Fungi

[DevilsBrew]

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[matt walker]

Graham's first posts were about growing oysters in newspaper. Perhaps he'll chime in. I've ordered quite a few things from Paul Stamets, both for the garden and plugs for logs outdoors. To be honest, I don't think I put enough time into making sure they did well, so I haven't had much return on those. Still, I'm a fan, I've got Paul's book sitting on my coffee table right now.

[GrahamB]

I didn't get to doing any this year. Last year was a limited success with using the coffee grounds, but that was down to not keeping the moisture content at the right level. I did have a lot of puffballs show up in the field and my wife, who is amazing at making way out pizzas, made us some puffball pizzas. If you have never tasted a puffball, it is like eating a savory marshmallow.
A few weeks ago I was in my small woodlot, checking on my trailcams and what should I find but the biggest oyster mushroom I have ever seen. It was too old to harvest but I'm hoping that the spore from it will give me some eatable ones later.
There was another mushroom further in that I can't find any reference to in the books. It was huge, about five inches across and the cap was thick and flat, about 1/4 inch thick. The stem was thick, straight and had no ring. the top of the cap was a rich chestnut color and the stem was a yellowish color. Definitely not an appetizing appearance, but it fascinated me as I'd not seen anything like it before. Unfortunately the photo I took got deleted, but if I see another one I will take another photo.

[matt walker]

Oh right, in coffee, not newspaper. Sorry 'bout that Graham.

[DevilsBrew]

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[mannytheseacow]

My friend and I went in on 3000 plugs of shitake and oyster last year, we got plus for all different seasons so we would have mushrooms all the time. The oysters were really bountiful for me in the first year, and shitakes were so-so. My friend's half didn't produce anything.

This year I had a small harvest in the spring, but haven't seen anything since. My friend's shitakes are prolific right now.

Different location, different soils, different climate.... They're tempermental organisms.

My oysters were inocculated into boxelder; my shitakes and all of my friend's plugs were inocculated into red oak.

[DevilsBrew]

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[DevilsBrew]

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[DevilsBrew]

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[DevilsBrew]

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