I'm curious, where did you ever get the idea that mushrooms could be grown that way? They aren't vegetables or tubers like potatoes. :-)

Do a web search for mushroom kits

Correct me if I'm wrong. Mushroom spawn is what I have to plant. It looks like spawn is the mushroom stalk you discard when cooking. Will simply burying this spawn produce more?

I was under the impression that truffles grew on tree roots. I know you can "seed" them but it normally entails planting trees that are seeded.
If it works please let us know.

As you have already said, a mushroom reproduces by spores. The spores are located underneath the cap of the mushroom. When the mushroom is mature, it's cap will open up and release the spores. For those spores to grow mushrooms they have to land on a suitable substrate. If you want to grow mushrooms, buy a mushroom log that have already been inoculated with spores.

Rodney

Truffles can not normally be propagated (there are some who know, but their livelihood depends on us not knowing). Mushroom spawn (google it) is sold mostly on sawdust, grains, or alder dowels as substrates. It is not sold as chopped stems. If you google it, you may be able to find pages that show you how to propagate a mushroom stem using wet cardboard, inside a kitchen plastic container.

Misty, are you looking at pictures of plug spawn, thinking that they are mushroom stems? The spawn is an artificially manufactured unit used to help growers establish a crop of mushrooms. It consists of mushroom mycelium in a grain/saw dust/wood substate.

Really, your best bet is to purchase a 'kit ' and hope that it comes with detailed instructions! Do a little more research and you can probably have success with some simple mushroom growing. No greenhouse will be needed.

I have experimented with all of the edible species that can be cultivated without a clean room, and the ones to work with are shiitakes and oysters. Two weeks after the leaves fall is the best time to cut fresh logs for shiitakes. I use red oak and filled drilled holes with sawdust spawn painted over with wax. Oysters have done best for me on stumps of poplar in a moist location.

Last year I got my spawn from Mushroom Mountain in SC, but there are many other suppliers. The Farm offers a couple of different shiitake strains.

Here is a link that might be useful: mushroom mountain

We bought kits for everyone for x-mas one year and one for ourselves. Out of the 4 we bought NONE of us had any luck with them! Good luck! Nancy

The University of Florida had classes available this year. It included the spores and the growing medium in the price of the class. You keep it in a bag in the dark inside. I think it was oyster mushrooms. I was unable to attend the class. You have to sterilize the growing medium in the oven from what I remember of a lady telling me about it. Sorry I don't remember more. Too much going on!

You made me curious. Google Solutions for Your Life. It is a University of Florida site. Then do a search on how to grow mushrooms. Maybe this will help you...

How do you fruit oysters, planatus? I am a machine with shiitake, but oysters (I have those that fruit in cold weather) give me puny crops, all volunteer, in November.

I had the same interest but really I think the best way to go is the way planatus has described. They won't grow in dirt.

There is a mushroom forum on gardenweb called cryptograms, fungi and ferns or something like that but Iwill tell you most people there actually hunt for edible wild mushrooms.

I have had luck with mushroom kits from gmushrooms.com but I will tell you they are made to produce only one flush of mushrooms not produce mushrooms over and over. Another thing with the kits is that in the northeast its pretty dry now... I think they may grow bigger if the humidity was higher ( I was getting bigger shiitake's for less money in the grocery store). Its nice to try the kits just to get a feel for how mushrooms grow.. my next step is to buy the spawn plugs and find logs and go that route as planatus has described.

There is a mushroom forum on gardenweb called cryptograms, fungi and ferns or something like that but Iwill tell you most people there actually hunt for edible wild mushrooms.

And that is great! BUT!!!!!! Here in No CA there are mushrooms that are identical to some in the Asian areas that are labeled "DEATH CAPS" and several people, including "experts" have died because they didn't ID them correctly!
I'm sticking to the organic store I like!

NancyJane makes an important point. Mushroom foraging is a refined skill, and the vast majority of wild mushrooms are unpalatable or poisonous.

Glib, I noticed great big oysters growing in a friend's mucky horse paddock on a poplar stump with rotting roots, so I copied the plan only without the fresh manure. I inoculated a 3-inch diameter, 10-inch tall poplar stump cut in winter, let it run for a season, then piled lots of compost around it to simulate paddock conditions. The next summer brought several nice flushes after soaking rains. I have read this will work on cottonwood, too. I have some new poplars ready to cut, so I'll be trying it again. I live in an opening in a poplar forest, so volunteer trees are constantly trying to reclaim the open space. I need a use for these stumps, and hope to fall into a production rhythm with the oysters like we have with the shiitakes.

Prachi (and Nancyjane) the word is CRYPTOGAMS (no 'r'). CryptogRams are puzzles!

My suggestion for the original poster, mistyreiny (really? not mistyrainy??) is to locate a mushroom club in your area. These folks will teach you what you need to know.

Truffles in a greenhouse... French readers will like that one. :-)

And for future posts that may have to do with green growing things, help people help you by including in your profile your state and USDA growing zone.

So, planatus, a) you are using warm-fruiting oysters (mine are clearly cold-fruiting) and b) if you cut a tree the stump will die. I have inoculated many stumps, never with success, but I must say that oak and hickory stumps really never die and several of them cut in 2008-2009 are still sending shoots up every summer. Yes, I have covered most of them (with old leaves, and in shade) trying to foster good growth, but if they are alive they will defeat the fungus.

Posted by weedlady Central OH 6 (My Page) on
Fri, Nov 22, 13 at 8:57

Prachi (and Nancyjane) the word is CRYPTOGAMS (no 'r'). CryptogRams are puzzles!

Thanks for the info! Nancy

You are right, glib. In the woods I see oysters on really old, rotted surface roots. These poplars don't go down without a fight, and my tree guy says to drill holes in the top of the stump and fill them with salt to kill the stumps. I plan to try it since I'll be inoculating low, just above ground level.

The stump in the background in that photo was inoculated with lion's mane, which seemed to run pretty well but never fruited.

I was told I could put the bag of spent oyster mushroom soil outside and the spores would produce again. I didn't know there was a mushroom site on here. Going there now. Thanks!

Hi everyone -

I'm so sorry if I'm posting in the wrong thread with this question, but I read that the lichen/cryptogam forum is full of people more knowledgeable in hunting for wild mushrooms....

My question - where can I purchase Portobello mushroom spores? I've found plugs, and I've found spawn, but I'm only looking for the spores. I believe they come in syringes.

I'm finding a lot of sites that sell kits, but I'm not so interested in a full kit. And every site I find that sells spores seems to only have psilocybin types for purchase (which I'm not interested in at all).

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Lori, if you have never worked with mushrooms before, I suggest starting with the plugs. To work with spores you need a sterile environment and patience. With plugs you can immediately start growing the mycelium in a suitable medium.

That said, if you get some big, mature portobellos and make spore prints in a sterile place, you have your spores. Mycologists who don't have clean rooms often work in an oven that's been hot enough to bake bread and allowed to cool unopened. Until the mycelium starts running, everything must be kept sterile or you get green mold instead of mushroom mycelium.

Planatus -

Thanks so much for the info and advice. I was under the impression that a successful inoculation could occur if the spores were added directly from the syringe into the substrate. Please forgive my ignorance.

Any recommendations for substrate? Also, are the plugs specifically for growing in logs or stumps, or can they also be used indoors with a substrate?

Thanks again. ;)