. We girdled a couple trees, drilled, doweled and sealed them. Who knows if theyâll take.
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Does Lions Mane taste like crab/lobster as the descriptions say?
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