I have gotten a catalogue from a company named Fungi Perfecti, which sells the spawn for several of the mushrooms, including shiitake, and I think for the morels also - the last may NEED to grow with tree roots. I tossed the catalogue, so can't give more info - try google. I know my neighbor grew some sort of mushroom on logs down by the stream through his property, but never saw the "operation" so can't help further.

I read an article about growing shiitake on wood. Let's see if I can make a link-

Here is a link that might be useful: Mushrooms

Great link, thank you. I have a big tree stump and am cutting down an apple tree and thought they would make good mushroom beds, as well as my cellar.

I'm looking into it.

Fungi Perfecti & Mushroompeople at The Farm are probably the two top sources for mushroom spawn & supplies.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mushroompeople @ The Farm

Morels are really an outdoor mushroom, they are wood decomposer's and especially relish than thin layer just inside of the char on a partially charred piece of wood, so if you make a fire with your apple tree and pull out the pieces when they are charred but not yet charcoal and dig that into the earth with the morrell spawn you can expect to get a good flush for one year and maybe a weak one for the next, you really have to continue to add new char wood every year to get the strongest flushes.

Shiitake mushrooms really prefer oak to all other wood, they are also wood loving saprophytes. Button or portabello (agaricus bisporus) mushrooms will grow well on general compost as will hypsozygus Ulmarus the elm mushroom although the latter may infect and kill any elms you may have. IF you have conifers of various and sundry types a Cantharellus species (grown mycorrhizaly) can be a real cash crop.

Good luck.

That's great info everyone! Thanks!
I really need a Canadian supplier since it can be problematic getting things like this through customs. I found one in the GTA but haven't looked into them in detail yet.

I tried growing shittake (sp?) and some other mushrooms, I never did get any 'shrooms. I seem to have bad luck, i couldn't even get the shittake mushroom kit to produce more than 2 mushrooms total! I got it for a Christmas present one year and I hear that they have a 'shelf life'. We have a lot of woods and I like to go mushroom hunting. I have found chicken of the woods, a lions mane and oyster mushrooms growing. My husband found the last two. I seem to have luck finding them, but growing is another story. I've also heard that if you want morels that they prefer a former bonfire site. Goood luck!

I think I'm going to leave the farming of the mushrooms for another year and do more research first. I am going to go picking in the woods this spring though. I might know a good place for morels, maybe.

My husband and I grow Shittake Mushrooms. We have had them for about 4 yrs. now. I can't remember just where I ordered them from but we had to cut our own logs to grow them in or on. They send you the wax and a thing that is the seed like thing that you pound into the hole, that you have to drill and then you pour the wax over top of it. They send you the directions on spacing them with the kit too. Then we have a shady spot that he stacks them in and by fall we have mushrooms. Seems like we have to redo them about every 3 years. Hope this has helped you some.

How many mushrooms do you get each year? Do they grow all summer long or just in the spring? What kind of wood did you use? I may look into setting this up this summer, later in the season. Just too many other things to do in the spring this year.

I tried many years ago when it was very new. I failed with the shitake. To grow a lot of it you need a fork lift truck and dump the logs under water. You really need the lucky right location and moisture. It is very technical.

I bought a American 941 to sterlize inside. holds three 1 gallon pickle jars.

You must have oak logs. there is a tremendous weight to move around. Even the oak must be the correct diameter and age.

My recommendation is to do a lot of reading first and then experiment on a small scale to see if you will be successful.

Personally if the Portobello grow easy I would go with those. Back when I tried they did not have the portobello. I did get one small group of Oyster mushrooms. but honestly there is not that great a flavor in oyster and oyster grow wild in new england. I hear VT gets a lot of oyster in the wild.

The logs tend to dry out and you need to get them wet. Thus they take a big skid load on a fork lift truck and using special mounting to sink them below water level for hours to get them wet again. You can not just put them into water or they will float. I found the entire operation to be way too much for me.

The investment to get going is not cheap either. at that time they talked about lamanar hoods etc. It is the world of the very sterile micro biology. tiny single cell propagation. Your spawn will change over a fairly short time. It is super difficult to keep a strain pure.

Back then there were people investing huge sums into trying to make the technology successful. Most were failing without professional expensive assistance.

Growing mushrooms in composted horse manure is fairly straight forward and simple. Growing on wood is difficult and technical. Do not be fooled. it is not easy. And you better be in great physical shape if you are going to be moving tons of oak logs around.

It is ok if you want to do it as a hobby for yourself. If you want to do it as a business to make a profit you will run into high technology problems.

I know there are much easier ways to make a profit.

I took a course many years ago and grew mostly oyster and shiitake, oyster were the easiest to grow, [on pasteurized straw] some I sold to a local store. The Shiitake I grew on oak saw dust and logs. I learned how to make spawn and plugs myself, ..later I got sick growing these and quit, it was just a hobby.