There’s no need to do so in most locations because it’s already present in the environment.
I threw some winecap spawn in a bed of chip last fall. Can you take sections of that bed and spread it further to other beds? Hoping to avoid buying more.
I’ve heard as long as they have woodchips they never go away and pop up everywhere.
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the white woodchips are inoculated with mycelium, that can be spread around, also the bas of the mushroom fruits can be spread around, winecap is one of the few mushrooms that is strong enough to regrow from the base of the stem.
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as long as you renew with fresh woodchips they will keep growing. hardwood works best but some spruce works.
I have the inoculated wood chip about a foot or more deep on a tarp. The idea was to just shovel off pieces to other locations. Does that sound like it will work or should I leave it alone to fruit?
I put down some wine cap inoculated spawn along the left side of this path in December and then covered it with 4 inches of wood chips.
Looks like it is colonizing well.
I’ll grow a row of tightly spaced peppers along here this year hoping to see the wine caps popping up in their shade.
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from my experience they need contact with soil to readily colonize the woodchips. the place i bought my spawn said the same. just turn it out in a shady, protected spot of bare ground, add about 4in of straw or hay over it and water well.
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I got a pretty good bed of them. They taste like a raw russet potato, I get 100s a season and eat maybe 2 or 3. You can scoop a shovel from thier bed and use that to innoculate other locations. I mixed saw dust and chips from my wood shop into the bed (ontop of cardboard)and keep them moist. They spread everywhere you have woody material. They dont hurt plants but wood chips suck nitrogen up when fresh. Pretty sure they are only saprophites and not mycorhizal. Last year i mixed almond agaricus with my tomatoes and peppers. That grows in compost and tastes better, but dont think it survives winter.
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Would you buy them if you didn’t grow them? I put them in, but still waiting on fruit. Wanted them because many people said they taste like portobello. Sounding like that might not be true.
they have a very mild taste. they take on whatever, flavor you put on them. why i like them stuffed or in a stir fry etc…
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could this be done with oyster mushrooms?
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They do not taste like portobello. They get quite large, so in a flush you may get 20 that pop but one is enough to fill your mushroom needs for the day. When other mushrooms are availible, i just let the wine caps rot in the bed. They are very easy to grow so i grow them. They are not terrible, but if they were as good as portobello they would be in the stores.
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Nope, but oysters will grow on logs used for raised beds.
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Well stated. The thread title is sounding more accurate. I also have shiitake and oyster. Think I’ll keep my focus on them.
yes. there are vids of folks growing elm oysters in woodchips/ straw used to mulch around their plantings. other oysters dont do well this way. keep them away from wood sided raised beds obviously. just keep adding material in spring/ fall to keep them going.
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why, will they degrade the wood on the raised bed? I don’t mind that, my raised beds are all cast off logs and wood scrap from other projects and from trees my neighbors have felled. they can eat them, I can always get more.
I plugged shiitake into logs last year but they are linden and only one piece of oak so I’m not sure how well they will do.
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Yep they will rot a tad faster. Ive see videos of oysters in beds as well. I could imagine elm oysters growing in a bed of chips if you kept it really wet. Elm oysters are pretty good, like normal oysters but bigger, and usually on downed trees that have decomposed a bit. In my area they usually flush once a year.
IMHO if you want a companion mushroom for planting it should share the conditions that are best for the plant. Vegetables do not like too much decomposing wood. Oysters live on logs in nature, never seen one growing from soil or compost. In straw or card board they break it down in one season. If you are going to go to the trouble of preparing a bed and want mushrooms, almond agaricus is really good. If you want to establish mushroom that come back everyear then make dedicated beds in the shade or try log culture… which looks easier than it is. (Ive had a wood pecker remove the spawn from all the holes, amoung other issues).
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ive used oyster spawn inoculated logs for making raised beds. they gave me shrooms for 4 years. had the yellow, white, brown and gray ones.
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Have you tried hay bales for oysters? I watched a couple videos and it looks super easy. I’m just thinking they won’t last long. I have logs now and they will flush a couple years. Wonder how long the hay bales last.
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i havent tried hay bales but have used wood pellets with good results. add boiling water to them in a heavy plastic bag. add spawn once cooled. place in a warm dark space . after a few months, poke some slits all over the bag and you will have shrooms coming out. after each flush i open the bag and add a few cups of boiled, cooled water while the bag is sitting in a 5gal. pail. once the water is absorbed i put it out in its dark, warm place again. usually in 2 weeks you will get another flush. a 5 gal. pail sized bag of pellets will flush about 4-5xs before its exhausted. depending on the type of oyster you may need to move it into a cool dark spot to trigger fruiting.
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